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Viewing @SubstackInc as a business model for celebrity writers feels incomplete without a deeper understanding of the platform’s role as a *creative* lifeline for journalists & writers accustomed to the structure offered by regular deadlines. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/24/business/media/new-model-celebrity.html
One of the biggest challenges for an unemployed staff writer or columnist who’s used to writing constantly is the simple fact of *not writing.* Audience and income matter, of course, but so does structure.
Those without large audiences would be better off viewing @SubstackInc as akin to Blogger in the early 2000s. I didn’t make a cent off my blog back then, but it helped me to find my footing creatively while I waited for the recently-burst dot com bubble to recover.
I don’t follow many writers on @SubstackInc who had big platforms before Substack. Many of them are just hardworking writers or academics with lots of ideas ( @delia_cai, @graceelavery ) who built their audiences from nothing.
It’s disempowering to believe that only influencers and writers with big platforms have the faintest shot at cobbling out a living from their work. Most of the writers whose names you recognize have been forced to reinvent themselves several times over.
Nothing is more valuable than exploring your voice as a writer when the chips are down. All of my biggest creative leaps (okay, short jumps, fine) have happened in the middle of a crisis -- financial, emotional, or both.
*Most* writers face a moment (or several) when they have to bang out a living in a vacuum of praise and money and support. It’s not easy. Ask anyone who’s been in this business for more than a decade, and they’ll tell you about the five or six times they’ve had to shift gears.
Finding a way to experiment while slowly building an audience is invaluable. When my blog went from 5 hits a day to 20 back in 2001, I was thrilled. I just wanted to find a reason to keep writing.
Comparing yourself to someone like @daniel_m_lavery or @JuddLegum is like trying to play to stadiums overnight. Both have worked their asses off in underpaid formats for years. If what you love is writing, then you keep writing and you find a way to get your words out there.
My two @SubstackInc newsletters have allowed me to experiment creatively and supplement a loss of income incited by CA freelance laws (which limit Ask Polly to a biweekly schedule at @NewYorkMag).
. @SubstackInc doesn’t pay me to promote it, to be clear. I’m a fan because it’s an extremely easy to use interface that’s dramatically shifted my understanding of my career and myself as a writer. I can’t recommend it strongly enough.
You don't have to become the embodiment of self-promoting cyborg shill to make a living. You just have to repeat yourself a little - which, as a writer, is admittedly repellant. But people don't know who the fuck you are or what you're doing most of the time. Accept it.
It's gross and it's also just *necessary* to remind people what you do. One small flaw of @SubstackInc, in fact, is that it can be hard to FIND A NAME on any given newsletter, so you can read it for a while before you realize it's created by someone you've read before.
On that note, here's the weird shit I write on Substack, entirely new for me and definitely uncomfortable and very, very fun. https://askmolly.substack.com/
If you're considering a newsletter and you're pretty used to writing on deadline elsewhere, my best advice is to dive in without overthinking it. I created Molly, drew the logo, and started writing within the first day. Scary but invigorating!
It would be wrong not to link to 3 of the best writers (imho) on @SubstackInc here. These are the pros, try not to crush yourself into a fine paste upon reading:
https://www.shatnerchatner.com/
https://saeedjones.substack.com/ https://holapapi.substack.com/
https://www.shatnerchatner.com/
https://saeedjones.substack.com/ https://holapapi.substack.com/
I also love AJ Daulerio's recovery-themed newsletter The Small Bow, which is not on Substack but is consistently insightful and humble and charming: https://thesmallbow.com/
Here's another small but brilliant indie publication that should be on @SubstackInc but sadly @KenLayne
is an obscenely stubborn desert-dwelling heretic who doesn't like learning. https://www.desertoracle.com/contents/
is an obscenely stubborn desert-dwelling heretic who doesn't like learning. https://www.desertoracle.com/contents/
I just want to add an encouraging note at the end here, the true point of the whole thread: It's v. important to challenge stories about the market and how artists and writers are fucked unless they're already famous or super hot or magical guru types with a team of helpers.
Daring to make very small, unpopular, embarrassingly uneven things without shame is hard. It can feel like a huge risk. I just want to encourage writers in particular to take what you love and learn how to love it more and more.
Resist the urge to fall into the "He only has x because he already had y" trap. Narrow your focus down to what you might make right where you are, using what you have. Move closer to the most embarrassing possibilities. Savor the work itself. That's it.
