Substack is a digital publishing platform that allows writers to send newsletters directly to their readers, and it has become a popular alternative to traditional publishing. In a constantly changing media ecosystem, Substack has successfully established itself as a prominent platform for both experienced and emerging writers. Its business model has reshaped reader habits and the literary economy, with the platform hosting tens of millions of active readers and more than five million paid subscriptions. The top ten writers on the Substack platform collectively earn over $40 million annually from paid subscriptions according to the platform itself. By transforming literary production, the site has enabled writers to cultivate intimate, conversational relationships with their readers; they can respond directly to reader feedback, resulting in a redefining of what it means to be an author – and a reader. 

Naomi Kanakia’s Woman of Letters newsletter illustrates the wide scope of writing a single author can exhibit on the platform, with posts ranging from takes on contemporary literature to reflections on classics or ‘Great Books’, and short stories. In October last year, Kanakia released her first Substack novella, Money Matters, which was met with instant acclaim. Kanakia has amassed a dedicated following and has praised Substack for enabling creative fluidity and experimentalism. She is not the only writer using Substack to release novels or novellas. Authors like Chuck Palahniuk (Greener Pastures) and Salman Rushdie (The Seventh Wave) have serialised novels through Substack Pro – a feature that provides advances in exchange for an 85% royalty fee for the first year of publishing.  

But Substack Pro is just one of the incentives offered by the platform to entice users. The Substack Creator Accelerator Fund offers a financial guarantee to make migrating across subscription platforms easier and ensures that accepted creators don’t lose existing revenue when making the transition from another subscription-based platform such as Patreon. This offers writers a financial buffer for experimenting with new modes of visibility and recognises the financial pressure that they can face. Initiatives such as Substack Study Hall connect writers via educational events. The inaugural one took place last month and saw writers and strategists come together for hot-seat interviews and Q&As with the Substack product team. 

Substack’s infrastructure is largely beneficial to authors, and many attest to the importance of authors being paid fairly for their words in an increasingly saturated and competitive field. Subscription-based payments ensure that authors have a predictable income, unlike the speculative economic structure of traditional publishing where payments are often unevenly distributed through the publishing process. Readers fund writers’ work directly, meaning that writers can publish work, whether long or short-form, at a much faster pace, creating engaging real-time relationships.

It is important, however, to recognise that Substack operates as a business, and there is a fair amount of criticism surrounding its methods of revenue. Critics and literary theorists have expressed concern about ‘platform capitalism’, a concept explored by Nick Srnicek, which speculates on the impact of writers becoming dependent on Substack for views and income, replacing the previous dependency on publishers, and thus making creative freedom conditional again. There is also concern about ‘subscription fatigue’, and a question of affordability for readers paying multiple monthly fees.

Additionally, the site prides itself on its ‘hands-off approach to content moderation’, and has expressed the belief that ‘supporting individual rights and civil liberties while subjecting ideas to open discourse is the best way to strip bad ideas of their power’. This statement came in response to a scandalous investigation by The Atlantic, which revealed instances of ‘white-supremacist’ and ‘explicitly Nazi newsletters’. 247 Substackers wrote an open letter to Substack that went unanswered. Other instances of controversy include anti-vaccine sentiments, the spreading of misinformation about Covid-19, and cases of transphobic rhetoric, the latter causing leading creators such as Grace Lavery to leave the platform. Where issues of censorship and freedom of speech are widely debatable and perhaps for another discussion, writers have found fault in the way that Substack capitalises on such articles via its 10% subscription commission fee. As is the case with every venture-capital-backed digital platform, there are ethical complications. Writers have taken issue with a lack of transparency regarding access to Substack Pro, and whether the platform is actively funding hate-speech despite its proclaimed neutrality. Concerns about profit over content may see writers who hold strongly opposing views leave the platform in favour of others. 

Substack’s rise represents a restructuring of the literary scene and serves as a great example of the way digital platforms are transforming traditional methods of publishing. It has emerged as a literary movement rather than just a platform, helping to reshape the reader–writer relationship by introducing a previously unseen model of participation and patronage. Substack prompts questions about what the publishing industry may evolve into, revealing what is possible when the gap between reader and author is closed. Ultimately, Substack reflects both a vision of the future and the contemporary state of a literary culture shaped by digital modes of expression. Whether it forges the way for authors to explore future modes of publishing or mirrors the very structure that authors want to escape from will depend on both Substack policy reform and the communal creativity of its writers.