📑 “My Own Little Fiefdom”: Why Some Famous Novelists Are All About Substack

Although the literary program has room to expand, it won’t be a fit for every novelist with an established readership. “The model definitely favors writers who are extremely gregarious and prolific, and who have highly identifiable, bright, colorful writing styles,” McGurl says. “It’s harder to imagine a more tortured writer—the ones who come out with very little work, in small doses, because they’re suffering for every word they get down. It’s hard to imagine them in this medium, because the pace is ultimately journalistic. You’re almost like a columnist.” But for novelists with the right constitution, there’s a lot to love about the experiment.