Salman Rushdie Is on Substack Now

They’ve already managed to lure the likes of Patti Smith and Michael Moore, but now another big name has joined Substack: author Salman Rushdie unveiled his “Salman’s Sea of Stories” newsletter on the platform on Wednesday.

So what can fans expect from “Salman’s Sea of Stories”? According to the New York Times, “Mr. Rushdie plans to start with some serialized fiction and possibly a few essays, all of which will be free at first. He will eventually charge ($5 or $6 a month) to unlock, say, later chapters of a continuing work of fiction, or the ability to interact with Mr. Rushdie himself.”

“I would want, for example, to say to people, ‘Tell me what you think about this,’ and have a kind of comment thread that I can join in,” Rushdie told the publication. “I mean, I thought, ‘I’ll see what happens.’ I don’t know how much there will be in the way of audience response.”

The author further explained his hopes for the newsletter in an introductory post, writing, “I’d like it to talk about all sorts of stories, stories that have touched or moved or impressed or bored or even revolted me, in books and movies and on TV and in theaters, as well as stories I just plain made up.”

“A lot of that will be on here for free,” he clarified. “Some of it won’t be, including a new, unpublished, full-length fiction I’ll be putting up in installments every week. If you decide to become a paid subscriber you’ll be able to read that, and more of my made-up stories, as well as personal stories, the stories behind the stories I’ll be telling, and sometimes I’ll ask you questions, too, and we can have a conversation about it all. The point of doing this is to have a closer relationship with readers, to speak freely, without any intermediaries or gatekeepers. There’s just us here, just you and me, and we can take this wherever it goes. I hope you’ll enjoy the ride. I’ll try to make it fun.”

You can check out Salman Rushdie’s Substack here.