Okay, someone needs to start a match-making Substack for writers in search of a pen pal!
(Please tell me if someone already has.)
Looking through the comments, I see a lot of folks wanting to exchange letters with others on a certain theme or topic, but not sure how to get connected.
Hi Medha, what an absolute joy to come across your posts. As a multi-hyphenate, teacher-artist-writer I thoroughly enjoyed the visual elements along with your writing on your posts. My substack teacups and tiny victories talks of the whispers of well-being that ignite your mind, spark creativity, navigate life's bends, and find tiny triumphs in the everyday. I share stories, actionable mental health tips, and inspiration, one joyful post at a time. I would love to collaborate sometime. We seem to have a lot in common!
Hi Matt, I realize this is replying to a post almost a year old, but I learned something today and wanted to put that knowledge here and also see if you've discovered this tool! If you go from your Dashboard > Stats > Subscriber Report then scroll down, on the bottom right corner is "Audience Overlap." Here is what mine looks like:
Ah, not letting me import or paste. I'll email to you. Anyone else on this thread interested, give it a try, or contact me and I can send a snip.
I'm interested for sure! I write about market aligned strategies in the food justice movement and disability advocacy through a neurodivergent lens, and I just found out Michael Moore is in my Audience Overlap list ;D I am SO reaching out!!!!
Love that Substack is slowly reviving the best parts of the mid-late 2000s blog era. Back and forth exchanges were a key aspect of that network and always a joy to see direct exchange of idea.
I'm currently working on a Substack Letters series with another Substacker and we are handwriting physical letters to accompany our newsletter posts. Hopefully we'll be able to share this early in 2023!
I love how many of the new Substack features are an invitation to creativity! I'm immediately thinking of all the great epistolary conversations--Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick, Anais Nin and Henry Miller... I can imagine so many ways to use these tools in the service of interesting writing. I was already planning to use the mention and crossposting tools this upcoming Friday, when Juke will have a guest post from another Substack writer. But I hadn't thought of "letters" and now I'm curious to try that out. It's so great to see Substack continuing to encourage long-form thought and conversation. Thank you!!
I, too, love this idea and agree Substack is bringing back the best parts of 2000s blogging creating connection between writers and also finding niche audiences for subjects. I would love to find a partner who is interested in co-hosting a letters exchange on TV and pop culture. I would welcome the back and forth and cultural exchange of ideas.
Hey Beth - just hopped on this thread to say something similar. Looks like we talk about the same things, pop culture, etc. Maybe we could chat some time? -Patrick
This is all really helpful and you can see how these changes are creating something special on Substack that you won't find on Ghost, Wordpress, Medium, etc.
Just yesterday: I had a fun exchange with some other writers in the comments section of an On Substack post. We subscribed to one another's publications and took some of the conversations offline into email. Shortly after that, one of those writers sent me a 900-word essay in response to a story request I'd posted and pinned a few weeks ago. Very cool!
I love the spirit of collaboration on this platform (and absence of critics and trolls!) So refreshing. Looking forward to collaborating with other writers who overlap with topics around psychology, yoga, spirituality, trauma, life, aging and much more 😊
This is such an exciting development. I find myself reading to the end of all Substack origin emails. I'm cant wait to see what new thing is being introduced. Now I will be looking to write letters with someone. I love the optimism!
I'm so glad to be a part of Substack! It's an incredibly positive abd great platform for freelance journalists and writers as I am, but I often wonder if Substack is going to growing for the Spanish-speaking world. (Spanish is the second most-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin)
I've been on Substack for just 1 month, and everything I've published son far has been in Spanish, yet, little by little I've been growing my follower base, even without domingo any promotions. I wonder if Letters has any other Spanish-language writer?
Querida Sandra, que bueno encontrar a otra persona que escriba en Español,!!!!! yo también lo hago, soy de Argentina. Escribo dos newsletter, este que es la previa a la edición de nuestra Revista Perinatal Argentina revistaperinatalnews.substack.com y otro propio patriciadiaz26.substack.com sobre Biblioterapia, un camino de encuentro entre lecturas.
Acuerdo contigo que Substack ayuda a la creatividad de una forma muy interesante, siempre hay algo nuevo para aplicar y esto es realmente motivador!!! También es mi anhelo que la comunidad de habla hispana crezca!!
Encantada de conocerte. Escribo desde Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 y apenas comienzo. Iré
ampliando esto poco a poco.
