As you wrote, Substack is a company set up to make money. The Substack community has become a big part of my intellectual life, and it is important to me that Substack can sustain itself. I realize that means the company will have to make decisions that often prioritize increasing their revenues and will seldom if ever make decisions that will decrease revenues.
I have no issues with checkmarks or with people marketing themselves. Yes, sometimes the marketing is elegant and sometimes it's cheesy, but what else would we expect?
The reality is that five years from now, Substack will need to be a lot bigger with many more paying subscribers and more writers in order to give their investors a decent return.
There is a solution, by the way, for people like me who are on Substack not for the money but for the opportunity to write and be read. You can choose to donate your revenues to a charity that is meaningful to you. That way, you are sustaining Substack and putting the revenues you earn to a good use. I decided to do this a few months ago with this post.
I LOOOOOVE that you chose to do that with your paid subscriber income. I believe that’s what Jami Attenberg does as well. That’s what I’d like to do with at least a portion of mine at some point (and I did do it with a lot of my Academy income during the pandemic, when more people were opting to learn at home online). And as far as the other stuff: yep, yep. Agreed on all counts.
I came to substack as an artist, escaping the nasty business model of Instagram - and I naively surprised to see writers playing out the whole 'it's crass to make/ask for money' drama that cripples so many artists. I think it's passed on by university teachers who have not made money form their own work (for whatever reason) and make money from teaching young artists. They pass down this whole distance from the hassle of having to exchange their own art for money to the students, and a viscous cycle is born.
But artists are often not very good with words - but writers are so good! They can spin elaborate, convincing stories around this debate that artists can only dream of constructing! And write a lot about it all, too!
The “starving artist” idea being the one that’s a legitimate way to be is, unfortunately, one that plagues writers as well. The idea of “careerism” (which is usually just, “I don’t want to die in the gutter/I’d like to be a working writer”) being bandied about like the worst insult possible always feels so disheartening.
Thank you for this balanced, gentle response. I saw only some of the drama, but can see valid points from both sides. I didn't spend a lot of time on Notes until recently so I didn't notice the checkmarks at all. I have to say, I don't like it because of how it creates this divide between writers based on how much money they are making. There must be a better marker of quality writing, in my opinion.
I don’t love the checkmarks either. They made sense to me on Twitter and Instagram because people legit pretend to be other people on those platforms! Here, it’s a badge like we’re all Girl Scouts or something.
Exactly. I appreciate what Substack is trying to do, creating a platform where writers can get paid for their work; however, advertising how much they are being paid goes back to how crass it feels sometimes. I think I read somewhere that you can choose not to display the checkmark if you get one, but I'm not sure how intuitive it is.
Thanks for writing this! I’m blissfully unaware of the original discourse, but I really enjoyed your thoughtful words.
As someone making something small and free, I’m grateful there are “big” names here to keep the lights on for writers like me. Substack has been a nice platform to build a little community, and it would be naive for me to think it could survive without some money-making mechanism. It also feels good as a reader to compensate writers I admire directly for their work. But I do think checkmarks are corny.
I have only been on Substack since February of 2023, so I have never seen the "pure" version of Substack that some people mourn. I feel strongly if people have services they offer which people are interested in purchasing, there is nothing wrong with that. I have come to Substack to write and practise the craft of writing in a very different form than what I've done fore 30+ years. All that writing was very corporate-y and it is how I earned a living. Now, due to reasons similar to yours, I can no longer work in the gruelling 9-5. At some point, I may wish to offer my services, but for now, I'm a consumer of services such as yours. I will pay what I can afford and I don't begrudge anyone for offering or marketing themselves. How else would we know service provides exist and how else would they make money without TELLING people.
As for the other drama...I for one am always up for a good debate and dialogue. I get energized by differences of opinion and in fact I encourage it in one of my monthly posts I do called: 'A difference of opinion." I want to learn and understand what I'm missing. However, this seems to have gone way past that point. I hope all parties can stand down, get some rest and move on. Points have been made and now it's time to move on. But, as you say, internet's gonna internet. Even here on Substack it appears. Thanks for this thoughtful post. I'm looking forward to the dialogue it generates.
Thank you. & I think the biggest conflicts happening right now in the ether are happening because really hot-button things are getting triggered for some people. It’s hurting people and that’s the part that bums me out, not the disagreements themselves.
Ya, the hurt and anger going around is very sad and hard to witness. I understand triggers now much more than I did a year ago, so I have much empathy. I was someone being triggered and reacting very strongly to everything (and I had no idea why.) It's exhausting. But, speaking from my own experience, I'm very grateful for intensive therapy so I better understand now where it was all coming from. Take care.
