True, but you don't need to. There's more non-paywalled stuff there than you would ever have time to read. I've just read a brilliant piece by Cole Haddon dissecting the first 8 pages of the screenplay of The Matrix. Not sure if he also posted that piece here. But anyway, there are tons of those for free, pieces about the craft of fiction writing by Chuck Palahniuk, likewise. Professional writers posting for free.

I wouldn't ever pay for a sub for anyone's stuff there (and I think people that do need their heads examining).

But a lot of people - Citizen Reader included, to judge by her piece - seem to think there is either an absolute or a moral requirement to shell out money in order to participate in Substack as a platform.

I don't see it that way.

Nor do I see it as a viable way of making money, or even gaining more of a readership than I can here.

But it's probably worth posting everything on both platforms, just because you never know who you might end up 'chatting' to in comments.

There's a big overlap, but also different people on each platform, and some of them are fun to get to know.

That said, most of my interaction on SS is with the same familiar faces from Medium, which feels rather pointless.