A guide to publication sections
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As your publication expands to include more posts, topics, and contributors, Sections are a tool to create different mailing lists associated with distinct topics.
Each section will appear in a tab at the top of your publication’s homepage. Additionally, your subscribers can opt into or out of receiving emails for each section on their account page at https://yourdomain.substack.com/account.
If you are looking for a tool to organize your posts without creating separate mailing lists, learn more about Tags.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through our publication sections feature:
How writers are using sections
How to create a new section
How to add posts to a section
How to manage your sections
How to help your readers navigate sections
How writers are using sections
Substack writers are using publication sections in a variety of creative ways.
Here are some examples to inspire you:
Burnt Toast: Podcaster and author Virginia Sole-Smith has unique sections for her podcast, essays, advice column, and behind the scenes of her latest book.
The Free Press: A publication with a high volume of posts uses a hidden section to send out roundups to subscribers. This allows the authors to send posts via email that do not show up on their publication website.
The Ankler: A multi-contributor publication covering the entertainment industry uses sections to separate the different beats covered by different writers.
The Charlotte Ledger: A local news publication has sections for transit news and obituaries.
Recommentunde: A comedy publication has sections for multiple podcasts.
Create a section
To create a new section, go to your publication dashboard, then click on the “Settings” tab. On the Settings page, scroll to “Sections” and click “Add section.”
Name the section, write a one-line description, and add a logo. Like your publication’s one-line description, the section’s one-line description should speak to your target audience and emphasize the value they will get when they subscribe. The goal should be for a reader to see your section and think, “That’s for me!”
Advanced settings allow you to type in the name of the email sender for a section. This is helpful when you have multiple contributors on a publication and one person is the primary publisher of a given section. Additionally, you have the option to hide posts from your homepage, so posts appear only in a specific section. This can be helpful when you cover a really niche beat that only a subset of your subscribers care about.
In any section, you can also host a podcast. You can add the podcast when you create the new section or come back and add one later.
Finally, choose if you’d like to add new subscribers by default and copy your existing email list to the new section. While sections themselves cannot be marked free or paid as a whole, you can control free or paid access at the post level.
If you want to create a section but need some time before you tell your subscribers about it, head to “Website” in your “Settings” and hide the section from “Navigation.”
Add posts to a section
When drafting a new post, you can choose to publish it to a specific section by using the dropdown menu that displays above the post title.
You can also add an existing post to a section by clicking “Edit post,” then selecting a section from the dropdown menu. Posts can be pinned to individual sections after publishing.
Your publication homepage will display a feed of all posts, including those published to specific sections. Readers can view posts from a specific section by clicking on the tab at the top of the homepage. Your subscribers can also opt in or out of receiving emails for each section on their account page.
Manage your sections
Sections are managed under your main publication. You can change the section URL or edit its name, description, and logo at any time from “Sections” in “Settings.” The theme and team permissions for your publication apply to all sections.
To view or analyze subscriber data for each section, navigate to the “Subscribers” tab of your publication dashboard. Click “Filter,” select “Emails enabled for” in the first dropdown, then select one or more sections that you want to display subscribers for.
Read more: A guide to the subscriber dashboard
Help your readers navigate sections
If you decide to turn the default sign-up to your section off for new readers, encourage them to visit their account settings and select the sections they want to subscribe to. Use your.substack.com/account to send readers to the settings.
Including a short blurb about each of your sections in your Welcome email with instructions to subscribe in the settings page can be an effective way to help readers get the writing they want most from you.
Examples:
In
’s welcome email to free subscribers, he introduces his sections and explains how subscribers can access the posts they want.
- uses a pinned welcome post to explain the types of posts he sends from each section.
Note: This post was updated on May 2, 2023, to reflect updates to the feature and new Sections examples.
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A guide to publication sections