How Much I’m Making From Substack
And How It’s Transformed My Creative Practice
At the end of January’s edition of The Business Of Weaving I wrote about my goals for February. I wanted to finish at least two tapestries and to continue to share my progress on Substack and Youtube. I also wanted to find a space in my small Suffolk town where I would be able to eventually hang and photography a 1.8 metre by 3.3 metre tapestry.
Of these four goals, I’ve made tentative progress on two of them. Some internet research has turned up several options for the photographing-a-massive-tapestry problem. And I’ve continued to document my progress here on Substack, in written posts and in The Weaver’s Apprentice.
My Youtube channel has languished somewhat, but I’ve set myself a more realistic aim of one video per month which I think I’m more likely to stick to. And my grand plan to finish at least two tapestries has ground to a halt.
You see, last month I wrote about the new strategy I’d created for making money from my tapestries (read more about it here). At the end of January, I was cautiously optimistic.
“When I sit down at the loom now,” I wrote, “I know I could make anything. I’m not thinking about what’s selling at art fairs right now or trending in the interior design space. I don’t need to think about what other weavers are making. It’s just me and the loom and the camera - coming together to tell a story.”
I didn’t know it then, but the strategy I’d hit upon would work a little too well. At the start of February I decided I was going to abandon the two tapestries I’d planned to complete that month, and remake them as something entirely different, and much more complex. And so I’m entering the month of March with not one massive tapestry in the works, but three.
I have, up until this point in my career, never, ever managed to build a structure for myself that engenders this much creative freedom. And it is due, in part, to the work I do on this Substack, and to the paid subscribers that send me £5 each month to support my work. I am so, so enormously grateful.
Nevertheless - Substack is not actually bringing in enough income to justify the time I spend on it. Read on to find out how much I actually make from Substack, why I’m continuing with it regardless, and the work I’ve done in the last month to build up the other parts of my business.