he messaging part to "subscribe" is not the friendliest UX imo, but will work for people who are determined to get updates. 

Ideally, you'd have a way to subscribe to author updates from the clients they are reading from (e.g I click "Subscribe to franzap" in Habla OR, a client that is dedicated to subscription management. 

This is a big idea that we need to make Substack alternatives work! First make subs work, then add payments and we've got ourselves an open substack.