• Substack launched a $20 million creator fund this week meant to lure creators who leverage subscriptions to the platform.
• The fund is intended to assist creators during the transition from Patreon for example, to Substack.
• Creators will need to move their subscriptions over to Substack exclusively to qualify for a piece of the pie.

Substack is an online service where authors, writers, journalists and other content creators can publish and easily monetise their work. This week Substack announced it intended to lure over creators from the likes of Patreon with a tempting carrot.

That carrot is the Substack Creator Accelerator Fund which is offering a total of $20 million to creators who move their subscriber audience from another service to Substack.

“The recent tumult of social platforms—facing bans, backlash, and policies that change with the political winds—has highlighted the challenges creators face: they cannot rely on social media alone to build their audience or their business. At Substack, we’re building what comes next. We established this fund because we’ve seen creators who specialize in video, audio, and text expand their audience, revenue, and influence on Substack, where the platform’s network effects amplify the quality and impact of the work they’re doing. The Substack app, which has millions of weekly active users, is the single largest source of growth for publishers on the platform, accounting for more than 50% of all new subscriptions and 30% of paid subscriptions,” Substack wrote in an announcement.

While the company mentions “social platforms” but this fund has nothing to do with those platforms and more to do with platforms that give creators the ability to charge their followers a subscription fee for content.

Substack says that the fund will insure that creators don’t lose funds when moving their subscription service. It adds that creators will also receive ongoing “strategic and business support from Substack’s deeply experienced partnerships team”. This includes assistance with migrating to Substack.

Creators will have to apply to get access to this fund and Substack will manually review these applications. Unfortunately the fund is exclusively for creators in the US.

But something tells us that some creators may not be that eager to join this programme, even with the promise of a share of $20 million.

In an FAQ, Substack notes that in order to participate in this programme creators cannot draw subscriptions from the likes of Patreon, Circle or other platforms, they will need to operate exclusively on Substack. Substack doesn’t outline how long this exclusivity period will be in place for but we gather it will be in place so long as the programme is active.

We’re not sure this exclusivity clause will go down well but we’re curious to see if there is a sudden influx of creators what with the promise of a share of $20 million up for grabs.