Why more Indian writers are moving towards this online publishing platform to express themselves

Oh to write online simply because you want someone to read it In an Internet increasingly designed around monetisation algorithms and personal brands Indian writers are turning to Substack to write publish and find an audienceThe irony is that for Indian writers Substack isnrsquot the easiest place to make money Its paid subscription infrastructure is not made for Indian users and the platformrsquos monetisation model works better for those who write under a business Yet writers continue to arriveMumbaibased physiotherapist and writer Suhail Shaikh publishes at suhailstopit and has 34 subscribers Money was never really the point He had written since school briefly stopped while studying medicine and eventually found his way back to writing through the Bookstagram community Substack he says was simply where everyone seemed to beGopal MS and Suhail ShaikhBut what keeps him there isnrsquot necessarily the size of his audience ldquoIt gives my thoughts a structurerdquo he says Shaikh journals every day but Substack allows him to take some of those thoughts and put them somewhere others can read them Sometimes an essay does well sometimes it doesnrsquot What matters are the two or three people who reliably read everything he writesldquoEven if they donrsquot you know that you have written something wellrdquo he says Substack offers Shaikh a form of validation ldquoI can just be a writer hererdquo he says ldquoI donrsquot need to have columns in the New York Times or I donrsquot need to have a book out to be a writer hererdquo That freedom is precisely what makes Substack attractive to writers who arenrsquot treating it as a business For Shaikh being unpaid is almost liberating A paying subscriber he feels could create an obligation to produce something worth their money Without that pressure his Substack can remain what he calls a ldquofiltered journal spacerdquoFaiz AbdullaSubstack however is more archive and a professional calling card for the photographer and creative director Gopal MS who writes as MumbaiPaused with more than 1800 subscribers Gopal has spent around two decades blogging and documenting Mumbai through his photography project Mumbai Paused He moved to Substack as social media changed and Instagram became increasingly focused on reels Photography he felt was taking a back seat ldquoOn Substack I can have proper photos like the whole Old Life magazines where I can tell deep stories and longform stories which is only possible on a blogrdquo he saysAnd unlike an algorithmdriven social feed Substack gave him access to a community of people who actually wanted to read The platformrsquos audience he says spans age groups and includes communities of writers sharing assignments and supporting each otherrsquos work For Gopal then writing and publishing online doesnrsquot have to directly earn money to have professional value ldquoIf I decided to leave advertising and pursue photography fulltime my Substack would already function as a body of work I could show prospective clients I can use it as a kind of calling cardrdquo he saysThat distinction between making money from the work and using the work to eventually make money is important As it is for author businessman and poet Faiz Abdulla He has 42 subscribers on faizabdulla1 Substack was explicitly part of the marketing strategy for his philosophical fiction Abdulla recently had his first novel Agira traditionally published and is now working on his third novel while continuing to publish poetry and short storiesHe was advised that becoming an author today was also about building an audience and having a reach besides obviously writing a book Substack became one way to do that ldquoIt just gave me an excuse or an outlet to put stuff out thererdquo he says The platform allowed him to build a small community and crucially gave prospective readers somewhere to encounter his writing before deciding whether they wanted to buy his bookSubstack also solved his problem of credentials ldquoI come from a business background with no formal education in writing or creative artsrdquo he says He wanted a way for people to assess his work for themselves ldquoI needed some credentials some way for people to authenticate my workrdquo he says Substack provided that opportunity because readers could access his writing for freeYet interestingly even after getting the book deal he hasnrsquot turned Substack into a carefully managed promotional machine If Instagram is where he sometimes thinks about catering to an audience ldquoOn Substack itrsquos whole and soul like an outlet for me to express myselfrdquoThe three writers arrive at the same platform from very different directions None of them seem particularly interested in chasing the algorithm Thatrsquos the larger appeal of Substack in India For these writers being read is payment enough