Time to talk about Substack

Talking on Substack -- that'll have to wait

Some of you may have seen a Substack notice that I was “going live” this week at a certain time. Some of you — a much smaller number, apparently — also saw the subsequent notice that the live event had been canceled. And some of you probably saw something or other from Substack, didn’t know what to make of it, and went back to whatever you were doing.

I can live with that.

But for those interested, I’d like to explain what happened and then share all the ins and outs of this platform that’s been growing even faster than holiday waistlines.

That is, I’d like to if I knew how. I’ve been writing a weekly column here for five or six months now, and I still haven’t figured everything out. But I’m working on it, which is why I mistakenly scheduled that live call.

Here’s the deal: I’m planning to have conversations with news sources, interesting friends, and maybe a celebrity here and there on my Substack, maybe once a month to start. I’d do each call live for subscribers to enjoy, then, as word spreads about the fascinating conversation and my guest’s sparkling wit, I’d post a video for people who couldn’t make it to the live event.

Most weeks I’ll post essays as I do now. The talks would just be an occasional change of pace.

I’ve got a great guest lined up for my first live discussion, and he’s been waiting patiently for me to iron out the kinks on my end. I’ll share his name and schedule a launch time with you all soon, I hope.

At the moment, I’m researching how Substack facilitates this sort of thing and making sure I’m capable of pulling it off. So, Sunday I found a willing participant — my daughter Robin if you have to know — to do a test-run with me behind the scenes.

My intention was not to actually post the conversation, though Robin would absolutely be a first-rate guest. I never intended to invite subscribers to our little run-through, but unfortunately, that’s what I did. So if you got notified of me “going live,” now you sorta understand why.

That still leaves a bunch of other questions about this place that I think a lot of you have wondered about. The most common one I get when I’m talking to people face to face is, “What the heck is Substack anyway?” So let’s start there.

Some regard it as simply a blog-space. People can write about whatever moves them, as often as they want, in posts that are as long or short as they choose, and no one ever tells them they’re doing it wrong.

Those people are referred to as “providers,” though I tend to think of myself more as a street-corner busker, plying my trade as fast and as artfully as I can, hoping some of you readers will be moved to voluntarily throw a few dollars into my bucket before moving on with your day.

We providers are allowed to charge subscribers as much or as little as we like, though from what I’ve observed, most offer their work for free to subscribers, with some charging a small amount for additional features. For instance, Dave Barry, who as you know is approximately the funniest writer on the planet, allows all readers to enjoy his work, but he includes a poll in each post (with hilarious answer-choices, naturally) that’s behind a paywall.

From what I’ve seen, he gets more than 1,000 votes in each poll. By comparison, I ran a poll once and got six responses — five not counting mine. And you didn’t even need to be a paid subscriber to vote.

The historian Heather Cox Richardson, struck a viral nerve with a Facebook post in September, 2019, and by that December had transitioned to a daily Substack feed called “Letters From an American,” which is said to net her somewhere between $1-5 million a year. Like Dave, she asks for the low, recommended payment of $5/month or $50/year, and allows only paying subscribers to comment on her posts.

That’s my requested fee too. To those of you who are paying subscribers, I extend my heartfelt thanks. If that’s not you, I’m glad you’re here too. Keep coming around, and spread the word. It’s only gonna get better.

One Substacker I pay to read is Bob Morris, an old friend and terrific writer, who for years composed four columns a week for the Orlando Sentinel and was one of the only good reasons to buy that paper. You can find his Substack, Bob’s Diner, here. I highly recommend you check it out.

So, what’s the difference between blogging and writing a Substack? For one thing, the company handles the business end for us providers — publishes our work, distributes it to our readers, and collects and pays us the subscriber fees for a reasonable cut.

For another, Substack makes audio and video posts possible, if you can figure out how they work. I’ll let you know when I’ve got it down.