Selling ebooks on Substack could change publishing forever
A pitch for one-time purchases and an integrated ebook reader
A writer’s dream
With the ability to control subscription tiers, access newsletter stats and metrics, and the ease with which to engage readers and fellow creators, Substack is an independent writer’s dream platform.
Almost.
Substack performs its established functions quite well. Creating an account allows you to build a home for your work with limited friction. Sharing articles and connecting with other newsletters is straightforward, and the community is incredibly supportive. Complete with a sleek app that brings everything together on the device of choice in everyone’s pocket. What more could a writer want?
Recently, I discovered I had written enough essays over the past two years to warrant publishing a new book. But herein lies the problem. To publish this book, I must do it off of Substack using formatting tools (for example, Atticus) and roundabout methods (like BookFunnel) to deliver my ebooks to Substack readers. I have nothing against those services; I happily pay for and use them (and I’m not sponsored to say that).
It would be compelling for a platform hoping to attract independent writing if one never had to leave the platform. Publishing books—in this case, ebooks—directly through Substack to my audience would be the ultimate dream for independent writers and small presses alike.
And I believe it’s the ultimate dream for Substack, too.
Helping indies
Speaking with a fellow Substack author,
, we had discussed what it would mean to publish our ebooks directly through the one platform in which we spend most of our time writing and building an audience.Daniel noted that he had minimal experience with self-publishing and that the whole process mystified him. I don’t blame him. I just spent two years learning the ins and outs myself, and I still get apprehensive about doing it again for my upcoming releases. It can be expensive, time-consuming, and complicated.
Based on my observations, I’d wager that unpublished writers represent the majority of writers on Substack. Luckily, we’re all learning together and sharing that knowledge, and many of us are becoming independently published with the assistance of our peers. But here’s the thing: why not make it even easier?
How convenient would it be for writers and readers if we could navigate to a section in the app where books by our favorite authors were available? Then, those books could be paywalled or not based on the writer’s choice, separate from any monthly subscriptions one might have.
Alternatively, independent from designing an entirely new way to deliver ebooks to readers via the app, if Substack could allow for “Sections” or individual posts to be paywalled by a one-time payment, then writers could, in theory, sell serial or complete novels to subscribers. This would be a game changer in my book (pun intended).
Disrupting the industry
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) dominates the indie publishing sphere, specifically with ebook sales.1 Substack stands poised to disrupt this status quo because it’s home to many writers building an audience around their work. By integrating ebook sales (or one-time payments) into its platform, Substack could revolutionize how independent writers publish and sell their work. Writers of all kinds would flock to the platform to sell their books.
Amazon KDP harbors a vast audience with the Kindle reader and app but at the cost of high competition and significant revenue sharing. Readers can follow their favorite authors for release updates and offer reviews on Goodreads (another component of the Amazon publishing monopoly). Still, the ecosystem lacks Substack’s more robust engagement and community aspects. Authors with books on Amazon often find their work lost in a sea of other books, struggling for visibility, while readers are subject to the algorithm of paid advertising.
Substack is a more intimate, direct channel between authors and readers, fostering stronger connections. Authors with a dedicated subscriber base can bypass the saturated marketplaces and forgo the need to pay for ads. By offering an alternative to Amazon KDP, Substack is further democratizing the publishing process, giving authors even more control and a fairer share of the profits.
It’s time the ebook market had a new competitor. I no longer want to go out of my way to sell on Amazon or some other complicated self-publishing service. I want to sell directly to those who enjoy my work and would happily purchase it, and I want to use Substack to do it.
