Substack

[Julie]

In today's Times, there's an article about Chuck Palahniuk using the Substack platform to showcase is work. I've lifted some elements from the article for your perusal:
"Chuck Palahniuk is serialising his work through popular Substack platform, which allows its writers to send their work directly to subscribers in a newsletter format."
"He says it 'offers more freedom as a writer.' "
"He hopes his newsletter will build a more positive online community because he is 'sick' of 'editorialising' online articles."
"Substack launched in 2017 and has more than 500,000 subscribers."
"Salman Rushdie, Dominic Cummings, Patti Smith & Etgar Keret also sign up."
"Palahniuk also has a 3 book deal with traditional publisher Hachette."

I'm interested to know if any Litopians are familiar with Substack. @AgentPete too, have you heard of it? I hadn't. I did a quick trawl and read a few blogs - you can do that, and then choose to subscribe. However, I wouldn't pay to subscribe to a blog. As for getting a novel out there, imo, Palahniuk has gravitas, so I'm sure 'being lost on that site,' is not going to be an issue. There's lots of information for email campaigns, etc. It does look interesting, but it's taken me long enough to get going with WiX for me to dash down any other path - although they say you can transfer your blog over to Substack. Anyway, I thought I would put it up for you to have a look at.

Substack - A new economic engine for culture

With Substack, anyone can start a publication that combines a personal website, blog, and email newsletter or podcast. It's quick and simple, so you don't have to be tech savvy. Your audience can pay you directly through subscriptions, with no ads to get in the way. Writers and podcasters can...

substack.com

 

[AgentPete]

Yeah, I do actually read some authors’ (mostly journos) Substacks.

It’s a nice idea, but as with all things, ya gotta have the audience/readership first. Substack won’t aid with discovery I don’t think.

The first generation of successful self-publishers had been traditionally published authors, many of them midlisters who were not being published terribly well. It made a lot of sense for them to move their readership over to self-pub, and keep the majority of the income for themselves.

Ditto with Substack. If you’ve already got a profile and a keen readership, e.g. Palahniuk or Matt Taibbi, then there’s every reason to go that way.

I do wonder, tho, just how many authors/journos Substack can support through reader subscription. Five bucks a month isn’t a whole lot on its own, but start following/reading say five, six or seven of them and the outlay starts looking serious.