A friend is moving her newsletter to Substack. She’s hoping it’ll bring in paying subscribers. I wish her well.
But.
Sometimes a newsletter lands in my inbox and something makes me want to comment. So I click through to the web version. (I refuse to install the Substack app. I don’t want to be locked into another walled garden.)
And I might click through to one or two other interesting posts and then in the comments, I find a reader saying the same thing I’ve read before: Another writer asking for money? I can’t afford another subscription. I’m exhausted.
Those readers aren’t difficult. They’re not mean, either. They just don’t want to manage fifteen separate payments to fifteen writers. They want one fee. They want Substack to act like a magazine.
They want a relationship with the platform, not a dozen individual relationships with writers. And I think a lot of writers misunderstand this.
My friend goes to Substack believing she’s found a home on the internet that’s all hers. A place to build something direct and personal with readers who choose to follow her.
But the audience on Substack doesn’t see it that way. They see a platform, on an app. They want the platform to deliver them a product.
My friend is walking into that gap.
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