Pulling the Thread has Moved!

Here's where you can find me and join us.

This won’t be news to many of you, but I’ve decided to move this newsletter off Substack. I will be operating under my own domain (eliseloehnen.com)—hallelujah!—with a newsletter powered by Beehiiv.

Bye Substack, nice knowing ya!

If you want to subscribe to the newsletter, click here to sign up on my new site.

If you were already subscribed to Pulling the Thread as a free subscriber, you don’t need to do anything. I’ve ported your email address over and you will continue to get newsletters from me per usual. If you get value out of the podcast or this newsletter, and you’ve been thinking about upgrading to become a paid community member, please do it! (You can find information here.) Paid community members support the creation of the podcast and my work here as a writer—it’s very appreciated, and enables me to devote a big chunk of time to developing the offerings. Paid community members get access to archives and office hours and occasional online workshops (as well as first dibs and discounts on other offerings). If you’re already a paid subscriber to Pulling the Thread, you likely don’t need to do anything either—everything will look exactly the same billing-wise, and you will have the same access. (Some of you who have subscribed via the Substack App may get a note from me, as I can’t auto-port you over and you will need to re-commit.)

If you’re a writer contemplating a move off Substack, at this point I have nothing but good things to say about the team at Beehiiv—thank you Luke! He has held my hand at every turn, answered all my questions, jumped on endless calls with me, and worked through all of the onboarding kinks. They are not paying me to say this!

So why am I leaving Substack?

So first, Substack has been very good to me and I’m grateful that I got this newsletter going here a few years ago. At its launch, Substack was single-mindedly devoted to writers and newsletters and promised to be a reprieve from social media and algorithms. They offered a blessedly simple CMS and a democratization of tools. There was also great growth, which justified the 10% revenue share.

Substack now functions more like an algorithm-driven social media enterprise than a resource for writers. A couple of years ago, they started to introduce social media artifacts, like “notes” and “followers.” Many of us were irked, but Substack promised they would continue to prioritize subscribers over followers—though it’s hard to feel that’s true. (I have about 80,000 followers and 41,000 subscribers, so go figure. ) Subscribers are the dream, because as writers, we need your email addresses to be able to reach you. If you “follow” us, we have to rely on yet another algorithm to show you our content…and if we leave, we can’t take you with us. (Substack also promised to never hold writers hostage…oops! They’ve gotten pretty good at violating their stated values.)

Substack growth is dead. At some point early last year, during a fundraise that valued the company north of $1B, Substack did something to the platform—I don’t know if they broke it, or if they’re simply prioritizing flashy new writers and people who are using tools that writers really didn’t ask for, like…Substack TV and endless video variations—but growth halted. My friends stopped growing too. Most of us have started losing subscribers, month over month.

Substack is in an ethical quagmire. Here’s the other big issue with Substack, which dovetails with concerns about the fact that they platform Neo-Nazis and people like Andrew Tate. They’re not just a platform: It doesn’t work to say that they’re merely supporting free speech. They take a 10% revenue share from everyone publishing on Substack, which means they are enriching themselves on hate speech. It’s a real f*&cking ethical pickle, and I don’t want to participate in it.

Substack is very expensive. Substack’s revenue share is really, really expensive. When I got my 1099 from Substack last year, I realized that between Stripe (2.9% + a $0.30 transaction fee) and Substack (10%), I’m paying close to 20%, which is disheartening—particularly when growth is dead and there’s no support for writers. Thanks to your generosity in supporting this community, the revenue share is a significant amount of money. Beehiiv charges a flat fee based on list size and they do not share in your revenue, so moving makes sense financially. Beehiiv also offers a lot more flexibility: Tiers, one-time payment options for people who want to attend an energy bath or workshop but not subscribe, a tip jar, etc.

I’m ready to build my own brand and business—not Substack’s brand. I’m excited to operate under my own URL (eliseloehnen.com) and to be more thoughtful about what I want to create and how. Beehiiv is devoted to developing features for writers of newsletters, who are building their own brands and not Substack’s brand. (I.e., how many times have you heard someone say that they “have a Substack,” versus referencing their publication directly?) Friends who have made the transition say that operating a Beehiiv newsletter is like driving a Maserati—there’s way more support and functionality. In comparison, Substack is a beater.

For those of you who are fellow writers, I’ll provide updates as time goes on.

Meanwhile, if you’re not subscribed, you can sign-up here!