Love this, love all your points, love that you've raised the price, even! You continue to inspire and awe me, Virginia.
Last year when I decided to switch to a donation-based model, the response was fascinating and revealing (I actually made *more* money than dividing content into paid and free) and it caused me think so deeply about all of Substack's pricing options. For me, "pay if you can support my work, but everything is available to everyone either way" just works. It might not always work, but it's working now, and more importantly to me, aligns with my vision for what I want my newsletter to be.
With 16 years as an underpaid copywriter under my belt, it brings me so much joy when I can afford to support a fellow writer. And I actually feel good about myself when reading! Why was I paying for an issue of Cosmo to make me sad, back in the day? I have no idea. Burnt Toast was my gateway drug into the heady world of Substack and Big Undies was soon to follow. I’ve been loving All Things Fat lately, Jessica Torres has some great advice and recs, not to mention serving the most gorgeous colourful looks.
I fully support PTO for you and your staff ! I'm happy that this is also what my money is used for. It's funny because in France the month of August is basically dead because a LOT of people go on holiday at this period, so the newsletter reruns don't bother me, it feels normal. I'm also looking forward to rereading them !
In terms of newsletters, I found out this year that my maximum is not price-related (I am very fortunate to have the money), but rather "will I have time to read another newsletter and its content?". Right now, the answer is no, so if I REALLY want to add someone, I have to take another person out. Does this make sense ? My slate right now is : Burnt Toast/Cult of Perfect, Big Salad, The Review of Beauty, The Squawk (LaineyGossip, GREAT and insightful industry/gossip content), Evil Witches (LOVE Claire), and A Swole Woman (Casey Johnson, lifting).
I’m with you on capping the number of subscriptions, so I can enjoy each one, instead of having it feel like work. And I’m totally happy to pay people, however, if they’re stingy with their free content, it’s hard to get to know them, and I move on fairly fast.
I love Lainey! I read Lainey Gossip. back in the day, but I always enjoyed the behind the scenes 'show your work' stuff, which is what The Squark is. That's how I found Anne Helen Petersen too, her newsletter was originally called Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style. I also subscribe to Meredith Constant: she does analysis of the media coverage of Meghan and Harry, and other stuff too.
Newsletters I would LOVE to read but don't have time to at the moment : Sara Petersen (In Pursuit of Clean Countertops), Anne Helen Petersen (Culture Study), Hunter Harris (Hung Up), Melinda Wenner Moyer (Is My Kid the Asshole?), etc...I have tried to incorporate them at least once in my rotation but couldn't due to time. But if folks here have recs for specific issues of their newsletters, I am all ears !!!
OMG PTO for your team!! Kudos for building something that can support that, and thank you for modeling a generous, worker-centric relationship with contractors 👏👏
I take the same rotational approach to subscriptions across Substack and with traditional media, and I think that’s a way to make it sustainable for readers and writers.
A few to call out:
Liberating Mothering by Zawn Villenes is a regular dose of cathartic feminism.
The Mindful Consumer by Cait Flanders is an intimate exploration of Cait’s personal journey in creativity, consumption, money and more.
The Purse, about women and money culture, created by Lindsey Stanberry, the founding editor of Refinery29’s Money Diaries.
Poverty Sucks by Robin Divine about “how it sucks to be poor in this terrible capitalist, colonized society.”
I second Cait Flanders' The Mindful Consumer! Also I found Dana Miranda's Healthy Rich through Cait, and have recommended it to SO many people, (therapy) clients included!
I also do the cycling method of financial support, combining Substack and Patreon. If I hit a paywall a few times and wish I could read more, I’ll shuffle someone out. (Most recent shuffle in was Jessica Torres! She is great.) Although there are a few core newsletters that don’t go in the cycle! Obvs this one, and Culture Study, Men Yell, Austin Kleon — these are part of the fabric of my life. My policy is that I always “pay” newsletters that I’m not financially supporting with a like—, I’m less rigorous about the heart-ing if I’m forking over the moolah. :) I also really like that Substack gives you the option to explain when you’re unsubscribing, I always feel a little guilty about it, don’t want the writer to feel bad!
