The Truth About Money & Creators

Or Why I Find it Difficult to Ask for What I'm Worth

You may find it hard to believe, but I have a 9 to 5 day job. I say this because of the abundance of content I produce outside of my paying job on a daily basis. This is not the only Substack publication I have under my name. You might not know this either but I am actively running two other publications. And across those publications I am producing content for each at least once a week, some more than others. But let me take a step back for a second and talk more about my day job.

I work as a financial analyst for a marketing/advertising agency that manages the portfolio of very notable companies that you’ve seen advertised everywhere. My job, to put it simply, is to bill those clients for the advertising we’ve acquired for them in various markets. I am responsible for balancing the books for nearly twenty clients and over $1bn collectively. I’ve been doing different aspects of this job with the same company since 2008. Since that time I’ve moved around quite a bit, both internally and moving physical states. Now, since the pandemic, my employer allows me to work from home permanently. For me, nothing has changed but the scenery. It’s still crazy to me that I was in West Hollywood, CA a little over two years ago and in that time I switched to different agencies internally, moved back to the East Coast, moved agencies again and for this new role that I’ve technically had for 1 year I’ve never been into the actual office. I know my manager because I met her once back in 2017 but we were not on the same team back then. Now, here we are. The point I’m making is that this job has been great to me. In the time I’ve been there I’ve consistently had a raise every single year. This last job saw a raise and a bonus within 3 months of my transfer from one agency to another. And the benefits are too long to list here but they are pretty great. Then there’s the pay. The point of my drawn out paragraph.

One day I’ll reach a point where getting down to dollars and cents won’t seem like such a taboo thing but I will speak in general numbers from here on out.

I work 9am - 5pm EST, however, if I’m being perfectly honest, while some of that time is devoted to the job that pays me, there is some of that time that I spend writing the content I release on my multiple Substack publications. And now that I have a son, how much time I devote to something that produces zero income for us is difficult to justify. It was different when it was just my wife and I. The idea that I was spending half my working day writing and the other half doing my job wasn’t anything new. I could do that in my sleep. But now I have my son to consider and suddenly I realize, if I wanted to, if I applied myself in my present job, I could get a promotion which would naturally come with higher pay and that could go a long way towards this small family I’ve got. The sacrifice? My writing. This promotion would mean longer work hours. It would mean being “on call” at the end of the day. It would mean managing other people and not being a silo (which I prefer). It would mean less and less time spent writing. My love. My passion The thing I hope to some day make my career. That would no longer be a possibility. At least, not now. Am I okay with that?

Would the simple solution here be for me to put all the work that I do behind a paid subscription or “pay wall” because I simply cannot go on sustaining this fantasy that I can write creatively and give 110% to the job that pays me.

WHAT IS THE COST OF LIVING?

I can’t speak for everyone else but I will be frank about my own cost of living were I to be realistic with turning on the paid aspect of my Substack and putting the bulk of my work behind it.

I currently have around 900 subscribers. I’d say about 15% of them actually open my emails when I send them. Let’s say that’s a little over 100 (I like to round up whenever I can). Of that number it’s a liberal number to suggest that about 5% of them will convert to paid subscribers (someday). As you can easily see, that would mean if I were a betting woman, I should expect no more than 45 subscribers to my Substack.

I would essentially be putting all my content behind a paywall for 45 people to enjoy on a regular basis. This sounds crazy when you think about it. That doesn’t even take cost into effect yet.

If I were to break down how much I earn presently at my 9 to 5 to an hourly rate (I am salaried so I have to do a lot of division here) but rounding up again, I would say I earn ~$40/hr for a 40hr work week, after taxes. Now, this pay includes medical benefits, 401K, etc. To convert this to Substack numbers there is only 2 options I see depending on the monthly price I set:

• Option 1 - [$75,000 earning] # of Subscribers needed = 900 @ $7/m

• Option 2 - [$75,000 earning] # of subscribers needed = 625 @ $10/m

In either scenario the prospects are slim that I would ever come close to that many paid subscribers. Of course, I would diversify my portfolio and not just rely on the subscription model. I’d release books (collections of short stories, novel series, and more) alongside the subscription because even I realize those numbers are unattainable unless you’re Brandon Sanderson level of famous. I am not.

Instead, I have to live with the knowledge that, while I’ve had paid subscriptions open on my Substack for over a year now, I never mention it (or at least I’ve only mentioned it once or twice) because every time I do (like now, I am sure) I invariably lose a dozen or more free subscribers.

No one wants to hear the words “I’m asking for X money on a monthly basis” and I don’t know about you, but I hate the analogy of “for the cost of a cup of coffee at Starbucks…” Yeah, I get it. But saying that’s all it is ain’t all that simple. Even for me, living comfortably in the position I’m in, can’t say that I would be able to support financially any Substack’s at this time.

WHAT IF I OFFERED PERKS?

Another cringe moment for me. Perks has a double meaning for me:

• I’m not offering enough of my time and effort and energy already with the content I’m producing.

• You’re only in it for the perks and what I’m currently sharing isn’t worth it.

Looking at it on paper, they both are basically the same thing just explained in two different ways. But are they both true? And if so, then I should stop what I’m doing “for free” and put it all behind a paywall to make it seem like that is the perk. Everything I produce should be the perk/reward already. Cringe.

But isn’t my time worth something? My time is worth something at my 9-5 which is why I am paid there.

Some rewards/perks I’ve decided to put forth to paid subscribers of my Substack are: (these are not all of them, just some…)

• Handwritten 100 word story on a special notecard that I send you in the mail.

• A serial released weekly.

• Hardcover special edition of my 100 word story collections signed and personalized. At least one book per year.

WHAT DIFFERENCE WOULD $7 MAKE?

I’ve heard other Substack users, say they’d rather spend $X on XX Substacks but who does that really help? No one. Why?

The creator would earn pennies for their work (at whatever frequency of delivery) and the user would likely get mediocre content because what incentive would the creator have to create better content if all they are earning are pennies?

I needed to write this all out and just put the numbers down because at the end of the day it’s why I’m choosing the lesser of all evils with my decision about putting my work behind a paywall.

Depending on when you decide to jump on board and become a FREE subscriber you will essentially get all my fiction and my emails for free. However, if you subscribed on June 1st (as an example) and discover how much you love my 100 Words Daily and want to read more. To go backwards will require becoming a paid subscriber. For those who were “early adopters” as it’s often phrased, they already have access to my older stories as long as they are in the receive emails option and not “app only.”

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I hope what I’ve shared/explained will help the reader who is on the fence about becoming a paid subscriber, not just of my work, but of anyone else’s, to understand we are not doing it out of spite or greed but out of respect for our work. It’s actually not easy to create, let alone consistently and showing some semblance of improvement over time. It can be tasking and sometimes disheartening.