Friday Lunch Special | Kool-Aid Man-ing My Paywall!

I paywalled my newsletter and all I got was the overwhelming urge to hit undo!

Proof that today’s newsletter was written under my own free will with a smile on my face!

Today’s newsletter is a behind-the-curtains, thought-process-driven view into the twisted mind of one Chelsea Francis. I hope you don’t mind if I get very transparent with you.

F*ck My Paywall!

Last week, if you’ll recall, I announced that Friday’s emails would be paywalled from now on. I may not have used that specific language, but that was my intention and that was clear. For months I’ve been working on a strategy to monetize my newsletter. It isn’t sexy, but when presented with the idea that I might be able to make part or even the bulk of my income from reader support for this newsletter, I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t want that. I still do. More than anything, I want to get paid for my writing. That’s still the absolute dream, and behind the scenes I’m writing a great deal. I’m working on a couple of book ideas, pitching stories to publications, writing a couple of actual books, and I’m reading more than ever which inspires me to write more than ever. Never has writing been more a part of my life, and that alone is a dream come true. 

If you are someone who writes a newsletter on Substack and you have turned on the paid subscription button, it is highly likely that you have taken some sort of course or sought out some kind of resource about how to incentivize paid subscriptions without seeming like a snake-oil salesman. I was thinking about taking a class, and then realized the first step would be to tell you all that you could pay to subscribe. At the time I wasn’t really up front with the fact that you could become a paid subscriber at all, and I was scared to put myself out there in that way.

So I took that leap! I posted about it on Instagram, just a selfie I snapped in a phone booth at my coworking space! Nothing special at all, and 28 wonderful people upgraded their subscriptions to my newsletter. I mean it from the bottom of my heart, those 28 people changed my life, because I went from looking at this newsletter as mine, to looking at it as ours. It caused me to go from feeling like I was alone here, shouting into the void, to feeling like I was building a robust community of people who would support my work if they wanted to and they could. When I say that I welcome your responses to my newsletters via hitting reply or commenting, I mean it. 

After I had some success beginning to build support, I thought maybe I should take the class and see if I could continue the forward momentum. I took two free classes, and one paid subscription based education module and as it turns out the overwhelming majority of information out there points to offering one newsletter a week to your full list, and then offering a second to paid subscribers only. I really didn’t like the idea of it, but I thought maybe my gut instinct was rooted in the idea that I didn’t value the work I put into this newsletter highly enough.

I went against that gut instinct (dun dun dun) and I decided I should try it. So last week, on Friday, I announced that going forward Friday Lunch Special newsletters would be for paid subscribers only. I talked to a few friends that I trust beforehand and everyone agreed that I should give it a try. Once I pressed send on that email, the anxiety set in. I became dissociative and deeply sad and I could feel that I’d made the wrong choice. My gut instinct was correct, and I knew it within minutes of that email hitting your inbox. If I could have unsent it, I think I would have. Instead I sat with it. The next 24 hours confirmed my instinct that I’d made the wrong decision for my newsletter because guess what? Not a single person upgraded their subscription.

As with everything, I reserve the right to change my mind about this in a couple of years. Paywalls work out for some people, but I don’t think it feels good for me right now. 

When I really think about it, I don’t want to write one newsletter for a fraction of my list weekly. I want to be in every single one of your inboxes twice a week, every week. I want to write things you find entertaining, and exciting. I want to talk about things that I love and that I’m a fan of. I want to read books because you wrote to me to suggest them. I want to send out reviews of 4DX movies because I want to.

I don’t want money to be a barrier that separates people from being able to access my newsletter. It is for each and every one of you, regardless of whether you pay to subscribe. And then one day if you get a big, unexpected raise at work, or you win the lottery, or you come into an inheritance from a rich uncle’s passing whom you never knew, then you can upgrade your subscription to paid because I predicted the future for you. Wow you’re lucky! 

If one day you find that you’ve read this newsletter every week for a long time, and you love it so much you want to pay for a monthly subscription, you can do that too. I will really appreciate it, and each and every paid subscriber helps make more and more of my dream for Pretend it’s a Newsletter come true.

If you continue being a free subscriber, I love you just the same.

Thank you for being here, for letting me in your inbox, for reading the words I write. Thank you for being with me as I navigate how to do this. It means the world to me. I really do love and appreciate each and every one of you who open this email, who read my words and listen to me yap. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

This morning, my friend, and the owner of one of my favorite coffee shops, told me she read my newsletter last night as she was falling asleep. Earlier this week someone told me they always save my Friday newsletters for reading with their coffee and breakfast on Saturday morning. That makes me so unbelievably happy. It is a joy for my words to get to be with you as you live your life, as you enjoy your moments. What a gift!

Strong opinions, loosely held. 

And in the spirit of honesty, and as a fun ending to this all-business newsletter, here are some strong opinions I hold. Some hot takes if you will, presented without context and in the spirit of Bruce Layman at A Well Worn Dispatch and Jordan Ward of No Score. 

• All pizza is good pizza, even if it has pineapples, olives, or mushrooms on it. Maybe not all together, but I’d try anything once.

• Denis Villeneuve is the greatest director of all time.

• Cottage cheese is SO good. With fruit and honey. Or with vinegar (yeah, I said what I said.) 

• Saltburn was a fine movie that I thoroughly enjoyed. So was Challengers.

• Reading books doesn’t make you smart or interesting.

• But everyone should read science fiction. And I mean everyone.

• Friendships can be the deepest and most important relationships in your life.

• People can change personal styles, interests, and even the way they talk based on the person they’re dating or the people they’re friends with. It’s fine. Don’t make them feel weird for it. Literally everyone does it. Everyone.

• Being a hater is fine, but loving things is more fun, I promise.

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Thank you for your support. It means the world to me that you’d continue to extend the invite into your internet living room. The newsletter means a lot to me and I am consistently thrilled to learn that it means something to other people. Let’s say you love my work and you want to support me! The best way to do that is by becoming a paid subscriber of this newsletter!

Here are some other ways that are super valuable and appreciated as well:

• Give this post a like and leave a comment!

• Send me a message and just say hi :)

• Forward this email to a few friends who would enjoy it.

• Follow me on Instagram or on TikTok. That’s right, I decided to give myself over to the darkside!