Dear Substack: You Need A Separate TV+Film Category.

It's really that simple. The "Culture" category is too crowded.

I started this Substack in the latter part of January, 2022, so it’s not yet three years old, but even back in those brand new to the platform days, those full-of-hope early days, I thought there was one thing that was odd and out of place.

Television, our shared cultural experience, didn’t have its own category. Film, also our shared cultural experience, but with fewer viewers (zing), also didn’t have its own category.

I did literally say “what the actual fuck?” as I was creating this blog in its pre-launch form. I’m sure my partner will attest to that. I mean, television and movies with no category of their own?

Weird.

I was beginning to think there was a bias against filmed entertainment. I mean, “Crypto” has its own category. “Music” has its own category. “Album Reviews” have their own category. “Concerts” have their own category. The “Music Industry” has its own category. Hell, “Music History & Theory” have a joined category. “Comics” has its own category.

I could go on and on. Don’t make me.

Television and film? Nope. They are tucked in “Culture,” which I would argue is vague, but sure, a nice category. Necessary. In roughly two years and 10 months since I’ve been here, post The San Francisco Chronicle, post The Hollywood Reporter and somewhere currently in the “writing for television and writing in general” phase of my life, the “Culture” category has become massive. It’s crowded. It’s easy to get lost, go unfound. It’s hard to find traction anymore. It is, in fact, a little depressing.

I should state something else I found odd — there is a “Literature” section and there is a “Fiction” section. That makes sense to me — but I kind of think there should be a “Non-Fiction” section as well. And, given the kind of eye-popping variation in the music categories, I’m surprised there’s not even a “Writing” category.

As many of you know, I’m thinking about creating a new, separate Substack that focuses on scriptwriting, but also fiction and also just writing. I looked, and “Literature” doesn’t really apply, though I suppose we could argue “why?” for starters, and what exactly “literature” entails.

So, this thing I’m hoping to do — reading scripts from current and want-to-be scriptwriters on Substack, plus deconstructing scripts that have been made into television series and movies, while also discussing, in a broad way, “book fiction,” and in the course of that, “writing,” in all of its general and specific parts?

Yeah, none of that falls neatly into “Literature” or “Fiction” but it looks like I’ll have to choose the latter.

If only I wanted to write about health! How much easier would my choices be? There’s a “Health & Wellness” category and a “Health Politics” category (for fuck’s sake). I mean, I’m not angry about it. I think people who are in “Art & Illustration” and “Design” — glorious fields! — certainly could have gripes about a need for broader categories. (Also, I know the start of this paragraph was a bit snarky and health is important. I want to be more healthy! But in what world does “Health Politics” rate its own category over film or television?)

So, while I’m already worried that Substack has grown so impressively in the nearly three years since I started (yes, that’s a good thing, but it has drawbacks as well, all of them I won’t get into here), when it comes to launching the new Substack idea of mine I can’t say I’m feeling much hope about it finding an audience. I’ll put it in “Fiction,” but it’s very specifically going to be about scriptwriting, and a part of me thinks a simple “Writing” category is really the slot for it.

If I’m going to get any traction in this now gigantic platform for something new, it will have to be generated by people who read this very Substack here for thoughts on television and film, a group of subscribers who are not massive but are large enough to make me a nebulously titled “bestseller” here.

And while I think many of you Bastard Machine subscribers will certainly be interested in some of the content of the new thing, I’m not expecting any of you to actually pay for it. The free version, sure, just for the few pieces that will show up there and might have appeal to you as I discuss scripts. But honestly, you’re not the main audience, just from a practical standpoint (unless you are, which is great). However, given the relative ease of how the new endeavor might get lost, I’m going to have to pimp it here and hope it gets seen or shared enough to grow on its own.

The bigger worry for anyone on Substack now is how to sustain a publication here, especially as the platform grows and, in the process, draws in lots of big names in their respective fields who will be competing for your subscription dollars. Recently Nick Hornby arrived here and his Substack, “A Fan’s Notes,” is really good. I’m a free subscriber and can tell you that I’ve been tempted, numerous times, to become a paid subscriber, but I’m not sure I will.

And it’s not because I don’t think Nick Hornby needs money — he might, I have no idea. I think most people would consider him quite successful. There might not be a bigger fan of Wilco than I am (OK, fine, I’m sure there is), but I decided not to pay for Jeff Tweedy’s “Starship Casual” because I buy every single album, from Wilco the band and Tweedy solo, see every concert, buy tons of T-shirts and other swag, etc., so just in my personal eco system, I don’t think he needs more of my money. But I love him.

I tried to pay for Joe Pernice’s “Four Track Substack” because he’s a brilliant singer-songwriter and I’m a huge fan (I think I might have been the first to sign up), but I’m also online friends with him and Joe made it clear to me that he doesn’t let friends pay for his work (so we gave each other free paid subscriptions). It made me think that I’m a lesser human because a lot of my friends DO pay, but I have told them they can have free paid accounts (not all of them have taken me up on that, thankfully!).

I do pay for Colin Meloy’s “Machine Shop” Substack (he’s the lead singer for The Decemberists, if you don’t know, a favorite band, and he’s also a writer and overall literate gentleman). But I only am a free subscriber to “Slowpoke,” the wonderful work of his wife, the illustrator and author Carson Ellis. These choices are all freighted. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, who I have never met, is one of my favorite music critics and when he was laid off recently I switched from free to paid.

Anyway, I bring all of this up because there have been more and more arrivals of the Nick Hornby’s and the Jeff Tweedy’s of the world and I’m almost afraid to discover who has newly shown up here, because then I might have an urge to pay for those, even if I’m pretty certain they are making rent fairly easily, etc. Extrapolate that out, of course, and fans of these more famous names are certainly going to get a paid subscription and it’s not difficult to assume that me and Stephen Thomas Erlewine and so many others with lesser name recognition than Patti Smith will have a smaller pool of paying subscribers.

Also — and I’m sure Substack thinks along these lines — maybe that assumption is wrong!

Maybe, Substack execs might counter argue, more newbies to the platform/app and the odds that the algorithm, or pure whim, or the tumble dryer of “the Substack community” will put them in front of one of our posts and they, by dint of being blown away by that topic (but probably not this one) could possibly pay up.

You never know.

True, but it feels like I know; or I’m not completely wrong. It feels like we have entered the lotto ticket era of Substack.

Which is why I humbly ask that, hey, maybe create a separate category for “TV & Film,” outside of this massive grab bag that is the “Culture” category.

Maybe give all of us in these categories more of a chance to be discovered. That’s my selfish wish.

But here’s the less personal and just more logical point — not having a separate category for “TV & Film” from the get go was an oversight, and now it’s just a glaring, unarguable omission that needs to be rectified.