Por ahora público diariamente los titulares de noticias en audio bajo Sandra me dijo y algunos artículos . Planifico expandir en videos pronto... Quizás debemos iniciar algo para mover la conversación. ¿Te animas?
Hola! Yo no escribo mi boletín en español hasta ahora, porque el espacio en Substack posts es limitado para hacerlo bilingue, que es lo que yo prefiero. Yo escribo acerca de la cultura del activismo, es decir, la vida y experiencia diaria de luchar por la justicia social, y me enfoco mucho en ver cómo la ficción-- novelas, películas, etc.--presenta a personajes activistas, o sea, de manera auténtica o estereotipada. O si los ignora, lo cual es lo más común. Trato de darle un tono ligero con gráficas y dibujos.
Me parece que hay intersección entre lo que estamos haciendo, y tal vez se podría buscar un tema que nos interese a las tres, para hacer un intercambio de cartas. Para mí que sería bien interesante. De otro modo, si Uds. dos quieren hacer un intercambio primero, yo lo seguiría, y quedaría al pendiente para participar en hacer una segunda ronda.
I loved exchanging a guest post with Domenica Marchetti from @domenicacooks - that helped us grow our reach and meet new interesting people and reader!
Thank you for mentioning the Mason Currey logo story!
It was such a serendipitous occurrence made possible by the spontaneity of the chat feature (and the ability to share images in chat: thank you for that feature).
This is an exciting update from substack. I am inclined to start a letter exchange on a number of important topics. Thank you for the new functionality additions!
In days of yore, snail-mail was still HAND-DELIVERED twice a day, including Saturdays. Sunday was still respected as a Day of Rest.
I still possess and frequently use a fountain pen which I won in a Handwriting competition I entered in my final year at Primary School (1961). It is still possible to buy a bottle of ink, but I shudder at the price … o tempora, o mores!!
I wrote to pen pals (in more than one language) throughout my secondary years – with one of them I even played out a complete game of Chess by post!
Sitting on my work desk are four stuffed A4 scrapbooks with letters I have written over the years to a number of daily newspapers I and which were considered suitable for publication. One lengthy ‘chapter’ in these files are the Match reports I wrote for the local cricket team over a five year period when I was living in Denmark. Half the team were English ex-pats: you can take the man away from his cricket, but you can’t take cricket out of the man! I have to admit, however, that many of the most recent Letters were sent electronically.
Above one of the district libraries in Liverpool is a saying from Sir Francis Bacon:-
Reading maketh a Full Man
Conference a Ready man
And Writing an Exact man
This is indeed a sentiment with which I can fully concur!
Sincerely
Paul McDermott Liverpool
Sadly, my attempt[s] to enrich this letter with a modicum of Formatting [Bold, Italic, Underline] have proved unsuccessful!
However, if any member wishes to correspond by handwritten message and despite the Post Office's attempts to thwart such projects with ever-increasing postal charges, you are more than welcome to contact me by e-mail in the first instance, and we can agree to exchange post addresses
I’m very excited for all the new updates and features on Substack. Really love the writer-to-writer connection and empowerment that all the new features facilitate.
I’d LOVE to incorporate more co-authoring, cross-posts, letter exchanges, and recommendations in my publication, rather than just continue to write from my soapbox so to speak...
Some topics I think might be exciting/refreshing/chatter-worthy to collaborate on:
-Letter/lecture series on mental health: experience, tools to help, etc
-Letter/lecture series/friendly debate on masculinity and the line of toxicity
-Co-author inspiring or simply timeless short stories
-Co-author a themed sort of virtual chapbook, or even single bout of poems
Okay, someone needs to start a match-making Substack for writers in search of a pen pal!
(Please tell me if someone already has.)
Looking through the comments, I see a lot of folks wanting to exchange letters with others on a certain theme or topic, but not sure how to get connected.
I second this suggestion! Great idea.
Hi Medha, what an absolute joy to come across your posts. As a multi-hyphenate, teacher-artist-writer I thoroughly enjoyed the visual elements along with your writing on your posts. My substack teacups and tiny victories talks of the whispers of well-being that ignite your mind, spark creativity, navigate life's bends, and find tiny triumphs in the everyday. I share stories, actionable mental health tips, and inspiration, one joyful post at a time. I would love to collaborate sometime. We seem to have a lot in common!
I third this idea!
This is such a great idea!
I would love this too. My focus is moving through life and learning lessons from it. Learn, Grow and Thrive! I would love to collaborate with others.
I would like to collaborate with you Chellie! I am new and don't have a big list but would like to help.