All you do is give me reasons to keep subscribing. PTO is liberation and liberation is where i want to spend as much money as i can (as i type this i think about all i spend on streaming services and...uhg). And thank you for writing about paying for the work. It should be a given but sometimes (for me anyway) when i am not in the same world it can be easy to dismiss the labour. thats capitalism baby.
When Big Undies launched i subscribed immediately because i truly LOVE Corrines voice and appreciate her takes. AND it made sense to me that if i am paying you i should also be paying a person who is fatter and more harmed by the oppression at hand..i hope that make sense?
i also support a few podcasts on patreon, so that is money too...but my main concern is having/making the time and energy to read the newsletters! I have unsubbed from many, not because they weren't great, but because they sat in my inbox. i would LOVE any tips from those who also struggle with this but have found some ways to make it work. hmm perhaps less streaming??! haha ARG!
This is such an important thing to share - thank you for giving us a chance to share the writers we support with our wallets.
I do this in a variety of ways, but besides your substack (always!), I recommend Jessica Valenti's ABORTION, EVERY DAY and Jen Gunter's THE VAJENDA. Thematic, I guess??? And self-explanatory. And I definitely want people to read Jo-Ann Finkelstein's THE FEMINIST PARENT - extra necessary these days.
Besides your BT, dear Virginia, I pay for ‘Bimblings’ whose ‘about’ says “Josie George is the author of the highly acclaimed A STILL LIFE, a memoir about life as a chronically ill mother with a big heart and wide-open eyes. She's also a regular columnist for The Guardian Country Diary sharing a different view of nature from her urban neighbourhood, often from her mobility scooter. Josie spends her days finding doorways into remarkable places right where she is (even if that's often in bed). She believes the ordinary world around us has something to say and she's determined to listen.”
Thank you for sharing this perspective. I admit, I often get frustrated by all the pay walls but this is a great reminder that people deserve and should be paid appropriately for their work! And I have an all or nothing personality and go on a spree of subscribing to all the things and before I know it am spending way more on content than I'm consuming and cancel all my subscriptions! I love your idea of setting a budget and then rotating based on what I'm currently consuming and bringing in new writers. Again, thank you for your perspective and this useful advice!
I'm working on putting my money where my mouth is, so Burnt Toast (THANK YOU VIRGINIA!!) and The Review of Beauty by Jessica DeFino (she's just brilliant) is where it's going! Just trying to reframe my thoughts and choices daily--- Am I currently upholding this societal expectation? How come? Do I want to continue? Would I make this choice in a vacuum? If not, what external benefits do I get from continuing down the path, and is the trade-off worth it? It's not easy work, but I feel much better about myself and how I'm impacting the people in my communities. Upholding my values IRL y'all!! <3
Like many of your readers, my subscription budget is limited. That said, people should get paid for their work. I feel particularly strong about this regarding artists who are always undervalued and expected to work for free. Therefore I stretch my budget just a little and subscribe to five newsletters (the core being Burnt Toast, Big Undies, and Unflattering while switching out the others). I also subscribe to three literary journals (New Yorker, Agni, and Ecotone literary journal), Vogue magazine, and the New York Times and Washington Post. Those coupled with a max 50 books a year and I feel like I'm doing my part to support the community to which I belong (while reading fantastic work).
There is, however, more than one way to let a writer know you appreciate her. Sharing which writers we spend our time with is a great way to broaden readership. I am more active on Facebook than I'd like to admit. In that space I've talked a lot about you, Corinne, and Dacy, sometimes linking one of your posts to my readership. Maybe some of my readers have become your readers. Book reviews go a long way, too, even in evil places like Amazon and Goodreads. Admittedly, my intimate friends are probably a little sick of hearing about you. Yesterday a friend said in response to my confession that I'd found a new substack writer while going down the rabbit hole, "You have entirely too much time on your hands." Saturday my best friend Eugenia (author of Calligrapher's Daughter) said, "You've convinced me. How do I start a Substack newsletter?"