How this might look on Substack
Imagine you open up your app. At the bottom of the screen are the Home (Notes), Inbox, and Chat icons, but then to the right of Chat is another icon that looks like a stack of books. You click that Book Stack (whoa, how fitting?) icon, and it brings you to a screen with categories like this (for example):
My Saved Books (ebooks you’ve bought or are interested in reading)
Recommended (ebooks based on your subscriber recommendations)
Trending (ebooks based on likes outside your network)
Top Paid (or ebooks of the week to cycle through top performers)
Categories (static listings for nonfiction and fiction)
Navigate to Categories, select Fiction, and then Fantasy. It brings up rows of ebooks complete with their title, summary, and the author’s name (hyperlinked to their Substack). For a great look at how this might work, check out The Library, a service dedicated to delivering indie books on Substack that I co-manage with
.How this might work on Substack
Substack is partnered with Stripe. Writers set up their Stripe accounts to receive payments from subscriptions. A one-time purchase option would allow subscribers to buy individual ebooks, catering to those who prefer binging longer works over time-based access. This would reduce stress and burnout among many writers who feel like they must perform on a weekly/monthly basis to provide value to paid subscribers.
Readers could be more susceptible to paying an up-front fee for a completed work rather than the price of a subscription for something that may never materialize. This would unlock an entire marketplace of readers seeking streamlined and more traditional-style publications. Since audio narration is already built-in, this enables ebooks to double as audiobooks.
It could even improve the rate of upgrade conversions if someone consistently pays for ebooks, only to realize that if they’d upgraded, it would have been a better value to get the author’s entire library.
App and website considerations
A dedicated carousel of available ebooks on the author’s profile.
A new tab in the app where you can store downloaded ebooks.
A way for writers to recommend ebooks and not just Substacks.
Reader comments and likes on the ebook page but without a strict rating system to not allow for review bombing.
Sections should be accessible in the app, not just on the website. (I can’t stress this enough!)
A formatting option to download posts off of Substack. Even if it was just a text file so I don’t have to copy and paste it into another tool.
Private viewing mode for free subscribers with all of the benefits of a regular Substack in terms of recommendations and discoverability.
Possible issues that may arise
Digital Rights Management (DRM): Prevent the sharing of paid ebooks to outside parties.
Quality Control and Curation: Without an algorithm, ebooks would succeed based on user recommendations, likes, and Notes. This would create a more positive publishing environment without the potential negative ramifications of a rating system.
Royalty and Payment Structure: It would be very competitive if it stayed at the current rate, as seen with subscriptions and Stripe. But this may cause some industry pushback.
Technical Aspects: This includes UI/UX design, handling financial transactions, and ensuring a smooth user experience for writers and readers.
Legal and Tax Implications: Legal and tax implications for Substack and its authors, including copyright issues, international sales tax, and other regulatory concerns.
Author Relations: Substack would need to establish a dedicated work role for tackling the issues originating from this add-on, both from a technical standpoint and responding to customer concerns.
The dream continues
I don’t pretend to know the difficulty tethered to the features requested in this article. As a small press and indie writer, I’m merely pitching for improvements to my favorite platform. Even without these changes, I plan to continue building my readership and publishing strategy around Substack. I will use BookFunnel to deliver my ebooks to paid subscribers here on Substack and Atticus for formatting purposes. My strategy must remain structured around the monthly subscription model until more options become available.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the subject and any other ideas you may have for Substack to help improve their UI and UX for writers, readers, and publishers.
Can Substack disrupt the established ebook marketplace? Does it even need to? Leave your thoughts below. Thanks for reading. ~ WM
as a long-time traditionally-published author with a year on Substack, I support the idea generally Winston, especially as the programming team here seems to be always proactive to make new innovations. But I would say that to improve on existing competition, they would want to do at least three things;
-make the formatting options super-intuitive and easy, including TOC embed links and cover art
-find a way to protect the actual book file from being extracted and ending up pirated on random sites
-stay competitive, somehow, with the profit sharing margins that amazon offers.
In addition, and somewhat separately, I would love to see Substack somehow create a mechanism for passive income ala what youtube creators get, since the current business model is very much top heavy on the paid subscription side, which is not really dependable for the long term.
Keep up the good work and good luck in yoour publishing!
This is a fascinating summary. Thank you! Quick question: Is an author not able to do this right now?
"If Substack could allow for “Sections” or individual posts to be paywalled by a one-time payment, then writers could, in theory, sell serial or complete novels to subscribers."