2025 End-Of-Year Summary From "The After Dinner Conversation" Editor - Kolby Granville

Jan 2

After Dinner Conversation Founder/Editor - Kolby Granville

Hello,

Each year I put out the stats for After Dinner Conversation. How we have grown, what we have learned. I really like the idea of radical transparency. There are real people, who really volunteer their time, to run this magazine. They do it because they believe in our mission of bringing thoughtful conversation to a public space. So, what the heck happened this year?

The biggest news is Substack. While we are a literary magazine, Substack has really become the tail that wags the dog. Our Substack paid subscribers are growing faster than our literary magazine subscribers. And, while our website has been viewed 107,000 times this year, our Substack stories have been viewed 5.2 million times. You are reading that right, 107,000 vs 5.2 million. It’s crazy.

The other big revelation for this year, at least for me personally, is I can’t keep doing this for free, forever. It has been a 40+ hour a week volunteer job for 6 years at this point. I work the bare minimum at a regular job to keep the lights on at home while spending all my time on the magazine. I do this, of course, because I love it and believe in it. But, you know, a person’s got to eat. I decided to give this whole endeavor to the ten year mark anniversary, then I’m going to reevaluate things.

So, that ten year anniversary revelation lead to another revelation, if this thing is going to grow to the point where it’s a paid job in the next 3-4 years, we have to start spending money. For, pretty much the first time in our history, we started buying social media ads in real amounts. Doing deep data analysis on ROI and how to become profitable enough for me to start taking a stipend someday. Basically, a “s**t or get off the pot” sort of moment. We need to grow faster and soon.

As you will see from the data below, the ad spend is starting to pay off, paid subscribers are up 39% for the year. Basically, for every $1 we spend on ads, we recover $2 over the next two years from the new subscriber. So, ad spending it is!

Of course, we didn’t really have the money to start buying ads, at first it was a leap of faith. But, we have been helped by a former After Dinner Conversation author who came to us and requested to buy ads in our Substack and magazine. And we have another advertiser lined up for late January. Honestly, I hate ads, but I hate shutting down After Dinner Conversation more. So, ads it is! At least, for now.

After Dinner Conversation staff continues to be amazing, our Story Editor R.K.H. Ndong continues so just crush it and be the bedrock of the magazine. Our copy editors Stephen Repsys and Kate Bocassi continue to catch issues I would never have seen in a million years. Tina Forsee, our Substack editor, and the driving force behind it, did an amazing job again this year and, rightly, and finally gotten it to the point where we she can pass it on to others.

The other big highlight, at least for me, is the addition of Nalini Jacob-Roussety as our newest, and first “Resident Philosopher.” She started out doing TikTok videos about our stories, and now she is volunteering for the magazine doing video story breakdowns every week.

I guess I should also mention we experimented with video story discussions via Meetup. They went okay. Lots of people saying they would attend, very few who actually showed up. We are going to give it one more try this Spring, and if it doesn’t pick up, we are are going to to put a nail in that one.

Honestly, it’s a tough balance running a literary magazine. Very few make even break even. Almost none pay staff even a nominal stipend. Perhaps being able to pay staff is like the sunrise, beautiful to look at, but impossible to get to. I don’t know. But I do know that’s our guiding light right now, and what our focus for 2026 is likely to be.

Kolby Granville, Editor

For those interested in such things, here are our 2025 statistics.

All The Stats!

2025 Awards/Recognition

Rated #1 "The Very Best Literary Magazine" by Ranker
Rated #2 "Best Editor(s)" for a Literary Magazine by Chill Subs
Rated #20 “Fish List - Finest Indie Story Houses” by Fish List
Top #50 Fiction - Substack

Submission Statistics

1,240 Open Submissions
72 Original Stories Accepted/Published
5.8% Acceptance Rate
- All Stories Came From Open Submissions, None Were Solicited Submissions

Volunteer Submission Readers

Flat

Paid Subscribers

+38.9% Increase

Revenue Growth

+38% Increase (Sales Only)
+0.14% Increase (Sales, Donations, & Nonprofit Grants)
- Sadly, a $10,000 grant was not renewed, which put a pretty big dent in things…

Demographics

Published Authors (Accepted Only)
- Heterosexual - 78%
- LGBTQ - 22%
- White - 83%
- People Of Color - 17%
- First Time Authors - 27%
All Submissions (Accepted & Rejected)
- Heterosexual - 79%
- LGBTQ - 21%
- White - 67%
- People Of Color - 33%
- First Time Authors - 20%