Notebook Stories (One-Time Subscription)

I know you’ve been enjoying reading the extracts from my ’70s notebooks. At various times I’ve asked for feedback, and some of you have been very articulate and complimentary. I don’t have a very large email list but it’s stayed very steady for the three years I’ve been doing this – and of course a lot more people have been reading me through social media.

Now I have to ask myself: Why am I doing this? It’s work. Quite a lot of work. I justified it originally by the books I was selling through the site, but the truth is you’re not buying them from me any more, probably because you’ve got them already. I’m grateful for that, of course – but still I feel the need for some material reward. The plain truth is it costs more to maintain the web site than I get from it in income.

I’ve heard from many of you over the years. I feel I know you. I think some of you would like to contribute, and it’s up to me to give you a way to do that.

Several of you have said you’d like to see the diaries as a book. It’s an interesting challenge – “The Real Motorcycle Diaries” perhaps – but much more difficult than my autobiography and probably more expensive. So here is what I propose (I’m trying to banish the word ”deal” from my vocabulary):

You send me $100 (or your local currency equivalent) to reward me for three years of wonderful story-telling. Call it a one-time subscription.

If it all adds up to enough to finance the book, or some other solution, I’ll do all I can to make it work. And if you have other ideas about what to do with these diaries, let’s talk about it.