how to make a living (just about) from substack
trade secrets
A few months ago, I published a piece called e-girl economy on the patronage model of self-employment. This piece got a lot of attention and many people have contacted me since asking how I started a financially viable Substack. Many other people have spent time speculating on my presumed other sources of income. I have found it useful to allow a degree of mystique about my income—but recently I’ve begun a foray into freelance writing for mainstream publications and realised just how inaccessible that world is for people without private means. Without Substack, I wouldn’t have had any shot at a writing career. I’m not sure how generalisable my model is, being very specific to the weird trajectory I’ve taken, but I’m going to share how I did it and the lessons I’ve learnt; take from it what might be relevant to you and leave the rest.