New changes to subscription tiers

Hello, all. This would normally have been the day that I posted a summer Q&A if I'd received any questions to answer, but I forgot to send out a reminder to paid subscribers last week. And while I could simply delay and do the post later this month, I almost never have received any questions for this series — not even when I expanded the subscription perk to all Supporters, not just Occult — so now is as good a time as any to do what I've thought about for a while, which is retire the Q&A concept as long as I'm at my current readership level.

I would still like to offer something in replacement for everyone who's paying to read my work, however. What I'm going to do for the moment is to expand the "About" page on Salt for the Eclipse's main website so that I can make an acknowledgments section for the Supporter, Occult, and Alchemist tiers alike. This will be opt-in since I don't want to inadvertently use a name that somebody would prefer I not (or perhaps some of you may prefer to remain anonymous), but going forward when someone buys a paid subscription I'll be personally e-mailing them to confirm what name to use for an acknowledgment. For those of you who already have a paid subscription, I'll be e-mailing you a few minutes after sending this general message, to confirm name info.

Just to review what the subscription tiers and their benefits now constitute, they are as follows:

Supporter Tier ($1/month, $12/year)

• Read all locked posts except Occult posts
• Receive a subscriber acknowledgment on the "About" page
• Help guarantee that this newsletter can continue long-term

Occult Tier ($5/month, $50/year, 30 day free trial available)

• Same benefits as Supporter, with weirder Occult posts made visible
• Monthly music mailing, with seasonally themed songs curated in your inbox

Alchemist Tier ($20/month, $200/year)

• Same benefits as lower tiers
• E-mail thehunterskiss@proton.me to request full posts on a topic of your choice (subject to my discretion), read them within the month
• Anti-horoscopes: receive tailored reflective questions based on star positions, seasonal changes, and symbolic markers on your natal chart (no predictions, no directions, no horseshit)

Again, if you're already a paid subscriber, you will receive an e-mail soon requesting what name to use for your acknowledgment. If you don't answer, you'll be left anonymous.

And if you're a free subscriber, please consider finally upgrading to one of the above tiers. There's the small executive function cost of initially doing so (you'll need to open the newsletter website and log in or click the "Account" link) but unless even $1/month is beyond your budget (and I've been there, so I understand) this compensation for my work would be extremely appreciated. Hopefully the fact that you're subscribed means you derive real meaning from what you're reading; and I'm still unemployed, I spend several hours per week on this, and we live in an age where actual human-made writing is more economically devalued than ever in favor of machine-made slop. I'm not concerned about this imbalance with readers who are also my friends — we bring many gifts to each other far beyond transactional exchange — but I offer this entreaty to my free subscribers with whom my connection is at best parasocial.

Anyway, that's all for today. No Q&A, but some of you should watch your inboxes. Be well in the July heat.