Hello, I’m Elle Griffin
I’m currently writing a utopian novel and a collection of essays imagining a more beautiful future.
Free subscribers receive
📜 Every essay and novel chapter
Paid subscribers receive
✨ Author commentary beneath each novel chapter
💭 Comment on posts and connect with other utopian thinkers
🏝 Private discussion threads in my online community
🔏 Paid posts providing a behind-the-scenes look at my publishing process
✍🏻 Writing prompts on utopian topics a month before I write about them. I’ll share links to your posts in monthly roundups I send on each topic and essays may be included in my print edition at the end. Let’s brainstorm a better world together!
Collectors receive
📖 Collector’s edition copies of the books when they’re done
🖋 Bi-monthly literary salon discussions on utopia
📲 Start discussions in my private community
💎 Attend quarterly literary salons about how we can create a more beautiful world.
Bonus!
✍🏻 The first subscribers to contribute $1,000 to my project will get to write the introductions to one of my printed Oblivion books. You might get there by being a collector five years in a row, or you might get there by penciling in whatever amount you’d like when you purchase your collector subscription to get there faster.
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 now I hold the (very) first edition in my hands and have sent it off to my paid subscribers at the Collector tier. (Look how pretty 🤩)
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 Business Insider, 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 Utah Business and a freelance journalist with bylines at Esquire, Forbes, Every, and The Muse. A portfolio of my work can be found here. I also 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.
Thanks for reading!
People
