Emily, I'm seriously considering ordering your debut novel as a gift for a female friend in her forties. I'm trying to get my first novel, We're Cutting You Loose, published.
This is very illuminating to me - I never was part of the Twitter community/generation so can't compare. I have thrown myself into Substack both as a reader and writer and love it - however, have hit the wall of exactly what you articulate, not being able to afford to subscribe to so many great writers and also wanting the freedom to read new writers without hitting paywalls - I am happy to pay but it needs to be bundled in some way, or a certain number of articles a week/month/year. Probably needs to be advocated by a writer high up the Substack foodchain. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to think this through.
I totally hear what you're saying but I cannot be the only one who has serious reservations about Substack growing so quickly.
'Celebrities' are signing up now; I get pop ups urgung me to follow them - no thank you - and I'm seeing poorer, more gimmicky posts popping up all the time.
People not using punctuation properly post two lines like (ffs)
'you are enough
just breathe'
and thousands and thousands go for the like button.
Yeah, like deep,man. Not. (Visualise major eye roll.)
That is FB territory.
I scroll on and read an incredibly interesting post, or a well researched post, or an informative post, or a deeply witty post - and lo and behold, if it makes double 'like' figures it's doing well.
Lots of decent writers are being drowned out in this explosion of the 'easy, popular, trivial' ( EPT) - or trite, if you prefer - which appeals to people who don't want in-depth or substantial but jingoism and dopamine hits.
Horses for courses, that's fair enough, but we're experiencing the difference between gold and dross here, imo.
Serious writers with talent are now competing for space.
Yes we bookmark our favourite writers but for exploration on Substack you now need an 'IM' - an intellectual machete (patent pending) programmed with an IQ level, to sort the wheat from the chaff.
There's heck of a lot more chaff here now, imo, and that makes me both sad and angry. I appreciate that sounds elitist but Substack was a precious site on my phone. Scrolling Substack felt like a worthwhile pursuit..a haven of peace removed from the chaos of the web. It was akin to picking up a book and becoming pleasantly absorbed.
When you find a gem online you value it, want to protect it from cheap imitations...not turn it into the Temu of the literary world.
It would be a pity if everything decent was behind a pay wall.
I'll keep reading but perhaps we need a Librarian to keep the place in order.
Emily, I'm seriously considering ordering your debut novel as a gift for a female friend in her forties. I'm trying to get my first novel, We're Cutting You Loose, published.
Aw thank you, please do! My target audience :) and good luck!! I know it’s a long hard process.
This is very illuminating to me - I never was part of the Twitter community/generation so can't compare. I have thrown myself into Substack both as a reader and writer and love it - however, have hit the wall of exactly what you articulate, not being able to afford to subscribe to so many great writers and also wanting the freedom to read new writers without hitting paywalls - I am happy to pay but it needs to be bundled in some way, or a certain number of articles a week/month/year. Probably needs to be advocated by a writer high up the Substack foodchain. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to think this through.
Yes exactly!! I hope they figure this out. And thank you for reading!
I totally hear what you're saying but I cannot be the only one who has serious reservations about Substack growing so quickly.
'Celebrities' are signing up now; I get pop ups urgung me to follow them - no thank you - and I'm seeing poorer, more gimmicky posts popping up all the time.
People not using punctuation properly post two lines like (ffs)
'you are enough
just breathe'
and thousands and thousands go for the like button.
Yeah, like deep,man. Not. (Visualise major eye roll.)
That is FB territory.
I scroll on and read an incredibly interesting post, or a well researched post, or an informative post, or a deeply witty post - and lo and behold, if it makes double 'like' figures it's doing well.
Lots of decent writers are being drowned out in this explosion of the 'easy, popular, trivial' ( EPT) - or trite, if you prefer - which appeals to people who don't want in-depth or substantial but jingoism and dopamine hits.
Horses for courses, that's fair enough, but we're experiencing the difference between gold and dross here, imo.
Serious writers with talent are now competing for space.
Yes we bookmark our favourite writers but for exploration on Substack you now need an 'IM' - an intellectual machete (patent pending) programmed with an IQ level, to sort the wheat from the chaff.
There's heck of a lot more chaff here now, imo, and that makes me both sad and angry. I appreciate that sounds elitist but Substack was a precious site on my phone. Scrolling Substack felt like a worthwhile pursuit..a haven of peace removed from the chaos of the web. It was akin to picking up a book and becoming pleasantly absorbed.
When you find a gem online you value it, want to protect it from cheap imitations...not turn it into the Temu of the literary world.
It would be a pity if everything decent was behind a pay wall.
I'll keep reading but perhaps we need a Librarian to keep the place in order.