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Substack says it is "excited" by the UK market and is not a threat to traditional publishing, as agents weigh up what could be a "fascinating opportunity" for their writers.
In recent months a number of high-profile figures including Salman Rushdie and Chuck Palahniuk announced they would be publishing via the California-based company, which enables readers to subscribe to individual writers, receiving their posts "newsletter style" via email. Subscription fees on the platform vary by newsletter, with Rushdie charging $60 for a one-year subscription and Palahniuk charging $40. Both writers have a $6 monthly rate.
One of the key attractions, cited by Palahniuk, was the offer of editorial independence. It is understood Palahniuk has no conditions attached to what he writes, unlike most traditional publishing deals. Meanwhile, agents at PFD, Curtis Brown and RCW told The Bookseller they are interested in the possibilities the platform brings.
Lulu Cheng Meservey, vice-president of communications at Substack, told The Bookseller the company was "excited" about the UK market because of its "wonderful literary scene and history". She said the platform is encouraging authors to go back to the serialised form of the novel. "It just happens to be a really good for fiction," she said.
The business model sees a writer "set up shop on the internet" with a "combination of a web presence and a blog and an email newsletter and a mailing list" entirely for free. If writers start making money, then so does Substack, she said. "We try to align incentives where we’re only succeeding as much as a writer is succeeding, when you start making money then 10% of that goes to Substack as a fee," she said. "The whole time, whether you’re free or paid, the writer always owns all of their intellectual property, all of their content, has full control over what they’re going to be writing, they don’t report to us, we don’t influence them, we don’t chastise them. They also own their mailing list forever."
She said feedback from authors moving to the platform often focused on the benefits and flexibility of serialising a book, rather than long wait times for a published title. She said: "It's not that you’re writing about US and China relations and you’re just praying that nothing changes in US and China relations for the next two years while you write your book. Or you’re releasing at one point in time and you just hope and pray that that’s a good week."
She gave the example of author Elle Griffin who is currently writing a gothic book on the platform. She said: "Gothic fiction is having a moment and she wants to capture that interest she doesn’t want to wait a year and a half and people have moved on and are interested in something else."
Another attraction is that writers see their peers using and enjoying the platform, either "succeeding in conventional ways, a lot of readers, money coming in, or just thriving". She said: "Some really successful authors are not worried about paying the rent but what they do want is to spread their wings experimentally and try something new... previously they might have an idea, and that idea might just live in a closet with the door shut because it was the wrong length, or the wrong time, or the wrong format."
Cheng Meservey notes that for those who already have a big following, it's easier to get a following on Substack and make money from it. But there are benefits for emerging writers too, she said. "The real meat of the Substack vision is to bring writers into this ecosystem and to bring ideas out that never would have happened otherwise. So having a famous writer here and do well here and they’re happy, that’s really wonderful. Having a writer who never would have been a writer... and so showing those people that there is an actual viable path to making this a career and having new ideas brought in, that is the thing that makes our dream come true. We’ve seen that work. We’ve seen people who have become massively successful without previously having a following."
She says that the platform should work well alongside traditional publishing, adding that, because authors own their own IP, there are more possibilities open to them, so if they were to publish something on Substack, there's no reason they couldn't go and sell it somewhere else. "What we’re not trying to do is get rid of established traditional forms of publishing," Cheng Meservey insists. "But we wouldn’t mind replacing some social media. We wouldn’t mind people spending their time on Substack instead of scrolling through an endless newsfeed.
"When it comes to traditional publishing, all thoughtful long-form content, we want this kind of content, we just want more of it. We want more options, we want more varieties, we want the oddball shapes and sizes of ideas that don’t fit in to also join the party."
She said there have been a "lot more" authors moving to the platform during the pandemic, but they are not tracking exact numbers. Looking to the future, she said she hopes the platform can enable people see a livelihood in becoming a writer, where they don't have to go through traditional gatekeepers where the bar to entry is too high or intimidating. She also wants established writers to be able to release "an idea into the world that never otherwise would have have made it past a pitch at a traditional publication or to a traditional publishing house, or the timing was wrong or the format or length wasn’t quite right."
Lastly she thinks it will help readers. "It's for anyone who can get online, not necessarily someone who has been waiting in line outside a Barnes & Noble or someone who has a subscription to this magazine, it’s somebody who would just go on the internet and find it."
Caroline Michel, c.e.o. of literary agency PFD, said she thought Substack was “enormously attractive on every front”. She told The Bookseller she was “really impressed” by the platform and “how they market and what their ambitions are” and got in contact with them the minute she heard about Rushdie’s move. “I think our writers should be offered every alternative and every opportunity to think about how they want to work,” she said.
Michel said she didn’t think the platform would “cannibalise sales” in the printed book industry, saying there have been examples of books that have been on Substack and then gone on to be published. “It’s just another life for content, for storytelling,” she said.
She revealed PFD is looking to work with Substack with one of their literary authors as well as a commercial author. “I’m interested to see what the market is there and to see what we can do. I’m very keen to explore anything which will open new platforms and new audiences for our writers.”
However, she noted the financial model's success remains to be seen, adding: “I think what we have seen during the pandemic is the massive acceleration of growth in how people are coming to their content digitally. We’ve seen how print has survived it, how audio and 'e' have grown, and how all these different platforms are beginning to find a place and all the new shoots that are emerging. Some may fail and some may turn out to be an alternative platform for writers which is very exciting. Or an additional platform for writers rather than an alternative one.”
She added: “It’s all there to play for and it’s so new and nobody really knows, it’s like everything. Some will rise and some will fall. But if the writer is willing to have a go, then why not?
"Like all these things some people are really willing and excited about all the changes in our industry and others prefer to go on the tried and tested route and we’ll wait and see about whether this works. We represent a lot of very high-profile and debut writers who are always looking at the changes in our industry and are always really happy to have suggestions put to them about other ways of getting their storytelling out there. What is there to lose?”
Curtis Brown said it was taking a similar approach. Head of books Gordon Wise told The Bookseller: “I’d say we’re always interested in disruptors and exploring whether these are fair and additional income streams for authors or substitutional and/or eroding author incomes further.
“What’s paramount of course is that the reward for writers is fair; some subscription models with pools and micropayments really are not fair. And to what degree is the author and the work being promoted rather than the platform? It is the content that the reader wants, and originality and personality. So the model has to be led by rewarding that.”
He said the agency has clients who have been engaged with Substack personally, but Curtis Brown is “yet to have a key partnership ourselves around a particular author or project”.
Sam Copeland, agent at RCW, agreed Substack was “a really interesting niche and could be a fascinating opportunity for some”.
He said he could “see it eating into the digital market to an extent” but added: “Most authors will still want books on shelves and the full editorial experience, so I’m not sure it is a significant threat to the publishing industry. Certainly, just like with self-publishing on Kindle, you hear about the huge successes, but the many, many authors who don’t make significant sales, you hear nothing about.”
A number of other agents and publishers contacted by The Bookseller said they did not know enough about Substack yet to comment on the platform, but were interested to see how it develops.