Personally I don't see any benefit to paywalling my content at all -- I *want* people to read it, and it makes no sense to create a barrier to entry. I have payments enabled, but am very clear that it gives people no extra content, just personal gratification from supporting me 😂 And I completely agree -- I'd much rather do my own thing in the way I want to do it than try to stick to any "best practices."
Thank you for the kind mention here, Caitlin! <3 And I agree with you on all of this. I also refer to my, ahem, publications, as "newsletters" and "magazines."
There's a classic Simpsons joke where Homer is in a board room discussing the newest addition to the Itchy and Scratchy Show, Poochy. "When Poochy isn't around, all of the other characters should be asking, 'Where's Poochy?'"
I feel like too many writers and artists get "Poochy Syndrome" where they assume their audience is just standing around, scratching their heads, wondering Where's Poochy when they don't post an update every few days. There's a lot of online artists I love, but I just continue my life when they don't update on time. It's not a big deal! Really! And I don't need an explanation why you haven't updated lately. I love you, but I'm not your parole officer!
You hit the nail on the head! Newsletters are great, but there’s such an idea that starting up a paid newsletter will be some easier way to get paid writing. And that’s...not true! I’m thrilled for everyone making money here, but why oh why do we need to SEO-itise everything? Share your weird shit and grow and audience. It’ll be much more fun that way and better for your career.
Thank you for clearly articulating my gut rumblings about why I have a substack and how I hope to use it! If I think someone is going to email me multiple times per week, with VERY few exceptions, I simply will not subscribe. The world has too many emails.
Thank you for this, Caitlin! Totally agree with all your points, even as I'm guilty of the occasional Epic Monetization Fantasy with my newsletter. I think a lot of it is that it's getting so hard to imagine other plausible routes of achieving financial security as a freelance writer, and the Substack success stories have been so publicized, that it's really easy to fall for the hype...
I was hesitant about starting a Substack, then I started one and was invited to be part of a launch program to help us build our "brands" and our audience. What I learned in that process was: it's not for me.
I write for money as an academic. I write for money as a writer/journalist. I am trying to write for money in other contexts. For me, personally, I do not need another space where writing becomes a chore.
So I kept my substack but I am absolutely disciplined about maintaining a sense of play about it. When I'm marinating a topic and I know I can't use it for a column or an essay I could pitch, it goes in the substack. I take no money. I am under no pressure. Sometimes I write one a month, sometimes it's a way of warming up for other writing, sometimes months go by with nothing. Some people read it. Some leave interesting comments. It's nice.
That also means the substack hasn't brought me any career boosts that I can measure, but right now, I'm ok with that. And I don't have to send anyone apologies -- well, I do in the rest of my life, but not on substack!
Yes yes yes to all of this. The very real reason that I haven't been publishing is because I've reached a Substack burnout. And that's partially due to *life* stuff, but it's also largely due to the *hustle culture* that is Substack. For a while there, I was obsessed with my numbers, thinking about a strategy to launch paid subscriptions, what I could offer of value to my "audience." All of this is fine! But it ultimately sucked the fun and joy out of writing it for me. I don't even know what it is anymore. So I took a step back. I'm hoping to get back to it, but then there's the whole Nazi question, which definitely shouldn't be a sentence to write about a hobby that should bring you happiness. In closing, bring back Livejournal.
Thanks for this. I went from loving Substack to feeling completely overwhelmed in a few short months. Agree with everything you’ve said! It’s nice to have validation.
This reminds me of a quote from Anni Albers in a book I was reading yesterday, “leave the safe ground of accepted conventions.”
I’ve fallen for these best practices in the past, and at this point I see them as a siren song. They may facilitate reach, but not growth in creative expression or developing an artistic style.
I really appreciated reading this! As a newcomer to Substack, I'm really here to experiment and find my own voice as not just a writer but as an artist and psychotherapist and figure out where all that intersects for me and if there's even an audience who cares. I definitely see this as a great start to figure out who might be my reader for that book idea I have floating around in my brain. Getting out of the limited format of being an Instagram therapist is super refreshing - I do not want to make a million videos of myself haha. I'm fortunate enough right now to feel no pressure to make this another moneymaker, which allows me to actually play and express, and humans sure need more play these days!
Thanks for sharing this, Caitlin. It is helpful to learn how others view the trade-offs on where to publish newsletter content while I'm in the middle of figuring it out myself. I am working out content plans for two different purposes - creative nonfiction and economic commentary/reporting. Substack seems like the right place for the creative work because I can build an audience with a free newsletter at random intervals. For paid, monthly and quarterly pieces tied to my consulting business, I'm looking at Buttondown. Buttondown charges users a fee but doesn't take a share of subscription revenue. Going this route eliminates the problem of paid subscribers to my work funding whatever Substack does, while continuing to build on the writing community I've found here.
No desire to go paid yet, and I'm writing at my comfortable "about every two weeks" pace. I have a serious fear that Substack will just become another repository for recycled "low fruit grabbing" pieces *coughcoughMediumcough* and boring "6 ways I use ChatGPT to boost my creativity" cookie-cutter articles.
I've been guilty of sliding back into these safe formats from time to time myself. But lately I've been grabbed by a potent urge to introduce a little more weirdness and personality into my newsletter to stave those tendencies off. I'm here to write, not to play financial analyst with my content.