I'm a walking billboard, fortunate to be able to pay, and happy to sing your praises. Because what you and Corinne do here is important work. I've learned about myself and my biases (and also my disordered eating), and I'm learning more and more about the anti-fat bias movement. I attribute all of that to you two and Dacy Gillespie.
Shout out to Sarai Walker (author of "Dietland") who introduced me to you both. Keep doing what you do and as long as I don't bounce a check, I'll keep paying.
How you do respond when people demand your content for free? It feels like every time I post an article I wrote for a mainstream pub (SciAm being most common for me), someone says "I need a gift link" or "this shouldn't be behind a paywall." The intimation is that information should be free. Which is great. But...I need to eat and so do all of us?
And I also find the demand for free content...kind of offensive? Like you demand the right to read my WORK and it's hard work, but you don't think it's worth paying for? I know some people cannot afford subscriptions, but it's hard to avoid the feeling people don't value my work.
I absolutely distinguish between someone asking nicely for a comp (never a problem!!!) and rudely grumbling about paywalls, and then I just say, "this is how I make my living! Do you do your job for free?" They aren't valuing the work and that means they aren't our readers.
I think this is where in many ways we have done folks a disservice by using "free" when we mean "subsidized." a friend in one of my professional orgs made this point and I can't stop thinking about it.
literally zero information is free, unless I'm asking a friend about their feelings I guess? but even then, parents, therapists, other friends used their time/money/resources to teach us how to communicate
npr and libraries and schools aren't free--they are subsided by our taxes. paid links subsidize free ones; paid subscribers subsidize free and comp subscriptions; pay what you can models are when folks subsidize each other. free parking isn't free, radio isn't free, etc.
it is just a matter of who is subsidzing--is it advertisers? the government/people? other community members?
but this reframing helps me.
All of that said, I work in higher education and it is interesting to me how much unpaid labor some students and recent grads will ask of us as they refuse to do any themselves (as well they should! I support that! don't get in the unpaid labor habit at all!!--but one of the ways that folks in my discipline suggest for helping pay for their labor is for us to write grants or fundraise, which are not things that are paid labor in my discipline). Once I explain this, lightbulbs go off, but still, I hate that capitalism has done this to us
As you can see, with the election coming up, I lean lefty political and funny. And also support my favorite writers (Roxane Gay, Ijeoma Oluo, Jen Lancaster). And lean towards LGBTQ legal and political analysis because it's a professional interest of mine and the community is so under attack right now. If I had to pick just three on the basis of who I read most often and immediately, it would be Jeff Tiedrich, Jay Kuo, and Lyz Lenz.
Love this, love all your points, love that you've raised the price, even! You continue to inspire and awe me, Virginia.
Last year when I decided to switch to a donation-based model, the response was fascinating and revealing (I actually made *more* money than dividing content into paid and free) and it caused me think so deeply about all of Substack's pricing options. For me, "pay if you can support my work, but everything is available to everyone either way" just works. It might not always work, but it's working now, and more importantly to me, aligns with my vision for what I want my newsletter to be.
With 16 years as an underpaid copywriter under my belt, it brings me so much joy when I can afford to support a fellow writer. And I actually feel good about myself when reading! Why was I paying for an issue of Cosmo to make me sad, back in the day? I have no idea. Burnt Toast was my gateway drug into the heady world of Substack and Big Undies was soon to follow. I’ve been loving All Things Fat lately, Jessica Torres has some great advice and recs, not to mention serving the most gorgeous colourful looks.
Ahaha yes I can CONFIDENTLY say that a subscription to Burnt Toast is a better value than Cosmo ever was!
I fully support PTO for you and your staff ! I'm happy that this is also what my money is used for. It's funny because in France the month of August is basically dead because a LOT of people go on holiday at this period, so the newsletter reruns don't bother me, it feels normal. I'm also looking forward to rereading them !
