The Novelleist

Hello, I’m Elle Griffin

I’m writing a utopian novel with commentary on how we can create a more beautiful future. If you’re new here, you can start at the beginning or catch up on the project so far by reading The Index.

About the novel

Oblivion is a surrealist fantasy novel inspired by the Xianxia genre. It begins when Elysia awakes in a canoe, adrift against an Asian shore, with no recollection of her past and a scroll hidden in her pocket. As she ventures into paradise we discover all the beauty that world has to offer, the past she has left behind, and a beautiful man who might know who she is.

• 💌 Free subscribers get every novel chapter

• 💭 Paid subscribers can comment on chapters and unlock author commentary

• 📕 Paid subscribers at the collector tier receive the print edition when it’s done

Here’s what the print editions look like:

I’ve done this before

In September of 2021, I debuted my gothic novel Obscurity as a serial. I sent one chapter to my newsletter subscribers every week until it was done, and sent the print edition to my paid subscribers at the Collector tier. 

My experiment was a success! My hypothesis was that serial fiction—where readers pay a monthly or yearly subscription—would be a better way for authors to earn a living from their work than putting their books on Amazon for $10. I was right!

Inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo, which was published as a serial with great success, I started with 1,700 newsletter subscribers and grew that to 6,066 over the course of the last year—262 of which became paying subscribers, earning my newsletter $16,707.85 in gross volume.

Now, exactly one year later, I’m writing a utopian novel and its companion, a collection of essays imagining a more beautiful future.

About me

This all started because, after I finished my first novel, I spent an inordinate amount of time researching how to publish it. What I found is that no one reads books and thus traditional publishing isn't really working for authors. Of the 2.6 million books published in 2020, only 268 sold more than 100,000 copies and the vast majority (96 percent) sold less than 1,000 copies.

But if most books have only 1,000 fans, then charging $10 every three to five years when a new book comes out isn't the right way to monetize them. A better way might be to charge those fans $10/month to subscribe to an author, earning readers behind-the-scenes access to their favorite writers, while earning authors a $100,000/year salary in the process.

That’s why I started this newsletter. I’m still experimenting with all the ways in which authors (and all artists) can earn a living from their craft as part of the creator economy. As a result, my newsletter has been featured by BBC, Business Insider, Fast Company, Publisher’s Weekly, Means of Creation, and Morning Brew; and in 2022, I was awarded one of 10 places in Substack’s coveted fellowship program.

In addition to writing this newsletter, I work as the editor-in-chief of The Post where I write a newsletter called New Capitalism and host a podcast called Post Modern. I am also a freelance journalist with bylines at Esquire, Forbes, Every, and The Muse—a portfolio of my work can be found here.

I hold degrees in Fashion Merchandising and French and completed my graduate studies in Mariology. For my final project, I recreated eight iconic images of the Virgin Mary using modern photography. They can be purchased from my Etsy store.

I live with my husband in Salt Lake City, Utah where we enjoy wandering the west in our camper van and working from the remote corners of the world. I can be reached at elle@novelleist.com or at elle@siliconslopes.com for The Post!

Thanks for reading!