This is working really well and I want to keep it up!

But I can't keep doing this for free. Got any ideas?

That was me, once.

I’ve published a number of very well-received essays over the last few weeks. To the new subscribers and readers, thank you!

I’ve got so much more in me. I want to keep up this pace in my writing. You should see my drafts folder! There’s no shortage of ideas percolating, which I’m dying to turn into fully-realized writing pieces I can proudly share with you.

But it’s hard work. It takes a lot of concentration, and the fact that I’ve managed to produce this much writing over the last few weeks has come at the cost of not being able to put my time into other revenue-generating gigs (some of which I’m sorely neglecting). I don’t have a regular 9-to-5 job right now; I’m kind of gluing together a bunch of freelance gigs to make ends (barely) meet.

So I find myself at a bit of a crossroads. I love writing at Substack, but I don’t love being broke because the hours I put into crafting my thoughts into essays have drained my time to focus on other jobs.

I need to either give Substack a rest (which I really, really don’t want to do), or find a way to make this thing work for me, in terms of paying the rent and not getting evicted.

I also don’t want to put my writings entirely behind a paywall. The essence of my writing style is about reaching as many people as possible. It’s what drives me, and it’s why I try so hard to use clear language and plainspokenness: because I can’t stand the idea that knowledge can be hoarded by insiders to their own advantage. My background is, like the vast majority of people on the planet today, poor and (at least formally) uneducated. Overly academic, jargonny language can serve as a barrier to prevent disadvantaged people, the “lower classes” as they used to say, from accessing valuable perspectives. Internet paywalls are explicit class barriers: people literally have to pay to access the insights and knowledge behind them.

But no one likes paywalls, of course. They’re a necessary evil, and we all understand that. Writing and political thought-producing is work, and the writers have to pay their bills somehow in order to keep doing it.

Substack is absolutely brilliant. It’s spectacular! And that’s mostly because it offers so many different ways that writers and their audiences can come to agreements about how to negotiate the awkward reality of the money part. And the result is that many unique voices are finding ways to be heard, which otherwise wouldn’t have a place in the old-world media landscape. I think maybe I am one such voice?

So let’s work together to negotiate it! What are your thoughts? I don’t want to put all my essays behind a paywall. But I might need to make some things exclusive to paying subscribers. What things of value do you think might benefit paying subscribers? What would motivate you to sign up as a paying subscriber? I’ve got comments open on this post for all feedback.

One thing I’ve been doing is providing audio recordings of my essays. These also take a lot of work: hours of recording and editing and audio cleanup, and a monthly subscription fee for audio editing software. I do it because I know that a lot of people like to listen to articles instead of reading them. They can do it while they’re driving, or out for a jog, or doing their dishes…

Here, again, are a few of those:

The War to Annihilate Sex (audio):

Let The Right One In (audio):

Forget It, Jake. It’s Canada (audio):

The Reality Gap and the Maximization Fallacy (audio):

For a start, I’m thinking that I’ll make future audio recordings of my articles a special perk for paying subscribers only. Does that sound reasonable to you?

How about special insider posts? Or maybe a paid-subscriber-only podcast? (I’m good at those!)

Let me know what you think. And please do consider becoming a paid subscriber if you’d like me to keep up the pace and continue publishing my thoughts regularly.

Plus, you can always buy me a coffee, or cut out the middleman and donate directly to me.

I love it here and I’d like to stay. Thank you!