(Update: Halting Substack) What I Plan to Write on Substack (2022)
Update: I discovered that paid posts on Substack is not available in my country so I’m going to halt posting here or I might delete this
Initial Thoughts on Substack
Before I talk about my plans for Substack, let me talk about how I discovered it and how I’m thinking about this platform, especially in terms of supporting a better economic system for web content creators. If you want to skip to the things I plan to publish here, scroll down until you find the heading “Projects to Publish”.
So I've been hearing about Substack for a while, but I never truly explored it until I read about the Roxane Gay's fellowship, where one will make a proposal for a newsletter, which will be published on Substack. When I read that, I decided to take a closer look at Substack, and I found out that you can publish here for free, but you can also make paid content. Meaning, you set a subscription fee, and when people subscribe to your newsletter, you get paid, and Substack gets a percentage. That seems like a good deal.
Now, I'm like, what will I write on my blog and what will I write on Substack? Will I stop writing on my blog? Will I completely shift to Substack? Will I transfer some of the popular posts on my blog into paid content on Substack? Will I transfer all of my content from my blog to my Substack?
I was also scared of the thought that whenever I write here, all my subscribers will get an email. It was reassuring when I found out that I can choose to email or not email my subscribers whenever I post here.
One downside of Substack is it doesn’t have tags, categories, and a scroll of links. Maybe I can improvise. I can publish a post like that at the end of the year. Let’s see.
What drew me to Substack is it’s simple model of compensation for content creators. I write a lot, and it would be nice to get paid because this takes work. Another reason why I was attracted to this model is I don’t have patience to submit to publications. I have to waste a lot of time sending things out and getting rejected. Then, when I am accepted, more often than not, publications don’t pay (especially for creative work), so what’s the point in getting published when I can publish on my blog for free? Worst of all is my experience of having my stuff published, and then years later, the link to what I wrote is inaccessible. At least in my blog, I am sure my work is out there on the web. I did think about researching on how to monetize my blog, but I never understood the whole advertising process, and it takes such a huge number of subscribers to earn anything substantial. The subscription process on Substack seems pretty straight up. If you like my content, subscribe to pay a monthly fee. If I only have one paying subscriber, I will still get the fee that I set, which won’t make me a millionaire, but it is at least a real amount.
I also read this book entitled Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier. I discovered this author because I watched Netflix’s The Social Dilemma. In the book, Jaron elaborates on what he mentions in the documentary, where he basically explains why the current business model of social media is problematic. Social media is free because “the product is you”. Social media companies sell your attention to advertisers, politicians, and nefarious actors, so that they can influence you to buy or believe something. This is also why social media is addicting because it’s designed that way. Behaviorists have been hired to increase users’ “engagement”, which is a euphemism for “addiction”. Increasing the addictive quality of social media is important for this business model because the longer you stay on social media, the higher chance that you will encounter content that will finally break you and make you buy or believe something.
This is why Jaron proposes a new way of doing things: what if we paid to use social media, but, at the same time, when we publish content on social media, we can also earn. “A large number of people, instead of the tiny number of token stars in the present system, would earn money…BUMMER [the current business model of social media] only support stars…In a genuine, deep economy, there are many roles,” he said, stating that this kind of “digital economics” is called “Data as Labor” or “DaL”.
I think we can extend this thinking to blog writers because we are also creating content for free for these platforms, and these platforms are earning from our free labor by embedding advertisements. When we participate in that system where we create content to keep people addicted to the platform, so that there’ll be a greater chance that users will be ensnared by an irresistible advertisement, then maybe it’s time to rethink our participation and support of that system.
That being said, I haven’t deleted all my social media accounts. But oh well, I’m thinking about it and trying to figure it out.
Projects to Publish
I hope to publish paid content once a month, and free content whenever I feel like it. I’ll probably post a lot of free content. I will send emails about the publishing of the paid content and important free content.
Here’s my content plan for 2022:
Feb.-Sept 2022: After Complaint!
A multi-genre and multimedia response to Sara Ahmed’s book Complaint!, which I wrote for my experimental writing class
Will be published in 7 parts
I will also include the link to the Padlet version with the password
I will also publish an essay that describes the process of how I created this piece
Paid content
Oct. 2022: An essay
More likely about the issue of sexual harassment, not a graphic description of harassment, but more about feelings and issues surrounding the experience
Paid content
Nov. 2022: Fiction
More likely about the issue of sexual harassment, not a graphic description of harassment, but more about feelings and issues surrounding the experience
Paid content
Dec. 2022: Poem
More likely about the issue of sexual harassment, not a graphic description of harassment, but more about feelings and issues surrounding the experience
Paid content
Future paid content: After Chanel (like After Complaint! but a response to Chanel Miller’s memoir Know My Name), things I’ve written in my notebooks and diaries, digital versions of my zines, pieces where I put together things in my blog to create one essay or a certain collection
Future free content: whatever I used to write in my blog, republishing good blog posts (some might be paid content, and I will restrict access to the version in my blog), schedule of my lectures and workshops
Ja is also on Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress, Tumblr (blog for my favorite books), Tumblr for quotes, Tumblr for crafts, Bloglovin (for blog, for Tumblr), Wattpad, YouTube. Email Ja at: ageofthediary@gmail.com.