About TTT, and Why subscribe?
Welcome to The Tomkins Times - Main Hub by me, Paul Tomkins (sportswriter and novelist, with 15 books published), dedicated to writing about Liverpool FC in a deeper, less knee-jerk way, as he been my aim for two decades now.
Who am I? Someone asked ChatGPT-4 in 2023, and this is what it said:
(No mention of my baldness, which is disappointing. And I definitely don’t just focus on stats and analysis; the emotional aspects of being a fan, and bad jokes, are also part of the package.)
But this site is not all about me, despite the original intentions when starting out as a small, one-man blog.
I launched the paywalled WordPress site The Tomkins Times in 2009, but migrated to Substack in 2022 due to the various WordPress bugs.
I became a writer after losing my career in 1999 upon being diagnosed with M.E., and over time, writing became the only way I could make an income given my physical limitations. (My condition is not severe, but it remains life-limiting, including giving up playing football at 28, having been a semi-pro; but it has also taught me lessons in humility, albeit I sometimes forget them.)
I wrote a weekly column for the official Liverpool FC website from 2005-2010. (I don’t do any freelance work now, but do additional writing at the TTT ZenDen, as one of our side projects.)
Over the years, many other writers and editors (and commenters) have contributed to TTT, and hopefully will continue to do so where possible. My aim is always for TTT to be a high-quality niche site, with no ads, no clickbait (beyond ironic headlines), no filler, no bullshit, no pretend insider info, and with a superb community in a largely self-moderating, intelligent community. The aim is always to survive and pay the bills and the contributors, not to seek popularity and riches. The aim is for independence and integrity.
And so, here we are. In the process, we also launched a few spin-off sites that cover different areas of the club (where the aforementioned writers can make their own content), links to which can be found on this site’s homepage.
(I also wrote a novel that sold over 10,000 copies and was awarded a Kirkus Star, with a second novel to follow ‘soon’.)
In the meantime, tell your friends!
Ps I’m also on Twitter (or whatever it’s called this week) at @paul_tomkins, but don’t tend to tweet anymore (and if I do, very rarely read replies as life is too short).
Various other links to my existence can be found here.
TTT Network
To further fund the site and its contributors, as well as this, the Main Hub, I devised different sub-Substacks, or spokes, to create the TTT Network.
Rather than raise the price, The Main Hub is £4.99 a month, and the additional spokes are priced more cheaply (the cheapest option Substack allowed).
The link below explains what each different spoke offers. (It’s a smörgåsbord approach!)
There will be free newsletters and paid newsletters, with the aim to replicate TTT, as it was, as closely as possible on Substack, but with the many added benefits, and new features.
As well as getting emails of the articles, this Substack (TTT Main Hub) will have commenting, as close to the same format as is possible, and with the same rules as before (no dickheads, thanks). Thank to existing subscribers for your patience, and welcome to anyone new who is coming along for the ride!
(The old site still exists as an archive only.)
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