I don't want to write for AI. I want to write for you

What's true for me right now, and an honest pitch for your support

It feels worth adding a selfie to this one ☺️

UPDATE on March 22, 2025: It turns out Meta has stolen both of my books to train their AI systems now too. I wrote about that briefly here.

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Hi friend,

I’m sending you something a little different today. My intention was to keep it short and sweet, but I think we all know I tend to go long (there’s just always more to say! 😅). This is one of the reasons I like writing books. But this isn’t a book, this is a newsletter—and that’s what I want to talk about.

Specifically, I want to tell you what’s true for me and my writing career right now (some of this might be a little shocking), share some background on why I switched to Substack a couple years ago, and explain what I hope to do here in the future—and how your financial support helps.

As always, I hope this piece helps you understand a little more about me as a person and creator—and helps you make more informed decisions as a consumer.

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It’s a challenging time to be a working writer. Personally, there are a few different kinds of writing work I do: I write this newsletter, I write books, and I write (and edit and consult) for clients. This year, I’ve also been applying for full-time writer/editor jobs, whenever I’ve seen one that felt like a good fit and was remote.

In the past, it used to be fairly easy to find work, and to get paid well for it—at least, in the finance space. But things have been changing at a rapid speed, since the pandemic. Not only are companies/publications still laying off staff or folding altogether, which means lots of writers are applying to the limited number of jobs available (both freelance and salaried). But technology keeps advancing, and some jobs are being taken over by AI. As a result, both the work and the income are getting harder and harder to find. And there are some other unique challenges book authors are facing right now, too.

Here are just a few of the recent challenges I’ve dealt with personally:

• My first book, THE YEAR OF LESS, was one of 183,000 that were stolen to originally train AI. This isn’t just copyright infringement (every author should’ve been given the option to give consent AND get paid for this). It also means my writing, which is extremely conversational in tone, is being used to train systems how to write conversationally—which is infuriating and scary, and could only further add to why AI is going to take some jobs from writers (like me) in the future. (Note: I don’t feel anti-AI as a tool, but rather the morality of its beginnings. I also have some concerns about how it’s going to change the landscape of many industries—not just writing.)

• Spotify is now giving away 15 hours/month of audiobook listening time to its paying subscribers. Both of my books are available there. I didn’t consent for them to have either. Maybe my audiobook publisher did, but nobody told me! And I have absolutely no idea how downloads/listens are being tracked, or if I will ever get paid for this. Honestly, the idea of streaming books feels really stressful¹, because my audiobook royalties have been pretty decent since TYOL came out. I might get paid by Spotify!? But I have no information on this yet. And right now, I can’t afford to lose this income.

• And last week, I applied for a writing job in the finance space. I was extremely qualified for this position. But I got an auto-responder that basically said my resume was run through an AI script and didn’t match enough of the job description details to warrant an interview. This isn’t a writer-only problem, but shows that it’s becoming harder to get an actual person to look at our CVs, and the tricks we’ll all have to do in order to get AI to pay attention to us. It’s all so strange, and not something I can ignore anymore either. I’ve been feeling a little hopeless about the job market for writers/communications professionals, but am continuing to make adjustments and persevere.

Now, these are not your problems to deal with. They are mine. But seeing as I’ve shared parts of my life with you for 14 years now (and some of you are writers yourselves), I thought you might find it interesting to know/have the space to talk about some of what’s shifting in this industry. At the moment, 3 out of the 4 ways I make money as a writer are in a state of instability and uncertainty. The only income I can reasonably rely on is work I do and promote myself. Which brings us back to this newsletter.

As you know, I started my first BIG blog back in 2010. I wrote Blonde on a Budget consistently until the summer of 2018, then took a big break from the internet (outside of sending the odd newsletter and hanging out on Instagram) before returning in September 2022. That’s when I first launched this Substack.

In case I haven’t been clear about this, Substack is the platform I use to send you these newsletters. I know some of you know about it, and some of you are really active in the comments, etc. But I want to make sure everyone who reads The Lighthouse understands what Substack is—and why more of the writers you like may have switched over.

We’re all living through a time where free content is available in abundance, so it’s easy to think we should be able to find and consume everything for free. But something you might not think about as a consumer of content is that it’s never been totally free for writers to create and publish things on the internet! Yes, there have been free blogs. But if you want your own website, writers have to pay for domains and website hosting. Some might also pay to use tools to create images or hire designers, editors, etc.

We’ve also always had to pay for our mailing lists. And the more people who signed up, the higher the monthly fee was. If you were selling any products or services, this cost was quickly outweighed by your sales. But outside of the old Mindful Budgeting Planners (which I didn’t launch until 2015), I didn’t sell anything. I was just writing. And I was spending $200+/month to send my old blog posts to you. (Always a writer, never a businessperson! lol)

Over the years, some cheaper/flat fee mailing list providers popped up, so lots of writers moved over to those. But then Substack launched… and it is free to use. In fact, they only get paid if you get paid by your readers. For that, they take a 10% fee. This is how traditional book publishing works, where you get a percentage of the money people spend to buy your books, and your agent takes a percentage of your earnings. It’s a model that makes sense and feels good to me as a writer. It also means the money isn’t coming out of pocket (aka, you don’t have to budget for it), but is more like a tax on your earnings. Kind of like what happens on a regular paycheque.

