The future of The Powder Room
It's been a year of writing this column, and I need your help...
This time last year, I was full of wide-eyed optimism about Substack. I’d followed several brilliant writers whose work I admired - like
, , , and so many more - and found new ones too. Honestly though most of my new finds are about how to grow your Substack audience. (Is that meta, did I just do a meta?)I’d hoped that it could and would contribute to becoming a significant part of my income - and though I do have some very valued paid and loyal subscribers (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU) - the part where I’m paid for my work, in the way a magazine, paper or website would - hasn’t quite happened yet.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a tad disappointed. There are so many Substack ‘hero’ stories, and like anyone on the platform, you always hope to be one of them. It's been a joy to write whatever I like in my own tone, but it’s also been a weird push and pull between writing what I want, writing what I think people want and writing what will do well on the platform which does seem to still be largely US-centric. I’m still trying to find that balance I guess, like so many of us are.
The other tricky part is that as the platform grows, so does the competition; even though I hate viewing it that way. A year are there were barely any beauty Substacks, now there’s a fair few, and though Substack’s strategy to get established writers on the platform was what brought me here, it’s also brought some of the big name writers who already get a huge slice of the pie in terms of their word rates, brand deals, columns, prominence and more. Is there any space for the rest of us now?
There have been some epic surprises on here too; columns going viral, being featured by Substack and getting genuinely just lovely messages have been so heartwarming and validating. But the truth is that writing a weekly column - one I put a lot of effort, time and love into - just isn’t feasible without being properly paid.
I’m not quitting, but I would love your help with some feedback.
I’ve got a pretty sizeable free readership on here and I’d love to know from you:
1) What content or access would make you convert to a paid subscription?
2) What are you looking for that the mainstream beauty and fashion conversations aren’t covering?
Many of the unpaid readerships are British - so part of me does wonder if this is a cultural thing. US media moved to the paywall system years before UK media did, and traditionally we’ve always had access to high-quality free content in print and online. Maybe we’d just rather spend our money on booze and cigarettes. (LOLS - I’m joking! Kinda.)
And to my much-appreciated paid subscribers, I’d love to thank you in some way. So let me know what I can do for you too; whether it’s setting up our zoom chats or what you’re struggling with - whether it’s beauty product recommendations or the tyranny of beauty standards.
I’m taking a couple of weeks off to crunch some data, crunch some snacks, reset and hone my offerings a bit in a way that feels doable going forwards. But in the meantime please let me know your thoughts below - it would help so much!
Much love and huge thanks for your feedback…
PS: Upgrade your subscription to paid here.
Buy ‘UGLY: Why the word became beauty obsessed and how to break free’ in the UK here, in the US here and click here to for other countries.
Follow me on Instagram here
Find out more about my work here.
It’s interesting to me that most of the writers I love (including Hannah who comments herself below) are writing some version of what you’ve written.
I pay for quite a few subs (I’ve not counted as I dont want to add it up 🙈) all women, and as a woman in business I want to be supportive.
I love yours, do pay, and don’t want or expect anything more than you’re already offering. I’m happy to promote in some way too.And wonder about you sending one month gift subs to those of us who pay, to share?
I think you’re right about the US/UK split. Substack is still US dominant and US subscribers seem much more likely to pay. Most of my loyal core is British or Irish but most of the new subscribers are US or Australian. I honestly find ppl are most likely to convert to paid when a post speaks to them. Much more so than dreaming up deal after deal. Also the people who sign up based on deals tend to come and go (which is fine, as others have said, we’ve all got a finite amount of cash) but the ones who convert based on writing etc are more likely to be keepers. This is massively general of course. I’m happy to share more detail if you want to email me x