Dancing for the Coin
by Daniel Davison
I just returned from a ten-day ramble through Upper and Lower Egypt. Now that I’m back in my chi-chi flat on the petrol-fumigated shores of the Persian Gulf (sciatic nerve aflame), I thought I would dash off this brief essay. The impetus behind it was a thoughtful article Elizabeth Tai wrote called “Letting go of polished outcomes” in which she very generously mentioned me within the context of publishing fiction serially on Substack for free. If you don’t know Elizabeth’s work, check out her page Tai Tales. Her style is natural, engaging, personable—and often hilarious. She writes both nonfiction and science-fiction with equal ease and verve.
My New Year’s Resolution—I think it’s technically “resolution” with a lowercase “R”, but I have this bizarre tic whereby I gleefully and rather aggressively capitalize nouns after capitalized adjectives, because otherwise the lowercase first letter of the trailing noun looks like a knocked-out eye tooth to me—was to add the “paid subscription” option to my page. In preparation for doing this, I went back and unpublished most of my nonfiction pieces (literary essays, travelogues) with the aim of “enticing” paid subscribers with these (“Would you like a cookie, Ducky?”). But I just can’t do it. I think I would end up losing many of the subscribers I already have, because they would know right away that my heart wasn’t into it and that I felt like a man peddling fireworks and velveteen Elvises at a gas station outside of Louisville.
Busking online, touting my wares, catching the pennies as they fall—I’ve never been good at that sort of thing. It’s frankly the story of my life: I have done many, many things, but never one thing “perfectly” (in the original Latin sense of that word). And I’ve always sucked when it comes to corporate flim-flam, jobbery, and self-promotion.
I’m sure the “paid subscription” feature is very lucrative for nonfiction writers: investment gurus, culinary wizards, Dale Carnegie types. And there are many (especially younger) fiction writers whose stories resonate with huge fan bases that I will never be able to tap into, because these people’s likes, motivations, and thought processes are alien to me.
I do sometimes write nonfiction, but the thing I really enjoy writing is fiction and, let’s face it, my fiction is so fringe and outré that it’s never going to “pack the house” (so to speak). However, I am so grateful for the number of subscribers I’ve acquired over the last six months. That alone is all the support I need. Thank you all! I have never had so much fun writing in my entire life.
So I will end this essay with a list of revised New Year’s (R/r)esolutions:
I will finish my two novels, Snakes and Ladders and the Destinies of Unborn Universes and The Witch in the Mountain Pass. Once these are both posted to Substack, I will look into publishing them through more traditional routes. If that falls through, I’ll leave them up on Substack for free.
I will get back to writing essays, and republish the ones I unpublished last year.
I will try to post five short stories this year that I have already written, but which need to be revised and/or updated.
Dancing for the Coin
Velveteen Elvises - as priceless as perfect prose. Keep on keeping on, Daniel. 🤩
I had a very similar conclusion as you and you worded it beautifully. I love your stories and am grateful for your writing. You have been such an encouragement to me. But I have to say, I think they are so strange that there is an audience that would "pack the house." I have a hard time finishing a lot of stories online, and your's always pull me in. Keep going. I think you'll find your spot (traditional or otherwise).