Personally I don't see any benefit to paywalling my content at all -- I *want* people to read it, and it makes no sense to create a barrier to entry. I have payments enabled, but am very clear that it gives people no extra content, just personal gratification from supporting me 😂 And I completely agree -- I'd much rather do my own thing in the way I want to do it than try to stick to any "best practices."
Thank you for the kind mention here, Caitlin! <3 And I agree with you on all of this. I also refer to my, ahem, publications, as "newsletters" and "magazines."
There's a classic Simpsons joke where Homer is in a board room discussing the newest addition to the Itchy and Scratchy Show, Poochy. "When Poochy isn't around, all of the other characters should be asking, 'Where's Poochy?'"
I feel like too many writers and artists get "Poochy Syndrome" where they assume their audience is just standing around, scratching their heads, wondering Where's Poochy when they don't post an update every few days. There's a lot of online artists I love, but I just continue my life when they don't update on time. It's not a big deal! Really! And I don't need an explanation why you haven't updated lately. I love you, but I'm not your parole officer!
You hit the nail on the head! Newsletters are great, but there’s such an idea that starting up a paid newsletter will be some easier way to get paid writing. And that’s...not true! I’m thrilled for everyone making money here, but why oh why do we need to SEO-itise everything? Share your weird shit and grow and audience. It’ll be much more fun that way and better for your career.
Thank you for clearly articulating my gut rumblings about why I have a substack and how I hope to use it! If I think someone is going to email me multiple times per week, with VERY few exceptions, I simply will not subscribe. The world has too many emails.
Thank you for this, Caitlin! Totally agree with all your points, even as I'm guilty of the occasional Epic Monetization Fantasy with my newsletter. I think a lot of it is that it's getting so hard to imagine other plausible routes of achieving financial security as a freelance writer, and the Substack success stories have been so publicized, that it's really easy to fall for the hype...
Love love love this post.
I was hesitant about starting a Substack, then I started one and was invited to be part of a launch program to help us build our "brands" and our audience. What I learned in that process was: it's not for me.
I write for money as an academic. I write for money as a writer/journalist. I am trying to write for money in other contexts. For me, personally, I do not need another space where writing becomes a chore.
So I kept my substack but I am absolutely disciplined about maintaining a sense of play about it. When I'm marinating a topic and I know I can't use it for a column or an essay I could pitch, it goes in the substack. I take no money. I am under no pressure. Sometimes I write one a month, sometimes it's a way of warming up for other writing, sometimes months go by with nothing. Some people read it. Some leave interesting comments. It's nice.
That also means the substack hasn't brought me any career boosts that I can measure, but right now, I'm ok with that. And I don't have to send anyone apologies -- well, I do in the rest of my life, but not on substack!
Yes yes yes to all of this. The very real reason that I haven't been publishing is because I've reached a Substack burnout. And that's partially due to *life* stuff, but it's also largely due to the *hustle culture* that is Substack. For a while there, I was obsessed with my numbers, thinking about a strategy to launch paid subscriptions, what I could offer of value to my "audience." All of this is fine! But it ultimately sucked the fun and joy out of writing it for me. I don't even know what it is anymore. So I took a step back. I'm hoping to get back to it, but then there's the whole Nazi question, which definitely shouldn't be a sentence to write about a hobby that should bring you happiness. In closing, bring back Livejournal.
Thanks for this. I went from loving Substack to feeling completely overwhelmed in a few short months. Agree with everything you’ve said! It’s nice to have validation.
This reminds me of a quote from Anni Albers in a book I was reading yesterday, “leave the safe ground of accepted conventions.”
I’ve fallen for these best practices in the past, and at this point I see them as a siren song. They may facilitate reach, but not growth in creative expression or developing an artistic style.
Thank you for the honest discussion about this! Really helpful.
I really appreciated reading this! As a newcomer to Substack, I'm really here to experiment and find my own voice as not just a writer but as an artist and psychotherapist and figure out where all that intersects for me and if there's even an audience who cares. I definitely see this as a great start to figure out who might be my reader for that book idea I have floating around in my brain. Getting out of the limited format of being an Instagram therapist is super refreshing - I do not want to make a million videos of myself haha. I'm fortunate enough right now to feel no pressure to make this another moneymaker, which allows me to actually play and express, and humans sure need more play these days!
Everything about this is excellent, the January Jones part very much included. 🔥
Thank you so much for being part of my community!
Thanks for sharing this, Caitlin. It is helpful to learn how others view the trade-offs on where to publish newsletter content while I'm in the middle of figuring it out myself. I am working out content plans for two different purposes - creative nonfiction and economic commentary/reporting. Substack seems like the right place for the creative work because I can build an audience with a free newsletter at random intervals. For paid, monthly and quarterly pieces tied to my consulting business, I'm looking at Buttondown. Buttondown charges users a fee but doesn't take a share of subscription revenue. Going this route eliminates the problem of paid subscribers to my work funding whatever Substack does, while continuing to build on the writing community I've found here.
No desire to go paid yet, and I'm writing at my comfortable "about every two weeks" pace. I have a serious fear that Substack will just become another repository for recycled "low fruit grabbing" pieces *coughcoughMediumcough* and boring "6 ways I use ChatGPT to boost my creativity" cookie-cutter articles.
I've been guilty of sliding back into these safe formats from time to time myself. But lately I've been grabbed by a potent urge to introduce a little more weirdness and personality into my newsletter to stave those tendencies off. I'm here to write, not to play financial analyst with my content.