I know, I’ve been talking about this for quite a while now, but I consider it’s about time I got my thoughts properly in order and put them to you. So here we go. Please read right to the end and then comment, I really need you to comment.
REASONS FOR CALLING IT A DAY
Lack of engagement with potential readership: The statistics for the zen space are now appalling. Since I last posted here I have had very few visitors, only one “Like,” and no comments. This indicates that the zen space is failing to reach steady and sustainable readership figures.
Social media failure: Up until somewhere in the past couple of years, I have been able to use my Facebook account and my Twitter/X account to announce when the latest Showcase or blog post has been published. At some point both systems temporarily suspended my accounts. That ought not to have been a problem, because that each system then said they would send a code to my email address and I would be able to regain access. However, no matter how many times I opted for that, absolutely nothing came into my email account, not even into my spam folder. I tried getting in touch with the administrators, but they stonewalled me, even though I was contacting them from the email registered with the service. This means that avenues of publicity have been cut off, which only made the lack of engagement worse.
Too few new contributors: Let me say straight away how much I appreciate my “regulars.” I could probably increase the number of Showcases per year based solely on people who faithfully submit their work time and time again. However, I am not only failing to reach a new readership, I’m failing to attract enough new writers. This is another indication that the zen space is not thriving.
No new artwork: In fact, no artwork at all. We used to discover, or be approached by, a fairly regular flow of artists willing to show off their work for no immediate reward. For a long time I’ve been relying on public domain ukiyo-e images and, lately, AI.
The platform here has become less and less user-friendly: Every time I post everything there is either a glitch or it downright refuses to do something it used to do at the touch of a key. There is little point in trying to find a new platform, because I doubt if I would take remaining readers with me.
I’m getting old, tired, and forgetful: What more can I say?
REASONS FOR PERSEVERING
This is my last remaining contact with my life as a writer: I used to be a prolific writer, never letting a day go past without composing something, be it a poem or a paragraph of a new story. As you can see from my own poetry site, the last poem I posted was in 2021. Also in 2021 I mentioned on my main web site (under the “New!” tab) that I had taken a sabbatical from writing five years before that! This little e-zine, for which I had such high hopes, was started while I was still in my prime as a writer. It was, if you like, a vanity project, born out of pique at some ignorant treatment by the “editor” of a “haiku magazine” (scare quotes intentional!). It wasn’t my first editorial position either – I had been Associate Editor of two poetry journals and Deputy Editor of a poetry anthology. If I let the zen space go I become nothing, at best a wraith – “Do you know if Marie Marshall is still alive? No? Neither do I!”
the zen space is my baby. I’ve watched it grow up from infancy. How could I let it go?
ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES
If you can think of more reasons why I should lay the zen space down, or continue with it, please do let me hear from you. If you have a practical solution to offer* then let me have it. In so many ways, the zen space is as much yours as it is mine.
Marie
*We have previously toyed with the idea of someone else taking over as editor. That didn’t come to anything. But you never know.
:::::
:::::
:::::
:::::
:::::
the zen space 