Fourthed
Hi Matt, I realize this is replying to a post almost a year old, but I learned something today and wanted to put that knowledge here and also see if you've discovered this tool! If you go from your Dashboard > Stats > Subscriber Report then scroll down, on the bottom right corner is "Audience Overlap." Here is what mine looks like:
Ah, not letting me import or paste. I'll email to you. Anyone else on this thread interested, give it a try, or contact me and I can send a snip.
I'm interested for sure! I write about market aligned strategies in the food justice movement and disability advocacy through a neurodivergent lens, and I just found out Michael Moore is in my Audience Overlap list ;D I am SO reaching out!!!!
Thank you for sharing. Will look into it :)
I am interested if anyone manages to get one!
Great idea. Count me in!
Yes, I'd like to match-make/collaborate with any stock investment writers!
that's an inventive idea, Matt
Tell them during the office hours?
Love that Substack is slowly reviving the best parts of the mid-late 2000s blog era. Back and forth exchanges were a key aspect of that network and always a joy to see direct exchange of idea.
Great work!
I'm currently working on a Substack Letters series with another Substacker and we are handwriting physical letters to accompany our newsletter posts. Hopefully we'll be able to share this early in 2023!
I love the physical component of this! Niiice.
Love the handwritten note idea! So fun and nostalgic
Great idea!
Yes and that's a tremendously huge culture for calligraphy too
I love how many of the new Substack features are an invitation to creativity! I'm immediately thinking of all the great epistolary conversations--Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick, Anais Nin and Henry Miller... I can imagine so many ways to use these tools in the service of interesting writing. I was already planning to use the mention and crossposting tools this upcoming Friday, when Juke will have a guest post from another Substack writer. But I hadn't thought of "letters" and now I'm curious to try that out. It's so great to see Substack continuing to encourage long-form thought and conversation. Thank you!!
Yes, love this idea!
I, too, love this idea and agree Substack is bringing back the best parts of 2000s blogging creating connection between writers and also finding niche audiences for subjects. I would love to find a partner who is interested in co-hosting a letters exchange on TV and pop culture. I would welcome the back and forth and cultural exchange of ideas.
I'm interested as well!
Hey Beth - just hopped on this thread to say something similar. Looks like we talk about the same things, pop culture, etc. Maybe we could chat some time? -Patrick
Love this so much! Looking for contributors for letters and guest posts for my Substack – has to do with sexuality, BDSM, monogamy vs non-monogamy…
This is all really helpful and you can see how these changes are creating something special on Substack that you won't find on Ghost, Wordpress, Medium, etc.
Just yesterday: I had a fun exchange with some other writers in the comments section of an On Substack post. We subscribed to one another's publications and took some of the conversations offline into email. Shortly after that, one of those writers sent me a 900-word essay in response to a story request I'd posted and pinned a few weeks ago. Very cool!
yeah indeed, very cool :)
I love the spirit of collaboration on this platform (and absence of critics and trolls!) So refreshing. Looking forward to collaborating with other writers who overlap with topics around psychology, yoga, spirituality, trauma, life, aging and much more 😊
Hi there! I'd be interested in collaborating. Loving your articles. 😊
Great! I'm away travelling at the moment but will have a look at your page when I get a chance 😊
This is such an exciting development. I find myself reading to the end of all Substack origin emails. I'm cant wait to see what new thing is being introduced. Now I will be looking to write letters with someone. I love the optimism!
I'm so glad to be a part of Substack! It's an incredibly positive abd great platform for freelance journalists and writers as I am, but I often wonder if Substack is going to growing for the Spanish-speaking world. (Spanish is the second most-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin)
I've been on Substack for just 1 month, and everything I've published son far has been in Spanish, yet, little by little I've been growing my follower base, even without domingo any promotions. I wonder if Letters has any other Spanish-language writer?
Not yet, that I know of, but if you hosted one with another Spanish-language writer you could be the first!
Why July 17?
Let's see if I can do.it these days
Hola!!! Escribo Mi diario viajero en español 😉
Querida Sandra, que bueno encontrar a otra persona que escriba en Español,!!!!! yo también lo hago, soy de Argentina. Escribo dos newsletter, este que es la previa a la edición de nuestra Revista Perinatal Argentina revistaperinatalnews.substack.com y otro propio patriciadiaz26.substack.com sobre Biblioterapia, un camino de encuentro entre lecturas.
