tl;dr: I’m leaving Substack for beehiiv, and I’m taking you with me! You don’t have to do a thing, unless you want to upgrade your subscription to help cover the new cost of hosting. But either way, your next Teniade Topics email will be from beehiiv1!
No need for much of a preamble here: I’m quitting Substack. As a writer, at least.
I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now. Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed my growing complaints about how happily Substack platforms the worst and most dangerous people. The Nazi bar problem plagues a lot of platforms, so it’s not like Substack is special in that regard. But I’m tired of bumping elbows with these repugnant people. I’m tired of feeling embarrassed whenever Substack is in the headlines. And I don’t feel good about asking people to pay for a subscription, knowing that I can’t vouch for what Substack does with what it skims off the top. The enshittification of the platform is just the cherry on top of the shit sundae, and I’m allergic to cherries, so.
At the same time, I can’t discount the amazing things that Substack has midwifed for me. I’ve connected with writers who have inspired my writing in countless ways. I’ve gained a whole community of readers who engage in fun and substantive conversations, which is vanishingly rare on the internet. I’ve finally felt (mostly) comfortable in calling myself A Writer. The reason it took so long for the bad to outweigh the good for me on here is that there’s been so much good.
But still. The time has come, and move we shall. To beehiiv! My site is empty right now, but you can see the vision!
This move should cause you zero disruption, dear reader. (Unless you primarily read my essays in the Substack app, in which case, I’m afraid there’s not much I can do about that.) I’m working with a dear friend to transfer all my subscribers and all my writing over to beehiiv by the end of the week, and I’ve paused all paid subscriptions on here so that your payments can transfer over to beehiiv. You will absolutely not be double-charged, I guarantee you that.
The biggest disruption to me will be the cost. It costs good money2 to host my newsletter on beehiiv, which feels perfectly fair, because it is a good platform! But I’d really appreciate it if you could upgrade to a paid subscription to help me cover the cost.
In the past 13 months, I’ve lost a full-time job, committed to part-time work so I could save room for writing, accidentally started working two part-time jobs, and now—finally—landed at a single part-time job that allows me to pay my bills and do some good. I’m immensely grateful to be where I am, and to be with the people I’m with. And I’m looking forward to being in a new space with you soon.