In terms of newsletters, I found out this year that my maximum is not price-related (I am very fortunate to have the money), but rather "will I have time to read another newsletter and its content?". Right now, the answer is no, so if I REALLY want to add someone, I have to take another person out. Does this make sense ? My slate right now is : Burnt Toast/Cult of Perfect, Big Salad, The Review of Beauty, The Squawk (LaineyGossip, GREAT and insightful industry/gossip content), Evil Witches (LOVE Claire), and A Swole Woman (Casey Johnson, lifting).
I’m with you on capping the number of subscriptions, so I can enjoy each one, instead of having it feel like work. And I’m totally happy to pay people, however, if they’re stingy with their free content, it’s hard to get to know them, and I move on fairly fast.
I love Lainey! I read Lainey Gossip. back in the day, but I always enjoyed the behind the scenes 'show your work' stuff, which is what The Squark is. That's how I found Anne Helen Petersen too, her newsletter was originally called Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style. I also subscribe to Meredith Constant: she does analysis of the media coverage of Meghan and Harry, and other stuff too.
Newsletters I would LOVE to read but don't have time to at the moment : Sara Petersen (In Pursuit of Clean Countertops), Anne Helen Petersen (Culture Study), Hunter Harris (Hung Up), Melinda Wenner Moyer (Is My Kid the Asshole?), etc...I have tried to incorporate them at least once in my rotation but couldn't due to time. But if folks here have recs for specific issues of their newsletters, I am all ears !!!
<3!!
OMG PTO for your team!! Kudos for building something that can support that, and thank you for modeling a generous, worker-centric relationship with contractors 👏👏
I take the same rotational approach to subscriptions across Substack and with traditional media, and I think that’s a way to make it sustainable for readers and writers.
A few to call out:
Liberating Mothering by Zawn Villenes is a regular dose of cathartic feminism.
The Mindful Consumer by Cait Flanders is an intimate exploration of Cait’s personal journey in creativity, consumption, money and more.
The Purse, about women and money culture, created by Lindsey Stanberry, the founding editor of Refinery29’s Money Diaries.
Poverty Sucks by Robin Divine about “how it sucks to be poor in this terrible capitalist, colonized society.”
I second Cait Flanders' The Mindful Consumer! Also I found Dana Miranda's Healthy Rich through Cait, and have recommended it to SO many people, (therapy) clients included!
I also do the cycling method of financial support, combining Substack and Patreon. If I hit a paywall a few times and wish I could read more, I’ll shuffle someone out. (Most recent shuffle in was Jessica Torres! She is great.) Although there are a few core newsletters that don’t go in the cycle! Obvs this one, and Culture Study, Men Yell, Austin Kleon — these are part of the fabric of my life. My policy is that I always “pay” newsletters that I’m not financially supporting with a like—, I’m less rigorous about the heart-ing if I’m forking over the moolah. :) I also really like that Substack gives you the option to explain when you’re unsubscribing, I always feel a little guilty about it, don’t want the writer to feel bad!
I forgot to mention the Jealous Curator newsletter in my core group! If you like art by living artists…it’s a good and daily one!
All you do is give me reasons to keep subscribing. PTO is liberation and liberation is where i want to spend as much money as i can (as i type this i think about all i spend on streaming services and...uhg). And thank you for writing about paying for the work. It should be a given but sometimes (for me anyway) when i am not in the same world it can be easy to dismiss the labour. thats capitalism baby.
When Big Undies launched i subscribed immediately because i truly LOVE Corrines voice and appreciate her takes. AND it made sense to me that if i am paying you i should also be paying a person who is fatter and more harmed by the oppression at hand..i hope that make sense?
i also support a few podcasts on patreon, so that is money too...but my main concern is having/making the time and energy to read the newsletters! I have unsubbed from many, not because they weren't great, but because they sat in my inbox. i would LOVE any tips from those who also struggle with this but have found some ways to make it work. hmm perhaps less streaming??! haha ARG!
