Over the past 15 years I have built multiple websites to support the books I have published, utilizing the WordPress platform to share chapters, excerpts, photographs, documents, research notes and more, and the network of sites under the Northern Light Media banner has been a valuable asset to my company. One recurring problem with this, however, has been the WordPress-placed ads on the sites which I’ve created under their free terms. The cost for the most basic plan is almost $50/year, which would be reasonable enough if I wasn’t trying to pay for more than a dozen sites. And if I want to do things like share videos, sell books, and share to social media automatically, the price doubles. So I’m switching horses.

I have been impressed with the SubStack platform from the beginning. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, SubStack is an American online platform that allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers, and supports those newsletters with online publishing and design infrastructure. My first venture into the SubStack world was with an email newsletter for my Alaskan History Magazine in December, 2020, and the entire content of the magazine is still online in the archives of my Northern Light Media SubStack site: [ https://northernlightmedia.substack.com ]

My second SubStack site (above) was for my book The History of Sled Dogs in North America (Northern Light Media, 2023), which can be accessed here: [ https://historyofsleddogs.substack.com ]

Over the past few days I’ve switched sites for The Hope ’91 Sled Dog Race (above) [ https://hope91.substack.com ], and over the coming days and weeks I’ll be building SubStack sites for many more of my books. Some will include newsletters for updates, but most will not, being simply informational sites with photos and research from the books, reviews and comments and ordering details. Either way, I trust the new sites will provide an excellent ad-free online platform for each of my books.