#64: Why Would Anyone subscribe to a gazillion Substack newsletters?
💌 How many is too many? Asking for a friend.
In the earliest days of this newsletter, one subscriber clicked the Heart button to indicate that she or he liked one of my posts. This wasn’t a friend or family member sending an encouraging signal, but an unrecognisable profile photo and email.
That anonymous reader had more than 300 listed subscriptions on their Substack profile.
“It’s a robot,” my Beloved asserted sagely, not believing that a human being could have the time and will to receive my and 345 other Substack emails in their inbox.
Maybe it was a robot1. Maybe it was an avid reader with wide interests and ample free time. Maybe it was an academic conducting a quantitative study; or a dedicated newsletter writer looking for plentiful inspiration; or an intern tasked with monitoring hundreds of publications for market research purposes. Maybe the subscriber was feeling lonely and wanted the warm feeling of a full inbox! Maybe it was a case of revenge-mass-subscription by a vengeful ex? Maybe it was a silly bet.
Let me know if you have another hypothesis.
Meanwhile, I’ll assume that my mystery reader was an extreme version of the usual Substack junkie enthusiast who hits, hits, hits those juicy Subscribe buttons. And then lets unread newsletters gather online dust in a brimming Promotions folder.
— How many newsletters do YOU subscribe to? Beloved asked just now, as I was typing on the sofa.
— I don’t know, 50?
— 50?! Isn’t your inbox full? Mine is running out of space.
— [actually counting on my Substack profile] Oh. I’ve got 81.
- ...
- Plus some off Substack.
If you’re a fellow Substacker, you might think several dozens of newsletter subscriptions is totally usual! Not in the ‘normal’ world it isn’t:
Obviously, there are different reasons to subscribe to a newsletter2. Here are some I’ve noticed in my own subscription patterns, in no particular order (I’m adding only one example for each; of course there’s many more!):
Real-life folks
Easy! You know these wonderful writers/podcasters in person (e.g. my friend Anita Makri’s Worldwise)Platform royalty
Substack-famous writers who were probably among the first ones you subscribed to (e.g. Anna Codrea-Rado’s just-defunct A-Mail, which led me to the Attuned writer fellowship, that funds my time to write this newsletter).
Substack colleagues
Lovely fellow writers you connected with on the platform—during the Go programme, Office Hours etc. (e.g. Leo Mascaro’s Shuffle Sundays).Substack Mount Olympus
Writers you admired before Substack existed; you’d likely follow them wherever they go (e.g. Cheryl Strayed’s Dear Sugar).Origin unknown
You don’t recall where you first came across them. No matter; you keep coming to them for hearty chuckles / healthy tears (e.g. Sarah Wheeler’s Momspreading).The resource-full
Newsletters packed with useful information (e.g. Marianna Limas’s Science Writing News Roundup).Aspirational subscribes
Those e-mails you don’t really open. When you do, you feel bad about all the smart articles you’re not reading, the delicious food you’re not cooking, the money you’re not investing, and whatnot.
I read that newsletters are awesome because they free us from the dark forces of social media algorithms, and let us direct our precious time and attention where and when we choose. Because we only open the sacred gates of our inboxes to the people and content we most want and need and value!
Wouldn’t that be lovely.
I am, still, more indiscriminate than I’d like to be about my newsletter affections. I have a noisy inbox that I end up scrolling through. Not quite like a Twitter or Facebook timeline, laden with a decade of accumulated follows and likes, but my sacred gates are definitely ajar, and the bouncer’s criteria are a little shifty.
As a writer, I’m grateful that you receive and open my emails and I hope that’s what you want to be doing. Even though I wince at Unsubscribe notifications, I also give a mental high-five to the wise subscriber who refuses e-mails she doesn’t want or need. Praise be.
After hitting publish, I will:
Set up sign-up confirmation to make sure my next subscriber is neither a robot, nor a vindictive meanie
Pare down my Substack list, liberally
Ask Why before hitting the next Subscribe button
Request a ranking function on Substack so I can spot and cull unread newsletters more easily!
I think it wasn’t a robot! That subscriber had (what seemed like) a human behaviour: opening some but not all of my emails, clicking Like very occasionally, and actually turning off their subscription altogether months later.
I’m not going into what newsletters we pay for, which is a whole other matter. The best succinct take I’ve read on this came from This Is Bullshit and So Can You:
I just think the explosion of newsletters is bizarre. I feel like Substack has inadvertently created an environment where it’s just a bunch of writers sending each other the same $5 back and forth.
I'll have to count how many Substacks I subscribe to, but I read almost all of them. If I find myself deleting one without opening it for a few weeks in a row, I do go in and unsubscribe. I'm fastidious about my inbox -- I don't strive for Inbox Zero, but I do myself the favor of getting rid of anything that's noisy, or turns into noise. It's just part of my digital hygiene -- but I've come to view it as a gift to myself.
Also: I turned off notifications for Unsubscribes. I recommend it.
I'll tell you why I subscribe to a lot of other SS newsletters. I'm not only a reader on SS, I'm also a creator on SS so I subscribe to dozens to support other creators in my field, books & reading. I also subscribe to dozens of others that interest me for many different reasons. Many of the newsletters I subscribe to post 1-3 times a month, so it really isn't overwhelming. Also, this is just me as other readers may not do the same, but I click the heart on every newsletter I open so the creator "feels seen" and I also use the "heart" to indicate that I have read the newsletter issue. Sometimes if I find a newsletter I really enjoy, I will work on reading the back list and by clicking the heart, that tells me that I've read it before. Just my .02 cents.