Why I stopped monthly payments on Substack

More often than not, the answer is right in front of us.

Hi there,

Hope you’re well 💕

I did something a couple of weeks ago that I never told you about.

I took off the monthly payment option for my writing, and today I thought I’d share the behind the scenes of that decision (and, I suppose, make it an official part of my Substack timeline!).

This is by no means a how-to or why-you-too article, it’s just a glimpse into the thought process around energy flow, which is a highly underrated aspect of running a creative business… and dare I say ESPECIALLY when running a subscription model as any (or multiple) part(s) of your business ecosystem.

I’ve run a membership in one form or another for more than 6 years.

Before running subscriptions I never ever thought about the stark difference in mental energy to try to keep up vs hype someone occasionally.

Yes, of course, you don’t have to hard sell someone when they’re already “in your system”, because, well, they already like you (hopefully). But this isn’t necessarily about the other person, the one who joined, it’s about you.

Because ultimately, they probably don’t even think about all the emotional turmoil you, as the founder, go through internally. It’s not their role to think about it in the first place. They only think about what your offering can do for them.

Cancellations are part of the package

As opposed to a one off sale, a subscription involves inevitable cancellations. They’re as inherent to the process as getting new folks onboard. They’re NORMAL. Yet it can feel like a much harder blow to receive a notification that someone unsubscribed, vs having a campaign flop and nobody sign up… (because you technically didn’t lose anything…)

How is this relevant to my writing on Substack?

It’s relevant in every single way!

Because no matter how much experience or mental preparation (damn, I’ve been at this for soon a decade 😅), I’m just human.

So, when the bestseller badge hit in June, my brain flipped to ”not lose it”, as opposed to just keep going with what was working (dumb, but true).

I’ve written about it already because I find it fascinating. As if these things happen on autopilot EVEN when we’re aware of them!

I want you to know this, because it’s easy to feel as though we’re the only ones struggling to keep our head cool. But oh boy is being an emotional creative A LOT OF WORK.

It came to the point where, a few weeks ago, I had to stop myself in my tracks. I was about to add more stuff to the paid tier as a natural progression to “evolve” the offering.

But here’s the fallacy; Evolve doesn’t have to mean add… Evolve, can refer to improving what’s already there, or even just: to keep going.

In contemplating about evolving, I realized that I was diverging from the very reason I came here in the first place: to nurture an audience specifically for my written work (not just my embroidery art, which you can see in the

Petronella.Art Magazine

or by google Charles and Elin or Elin Petronella).

My objective, is to grow a dedicated readership first. So when my brain switched from ”more readers welcome”, to ”how to make readers stay”, I knew it was time for an overhaul.

Part of my overhaul process has been to write about it; my hesitations, my writers block, and general overwhelm (from unrelated things to writing).

The second part of the process has been to identify what parts of THIS (read: the Follow Your Gut portion of my overall projects), that was causing the most stress, pressure and as a result blockage.

The answer was clear:

The recurrent billing, inevitably giving the opportunity for reflection among readers every month the billing hits ”do I still like what Elin writes?”.

I know that to think like that isn’t healthy, but it’s unavoidable because it’s the truth. Moreover, in my survey at the beginning of this year relating to why people pay for newsletters, many indicated that they rotate between publications. This is NORMAL, as I said earlier.

A cancellation doesn’t have to be a sign of your failure, it rarely is in fact, it’s simply an inherent part of the process.

I have maxed out my capacity for the number of memberships I can run. A yearly payment is still a subscription, yes. But the experience is closer to a one-time payment once a year rather than the constant regular (stress-inducing?) bill.

Ps. There’s also a difference between subscription and membership, where the latter involves a great lot more time and emotional investment as people have bigger expectations.

And if someone cancels (as is NORMAL), I won’t see it in my stats until way later, at which point I’ve hopefully covered the loss with more wins and thereby not even noticing it…

The past few months I’ve definitely noticed it. And it’s not good for my creativity.

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A paid subscription gives you access to my digital bookshop (currently one title: When Will You Get A Real Job . It also gives access to the posts that I’ve put behind a paywall (the mother artist column primarily) + immense gratitude for supporting an independent writer 🙏🏼.

I want to get back to the offering I had when I launched the paid tier about half a year ago; to offer a concrete product, in the form of e-books, as an immediate value exchange where the rest is bonus for everyone involved.

My bookshop hasn’t grown these past months due to my brain being elsewhere, and I’m now clear on what I need to do: Make it irresistible! (For the one who enjoys my philosophies and writing that is).

Writing this feels like an exhale.

Like a “getting out of the closet” type of exhale. It’s too easy to get stuck in our own heads, and like I wrote in my last article in the Petronella.Art Magazine; it’s easy to not see the solution that we have in front of our eyes, unless we step out of our own heads.

Thanks so much for reading! If you enjoyed this article, don’t forget to tell me by hitting the like button 🥰

And do share….

• What are your thoughts/relationship related to memberships/subscriptions?

Warm regards,

Elin