A few more of my friends have joined Substack, and since these are people who write about “whatever,” as opposed to a professional niche, I thought heck why not give it another chance. I can write about “whatever” too! I first joined Substack a few years ago when the guy who published my Medium poetry said we should move there, but it was a big frustrating mess, so I quit and deleted my account. Well, guess what? I discovered that nothing has changed, and Substack is still a big frustrating mess, at least to me, so yesterday I deleted my new account.
I don’t even have the bandwidth to get into the weeds about the experience there. Suffice to say, it’s a PITA to edit posts once published (I always find typos post-publication), there are a kajillion settings for fonts and notifications and all kinds of tedious shit, and almost all the popular stuff is about politics. Barf! Not to mention that the whole setup forces you to obsess over stats and comments and restacks and subscriptions until you feel crappy all over again that your writing isn’t grabbing people’s interest. Or I do anyway.
I would rather continue to jabber away right here to my five loyal readers. Blogging here doesn’t trigger my OCD ~ I know myself well enough to recognize when something is bad for me. At WP, it wasn’t obvious for several years that I was in too deep until I ended up in a community of dedicated bloggers, which made me feel constant pressure to blog several times per day, get more views, increase my follower count, etc. This also explains why I feel OK about self-publishing at KDP with very low expectations of sales, but running ads or promotions or doing any kind of marketing fills me with dread.
I also created a Substack account out of odd curiosity, and it is weird. From the little that I have been on, I feel as though all the Substackers are both incredibly conceited yet also have incredibly low self-esteem and desperately need validation - I guess it makes sense when you consider that they have to convince people to become paid followers and then have to struggle with the fact that most people don't become paid followers. Idk, but the combination makes Substack bloggers seem more dislikeable. There's some interesting content there, but I have no interest in ever posting content based on my initial impressions. - Ms. Anon
ReplyDeleteI got a Substack account and I too find it confusing. Am I following someone? Subscribing? And yeah, if people are on Substack to get paid subscribers, then it's definitely not your regular blogging place.
ReplyDeleteYes, it’s sad to me that everything has to be monetized. Not talking about professional writers/reporters, but hobbyists. I don’t WANT people to pay to read my blogging, nor do I want to pay to read my friends’ noodlings. Subscribe, follow, idk. And you’re supposed to create a “newsletter” there to separate your important essays from your little random notes. The whole thing is a PITA!
ReplyDeleteLike all internet sites, the folks who are already popular, like say Stephen King, will be recognized and insta-followed wherever they go, while the rest of us have to scrounge for crumbs of attention. It’s no different at Substack than at any other social media ~ there’s a lot of arguing too!
I miss the simplicity of Usenet. I made friends there. Like you. That doesn't seem to happen in these 21st century places.
ReplyDeleteKeera, same. So many ways to “connect,” yet it all feels lonelier, which is why imo we keep returning to our original friendships. I doubt that I will be able to become close with anyone on Bluesky, though it’s fun to hang there usually ~ my connections there are actually reconnections!
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