[DIGEST] Do Substack economics work for most writers?

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Do Substack economics work for most writers? No.

I’m very pro Substack, but no, they don’t work for most writers.

The only robust study on this is

Anna Codrea-Rado

’s Substack Income Transparency Project. Out of 174 participants, I counted 17 with income over $20,000 (which is what I would consider the poverty line).

Of those, 6 made over $50,000 and 3 made over $100,000.

That gives you a 10% shot at making above poverty wagers, a 3.4% chance at making above $50,000 and a 1.7% chance of making over $100,000.

(For the record, the latest studies show the average writer makes around $8-12k a year in total. So, it’s not like we’re making a lot of money anywhere right now).

If that holds to the population, which it might not, then that’s actually not that far off from the metrics on Amazon.

So, it’s not that there’s no hope there…

…but you almost certainly need more than Substack, just like you probably need more than Amazon, even if you are in KU.

There are some great success stories here, but this platform, like…