I recently began posting some of my stories on Substack.com, which is a website created especially for writers and journalists.
It’s open to everyone, no matter whether they know how to write or not. They even allow poets. You might say, Substack is my kind of people. So I said to myself, “Why not?”
It’s not exactly a “social media” website, even though it can feel that way. But writers are not especially “social” people. We sit alone at a desk in our bedrooms, late into the night, and amuse ourselves by writing. We don’t want, or need, “Friends”.
But we do need money. Reportedly, some successful writers are actually making a living on Substack, with “paid subscription fees”.
Thus the name: “Substack.” As in, “a whole Stack of Subscriptions.”
When I joined Substack — innocently hoping it would be the yellow brick road to fame and fortune — a POST appeared in my new account, free of charge, explaining how to use the interface.
Hi! This is a draft post. Did you know that there are a bunch of nice formatting options in this editor? For example:
Block quotes are a nice way to put a quote or excerpt from a source. They make it clear that it is a quote.
Of course, you can also do bold, italic, links, and all that good stuff…
And more information. How to insert images and videos… create headings… embed on social media… and of course, how to delete a post when you get that inevitable “Cease and Desist” letter from a lawyer.
The Substack instructions included this photo of a swing in someone’s yard, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I’m guessing this is a rich person’s yard, maybe in San Diego? Sort of reminds me of San Diego. I visited there, once.
It’s a nice photo, for illustrating one of the “nice formatting options”.
My father often advised me against using the word “nice” when speaking or writing. He considered it insipid, and essentially meaningless. Which it is.
God rest his soul, he passed away well before everything in this country became insipid and meaningless… including, I suppose, instructions from Substack.
An illustration was provided by Substack to show me how a ‘tweet’ would look when inserted into my post, apparently from the Twitter account of Hamish McKenzie. It appeared to be critical of Twitter, which no longer exists.
Other social media sites which are awful places still exist, unfortunately. Including the replacement for Twitter.
But I found myself wondering, “Who the hell is Hamish McKenzie?” And I found out he’s one of the founders of Substack.
A recent post on Instagram features Mr. McKenzie speaking — rather passionately — about an Australian Substack contributor who was denied entry into the U.S. by our federal government because of a story he’d posted on Substack concerning student protests. Mr. McKenzie noted that Substack provides legal assistance to writers who speak their truth on Substack.
Which I find to be a great relief, considering my feelings about the current government, and my tendency to spout off without thinking.
I wish they would put that information — like, maybe, with an emergency phone number? — in the introductory “How to Use Substack” post that welcomes new contributors. Because pretty much anything we write these days is bound to offend the current government, at the rate things are going.
At the end of the introductory post from the folks at Substack, they included a link to the Help Center.
If you have any questions, you can check out our Help Center…
I visited the Help Center, not because I particularly need any help at the moment, but because… well… the government.
The Help Center has a lot of useful information about building your readership, and actually earning money with your writing. Which is nice.
But I didn’t see any information about how to contact them from jail.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.