What's coming up for The Queer Agenda in 2024

Major gratitude, stats, and exciting announcements

Friends! It’s been 10 months since I made the move to Substack, and I’m so glad I did. I love tracking all kinds of stats related to my business pursuits, so I thought I would share some with y’all.

When I transitioned to Substack last February, I brought over an email list of 1,924 subscribers. This past month, I hit a peak of 2,632 subscribers—which means I had a net gain of 708 subscribers in just under 10 months, all of whom found their way here organically without ads. So awesome!

I try to remember to remove “inactive” subscribers from my email list approximately every six months, and I hadn’t done that since I started my Substack.¹ So at the beginning of December, I filtered my list and sent out an email to anyone who I determined to be inactive, asking them to let me know if they wanted to stay subscribed (even the best filtering sometimes catches people who are active and still interested in being on your list). After finishing that process, I removed 473 emails, 95% of which were from the original imported batch—meaning newer subscribers who have come on since the switch are remaining active—bringing my Substack subscriber number to a total of 2,159.²

As y’all know, I also give the option to pay to subscribe to my Substack. The most paid subscribers I had at a time this year was 32, and The Queer Agenda currently has 31 paying subscribers. I was curious what that looks like as a percentage, so I did the math, and 1.42% of the people on my list are paying subscribers.

Whether you pay or not, thank you from the bottom of my glittery gay heart for being a part of The Queer Agenda and supporting me as a writer and creator. It really is deeply meaningful to me that so many people get value out of my work. And an extra big thank you to those who are paying subscribers! Just like many of you, I have felt the squeeze of inflation and unemployment and hustling, and I don’t take it lightly that any of you have included a subscription to TQA in your budget, whether currently or at some point this past year.

Now that we’ve looked back, let’s take a look at the next evolution of The Queer Agenda coming your way in 2024.

There will be a price increase starting January 1 for new subscribers

The paid subscription price this year has been $5/month or $50/year. For all current subscribers, that price will stay the same for as long as you remain subscribed. Starting January 1, the price is going up to $6/month or $60/year for new subscribers.

As a reminder, in addition to financially supporting my work, paid subscribers get access to queer book reviews (I aim to write at least one per month—this year there have been nine), curated playlists, and the full archive, plus they have the ability to comment on posts. There’s also a new paid subscriber perk coming in 2024 that I’ll be announcing further down in this newsletter. 😉

If you’re interested in becoming a paid subscriber, I encourage you to subscribe between now and the end of the year to lock in the current rate. Also, to sweeten the deal, anyone who signs up for an *annual* membership to The Queer Agenda before January 1 will get the extra perk that is usually only for the co-conspirator level: shimmery snail mail from yours truly!

Referral rewards are coming in 2024

I know that a paid subscription is out of reach financially for many of y’all who would like to have one, so I’m introducing a referral system to help you earn your way to paid access. I’ll be sending out an email the first week of January with details about how the referral system will work, so stay tuned for that announcement.

Introducing The Queer Agenda’s newest feature: Dear Shohreh

Beginning in January, I will be opening up submissions for the gay advice column of your dreams, which I’m calling Dear Shohreh.

Anyone in my life will tell you that I’m someone they feel comfortable going to for solid advice on a variety of topics, and I thought it would be fun to share that skill set with all of y’all. I will be drawing on my seven years of one-on-one and group coaching/consulting experience, my two degrees and multiple career paths, and all of my lived experience as a biracial, neurodivergent, late-to-the-party queer to answer your burning questions in 2024 and beyond.

Any subscriber will be able to submit a question to Dear Shohreh for a chance to have it answered; however, paying TQA subscribers will get priority and will have a separate submission link just for them. I will send out the general submission link to free subscribers and the priority submission link to paid subscribers in early January, and from then on the column will be open for you to submit your questions to.

You do still have one more edition of The Queer Agenda this year—the Fall 2023 Quarterly Round-Up will be sent out at the end of December. Besides that, I’m looking forward to slowing things down a little bit for my birthday and the holidays before I hit the ground running again in the new year.

If you’ve enjoyed my content during my most recent trip around the sun and would like to help me celebrate my birthday (I’m turning 34 on 12/20! 🥳), I keep an Amazon Wishlist made up almost exclusively of books and puzzles that this Sagittarius would welcome gifts from. Thank you for making 33 a special one for me. It’s honestly been a weird-as-fuck, transitional year in so many ways. Yet, it’s also been truly beautiful, and I feel so grateful for this life.

Wishing you a merry & gay holiday season and a peaceful winding down of 2023!

Queerly yours,

Shohreh

To get in touch, shoot me an email at hello@shohrehdavoodi.com. For more from me, follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads.

If you'd like to support me outside of becoming a paid subscriber to The Queer Agenda, you're welcome to purchase a gift for me from my Amazon Wishlist or purchase an item for yourself from my Amazon Storefront, which contains all of my most-recommended products.

1. The purpose of culling my email list from time to time is that it improves my email “open rates,” removes spam accounts, and increases deliverability (making it more likely my emails end up in your inbox instead of filtered to your spam folder or other places). It’s generally seen as good practice to do, even though it stabs at the heart a bit to see your subscriber number drop.

2. As of this writing, the number is 2,197—I’ve gained 38 new subscribers since the purge. 🥰