Acuerdo contigo que Substack ayuda a la creatividad de una forma muy interesante, siempre hay algo nuevo para aplicar y esto es realmente motivador!!! También es mi anhelo que la comunidad de habla hispana crezca!!
Encantada de conocerte. Escribo desde Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 y apenas comienzo. Iré
ampliando esto poco a poco.
Por ahora público diariamente los titulares de noticias en audio bajo Sandra me dijo y algunos artículos . Planifico expandir en videos pronto... Quizás debemos iniciar algo para mover la conversación. ¿Te animas?
Por supuesto! Sandra, yo también me identifico como libre pensadora, sobre todo en mi Newsletter personal
Vamos a conectarnos para iniciar una de éstas conversaciones. ¿Te animas?
Cuando quieras!!! si te parece yo lo haría desde mi Newsletter de Biblioterapia
Hola! Yo no escribo mi boletín en español hasta ahora, porque el espacio en Substack posts es limitado para hacerlo bilingue, que es lo que yo prefiero. Yo escribo acerca de la cultura del activismo, es decir, la vida y experiencia diaria de luchar por la justicia social, y me enfoco mucho en ver cómo la ficción-- novelas, películas, etc.--presenta a personajes activistas, o sea, de manera auténtica o estereotipada. O si los ignora, lo cual es lo más común. Trato de darle un tono ligero con gráficas y dibujos.
Me parece que hay intersección entre lo que estamos haciendo, y tal vez se podría buscar un tema que nos interese a las tres, para hacer un intercambio de cartas. Para mí que sería bien interesante. De otro modo, si Uds. dos quieren hacer un intercambio primero, yo lo seguiría, y quedaría al pendiente para participar en hacer una segunda ronda.
I loved exchanging a guest post with Domenica Marchetti from @domenicacooks - that helped us grow our reach and meet new interesting people and reader!
Thank you for mentioning the Mason Currey logo story!
It was such a serendipitous occurrence made possible by the spontaneity of the chat feature (and the ability to share images in chat: thank you for that feature).
I was delighted when I saw it!
This is an exciting update from substack. I am inclined to start a letter exchange on a number of important topics. Thank you for the new functionality additions!
In days of yore, snail-mail was still HAND-DELIVERED twice a day, including Saturdays. Sunday was still respected as a Day of Rest.
I still possess and frequently use a fountain pen which I won in a Handwriting competition I entered in my final year at Primary School (1961). It is still possible to buy a bottle of ink, but I shudder at the price … o tempora, o mores!!
I wrote to pen pals (in more than one language) throughout my secondary years – with one of them I even played out a complete game of Chess by post!
Sitting on my work desk are four stuffed A4 scrapbooks with letters I have written over the years to a number of daily newspapers I and which were considered suitable for publication. One lengthy ‘chapter’ in these files are the Match reports I wrote for the local cricket team over a five year period when I was living in Denmark. Half the team were English ex-pats: you can take the man away from his cricket, but you can’t take cricket out of the man! I have to admit, however, that many of the most recent Letters were sent electronically.
Above one of the district libraries in Liverpool is a saying from Sir Francis Bacon:-
Reading maketh a Full Man
Conference a Ready man
And Writing an Exact man
This is indeed a sentiment with which I can fully concur!
Sincerely
Paul McDermott Liverpool
Sadly, my attempt[s] to enrich this letter with a modicum of Formatting [Bold, Italic, Underline] have proved unsuccessful!
However, if any member wishes to correspond by handwritten message and despite the Post Office's attempts to thwart such projects with ever-increasing postal charges, you are more than welcome to contact me by e-mail in the first instance, and we can agree to exchange post addresses
I would love to exchange letters with someone. I'm open for an invite. I like to write about stoicism or people in general.
I’m very excited for all the new updates and features on Substack. Really love the writer-to-writer connection and empowerment that all the new features facilitate.
I’d LOVE to incorporate more co-authoring, cross-posts, letter exchanges, and recommendations in my publication, rather than just continue to write from my soapbox so to speak...
Some topics I think might be exciting/refreshing/chatter-worthy to collaborate on:
-Letter/lecture series on mental health: experience, tools to help, etc
-Letter/lecture series/friendly debate on masculinity and the line of toxicity
-Co-author inspiring or simply timeless short stories
-Co-author a themed sort of virtual chapbook, or even single bout of poems
Any takers? :)
Nice idea. Keep it up.
I'd be more than happy to collaborate with you if you're keen, Keaton! ❤
Good day ma.
I hope you're doing well ma.
I would love to collaborate with you