An admin update

Why I have moved over to Substack

When I started my newsletter, I was paranoid. When writing my book and after it came out, at every turn I came under pressure from would-be censors: when seeking an agent and publisher, and then an audiobook publisher; when seeking to be interviewed or reviewed in print and broadcast media; when posting about it on pre-Musk Twitter without losing my account. As they say, it’s not really paranoia when they are out to get you.

One consequence was that when I decided on a platform, I ruled out Substack. Yes, the people in charge were talking the talk about being pro-free speech and anti-censorship – but lots of people say that and then, when they come under pressure, it turns out not to be true. I was afraid Substack would go the way of Medium – I know several people whose accounts there were nuked for unspecified offences, among them my colleague Maya Forstater. This would happen without warning and with no appeal. So I picked Ghost, a barebones but pleasantly functional alternative, and that worked fine.

But I’ve now decided to make the switch. I had created an account on Substack some time ago, in order to subscribe to other people’s newsletters, and people kept finding me there and subscribing to me, even though I was posting nothing. Substack’s discoverability, in the jargon, is its big selling point, and by now I think the platform has proved that when it said it was anti-censorship, it really meant it. I’m also keen to try out different options that I see other people using on Substack without any technical skills, including video and audio content.

I’ve ported over my domain name, so the newsletter will continue to be at thehelenjoyce.com. I’ve decided that as part of the move I will put my back catalogue in front of the paywall, with new posts going behind it. Almost all posts have ported over without any problem; the static pages (About me and so on) will take a little longer.

Annoyingly, there is a glitch with porting over paid subscriptions – they are still there but still on Ghost. I had hoped this would be sorted so quickly that I wouldn’t have to mention it, but it is dragging on a little. I have managed to get hold of a human being at Substack, who is asking me to bear with him. Fingers crossed it will be quickly fixed. In the meantime I’ll send everything to all subscribers, whether free or paid. You don’t need to do anything.

More soon!