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site posted:tbf every substack does that afaik Sounds about right for a data harvesting op.
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# ? Aug 11, 2021 16:56 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 03:32 |
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Is it weird that while the rest of the mini series was pretty mediocre I really liked the last issue of CotA?
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# ? Aug 11, 2021 23:23 |
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I did too and I feel like the series would have benefited from focusing on Carmen from the outset instead of sneaking her arc into the background of other issues. The two stories focusing on the two brothers felt especially superfluous and while I get the logic behind structuring things they are I think it smothered what was really a pretty compelling and compelling minus all the chaff.
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# ? Aug 11, 2021 23:36 |
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Gologle posted:Is it weird that while the rest of the mini series was pretty mediocre I really liked the last issue of CotA? I feel the same way.
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# ? Aug 11, 2021 23:45 |
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Gaz-L posted:I'm also a little confused as to how Substack are making money on these deals? Is it just off ad views? Substack takes 10% of all of the money that is paid to these people. My understanding is that if any of these blogs/comics/podcasts want to have ads, that is something they handle themselves and Substack doesn't get involved at this time. For Substack Pro deals (which presumably most/all of these comic creators are on), they pay an undisclosed amount up front (originally cited as $10-30,000, though that may be outdated) to convince them to join Substack. Substack then takes 85% of the subscription money for the first year. That is how they make money, it's way more clear/transparent than most/all social media start-ups. How they turn a profit is a more open question. Edge & Christian fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Aug 12, 2021 |
# ? Aug 11, 2021 23:58 |
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Gologle posted:Is it weird that while the rest of the mini series was pretty mediocre I really liked the last issue of CotA? I might be being a bit too critical here but I almost couldn't believe what I was reading when I got to that infographic page where they were like "Well we didn't technically say we actually were mutants! You all just assumed!" with the fictional internet response being something like "That's so awesome! Just ignore the haters 'cuz you're actually awesome!" I really thought I got dropped in some alternate dimension with how brazenly tone-deaf and self-congratulatory it was.
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# ? Aug 12, 2021 00:48 |
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Edge & Christian posted:People pay to subscribe to someone's Substack in order to read their essays/comics. For instance, Tynion's substack is $7/month or $75 a year. That is how you get to read the comics, not just the updates/news items posted so far. Thanks for that, that is actually a lot more transparent than many of these things, to be fair. I think Tynion's blog statement was worded in a way that made it seem like they weren't taking any cut which had me really confused.
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# ? Aug 12, 2021 02:11 |
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Gaz-L posted:Thanks for that, that is actually a lot more transparent than many of these things, to be fair. I think Tynion's blog statement was worded in a way that made it seem like they weren't taking any cut which had me really confused. Outside of the digital/subscription model thing, it's not dissimilar to how a lot of traditional publishing has always worked: Rolling Stone paid Hunter S Thompson to write Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and in that case they got 100% of the proceeds of the magazine article, but didn't have any claim over Thompson revising it and selling it as a novel, and they didn't get any money from/have any input on the movie either. If you consider print collections to be the 'novel' version, the Substack deal appears to work in the same way.
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# ? Aug 12, 2021 03:28 |
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https://aiptcomics.com/2021/08/12/chip-zdarsky-substack/ Zdarsky, too.
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# ? Aug 12, 2021 15:20 |
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Oh man. That's the first one I'm tempted on, partly because he's bringing back Kaptara there which I really liked. I still don't think I'll do it. But this is the first one that's made me think about it for more than a second.
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# ? Aug 12, 2021 16:44 |
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Chip raises a good point in the interview herequote:AIPT: Is Substack just a place for comics, or do you think it’s a different channel from, say, Instagram or Twitter to engage and communicate with fans/readers? (bolding mine) And while it is true Substack publishes some truly horrendous people, most of them are also on twitter and several of them have been paid money and will be paid money again to write for major papers. Sadly, almost every media platform has open transphobes using them.
