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This is super amazing. I hope to be part of the next batch too for "onstage.substack.com" publication.

Your team rocks guys. You've truly simplified creativity for writiers and podcasters.

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This is amazing!! I love all of the picks so far and as a newsroom-turned-independent writer, this platform and its mission means the world. (I guess I should plug my newsletter, too, ha! foreignbodies.substack.com, a newsletter for immigrants/refugees living with mental illness or struggling to belong).

Thank you, always.

- Fiza

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Hi, Hamish:

How exciting, and what a great way to support independent publishing. I have some questions for you about it:

1) What are the metrics you are using to know whether these 5 winners succeeded as a result of the stipend?

2) When will you know whether you will continue to do this and will the metrics be the same, or will you add to them?

3) How were these 5 chosen and if you do this again, will it be a similar process; ie, were these five chosen without them knowing they were under consideration, or did they apply?

Congratulations to these five women.

Thanks,

Whitney Fishburn

http://documental.substack.com

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Fair questions!

1. We just want to see them do well by writing great stuff and making good money from subscriptions. We don't have "KPI"s for them/this.

2. We'll have a good sense within a couple months of concluding the three-month program with this batch, I think. But we are learning mode with this first iteration of the fellowship.

3. These five were chosen according to their progress publishing on Substack so far, their talent, and their potential with the subscription model. However, I want to stress that this selection approach is a one-off and we've only done it this way to bootstrap the program. In future, we will open it up to applications.

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Thanks, Hamish

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Fellowships for independent writers? Complete with stipends, coaching, and support for publicity and social media strategy? Wow, Substack, I am thoroughly impressed. While some companies continue to dodge freelancers' invoices and exploit them with unpaid internships and all manner of disrespectful treatment, you step up to the plate with THIS. I've already thanked you many times for what you're doing for writers and readers alike, but now I must thank you once again, and even more wholeheartedly this time. Kudos! And congrats to the Substack fellows!

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Nice initiative. Truly, substack is the best I have come across.

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👏 Awesome initiative.

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Congrats. May I be adopted by the selected 5?A sort of give back of what they receive. Anyway : those writing in a non English language will never be supported, I suppose.

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