Why I'm rebranding after 4 years on Substack

Formerly Storyletter XPress Publishing | Celebrating 4 years on Substack

Welcome new subscribers, and greetings long-time members, friends, and colleagues. Wow! I missed celebrating my own Substack anniversary this year (July 19). Four years have come and gone. And FAST!

Addressing the elephant in the room, I’ve changed the name to XPress Book Box, and the official domain is now www.xpressbookbox.com. The newsletter portion will remain The Storyletter for now.

I divested many aspects of what was once Storyletter XPress Publishing into other newsletters and websites. The contests and prompts we hosted are now the Lunar Awards (created by Brian Reindel 👾⚔️), I share my personal short stories, poetry, and blog posts on Creative Wellness, I support indie books via The Library (co-managed with J. M. Elliott), and the online store has become a physical location in New Mexico called Enchanted Books!

That left me wondering what my company site, SXP, had to offer that differed from the rest. Sure, it’s home to my small press, and I like sharing information about the publishing industry when I can, but I never wanted to monetize that. I wanted to provide a product that would be worth subscribers’ time and money.

So, I centered paid membership tiers around a book box subscription service. Unfortunately, I felt that the articles/stories clashed with the intended product/service. This comes down to branding, and I’m working to improve my marketing skills. But with this new change, it should be coming together. It only took me four years to get on the right track.

What is the subscription?

It all started in 2024 when I decided to ship courtesy copies of Take Me There: A Speculative Anthology of Travel to the 23 featured authors. I wanted to make it as special as I could manage on my limited budget. The resulting packaging became the XPress Book Box.

Earlier this year, I announced that the book box would be an indie service, dedicated to promoting independent authors and small presses. Due to recently moving from Utah to New Mexico, managing the Lunar Awards, opening a bookstore, and editing an anthology, I haven’t been able to truly “launch” it.

Another roadblock in its development has been Substack’s rigid subscription options. Sending out periodic book boxes doesn’t fit a monthly subscription model, while the yearly option is a hard sell for sporadic fiction. Last year, I wrote an article expressing my desire for Substack to offer more payment options, with many writers agreeing that the current model should be tweaked. Maybe that’s coming, maybe not.

Regardless, I’ll be launching a monthly book box soon. With the bookstore, I can source, market, and distribute the number and variety of books needed to maintain the service throughout the year. Each monthly box will contain at least one paperback (likely two) and a bookmark. Premium add-ons will be included for annual and founding members (more details to come).

I’m still adjusting, so keep an eye out for updates. Hopefully, this rebranding makes sense and will become clearer once the boxes start going out with the launch of our upcoming anthology, Take a Breath: A Collection of Claustrophobic Horror.

Thanks for sticking around to support other writers and me in trying to make indie work. It’s a tough road, but well-traveled. And I’m thankful to those who paved the way! ~ WM