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# ? Aug 12, 2021 17:09 |
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Sorry if I missed it here, but Neal Conan has died at the age of 71. In addition to a distinguished career in journalism (and friendship with Chris Claremont), in the 616 he was known for his fair-minded reporting for NPR-TV (sic) on mutant issues, including the trial of Magneto and the X-Men's disappearance. As a kid whose parents listened to NPR, seeing him show up in comic books was a weird, fourth wall-breaking kind of experience; still, it was pretty great. RIP.
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# ? Aug 13, 2021 20:48 |
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Skwirl posted:Chip raises a good point in the interview here I liked Saladin Ahmed's take on this. Complicity is everywhere, as he said; we all know there's no ethical consumption under capitalism, and I guess there's not ethical production either, and to a point, everyone in complicit on promoting awful stuff (I'm sure there has been problematic takes on Muslim or Arab people at some point on Marvel Comics history, but I'm not going to hold it against Ahmed if he keeps writing for Marvel). It's a complicated issue and I understand both the creators that are moving to substack despite everything about the people there, and the people who want nothing to do with the platform (though I don't care much for the "how dare you creator work with these folk" that I've seen on Twitter these days).
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# ? Aug 13, 2021 22:10 |
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They just want to get paid on a platform that supports it. 'This platform is poo poo so I'm going to another one that's poo poo, but smaller' is a weird justification that's not even needed.
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# ? Aug 13, 2021 22:30 |
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I think it's such an unrealistic standard to hold people to. Imagine you work in an office manufacturing paperclips with a boss who's a really horrible person, and you tell your friends that your boss holds many retrograde views and you hate being around them, and your friends are like, "well, it is then morally incumbent upon you to quit, as you are an asset to your boss, and therefore by working for them you are propagating those views". That kind of ultimatum as delivered by the internet flows one way - you'd be unlikely to say it to someone you actually respected. I guess there are exceptions, depending on how integrated the work you're doing is with the actual, material furthering of your employer's worldview. I guess it's a different game when you're a freelancer, and who knows how comfortable the comics pros in question are, but everyone needs to put food on the table. It isn't always possible to find a morally non-objectionable employer who can allow you to pay your rent or stop your car from getting repossessed. As a freelancer myself, if I cut out all the paying gigs from people whose personal philosophies I cannot abide, I would run short of rent most months.
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# ? Aug 13, 2021 22:34 |
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i would say, for all their many faults, and there are many, at least dc and marvel do not actively pay people to publish hate speech
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# ? Aug 13, 2021 22:38 |
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I'm pretty sure the people in question don't have deals from Substack, they just use the platform for free (which anyone can do) and use its features to charge a subscription fee. Twitter, Youtube, Twitch, Patreon etc. are on par for allowing unpleasant people to use their platform in that regard.
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# ? Aug 13, 2021 22:48 |
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i think linehan has a deal with them? i could be wrong though
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# ? Aug 13, 2021 22:51 |
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site posted:i think linehan has a deal with them? i could be wrong though I highly doubt they advanced him any money at all.
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# ? Aug 13, 2021 22:52 |
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why wouldn't they they, already platform him and take a cut off his earnings and then say they're hands off editorially. along with everybody else like singal and weiss and greenwald and Sullivan
site fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Aug 13, 2021 |
# ? Aug 13, 2021 23:14 |
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All of this would be a lot better/easier to understand if Substack just declared who they offered Pro deals to, instead their policy is to let people disclose whether or not they got an advance; this person (on an all-free Substack) was attempting to track who did and did not get a Pro offer. Graham Linehan was confirmed (via Pro Ashley Feinberg asking Substack) to not be on a Pro deal, I guess? As of a few months ago, the confirmed Pros according to the blog are: Matt Yglesias, Anne Helen Peterson, Casey Newton, Scott Alexander, Freddie deBoer, Matt Taibbi, Nicholas Jackson, Ashley Feinberg, Grace Lavery, and Alexis Coe. The article goes on to speculate that Glenn Greenwald and Michael Tracey were probably offered advances but didn't/probably didn't take them which for the purposes of this checklist puts them on the list, and I'm pretty sure might be the worst people on it. There are even worse people on Substack, and because they don't disclose how/if they recruited them, it's easy to assume they did and are just embarrassed about it now. I haven't been following this closely but I have no idea why they don't just say "here are the people we gave advances to", unless it's either to hide the bad eggs or out of some weird incorrect 'neutrality' stance. Edge & Christian fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Aug 14, 2021 |
# ? Aug 13, 2021 23:19 |
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glad i heard wrong in the linehan stuff at least (they are still directly profiting off of his subscribers though)
site fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Aug 14, 2021 |
# ? Aug 13, 2021 23:31 |
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Zombie Dachshund posted:Sorry if I missed it here, but Neal Conan has died at the age of 71. In addition to a distinguished career in journalism (and friendship with Chris Claremont), in the 616 he was known for his fair-minded reporting for NPR-TV (sic) on mutant issues, including the trial of Magneto and the X-Men's disappearance. I came at it from the opposite end. I didn't find out until years later that Neal Conan was an actual real-life person. So's Manoli Weatherell, which is, if anything, more surprising. I wonder if the actual lady ever laid out a demon with a revolver.
