It’s been about a year and a half since the Wall Street Journal reported that some people on the platform were garnering five-figure sponsorship deals, so Substack’s announcement of a sponsorship (or advertising) program for its creators has long been anticipated.
What constitutes bestselling? Anyone with at least 100 paid subscribers. For those who decide to accept sponsorship placements, Substack can automatically insert the ad into a newsletter when it’s sent out. Or a sponsor can pay to make a paywalled posts available to free subscribers. It’s so far unknown what cut Substack will take or how pricing will be determined. Simon Owens, who uses Substack, discusses the questions raised.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