Anyway, thank you for your work, as always <3 <3
This is such an important thing to share - thank you for giving us a chance to share the writers we support with our wallets.
I do this in a variety of ways, but besides your substack (always!), I recommend Jessica Valenti's ABORTION, EVERY DAY and Jen Gunter's THE VAJENDA. Thematic, I guess??? And self-explanatory. And I definitely want people to read Jo-Ann Finkelstein's THE FEMINIST PARENT - extra necessary these days.
Huge second on Abortion Every Day!!
Besides your BT, dear Virginia, I pay for ‘Bimblings’ whose ‘about’ says “Josie George is the author of the highly acclaimed A STILL LIFE, a memoir about life as a chronically ill mother with a big heart and wide-open eyes. She's also a regular columnist for The Guardian Country Diary sharing a different view of nature from her urban neighbourhood, often from her mobility scooter. Josie spends her days finding doorways into remarkable places right where she is (even if that's often in bed). She believes the ordinary world around us has something to say and she's determined to listen.”
Such great stuff!
Also Patti Smith’s substack!
https://open.substack.com/pub/bimblings?r=1arucd&utm_medium=ios
Josie is new to me, this looks great!
Yay!!!
Honestly humbled to be on this list. 😘😘😘
Thank you for sharing this perspective. I admit, I often get frustrated by all the pay walls but this is a great reminder that people deserve and should be paid appropriately for their work! And I have an all or nothing personality and go on a spree of subscribing to all the things and before I know it am spending way more on content than I'm consuming and cancel all my subscriptions! I love your idea of setting a budget and then rotating based on what I'm currently consuming and bringing in new writers. Again, thank you for your perspective and this useful advice!
Thank you so much for recommending my newsletter!!! 💕💕
I'm working on putting my money where my mouth is, so Burnt Toast (THANK YOU VIRGINIA!!) and The Review of Beauty by Jessica DeFino (she's just brilliant) is where it's going! Just trying to reframe my thoughts and choices daily--- Am I currently upholding this societal expectation? How come? Do I want to continue? Would I make this choice in a vacuum? If not, what external benefits do I get from continuing down the path, and is the trade-off worth it? It's not easy work, but I feel much better about myself and how I'm impacting the people in my communities. Upholding my values IRL y'all!! <3
fully support PTO for y'all! and it also give me a chance to catch up on my newsletter reading lol
Ahaha win/win!!
Like many of your readers, my subscription budget is limited. That said, people should get paid for their work. I feel particularly strong about this regarding artists who are always undervalued and expected to work for free. Therefore I stretch my budget just a little and subscribe to five newsletters (the core being Burnt Toast, Big Undies, and Unflattering while switching out the others). I also subscribe to three literary journals (New Yorker, Agni, and Ecotone literary journal), Vogue magazine, and the New York Times and Washington Post. Those coupled with a max 50 books a year and I feel like I'm doing my part to support the community to which I belong (while reading fantastic work).
There is, however, more than one way to let a writer know you appreciate her. Sharing which writers we spend our time with is a great way to broaden readership. I am more active on Facebook than I'd like to admit. In that space I've talked a lot about you, Corinne, and Dacy, sometimes linking one of your posts to my readership. Maybe some of my readers have become your readers. Book reviews go a long way, too, even in evil places like Amazon and Goodreads. Admittedly, my intimate friends are probably a little sick of hearing about you. Yesterday a friend said in response to my confession that I'd found a new substack writer while going down the rabbit hole, "You have entirely too much time on your hands." Saturday my best friend Eugenia (author of Calligrapher's Daughter) said, "You've convinced me. How do I start a Substack newsletter?"
I'm a walking billboard, fortunate to be able to pay, and happy to sing your praises. Because what you and Corinne do here is important work. I've learned about myself and my biases (and also my disordered eating), and I'm learning more and more about the anti-fat bias movement. I attribute all of that to you two and Dacy Gillespie.
Shout out to Sarai Walker (author of "Dietland") who introduced me to you both. Keep doing what you do and as long as I don't bounce a check, I'll keep paying.
