Michael, I am looking for the piece you wrote about why you quit notes. I thought it would be under culture and politics, but can seem to find it. Sorry to bother you. I just want to share it with some people.
"The freedom to write honestly and openly..." - that's just it for me. I recently joined Substack, after a year debating if I should really explore yet another platform, and my only wish is that I took the leap sooner so that I could be finding and engaging with such thoughtful and high-quality writing. I deeply appreciate your honesty and bold stance on things that matter to you, it's something I feel we as a collective have lost a bit over the past several years - the ability to hold nuance and diverse discourse. I recently wrote an essay on writing what's honest not what's trending because I believe that is the way of the artist - to share what we really think, and how we really feel. Thank you for always sharing so honestly.
I agree that there's so many unique ways to use Substack. I write a lot of educational science content, and because part of my mission is to inform people and improve scientific/medical literacy, I keep most of my content free. I also post articles everyone can access to influence my tiny professional niche and build my personal brand.
I was convinced to turn on payments this summer after a few subscribers proactively pledged money, and now I have a small handful of paying subscribers. The money I make is quite small and definitely not something I could live on, but it's a nice bonus (some money > $0); I also donate 20% to charity (a local humane society), which assuages some of the guilt. I'm currently self-employed and patch together various contract gigs to pay the bills, so it would be *great* if this could someday form a decent part of my income, but I try not think of my Substack as a failure if it never becomes that financially lucrative.
(FYI: Pay walls are also a great way to share more personal or sensitive content you wouldn't want to just broadcast to everyone in the world!)
In all honesty, I usually dislike posts from writers talking about writing or giving advice on how to setup your Subsatck. But this time it sounded different. The least we can say is that this was a truly sincere piece, like it came from the right place. Thanks for sharing Michael.
Maybe the first writer's post about writing I actually enjoyed reading and could identify to.
I’ve been reading in Substack for several years, (at one point being a paid subscriber to a Marxist, a Conservative, an Orthodox Christian, a liberal economist, and a libertarian firebrand) and one thing is for sure: there are “gatekeepers” here, only they come in the form of readers.
Audience capture, preaching to the choir, being trapped in an ideological silo—whatever you call it—the platform’s main weakness is that the Comment sections of its sites are often woefully homogenous. Substackers, in my experience, tend to settle comfortably into a “community” that shares an often unstated set of assumptions, and woe to the commentator who strays outside of the boundaries of acceptable disagreement. The Substack model, I suspect, makes us intellectually narrow.
A testament to the resilience of writers who refuse to be confined by traditional constraints, seeking instead a space where they can explore the complexities of reality and truth without fear of censorship or rejection. Thanks, Michael.
Thanks for this, Michael! I’m new to Substack, and I’ve landed here after/while finding moderate success as a freelancer and selling a book to a Big 5 publisher. A lot of what brought me to this platform was my disillusionment with the traditional path, even as I’m seeing some success there -- freelancing doesn’t pay well often, and you’re constrained in terms of content and word count; the book I’m delighted about, and I’m lucky to have an editor who hasn’t given up on art, but my advance isn’t enough to live on. You know this old story! But I guess I’m just adding the perspective that for those of us who still want a book on a shelf, and even for the very lucky who will have a book on a shelf, Substack still has so much to offer in terms of the freedom to write what you want, find your people, and (hopefully) earn some money outside of “the system.” Because the system is broken even for those who benefit from it. Writers should unionize (I mean creative / literary writers). Anyway, thank you for your work and your candor!
Insert clapping emoji. As a very new writer on Substack, I appreciate the recap of your journey to where you are now and enjoyed your musings on what this platform is meant to be. A couple of posts ago, I questioned whether freely shared posts should have comments locked to paying subscribers only. My feeling was that it went against the point (community) of Substack. However, after reading your piece, I've been able to reconsider and see it - for Substackers who choose to do this - as a viable way of offering the best of both worlds!
Totally! I’ve been experimenting a lot with the platform and how I paywall or lock comments or turn comments off etc. I learn best by just trying stuff. Thanks for reading!
Thanks for the insight Michael, I would love to go paid one day soon.
the only thing I would say is, that a lot of writers spend a lot of time telling us how much money they make etc. nothing against that, but for the average guy like me. its going to take a long time for me to get a decent amount of people to pay to read my work.
by the way I would rather pay for the writing that's on here, than some of the stuff you find on mainstream media. the stuff I have read on here is on another level compared to those people.
