What’s the point of writing anymore?
Probably asking the wrong question of the wrong audience but here we are.
Last week I cancelled my Substack and sent money back to everyone who had subscribed. I did this for a few reasons. The first was that the audience I had, while dedicated, was small — and I couldn’t see any way to make it bigger. And while growing your audience isn’t the total point, it…is the point, to some extent. Especially if you’re factoring a platform into your revenue, right?
Like, I have a lot of jobs and one of them is “writer” so if I’m going to spend time writing, it should at least pay for itself. And if there’s just no way your work will ever reach more people— and the number of people you reach is directly proportionate to the amount of money you make and we all need money to survive—eventually, I feel like I might as well just keep it in my diary and not bother spell-checking.
The other big reason was that I felt really shitty taking money from people, most of whom I knew or knew of, if I wasn’t putting out enough content. And that’s a recipe for a.) poor writing and b.) resentment by all parties. Because while the idea behind Substack — a place where people pay you directly to write—the execution of it is lacking. No one wants to hang out on the website, no matter how many new features they add, and there’s no organic was to put your work…
