The art of paywalling your work

musings on the rise of the subscription era for writers

Paywalling my work has improved my energy levels, creativity, burnout symptoms, bank balance and writing routine. I wrote a Note about this on the Substack app last week and a few people asked if I would elaborate, so here I am sharing my experience. The Hyphen is not a Substack guidebook, but I’m writing this post once so I can link back to it if anyone asks me anything on this topic in the future. The Internet is a playground and I like to share what works for me. And lots of things here really worked in 2024.

As is always the aim, I simply write about what I experience in an evolving publishing career, and my curiosity in an ever-changing media landscape. I only ever share what I find that may be useful for others. Just like my book The Multi-Hyphen Method, which was only ever an 'I tried something different from what society was telling me to do, and some interesting things happened!’

I no longer click on life hack strategies or ‘TEN HOT TIPS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE’. We are bombarded with self-help everyday in books and podcasts, but here on Substack, I can write with as much nuance as I like. So think of this as ‘musings’ instead of ‘how-to.’

Yes, this post is paywalled! That’s because I believe it to have value and useful information. I explain more in the post below. Happy inbetween-mas! xo