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# ? Aug 13, 2021 23:39 |
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Ashley Feinberg getting namedropped in an X-Men thread is a dream combo for me. Via a Bleeding Cool post today, I ran across this position: https://gen.medium.com/substack-is-not-a-neutral-platform-8fc5bdf8e5f2 quote:A clear network has developed among the anti-trans writers at Substack, who collaborate with each other and boost each other’s work: Singal has a podcast with Herzog, and Herzog’s anti-trans essays are published by Sullivan and cited by Greenwald, etc. This is the look of consensus forming. Substack denies that it plays an editorial role, maintaining that the writers are solely responsible for what they create — and declining to meaningfully moderate the content published by those writers — but it’s nonetheless begun to look very much like a publication, and that publication has a clear stance against trans rights. This is a pretty good point being made that makes this different than Twitter or Youtube or any open platform that is also used by loving Nazis: Substack is PAYING Singal, Greenwald, et. al. That's different than Youtube letting someone monetize their hate. These are contracts with lovely, hateful people! I like Ahmed's piece on it, but I think he does skip over this point. Substack as a publisher makes sense; this would be like- and I'm just throwing out something here- the NYT Opinion page paying a bunch of fascists write pieces regularly! danbanana fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Aug 13, 2021 |
# ? Aug 13, 2021 23:47 |
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Zombie Dachshund posted:Sorry if I missed it here, but Neal Conan has died at the age of 71. In addition to a distinguished career in journalism (and friendship with Chris Claremont), in the 616 he was known for his fair-minded reporting for NPR-TV (sic) on mutant issues, including the trial of Magneto and the X-Men's disappearance. Didn't know that he was a real person, I absolutely loved a conversation he (I think it's him) has with Longshot in that arc. It's one of my favorite lines in comics, he says something like "you make it sound so easy" and Longshot replies "my friends are in the hands of a villain, I have to help them" (roughly from memory).
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# ? Aug 14, 2021 00:30 |
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danbanana posted:This is a pretty good point being made that makes this different than Twitter or Youtube or any open platform that is also used by loving Nazis: Substack is PAYING Singal, Greenwald, et. al. That's different than Youtube letting someone monetize their hate. These are contracts with lovely, hateful people! It is entirely possible that Singal is on a Pro deal, and all of this would be easier if Substack just loving disclosed things. To loop it back to comics, the whole "we value a diversity of voices and don't make editorial decisions!" thing is ironically probably a significant part of why Image seems to be bleeding titles/creators over the past several years of publishing/continuing to publish work by Howard Chaykin, Brandon Graham, Roc Upchurch, and (until there was enough of a stink about it) Warren Ellis over the past few years. There are other big factors -- Substack offering advances explicitly to several creators, something Image hasn't done, the 'digital only' part of the rights -- but it's kind of funny to jump from one Free Speech Absolutionist platform to another.
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# ? Aug 14, 2021 00:32 |
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The rumor awhile ago was that Jesse Signal and Katie Herzog had pro deals, but you know how rumors are.
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# ? Aug 14, 2021 00:38 |
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i expect it to all collapse into a big dramatic mess eventually. hopefully some creators can make some money in the interim.
