Think Week #7
Is the future of paid content, free?
The New American Dream
Letters from an American isn’t just one of the most successful newsletters on substack, it’s one of the most successful newsletters of all time.
It’s free, yet tens of thousands of people still pay $5 a month for it.
Substack is without question having a renaissance moment.
The success of Notes and the seemingly daily drip of new features continues to help the platform build momentum.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is, newsletters are getting slightly worse, even from writers I admire.
By worse, I guess I mean they feel more like ConvertKit email sequences. This is not what I want from a Substack newsletter.
I’m seeing more marketing tactics splattered across newsletters and constant calls to upgrade my subscription.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. Writer’s deserve to get paid.
And most importantly, asking people for money works quite well.
Exhibit A:
But more emails, more gated content, more pleas for upgrades.
Is this sustainable for Substack?
What if we did something different. What if we just paid people to write whatever they wanted, at whatever cadence they wanted, and our subscription fees were a sign of genuine support instead of an access pass.
What if we could tip writers to support them monetarily for one post?
I’m curious if there are writers you’d pay a monthly subscription to even if all of their content was free. If you’d pay them because they were just, well, great writers.
is one of the strongest writers I’ve ever met and I’d pay for her work wether of not it was sitting behind a gate. If she made everything free, I’d still keep my paid membership.Would you do the same for newsletters you pay for?
I’m not suggesting all writers should pull down their gates, but I am curious if Heather is an anomaly or if there’s something deeper here.
Atomic Thoughts
Fin
Give yourself a break.
This is a friendly reminder that succeeding 3 out of 9 times isn’t bad in the right context.
Batting 33% will put you in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Writing is no different. You need to swing the bat hundreds of times to be any good.
Thousands of times to be great.
Keep swinging.
— DKH
Thanks so much for sharing my note Daniel :)
Daniel - first of all, thank you so much for the kind mention! I also loved hearing your voice ❤️ I think you bring up a really interesting point here that ties into a larger cultural idea on the value of art. Do we inherently value the importance of art, writing, ideas enough to support it (to support artists)?
In the classical music world, wealthy patrons do this - provide monetary support, help musicians gain access to quality instruments, etc. They do this not to tangibly gain anything back, but because they love music so deeply they want to be a part of supporting those who bring it to life.
We see this less in other fields, including writing, but I think it's possible...we see this a lot especially in fandoms and other tight-knit communities in which people deeply identify and love someone's work and will provide financial support to enable its continuation.
I think if SubStack is able to continue prioritizing strong community building and the creative process itself (over traditional marketing / business models), writers have the possibility to thrive on this platform. I'm a big believer in deep over wide...that if you are able to truly build a community of people who are aligned with and resonate with what you do, you can thrive as a creator and artist.
Wonderful food for thought - thank you for this post!