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Andrew Smith's avatar

For what it's worth, I plan to just paywall my weekend posts when I hit 1000 subscribers, hopefully some time in December. Easy peasy (but I do write every day).

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Alex S. Garcia's avatar

I'm sure it'll go well. Paywalling seems to go well for everyone except me LOL. Ah well.

Mind you, I haven't enabled paid on my other Substack yet, and that one might actually do better since it's non-fiction. Time will tell.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Oh cool. Do you think nonfiction is inherently easier to charge for than fiction? I figure if I could get like 3% to go paid, that's 30 folks at 1000 free subs. Seemed like an okay point to do that.

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Alex S. Garcia's avatar

It's what I've noticed from talking with other writers in the two years I've been on the platform. Non-fiction definitely to do better. And not just on Substack. It's true on Amazon too (thus my current venture into publishing TV-related books).

Mind you, it's not so much that it's easier to charge for, more that readers seem more willing to pay for that type of content. It's like a lot of people expect fiction to be free for whatever reason and thus are more reluctant to pay, whereas it feels more natural when it comes to non-fiction. Go figure.

That's why so many writers write about writing (or run courses/webinars on the topic). They make a lot more doing that than with their fiction.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Good point. Theoretically, you can make money by writing (best of luck!), and so people are willing to spend money to make money, an investment of sorts. I'm not sure my stuff will have that appeal, but it's not like I'm going to change what I write about. This is what's in my head, damnit!

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