Interview with Ajinkya Goyal of Innocently Macabre

I hope you'll enjoy today's interview with Ajinkya Goyal, who writes the Substack newsletter Innocently Macabre.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’ve been writing and reading as far back as memory serves, and, if parental accounts are to be believed, even further back than that! Speculative and gothic stories are particular favourites since they tend to rely much more heavily on characters in the story rather than the plot; I’ve always maintained the importance of characters, believing good characters can save a mediocre plot, but a good plot cannot do the same for bad characters.

How would you describe your newsletter?

Innocently Macabre features tales of the speculative, the gothic, and the weird and wonderful. It’s an interplay of worldly merriment and twisted secrets, distilling the wonders of the cosmos for your kind perusal.

What have you most liked about your experience on Substack?

Around two months ago, I ended a near year long hiatus from publishing. I still wrote occasionally, but no where near the frequency I maintained while publishing online. Amongst the contributing factors drawing me back to the online sphere, was the community that came with Substack. Fiction on Substack currently consists of a precious, albeit rapidly growing, few, so everyone is very supportive of one another. Experiencing this sealed the deal for me and I relaunched my newsletter.

I really like Substack’s simplicity and ease of access, but I do wish we had more detailed analytics and better subscriber management tools.

How have you let people know about your newsletter?

I’m not going to lie, I’m not great at the whole marketing thing and it doesn’t help that all the advice out there is catered steeply towards nonfiction. I just send out the newsletter, ask a couple of close friends to share it with people they think will be interested, send a link on writer communities I’m a part of, and share it to my socials (with an extremely limited sphere of influence). Something that I’ve been foraying into recently though is cross-promotions. They’re great – I get to meet writers working on cool things, discover new newsletters, and form a connection that I most likely otherwise wouldn’t have.

Is there a post in your newsletter that you consider most memorable, and if so, why?

My first post-hiatus post would probably take the cake. In it, I teased five upcoming stories, all spread across my three dominating (intentionally broad) genres, all in various stages of development. I also talked a little bit about the writing process and the joy of discovering old drafts. It was a very raw post for me in the sense that I usually refrain from sharing anything other than what I’ve deemed “publishable”, but not a single one of the teasers met that mark. Luckily, it was met with a positive response, which added to my motivation to keep on writing!

What do you hope for your newsletter in the foreseeable future?

I really do just want it to grow! As simple as it sounds, it aligns perfectly with my vision for my newsletter. I don’t have a message I’m trying to get across through my writing (there are, of course, themes and symbolism in certain stories, but that’s something else altogether), I’m just trying to entertain you. Once or twice a week, a short story you can read in under ten minutes will grace your inbox, and I hope it’ll make your day at least a little better.

Is there anything you’d like to add?

Subscribe to Innocently Macabre! My series Due North is coming to a close soon (another three or so episodes before this season wraps up), but you still have time to join us from the beginning! I also send out the occasional extra, usually in the form of flash fiction, as an added bonus, and you don’t want to miss those! (Hint hint: there might just be pirates and the high seas in the near future!)