I’ve really enjoyed 2020’s flowering of Substack writers, but I also enjoyed this criticism of the medium’s impact on thought: nintil.com/substack-milqu
One reframing: is there an adjacent model which can support book-depth thought? Or even three-month-essay-depth thought?
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I’ve been enjoying these provocative takes too. Largely as they’ve stimulated some ideas for what I can do to improve my own newsletter. Ultimately, I think it’s down to the authors to innovate, and to ask substack for the tools whenever they’re lacking.
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That said, I haven’t monetised my substack in a regular sense. So perhaps that’s a part of the critique I’m avoiding. If I were to do so, however, it would likely be in sharing more “under the hood/behind the garage door” rougher stuff as a complement to the main, free writing.
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A sort of director’s cut, if you will. But I see no reason that might not be done at longer timescales than weekly or monthly.
One last thought, on the point about not worrying about a bad blog as it’ll be ignored: I actually think that militated *against* quality.
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Eg for me at least, thinking about how all subscribers might actually read each post means I very much feel I need to maintain or continue to raise standards of research and writing.
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As to “why not longer timescales”: this is not great, but I’ve noticed that my patrons often respond more positively to higher-frequency, lower-depth work than to the converse. Shows up in new-member rates, too. Have to actively fight that feedback.
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That’s curious, yes. I think of it as a sort of reminder effect. By posting *anything* you remind existing followers you’re there, and so they are more likely to then share stuff. Not just the new thing, which is simply closest to hand, but of ur work in general.
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I expect ideal is to have parallel streams. 1) a frequent rough and ready sharing, which is probably best suited to monetisation as it’s more personal (so shift from twitter to that); 2) longer pieces that u can be proud of, and want shared and above all read; 3) for me, books!
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