Samantha Downes looks at self-publishing on Substack – and getting an income from it
ast summer I found myself with a couple of interesting stories, not front-page exclusives but ones I knew would get read. An ideal situation if you, like me, are a personal finance journalist who believes in holding our
financial institutions to account as well as alerting consumers to possible scams and expert money-saving advice. Not ideal if it is a silly season though, and everyone – i.e. most of your commissioning editors – is too hot and bothered to want anything beyond top-line, clickbait first-person pieces. Fair enough, but I knew my stories were not likely to stay just mine for long. I couldn’t wait for the cooler, more collected days of September, so finding a home for my stories became a quest. As a freelance, I am technically self-employed but, in reality,
my work flow is determined not just by whether editors want my stuff but also whether they have the budget that week/ month or the pagination available for any stories. A few years ago, I had toyed with setting up my own
magazine with other writers to publish the stuff we knew should be out there.
‘A way I could keep writing’
RORY CELLAN-JONES started using Substack when he left his role as BBC News’ technology correspondent two years ago. Cellan-Jones was at the
coalface of internet journalism. While at the BBC, he had helped expand the coverage of new media and the internet. “I had a different motive to
making money when I started using Substack,” he says. “I had got to the stage
where I had a fantastic career but, when the BBC wanted to move my job to Glasgow, it seemed like a good time to go.” “When I left the BBC, I was
14 | theJournalist
going to have a portfolio career, do some well-paid PR gigs for a couple of days a month and fill in the rest with writing. I really did want to keep on writing – the question was how and where.” “Then, a friend of my wife
who is a historian in New York was offered £100,000 to write a Substack newsletter. “I knew I wasn’t going to
earn quite such amounts but it did make me want to explore Substack as a way I could continue writing.” “I found that it was an
easy-to-use platform. And, if you are on Twitter, then you can post a link to it from your Twitter account and
connect with readers. “So, I tried it out and liked it,
and launched a health tech newsletter – Always On – back in January last year.” When Cellan-Jones started
out, he allowed subscribers to access his copy for free. “You can switch on the paid
option, which means people then pay for posts. But those
Taking back contr L
Life then got in the way – children, marriage – but I
eventually found myself conversing with fellow frustrated journalists on Facebook groups.
The model the more successful self-publishers appeared to be adopting was that of the subscription-only newsletter. Unlike blogs, which can get lost in the ether (literally), sending a newsletter means you can connect with readers. One name kept coming up in our online conversations
about subscription newsletters: Substack. It’s like a literary version of OnlyFans, where people sign up to read stuff from writers or personalities. I had associated Substack with the musings of Boris Johnson’s former adviser turned adversary Dominic Cummings. For journalists with less controversial but no less interesting views, Substack is becoming the self-publishing platform of choice and, according to Substack, someone with 100 subscribers paying £8 a month could make around £700 after fees. Lily Canter is co-founder of Freelancing for Journalists,
which uses Substack to reach out to its members. She says: “There are a variety of platforms but Substack has emerged as the most reliable.” Lily explains that Substack has a reputation of being well
filtered – which means no spam – and for being easy to use. “Substack also has an easy way of getting subscribers and paid subscribers which makes it ideal for freelancers,” she adds.
who signed up for free will stay free. It’s a dirty secret.” Cellan-Jones
has 4,000 subscribers, of whom 80 are paying: “I don’t make a salary out of that but I do see small amounts of money go into my account each day.” His subscription fee is £4 a
month, which works out at around £3 per subscriber after Substack takes its fees. “I have former BBC
colleagues who write on Substack and they make very reasonable amounts.” Like anyone on a deadline,
Cellan-Jones admits to feeling ‘performance pressure’. “I do wonder what the hell
am I going to write sometimes. But I make sure I put at least
two pieces a week up of 500-600 words.” Cellan-Jones also credits his
Substack success to writing about his Parkinson’s disease; he was diagnosed with the condition a few years ago. “I’m writing about health and
sharing my story – people want to read about other people.” Substack is not for everyone.
Cellan-Jones advises that those who want to use it should have a strategy and be pragmatic. “You need to be realistic
about whether there will be an income and think about what your specialist subject will be and what you can say that others don’t. “Oh, and remember – you
will have to keep feeding the machine.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28
