Since 2016, the Writescast Network has reached tens of thousands of writers around the globe. You’ve been here as I’ve recorded nearly 6,000—yes six thousand minutes of content for writers, by writers—which means it would take you nearly one hundred hours, or more than four straight days of listening, to start back at episode one and listen through until now.

I’ve loved having the opportunity to speak with so many members of our worldwide writing community. I’ve learned so much from them that it’s impossible to quantify the extent to which they have helped me grow as a writer and better understand the business of writing.

But, believe it or not, it takes 10 to 15 hours of work to produce a single episode. That’s 10 to 15 hours nearly every week spent sourcing guests, preparing interview questions, recording, editing audio (back before I outsourced that), updating the website, managing social media, hosting #WritescastChat, and, well, the list goes on, and none of this is accounting for the facts that I also have a part-time day job to work, books to write, a burgeoning candle company to help manage, and, yes, some people I’d like to spend time with outside the realm of all that is writerly.

As the Writescast Network has grown, I’ve come to realize more and more that this idea of people includes me, too, and that, when working at full throttle to produce a podcast for you nearly every week, this people—in other words, me—must set aside much of what got him to start these podcasts in the first place, that being the writing itself.

So, in the interest of returning to my writerly roots, of putting people over platform—because there is a difference, and it’s one we cannot lose sight of—the final episode of Writescast Network programming will debut on December 11th of this year.

This was, I assure you, not an easy decision to make. Your replies to network tweets and Instagram posts, your emails, and your kind words at conferences (back when those were a thing) have meant so much to me since I sat down for the first time with a microphone and a dream. I will forever treasure the conversations I’ve had with network guests, and I’m deeply indebted to the network’s patrons and sponsors over the years, as well as people like Sione Aeschliman, Ekta Garg, Maggie Derrick, whose extended stints as hosts or guest co-hosts helped me grow and sustain the network. 

The Writescast Network was never the writing community’s most listened-to podcast. We never made any lists (at least none that I’m aware of), and we never topped any charts.

No, the Writescast Network never did any of these things, but it was ours, and we’ll always have that. We’ll always have each other.

Because, and I cannot emphasize this enough, platform is not people. We can and are going to stay in touch, and something new will come from the winding down of the Writescast Network, and rest assured no matter what it is, it’s going to put people first.

So thank you, again, for everything. Write on and write well, always.

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A version of this content originally appeared in episode 095 of the r.r. campbell writescast.