How you do respond when people demand your content for free? It feels like every time I post an article I wrote for a mainstream pub (SciAm being most common for me), someone says "I need a gift link" or "this shouldn't be behind a paywall." The intimation is that information should be free. Which is great. But...I need to eat and so do all of us?
And I also find the demand for free content...kind of offensive? Like you demand the right to read my WORK and it's hard work, but you don't think it's worth paying for? I know some people cannot afford subscriptions, but it's hard to avoid the feeling people don't value my work.
I absolutely distinguish between someone asking nicely for a comp (never a problem!!!) and rudely grumbling about paywalls, and then I just say, "this is how I make my living! Do you do your job for free?" They aren't valuing the work and that means they aren't our readers.
Usually they respond with "information should be free!" Which, yeah ok, but like, way to punish me because you can't punish capitalism?
Yeah, sorry. Healthcare should also be free and yet I just paid $600 for a mammogram. I’ll work for free when we fix that.
Also, in my anecdotal research - white male writers are NEVER given this same pushback. I’ll write for free when they do!
YUP! My white male science writing counterparts get praise and people subscribe to wherever they write to read their pearls of wisdom.
I am also an oyster! I also make pearls! I don't even broadcast sperm to reproduce!
Ok this analogy is breaking down very quickly.
I think this is where in many ways we have done folks a disservice by using "free" when we mean "subsidized." a friend in one of my professional orgs made this point and I can't stop thinking about it.
literally zero information is free, unless I'm asking a friend about their feelings I guess? but even then, parents, therapists, other friends used their time/money/resources to teach us how to communicate
npr and libraries and schools aren't free--they are subsided by our taxes. paid links subsidize free ones; paid subscribers subsidize free and comp subscriptions; pay what you can models are when folks subsidize each other. free parking isn't free, radio isn't free, etc.
it is just a matter of who is subsidzing--is it advertisers? the government/people? other community members?
but this reframing helps me.
All of that said, I work in higher education and it is interesting to me how much unpaid labor some students and recent grads will ask of us as they refuse to do any themselves (as well they should! I support that! don't get in the unpaid labor habit at all!!--but one of the ways that folks in my discipline suggest for helping pay for their labor is for us to write grants or fundraise, which are not things that are paid labor in my discipline). Once I explain this, lightbulbs go off, but still, I hate that capitalism has done this to us
This is such a good reframing and smart take!
I LOVE this reframe.
Abortion Every Day (Jessica Valenti): https://jessica.substack.com/
Ask E. Jean (E. Jean Carroll): https://ejeancarroll.substack.com/
Burnt Toast of course
The Audacity (Roxane Gay): https://audacity.substack.com/
The Borowitz Report (Andy Borowitz): https://www.borowitzreport.com/
Charlotte's Web Thoughts (Charlotte Clymer): https://charlotteclymer.substack.com/
Ctrl Alt Right Delete (Melissa Ryan): https://www.altrightdelete.news/
everyone is entitled to my own opinion (Jeff Tiedrich): https://www.jefftiedrich.com/
The Good in Us (Mary L. Trump): https://www.marytrump.org/
Ijeoma Oluo: Behind the Book: https://ijeomaoluo.substack.com/
Law Dork (Chris Geidner) https://www.lawdork.com/
Meet the Mess (Jen Lancaster & Karyn Bosnak) https://meetthemess.substack.com/
Men Yell at Me (Lyz Lenz): https://lyz.substack.com/
The Status Kuo (Jay Kuo): https://statuskuo.substack.com/
As you can see, with the election coming up, I lean lefty political and funny. And also support my favorite writers (Roxane Gay, Ijeoma Oluo, Jen Lancaster). And lean towards LGBTQ legal and political analysis because it's a professional interest of mine and the community is so under attack right now. If I had to pick just three on the basis of who I read most often and immediately, it would be Jeff Tiedrich, Jay Kuo, and Lyz Lenz.