9 things I look for as a paying Substack subscriber. And the 11 that make me unsubscribe, paying or not.

Welcome to Weeding Weekend! Honing in on what I'm here for.

I (like many of you!) need to get to purging. And this time, it’s not my closet. I not only write here, I also read here. And I freaking LOVE reading this content. Mostly. But there are only so many hours in a day. And it’s time to pare the stuff that can honestly, pretty easily get pared. I’ve figured out my filters. And thought they might be helpful to you as you craft your own.

Here’s what I look for in order to put (or keep putting) hard earned money into a ‘Stack:

1. STYLE/FASHION/SHOPPING (or critiques thereof). I am not a beauty gal. If I have a tip or a trick or a wonder product, I’ll share it, but I find I just don’t read the Substacks that are beauty only, even from writers I like. If I unsubscribe, I’ll still be following along and supporting in other ways, but for someone who is only minimally open to trying new products for the foreseeable future, it just doesn’t make sense.

2. NEWNESS. It can’t be only things I’ve heard before. No matter how cool you make it look. There are certain items that are very, very often featured in Substacks, and I’ve now been so present here that I don’t want to keep seeing those. Once in a while, sure. But I need more.

3. IDEAS. I need what I call “some there there.” That might be a depthy insight that makes me think for days or it might just be a style idea that’s a true rethinking, a new way of looking at the way we approach something. But I generally want more than just “take this and put it with that” or “buy this and that.”

4. VARIETY. AND PREDICTABILITY. I like a cadence. (It’s why I have one too.) I like knowing I’ll get someone’s certain treat every Friday, say. But I also need some variety. That might look like ending a “regular” post-type when it gets tired (it’s easy enough to ask readers) or just varying the lengths and formats.

5. CARING ABOUT READERS. The paid part of Substack isn’t like writing a novel and dropping it into the world. It isn’t reading Vogue when it lands in your mailbox. It’s paying for content. You and I are content customers! Not everyone will feel the same, but I get excited about Substacks that are thinking about what readers want to read versus just talking to themselves or each other. Here’s what

   Grace Atwood
   said about this recently: “I don’t write for the cool girls, I don’t write for the serious journalists, and I certainly don’t write for the snark sites. I write for you (though you are all very cool in my eyes!), my core readers, the people who open my newsletter each week and love what I do. And when I think about that, writing for “my people” and no one else, that gets me excited!” It also gets me excited to read Grace.

6. RESPONSIVENESS: Speaking of caring (and related!), we all have a lot to do, but if I’m communicating with a writer as a paying subscriber and they are never communicating back, it just loses the warmth and sense of community that I enjoy here versus in other places.

7. ADVANCEMENT OF OTHERS: I want to be someone who advances others, in particular women and LGBTQIA+ individuals. And I really like it when others do too. Just as I think about where I put my money by looking at what brands do in the world versus at the clothing alone, I want the Substacks I pay for to be the kind that give back, even just sharing other writers’ work.

8. AUTHENTICITY: I love looking at beautiful things and people! BUT I crave realness. It’s a personal thing; I’m sure many others crave the opposite. I want to see the outfits people really wore, not wore to shoot and then take off. I want to see real people in their own clothes. I want to read people who talk in a real way.

9. DELICIOUSNESS: Also personal! But with clothes I consider culling, I find myself asking: Do I want to wear you? With Substacks, I ask: Do I want to read you? When a new newsletter drops, do I get that same excitement I used to when InStyle arrived? I do like a provocative perspective, humor, seeing beautiful things, a conversational tone!

And here’s what makes me unsubscribe.