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# ? Aug 14, 2021 00:39 |
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Zdarsky's already in good form to use Substack One good choice quote from his newsletter: quote:Look, I’ve never done a Kickstarter. Or a Patreon. This is my big leap into crowdfunding and direct reader-supported work. I’m excited to do this and show you what we’re working on. I already support a few creators like John Allison via Patreon so this feels more like the same, which is fine by me. Other than potentially derailing the X-line (Re: Hickman) just when things were getting good. Hope it doesn't come to that.
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# ? Aug 14, 2021 02:11 |
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i expect it to all collapse into a big dramatic mess eventually. hopefully some creators can make some money in the interim.
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# ? Aug 14, 2021 02:12 |
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Saoshyant posted:
So what's the context here? Because I'm assuming it's taken out of it, or a joke.
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# ? Aug 14, 2021 02:55 |
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IUG posted:So what's the context here? Because I'm assuming it's taken out of it, or a joke. Literally a joke (out of many) he posted on his newsletter.
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# ? Aug 14, 2021 03:27 |
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Saoshyant posted:
I think the Patreon analogy is good, except didn't they deplatform their far-right users?
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# ? Aug 14, 2021 03:54 |
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Re: substack, there were a lot of trans writers that were on it that left in protest of it giving money/a platform to GCs this spring. This is an essay written by one of people who left
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# ? Aug 15, 2021 02:33 |
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So I'm not super familiar with this platform, why are they choosing it over something like Patreon and why now?
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# ? Aug 15, 2021 03:22 |
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Aphrodite posted:So I'm not super familiar with this platform, why are they choosing it over something like Patreon and why now? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/business/media/substack-comic-books.html It's a special deal between substack and the comics writers coming aboard, I assume for all of them? Substack pays them a stipend for the first year in exchange for the subscriber money, then the creators get the standard percentage of subscriber money after that. Given the number of people hopping on board, I assume it's a good chunk of change.
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# ? Aug 15, 2021 03:31 |
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Aphrodite posted:So I'm not super familiar with this platform, why are they choosing it over something like Patreon and why now? $$$$$$ And Substack has been openly courting comics creators to get into the industry. Zdarsky mentioned he thinks he was one of the first contacted months (more?) ago. It definitely feels weird that a company built as a fancy newsletter system would think "Comics are our next gravy train!"
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# ? Aug 15, 2021 03:33 |
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danbanana posted:$$$$$$ Especially with the 'no cut of the rights' aspect. Like, sure, if you think you can get a movie deal and sell this poo poo to Netflix or Amazon, I get it. But apparently the creators can do that themselves and cut Substack out entirely? I just can't see how this doesn't end up losing them (the platform) money on these deals. Maybe I'm cynical, but I can't imagine most creators will get enough subs to make up whatever they're being paid. Maybe this will be the thing that proves the digital comics market is much larger than we thought.
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# ? Aug 15, 2021 03:47 |
Gaz-L posted:Especially with the 'no cut of the rights' aspect. Like, sure, if you think you can get a movie deal and sell this poo poo to Netflix or Amazon, I get it. But apparently the creators can do that themselves and cut Substack out entirely? I just can't see how this doesn't end up losing them (the platform) money on these deals. Maybe I'm cynical, but I can't imagine most creators will get enough subs to make up whatever they're being paid. Maybe this will be the thing that proves the digital comics market is much larger than we thought. From the perspective of the creators this probably looks like 'so I get a bucket of money to do a passion project, and I have no downside other than not working at Marvel or DC for a little while' (and even that, not necessarily)?
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# ? Aug 15, 2021 05:29 |
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# ? May 27, 2024 03:32 |
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Nessus posted:If I'm reading this right, Substack is giving them a significant amount of money to get on their platform. They will also keep a slice of their current pie. After this deal they will then get the regular pie slice that all the various other people on Substack get. Substack is also making no claims on whatever they publish, so in 2023 they can go to Image or whatever and pick back up if they want. Yeah it sounds like Substack isn't asking for exclusivity agreements. Tynion just said he's stopping DC work for a while because he doesn't have time to do both.
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# ? Aug 15, 2021 15:51 |