Substack was a promising, amazing platform that many writers flocked to, especially after some disappointments on Medium.

But unfortunately, even on Substack, things have gotten rocky and unpleasant. Elon Musk now bans any shares from Substack onto Twitter, and even labeled links from Substack as spammy or unsafe.

Plus, I’ve heard from friends that after Substack launched the notes feature, some activist writers were getting harassed. There is no moderation or censorship on Substack. And the CEO refused to say whether blatant racism was allowed on the platform.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen Substack execs do nothing in response to bigotry and discrimination.

In fact, that was the chief reason why I only dabbled briefly on Substack as a writer, before switching to Ghost.

At the time, before I knew better, Substack looked very appealing.

But when I tried writing my own Substack posts, I couldn’t even save my drafts. Maybe my pictures were too big, but it would be a hassle to resize all my photos!

So I googled to see if I could fix my draft-saving issue without downsizing my pictures. I couldn’t find a solution to my problem. Instead, I saw a familiar name pop up: Jude Ellison S. Doyle.

The Shocking Events

Jude is a prominent trans writer I look up to. Due to a controversy, he migrated from Substack to Ghost.

There were many articles written about what happened. Jude also did an interview, and wrote his own post, to tell us about the horrendous events. I’ll summarize them below:

There are some famously transphobic writers on Substack. Unlike Medium, Substack does not moderate any content. Thus, people can post hateful articles without anyone stopping them.

Even when trans writers reported these writings, Substack said there was nothing they could do because of their “free speech” policy.

Prominent trans writers, including Jude, reported harassment from transphobic writers. But again, Substack merely expressed sympathy but did not do anything, because they believed in total non-interference.

All of this is bad enough, but what pounded the nail into the coffin for me, was this: Substack gave six-figure advances to select popular writers, without announcing who they were. Later, it was revealed that some of the people they gave six figures to, were writers who specialised in transphobic content.

Talk about a slap in the face! Not only did the Substack execs do nothing to ban hateful content, and turned a deaf ear to trans writers being harassed. They also paid massive sums of money to transphobic writers to keep posting their hate. They do this because controversy generates views and therefore money.

Later, Substack even offered Jude the pro package. He was tempted at first, since he doesn’t earn much as a writer, and his husband is the one doing the heavy lifting, income-wise.

Jude of course wanted to give his daughter more opportunities with the increased money. But he resisted and declined. He would not let Substack buy his silence.

“I’m not an idiot. I know I’m not going to get that money. But I would rather be paid a little for my writing than a lot for my silence. I wish I could buy my kid everything she wants or needs. But she will grow up learning that, in our family, we are not selfish, we do not help ourselves at someone else’s expense.”

— Jude Ellison S. Doyle

Jude adds that if he took the money, his readers would rightfully lose respect for him.

However, Jude states that he is privileged. His husband’s job keeps them in the middle class, so he could afford to reject the six-figure deal and still survive. Some other trans writers or cis allies may not have such financial privilege to refuse. So he doesn’t blame them, either.

Zulie Rane, in her YouTube video comparing Substack to Ghost, also spoke about controversies related to Jude’s experiences.

Now, you may ask how this is any different from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or any other popular platform where harassment and bigotry happens.

Well, first of all, they don’t offer six-figure advances to famously transphobic creators. As flawed as these platforms are, they do put some effort into censoring hateful content.

Since this happened to trans writers, especially to Jude Ellison S Doyle, who is one of my role models, this felt very personal to me. (I’m trans myself.)

So I didn’t feel safe posting on Substack anymore. Instead, inspired by Jude Doyle, I made the leap to Ghost, too.

My Ghost Experiences

Ghost has improved a lot over the years. It used to be tricky for non-techies to use. But they made it much easier to navigate. Their staff are friendly and prompt in their replies.

There used to be no commenting section in Ghost, so you had to add it through an extra plug-in. But now they do have a comments section that you can simply turn on for your subscribers, or just for your paid subscribers, if you like.

Unlike Substack, Ghost doesn’t take a cut of your earnings. Instead, they charge a flat fee, and you keep all your earnings. The starter plan is $9 USD a month, which is what I’m using. This plan is if you have 500 subscribers or less.

If you buy the Creator package of $25 USD a month (or a higher package), they offer a concierge service where they help you migrate your posts from Medium, Substack, or another platform over to Ghost.

Ghost has a big advantage of being open source, so even if Ghost as a company shuts down, your website will still be safe and intact.

Plus, though Ghost is a bit more complicated than Substack, Ghost is basically a faster and easier version of WordPress. So if you’re familiar with WordPress, you’ll be happy to see the same basic layouts and buttons.

Also, I like how Ghost gives you different themes to choose from. If you don’t like their official themes, you can always get custom themes. But on Substack, you don’t get to choose any other design themes.

Another thing I greatly appreciate about Ghost, is that, since it’s your own site, you don’t need to limit yourself to particular niches. One thing I struggled with on Substack, even before discovering their controversies, was that you had to choose just two topics for each newsletter.

I write in multiple topics and genres: psychology, relationships, art, writing, creativity, culture, social justice, LGBTQ+ experiences, fictional short stories, serial fiction, and poetry.

So imagine how perplexed I was. Maintaining a separate newsletter for each topic (or two) sounded so troublesome. But on Ghost, I could put them all together.

You might think it’s unwise to put all of these disparate topics together. However, the topics do link up, in a way. No matter what I write, my story usually has psychology and LGBTQ+ themes.

Ghost even has a page where they compare themselves to Substack. Tim Denning even wrote that Ghost has the greatest sales page he has ever seen! That’s high praise coming from him.

Last Words

Substack still has many benefits. It’s simpler (and free) to set up compared to Ghost. They do have the notes and the discoverability features that Ghost doesn’t have. Some friends have found good, supportive communities on Substack as well.

While I’m very disappointed by Substack’s refusal to shut down transphobic, racist, and other hateful posts, I don’t think all writers should be punished for this. So I still follow writers I like on Substack, and even comment on their articles.

Thus, I’m not exactly boycotting Substack. I just don’t feel safe posting there as a writer. But as a reader, I feel okay talking to writers I already like there.

How about you? Have you also heard of Substack’s controversies? And have you written on Substack or Ghost?

If you love stories about social justice, LGBTQ+ issues, culture, and psychology, consider subscribing to my Ghost newsletter!

Originally published in Writers' Blokke on April 19, 2023