I know some of you have your own newsletters. Have you heard about Substack? I’m just now learning about it.
Substack.com basically monetizes newsletters! You start a newsletter (which, again, some of us already have), build your community, and charge for subscriptions.
Publishing is free with no limits. They say, “We only make money when you do.”
Interesting! On two levels! First, you can go and browse some of the influential folks you could subscribe to. Second, I can easily imagine a short story writer, for example, selling a monthly story to a subscription list.
Let’s see. What other details may I have inadvertently left out? Here’s a blurb from their website:
Your email list is your community. When you start a Substack, you get:
- Your own email list
- A website for all your posts
- Community features
- Audio, video, images, GIFs, and more
- Control over what’s free and what’s only for your paying subscribers
It takes less than a minute to get started.
So readers can pay writers directly and writers can have a regular line of income. It’s very clearly a digital, open-ended patron system.
I suspect this could be useful in lots of ways, and not just for individuals.
So, what do you think about it? How does it compare to other attempts toward a patronage system? Do you know of any Lutherans already on Substack? If so, please let me know! Maybe I can list them somewhere!
