I tried to set up a Substack for a very niche technical subject recently just to see how Substack works. And I have some feedback for Substack (the company) and also the writers.
Just like every other service nowadays, there is a bit of a subscription fatigue associated with Substack also. However, unlike every other new service, there is something very unique about Substack that the company may not be exploring.
I think Substack should provide a feature which allows writers to select a list of articles, grouped by topic, and sell them as an eBook for a one time payment for a price set by the writer - and the eBook can only be read from the Substack Inbox (the web-based reader). This way, you can avoid the usual piracy related issues you face from converting it into some kind of PDF format.
This provides many benefits -
1 A lot of people are already used to paying one time for eBooks, so the first sale is much easier
2 Grouping a list of existing articles into an eBook is nothing new, and maybe easier to write than an actual eBook
3 I think there are many people who would be very happy to support writers if they did not have to take out a paid subscription. Also do not discount the challenges of doing dollar-denominated subscription payments from countries like India. But it is significantly easier to do dollar denominated one time payments.
4 I think some of the folks who pay for the eBooks will choose to become paid subscribers because they already have a good idea of what to expect
5 The writer has an opportunity to explore a wider range of topics and turn each one into a different eBook. You can already do that with the Topics feature, but there is no way for people to become paid subscribers only to specific topics. And even if the option was available, is it ideal for the writer to cater to all their audiences on a regular schedule?
If you are in touch with someone from Substack, maybe you can pass this feedback along to them.
Hi Paul,
I tried to set up a Substack for a very niche technical subject recently just to see how Substack works. And I have some feedback for Substack (the company) and also the writers.
Just like every other service nowadays, there is a bit of a subscription fatigue associated with Substack also. However, unlike every other new service, there is something very unique about Substack that the company may not be exploring.
I think Substack should provide a feature which allows writers to select a list of articles, grouped by topic, and sell them as an eBook for a one time payment for a price set by the writer - and the eBook can only be read from the Substack Inbox (the web-based reader). This way, you can avoid the usual piracy related issues you face from converting it into some kind of PDF format.
This provides many benefits -
1 A lot of people are already used to paying one time for eBooks, so the first sale is much easier
2 Grouping a list of existing articles into an eBook is nothing new, and maybe easier to write than an actual eBook
3 I think there are many people who would be very happy to support writers if they did not have to take out a paid subscription. Also do not discount the challenges of doing dollar-denominated subscription payments from countries like India. But it is significantly easier to do dollar denominated one time payments.
4 I think some of the folks who pay for the eBooks will choose to become paid subscribers because they already have a good idea of what to expect
5 The writer has an opportunity to explore a wider range of topics and turn each one into a different eBook. You can already do that with the Topics feature, but there is no way for people to become paid subscribers only to specific topics. And even if the option was available, is it ideal for the writer to cater to all their audiences on a regular schedule?
If you are in touch with someone from Substack, maybe you can pass this feedback along to them.