One day, I could be paying them $200+/month again… but that’s not where I am right now. And even if it got there, that would feel ok to me. Because Substack offers everything I need in one place. And their platform makes it easy for me to get paid, and that ease is something working writers really need right now. So when I decided to start writing again, that’s why I chose to sign up and publish my content here.

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Of course, if you’ve been reading for a long time, you know that I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do here in the beginning. I just knew I wanted (/needed) to come back to my writing practice—and that’s exactly what I’ve done. For the first year, I wrote some extremely personal posts that shed insight on what life looked like during the few years I was offline. (Note that I have since taken them down.) Then I got the idea to start writing about personal finance again. But I really started to find my groove this month, with these posts:

• I don’t care if you have debt

• I won’t sell minimalism to you

• What being a mindful consumer means to me

• And why I broke up with “everyday” self-help content

I don’t know how they felt for you to read, but these posts felt different for me to write, friend. They felt more honest. More transparent. More deep and thoughtful and nuanced. They felt more… like me. I didn’t know what I was doing when I first got started here, but I know what I’m doing now.

And, I write on Substack so I have the option to get paid for this work—by you.

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I’ve never done a particularly good job of promoting my work. (Case in point: I think I told you about TYOL twice!? And then disappeared from the internet for four years, lol.) Seriously, I’ve never done a hard pitch or sell of anything—not even my books. I’ve just quietly let you know a few things existed. But I’m going to promote my Substack, friend. Not just because of everything I’ve said above. But because I want you to know more about who I am as a person and as a writer. I want you to know what I’m passionate about, and what I believe in, and what my values are. One of those values is supporting other creators.

Over the years, I’ve paid to support people on Patreon. I’ve bought lots of author’s books and given them away. I pay for a handful of other writer’s Substacks right now (and when I earn more, I know the next few I’m going to pay for too). And I’ve bought a few apps or classes, not because I needed them, but simply because I liked the creator. Actually, that’s been true of almost all these options. It’s rare that I actually want the thing someone is selling, or whatever “extra’s” a creator might offer in exchange for my financial support. I just believe in paying creators for their work. Not only do I believe their time and thoughts are valuable, but I know it’s a vote of confidence. I know it can feel like a reminder to keep going. And I know the financial support helps free up some of our mental bandwidth, so we can spend less time worrying about money and more time creating. I know all of this because that’s what you have done for me, too.

You can read some of what I write here for free. But I turned on the option for you to become a paying subscriber right at the start, and some of you signed up—and I will forever be grateful to you for that. I didn’t even know what I was going to do here, but you said yes anyway. You can’t imagine how it has felt every time one of you has upgraded your subscription since 2022. It wasn’t just the exchange of money. It was a reminder that you still cared, and a vote of confidence in my work. And it has helped me come back to my writing. But if I’m going to attempt to make more of a living from this work (which feels like the best option, given what’s happening in other parts of this industry), I need more people to support this project.

So, I’m writing to let you know what I want to explore here on this Substack—and that going forward, the majority of my content will be for the paying subscribers of our community.

Writing isn’t a hobby, it’s my job. And it’s my job to write/edit/publish good content here. If my writing has ever helped or inspired you in some way, becoming a paying subscriber is the easiest way to thank me and help me continue doing this work.

My commitment to you: to continue being a mindful creator, and to know how valuable your time and attention is. To always respect that, and to keep you in mind whenever I sit down to write.

Since the beginning, I have learned about all the ways you could make money as a writer on the internet. If you know me well, you won’t be surprised when I tell you: most of them haven’t felt aligned for me. In the 14 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never put ads on my websites or done any form of sponsored content. Your time and attention is valuable, and I didn’t want to manipulate or profit off of that. So I’ve always focused on making sure you have a good experience as a reader and we have a safe space to connect.

Substack is a platform that makes it possible for me to continue doing this and get paid. The more support I get here, the more time I can spend supporting this community (and then… maybe start writing my next book!?).

If any of this resonates, and you can afford to, I hope you will consider becoming a paying subscriber. I know you won’t want to read or pay forever. I know—and hope—you will only subscribe for as long as you’re enjoying my work, and as long as this financial exchange makes sense for you. But whether you pay and stay for a month, six months, a year, or many years… it all helps… and it’s all appreciated. ❤️

Thank you for reading and following along with my journey. And thank you for supporting writers in all the ways you do. It means everything to us.

xx Cait

1. And I’m not the only one who is concerned about what this will do for authors and the audiobook industry: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/11/spotify-audiobook-streaming-devastating-effect-authors // https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/opinion/audiobooks-spotify-streaming-algorithm.html