Totally agree!! Much more competition on here but a lot more accuracy and honesty. Yes: For most SS writers it’s definitely about the long, slow build. Usually not a fast thing. I hope you might consider a paid subscription for my stack. Only $35/year.
I am no writer. At least not yet! I just started with Substack recently to put ink to paper as it were about our homesteading journey. The idea of eventually having people pay for my “content” seemed very weird to me but also a little enticing. I don’t know if I will ever write well enough to do that but we will see.
So thank you for your insight and your ideas on this platform. Also thank you for a little bit of background on what led you to Substack.
Another person in recovery. More evidence we are on the downslope of our Creedal Passion period. It would be nice to see some recovery stories like this from conservatives similarly infected with radical memes.
Given that you replied, might you be a conservative who might had undergone this experience. It would be most instructive to see if the radical ideation is also fading from the Right.
Nov 16, 2023·edited Nov 16, 2023Liked by Sincere American Writing
Medium also promised a community beyond advertising and algorithms. Pennies for the page. Is that the world we want?
If writers want to earn revenue they need to learn how to be Creators. The problem is Substack doesn't do that, it only supposes that you can scale your audience. To be just reliant on paid subscriptions is actually not a very feasible idea for the majority of writers.
It's a value exchange, what we create has to have value on the open market. Will people pay for this? The entire architecture of Subsack is build for paid subscriptions, like Substack boost. If you don't go paid, you will get nowhere really fast. I think we writers we already know what that's like.
I think it also depends on what your writing goals are. Some people just want to write for an audience and get 10,000 free subscribers, and that's good for them. Some people, like Anne Kadet, do free posts but have a paid option with no paywall. Some do the paywall (like me), etc. I'll tell you this: I've been on Substack about 15 months and I'm making roughly $300/month which is more than I've ever made for my writing before. I'll take it!
Just what I needed to read right now. New here. Navigating things.
Michael, I am looking for the piece you wrote about why you quit notes. I thought it would be under culture and politics, but can seem to find it. Sorry to bother you. I just want to share it with some people.
"The freedom to write honestly and openly..." - that's just it for me. I recently joined Substack, after a year debating if I should really explore yet another platform, and my only wish is that I took the leap sooner so that I could be finding and engaging with such thoughtful and high-quality writing. I deeply appreciate your honesty and bold stance on things that matter to you, it's something I feel we as a collective have lost a bit over the past several years - the ability to hold nuance and diverse discourse. I recently wrote an essay on writing what's honest not what's trending because I believe that is the way of the artist - to share what we really think, and how we really feel. Thank you for always sharing so honestly.
I agree that there's so many unique ways to use Substack. I write a lot of educational science content, and because part of my mission is to inform people and improve scientific/medical literacy, I keep most of my content free. I also post articles everyone can access to influence my tiny professional niche and build my personal brand.
I was convinced to turn on payments this summer after a few subscribers proactively pledged money, and now I have a small handful of paying subscribers. The money I make is quite small and definitely not something I could live on, but it's a nice bonus (some money > $0); I also donate 20% to charity (a local humane society), which assuages some of the guilt. I'm currently self-employed and patch together various contract gigs to pay the bills, so it would be *great* if this could someday form a decent part of my income, but I try not think of my Substack as a failure if it never becomes that financially lucrative.
(FYI: Pay walls are also a great way to share more personal or sensitive content you wouldn't want to just broadcast to everyone in the world!)
In all honesty, I usually dislike posts from writers talking about writing or giving advice on how to setup your Subsatck. But this time it sounded different. The least we can say is that this was a truly sincere piece, like it came from the right place. Thanks for sharing Michael.
Maybe the first writer's post about writing I actually enjoyed reading and could identify to.
I’ve been reading in Substack for several years, (at one point being a paid subscriber to a Marxist, a Conservative, an Orthodox Christian, a liberal economist, and a libertarian firebrand) and one thing is for sure: there are “gatekeepers” here, only they come in the form of readers.
Audience capture, preaching to the choir, being trapped in an ideological silo—whatever you call it—the platform’s main weakness is that the Comment sections of its sites are often woefully homogenous. Substackers, in my experience, tend to settle comfortably into a “community” that shares an often unstated set of assumptions, and woe to the commentator who strays outside of the boundaries of acceptable disagreement. The Substack model, I suspect, makes us intellectually narrow.
A testament to the resilience of writers who refuse to be confined by traditional constraints, seeking instead a space where they can explore the complexities of reality and truth without fear of censorship or rejection. Thanks, Michael.
