8 Questions for... Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Sherman Alexie

is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, memoirist, and filmmaker. He’s published two dozen books, including The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which won the National Book Award for Young Peoples Literature and was listed by the American Library Association as the Most Banned and Challenged Book from 2010 to 2019. He’s also won the PEN-Faulkner and PEN-Malamud Awards. He wrote and co-produced Smoke Signals, the feature film that won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy and is preserved in the Library of Congress National Film Registry). He lives with his family in Seattle.

1. Why Substack?

I had various manuscripts in progress but I didn't have any book contracts for the first time in 30 years. I was a complete free agent who was searching for an alternate means of publication. For many years, I'd pondered creating my own press to publish myself and others. Substack seemed to be a great way to explore that possibility. My press, by the way, is called Lost Pilot Press (after the James Tate poem), and I'm still pondering how I'll go forward with publishing on Substack and publishing terrestrial books. I'm self-publishing my Substack so self-publishing my books is something I'm considering.

2. How long did it take you to find your groove?

I was lucky in that I had (and have) three decades worth of poems and short stories that I haven't previously published. So, at the beginning of my newsletter, I didn't have the pressure of having to write and publish something new two to three times per week. I was posting old stuff, so to speak. But I was quickly inspired by the immediacy of Substack. I could write something new, post it, and get reader reaction in hours! So, drawing on that energy, I became more prolific than I ever have been in my career. Yes, Substack has turned me into a far more disciplined writer. I'm sure my previous publishers wish that I'd been so prolific. I've always been very late in delivering work.

3. How has it changed you?

I think the most transforming part of Substack has been as a reader rather than a writer. I've read thousands of posts over the last few years from across the political, artistic, theological, and philosophical spectrum. In this era where the political left and right are engaged in censorship, I think it's rebellious to read opposing viewpoints. As I've written elsewhere, the left are censorship ninjas and the right are censorship Vikings and I aim to fight both sides.

4. What mistakes have you made?

I can't think of any major mistakes. I've posted misinformed and under-informed opinions, mostly in Notes but being wrong is an integral part of being a writer! My Substack is centered on writing, on words. I haven't ventured much into podcasting, live videos, and all the other tools of Substack, so I haven't had the chance to make mistakes in those formats.

5. To pay or not to pay?

I reject the notion that writers are supposed to free of financial considerations. Writing is my job! Substack doesn't support me but it's an awesome source of supplemental income. That said, 80% of my posts are free but I do my best to reward my paid subscribers with cool stuff. I'm grateful for all my subscribers. As for being a reader, I subscribe to many, many, many Substacks, and am a prolific reader, but I simply can't afford to pay for all of them. But I do spend a lot of money on subscriptions. For the first year or so, I probably paid more for subscriptions than I earned with my own writing. I was a Substacker in debt!

6. What artistic and technical choices have you made?

I've always been a performer of my work. My onstage performances are a mixture of literary reading, standup comedy, and dramatic monologue. So I'm very fond of doing audio recording for all of my subscribers and live Zoom readings for my paying subscribers. I greatly miss being onstage!

7. What’s been the effect on your writing?

As I noted, I've been far more prolific and disciplined than ever before. I'll be publishing a new book of poetry next year, 90% of which was first published on Substack, and I'm weighing publication offers for a new manuscript of short stories, more than half of them first published on Substack. It'll be funny in the Acknowledgements section of future books when I thank myself for publishing me.

8. In it for the long haul?

Yes, I'll keep going as long as Substack goes. I'm addicted to the immediacy of the process. I'm amused and chagrined that Substackers writing about fiction—especially in terms of career advancement—have more followers than fiction writers. But, hey, that's also how it works outside of Substack. And I'm so committed to Substack that I became a very modest investor in the company when they made the offer.

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