Esme,
As you wrote, Substack is a company set up to make money. The Substack community has become a big part of my intellectual life, and it is important to me that Substack can sustain itself. I realize that means the company will have to make decisions that often prioritize increasing their revenues and will seldom if ever make decisions that will decrease revenues.
I have no issues with checkmarks or with people marketing themselves. Yes, sometimes the marketing is elegant and sometimes it's cheesy, but what else would we expect?
The reality is that five years from now, Substack will need to be a lot bigger with many more paying subscribers and more writers in order to give their investors a decent return.
There is a solution, by the way, for people like me who are on Substack not for the money but for the opportunity to write and be read. You can choose to donate your revenues to a charity that is meaningful to you. That way, you are sustaining Substack and putting the revenues you earn to a good use. I decided to do this a few months ago with this post.
https://robertsdavidn.substack.com/p/a-new-option-for-my-subscribers
I LOOOOOVE that you chose to do that with your paid subscriber income. I believe that’s what Jami Attenberg does as well. That’s what I’d like to do with at least a portion of mine at some point (and I did do it with a lot of my Academy income during the pandemic, when more people were opting to learn at home online). And as far as the other stuff: yep, yep. Agreed on all counts.
I came to substack as an artist, escaping the nasty business model of Instagram - and I naively surprised to see writers playing out the whole 'it's crass to make/ask for money' drama that cripples so many artists. I think it's passed on by university teachers who have not made money form their own work (for whatever reason) and make money from teaching young artists. They pass down this whole distance from the hassle of having to exchange their own art for money to the students, and a viscous cycle is born.
But artists are often not very good with words - but writers are so good! They can spin elaborate, convincing stories around this debate that artists can only dream of constructing! And write a lot about it all, too!
Thank you for your post
The “starving artist” idea being the one that’s a legitimate way to be is, unfortunately, one that plagues writers as well. The idea of “careerism” (which is usually just, “I don’t want to die in the gutter/I’d like to be a working writer”) being bandied about like the worst insult possible always feels so disheartening.
It's scary offering your work up to the world and declaring 'I believe in my work's value' no matter what creative work you do, I guess
Thank you for this balanced, gentle response. I saw only some of the drama, but can see valid points from both sides. I didn't spend a lot of time on Notes until recently so I didn't notice the checkmarks at all. I have to say, I don't like it because of how it creates this divide between writers based on how much money they are making. There must be a better marker of quality writing, in my opinion.
I don’t love the checkmarks either. They made sense to me on Twitter and Instagram because people legit pretend to be other people on those platforms! Here, it’s a badge like we’re all Girl Scouts or something.
Exactly. I appreciate what Substack is trying to do, creating a platform where writers can get paid for their work; however, advertising how much they are being paid goes back to how crass it feels sometimes. I think I read somewhere that you can choose not to display the checkmark if you get one, but I'm not sure how intuitive it is.
Thanks for writing this! I’m blissfully unaware of the original discourse, but I really enjoyed your thoughtful words.
As someone making something small and free, I’m grateful there are “big” names here to keep the lights on for writers like me. Substack has been a nice platform to build a little community, and it would be naive for me to think it could survive without some money-making mechanism. It also feels good as a reader to compensate writers I admire directly for their work. But I do think checkmarks are corny.
GREAT post Esme.
I have only been on Substack since February of 2023, so I have never seen the "pure" version of Substack that some people mourn. I feel strongly if people have services they offer which people are interested in purchasing, there is nothing wrong with that. I have come to Substack to write and practise the craft of writing in a very different form than what I've done fore 30+ years. All that writing was very corporate-y and it is how I earned a living. Now, due to reasons similar to yours, I can no longer work in the gruelling 9-5. At some point, I may wish to offer my services, but for now, I'm a consumer of services such as yours. I will pay what I can afford and I don't begrudge anyone for offering or marketing themselves. How else would we know service provides exist and how else would they make money without TELLING people.
As for the other drama...I for one am always up for a good debate and dialogue. I get energized by differences of opinion and in fact I encourage it in one of my monthly posts I do called: 'A difference of opinion." I want to learn and understand what I'm missing. However, this seems to have gone way past that point. I hope all parties can stand down, get some rest and move on. Points have been made and now it's time to move on. But, as you say, internet's gonna internet. Even here on Substack it appears. Thanks for this thoughtful post. I'm looking forward to the dialogue it generates.
Thank you. & I think the biggest conflicts happening right now in the ether are happening because really hot-button things are getting triggered for some people. It’s hurting people and that’s the part that bums me out, not the disagreements themselves.
Ya, the hurt and anger going around is very sad and hard to witness. I understand triggers now much more than I did a year ago, so I have much empathy. I was someone being triggered and reacting very strongly to everything (and I had no idea why.) It's exhausting. But, speaking from my own experience, I'm very grateful for intensive therapy so I better understand now where it was all coming from. Take care.