Thanks for this, Michael! I’m new to Substack, and I’ve landed here after/while finding moderate success as a freelancer and selling a book to a Big 5 publisher. A lot of what brought me to this platform was my disillusionment with the traditional path, even as I’m seeing some success there -- freelancing doesn’t pay well often, and you’re constrained in terms of content and word count; the book I’m delighted about, and I’m lucky to have an editor who hasn’t given up on art, but my advance isn’t enough to live on. You know this old story! But I guess I’m just adding the perspective that for those of us who still want a book on a shelf, and even for the very lucky who will have a book on a shelf, Substack still has so much to offer in terms of the freedom to write what you want, find your people, and (hopefully) earn some money outside of “the system.” Because the system is broken even for those who benefit from it. Writers should unionize (I mean creative / literary writers). Anyway, thank you for your work and your candor!
You’re welcome! Thanks for reading! I relate to your journey. I tried the traditional path too. I wrote about that a bit here: https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/literary-agent-rejections
Insert clapping emoji. As a very new writer on Substack, I appreciate the recap of your journey to where you are now and enjoyed your musings on what this platform is meant to be. A couple of posts ago, I questioned whether freely shared posts should have comments locked to paying subscribers only. My feeling was that it went against the point (community) of Substack. However, after reading your piece, I've been able to reconsider and see it - for Substackers who choose to do this - as a viable way of offering the best of both worlds!
Totally! I’ve been experimenting a lot with the platform and how I paywall or lock comments or turn comments off etc. I learn best by just trying stuff. Thanks for reading!
Well said. Thanks for sharing.
👍👍👍
So much great advice! I love the community that Substack brings!
Yes!!
Thanks for the insight Michael, I would love to go paid one day soon.
the only thing I would say is, that a lot of writers spend a lot of time telling us how much money they make etc. nothing against that, but for the average guy like me. its going to take a long time for me to get a decent amount of people to pay to read my work.
by the way I would rather pay for the writing that's on here, than some of the stuff you find on mainstream media. the stuff I have read on here is on another level compared to those people.
Totally agree!! Much more competition on here but a lot more accuracy and honesty. Yes: For most SS writers it’s definitely about the long, slow build. Usually not a fast thing. I hope you might consider a paid subscription for my stack. Only $35/year.
I am no writer. At least not yet! I just started with Substack recently to put ink to paper as it were about our homesteading journey. The idea of eventually having people pay for my “content” seemed very weird to me but also a little enticing. I don’t know if I will ever write well enough to do that but we will see.
So thank you for your insight and your ideas on this platform. Also thank you for a little bit of background on what led you to Substack.
Awesome! Cheers. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Hello. You commented on a note of mine and then apparently deleted your response. It was in response to "Why I'm no longer woke" in Erica's Substack
https://ericaetelson.substack.com/p/why-im-no-longer-woke/comments#comment-43772289
It was in response to this question:
Another person in recovery. More evidence we are on the downslope of our Creedal Passion period. It would be nice to see some recovery stories like this from conservatives similarly infected with radical memes.
https://mikealexander.substack.com/p/cycles-of-radicalization
Given that you replied, might you be a conservative who might had undergone this experience. It would be most instructive to see if the radical ideation is also fading from the Right.
Thanks!
I’d identify myself as a classical liberal. Very much critical of the fringe extremes on both sides.
Medium also promised a community beyond advertising and algorithms. Pennies for the page. Is that the world we want?
If writers want to earn revenue they need to learn how to be Creators. The problem is Substack doesn't do that, it only supposes that you can scale your audience. To be just reliant on paid subscriptions is actually not a very feasible idea for the majority of writers.
It's a value exchange, what we create has to have value on the open market. Will people pay for this? The entire architecture of Subsack is build for paid subscriptions, like Substack boost. If you don't go paid, you will get nowhere really fast. I think we writers we already know what that's like.
I think it also depends on what your writing goals are. Some people just want to write for an audience and get 10,000 free subscribers, and that's good for them. Some people, like Anne Kadet, do free posts but have a paid option with no paywall. Some do the paywall (like me), etc. I'll tell you this: I've been on Substack about 15 months and I'm making roughly $300/month which is more than I've ever made for my writing before. I'll take it!
YES 🙌🏼💯 love this. Same reasons why I self publish my stuff. And now I'm here it feels like an extension of that same, almost punk, ethos.
Punk ethos: YES!!!