A Christmas Discount!

...and a price increase for 2025.

Hey All-

First, thanks so much for subscribing to my Substack. It’s been one of the best things I have done in my writing career.

I started in April of 2023, and from that point I have added nearly 16,000 free subscribers to my email list. In the second full year of operation, this newsletter is on track to be read 1.75 million times. Unbelievable.

I’ve received so many kind notes from subscribers in these last several months. They give me the motivation that I need to keep cranking out content that you all find insightful and valuable. Seeing an email notifying me of a new paid subscriber has certainly been a highlight of my day on several occasions.

Second, I wanted to let you all know that I am offering a discount for the Christmas season. Anyone who signs up for a paid subscription between now and December 25th will get 20% off their first year membership. That brings the price down to $40.

You can click the button below to take advantage of this offer.

What do you get when you become a paid subscriber to this Substack? A few things.

Full access to the Thursday posts. Currently, my model is a free post that runs on Monday and a paid post that runs every other Thursday. Paid subscriber get full access to both posts. They can also comment on those Thursday posts.

Full access to the archives of Graphs about Religion. Most posts that have been on the site for three months go behind the paywall. How much content is that? Currently, about 150 posts in total. My best guess is that’s at least 200,000 words and at least 750 graphs that are behind the paywall right now. And those figures will continue to grow. This means that most of the content on this website is in the “paid section.” This will continue to grow over time as I have no plans to stop publishing twice a week.

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The cost of a subscription to this newsletter is going to go up in the New Year. Currently, it’s $5 per month or $50 per year. With the above offer, you can get an annual subscription for $40.

Beginning on January 1, a monthly subscription will be $6 per month or $60 per year. Why am I raising the price? Really unsophisticated market research. I looked at the Substack leaderboard in the Faith category. Among the newsletters with the 25 most paid subscribers, 17 of them have a fee that is more than $5 per month.

I want to make this point clear, though - the vast majority of my content will initially be free. This year, 73% of everything that I published was in front of the paywall for all subscribers in the first three months after it debuted. I undoubtedly like the financial compensation that comes along with the Substack model, but I also want to honor the academic ethos that focuses on accessibility. It’s certainly a balancing act.

I have been contacted by several professors who want to use my materials in their courses. That’s a true honor. If you want to give all your students a paid subscription, email me. We can work something out. If you need a PDF of an article that’s behind the paywall - that’s not an issue, either. Just let me know what you need.

If you are an organization like a church, denomination, think tank, research group, etc. and want to buy a whole bunch of subscriptions - reach out. I can offer you a very nice discount if you want to purchase at least five subscriptions.

Thanks for coming along for the ride and Merry Christmas to all of you.

-Ryan