8 Questions for... Simon Haisell

Footnotes and Tangents

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Simon Haisell

is a writer based in Newcastle, UK. He writes Footnotes and Tangents: book guides and slow reads to help readers get more from great books. He encourages curiosity and creativity in reading and hosts an international community of engaged readers. He's currently running read-alongs of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Hilary Mantel's Cromwell Trilogy. Latecomers always welcome.

1. Why Substack?

Footnotes and Tangents began life on Instagram. There, I felt like an interloper: smuggling carefully crafted captions past an algorithm that favours an infinite scroll of bright, sugary images. It taught me to weigh each word's worth against the impulsive finger flick to the next post.

Substack felt like coming home. Here were the slow folk; the online outcasts who wanted out from social media's anxious carousel. Slow writing and slow reading; the Internet at a human pace.

It is the perfect place for Footnotes and Tangents, where I invite readers to take the scenic route through inspiring fiction: Leo Tolstoy, Hilary Mantel, Chinua Achebe, Penelope Fitzgerald. Here, we layer stories on stories, make curious connections, and dig down to the buried treasure beneath each book.

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

The great advantage of running a slow book group is that you have a reliable rhythm and a firm topic in the bag. You pick a book, and off you go. So it took just a few weeks to iron out the format and get into the routine of researching, writing and recording. After that, I didn't look back.

3. How has it changed you?

It's taught me discipline and forced me to finish things. For me, that's a huge win. I am a chronic procrastinator, an over-researcher, an unhappy perfectionist. My subscribers are doing me a great service by holding me accountable to a weekly deadline!

4. What mistakes have you made?

Early on, I overpromised. Launching two enormous slow reads simultaneously in a cold, dark January was already a forbidding task. I made my life impossible by offering bonus posts for paid subscribers, detailed character summaries and further resources. I had to cut back before I burned out.

My advice to anyone starting a Substack: start small and find your limits. Enthusiasm and excitement carry you a long way, but your reserves of time and energy will decide exactly how far you can go.

5. To pay or not to pay?

Footnotes and Tangents would not be what it is without its paid subscribers. But asking for money didn't come naturally. The first year, readers did a whip-round. In the second year, I asked for support while keeping most posts free.

That support allowed me to work full-time on Footnotes and Tangents. It was wild to me that strangers on the other side of the world would value what I do.

This has given me the confidence to paywall my posts and commit further to the project. I've been able to hire an illustrator and a research assistant, and even commission a composer for the podcast.

While I believe writers should be paid for their work, I don't want to create a barrier for those who cannot afford it. Reading changes lives and everyone should have that opportunity. The success of Footnotes and Tangents has allowed me to offer complimentary subscriptions to readers on low or no income, no questions asked.

6. What artistic and technical choices have you made?

I am a strong advocate of audiobooks. Stories began as spoken word and it's where they go when they are not sleeping in neat rows. It's where they come alive.

So I committed myself to recording voiceovers, which took nerve because I've always hated my own voice. But the response from listeners floored me, and I'm glad I did it.

My posts are long, typically 3,000 words. Writing them breaks me, but I don't want it to break the reader. So short sentences, short paragraphs and plenty of headers and dividers. I offer many footnotes and tangents, but I don't expect every reader to read them all.

I will never use AI, for words or art. It's a dead-eyed form and the theft of thousands of years of human endeavour. And we don't need it. Online, we have an embarrassment of riches. We have art from the ages out of copyright, and all the talent of living artists to tap into to illustrate our words. Use it or lose it.

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

I am unsure. In the past twelve months, I have written more than in the last twelve years. Substack has made me prolific. I assume that quantity has helped quality, as practice makes perfect? But I cannot reasonably be the judge of that.

All I know is that every word I write works twice: I want readers to want to read, and I must find satisfaction in the craft. Without one or the other, this thing can not be done. Substack is the first place where I have felt no pressure to choose: I write fully for myself and for my readers.

8. In it for the long haul?

Until I have a better idea! I've struck a seam in life where I get to read the books I love, write what I want, and discuss all of this with a fabulous community of curious and creative readers all over the world.

I feel very fortunate. None of this would have been possible without the Internet and a platform like Substack. I want to make the most of it and see where it goes.

I began Footnotes and Tangents on Instagram to share my own stories. It's become a place to talk about other people's fiction that means something to me. But I hope it will give me time to write stories again and a space to share them.

Right now, the future feels full of the possible, so I'll just keep at it, rooting out the footnotes and casting out those improbable tangents; nets into the unknown.

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Simon Haisell