Introducing The Substack Bulletin
A roundup of news, education, and opportunities for publishers
Welcome to the Substack Bulletin.
Consider this your essential dispatch with the latest news, resources, and community-building opportunities for Substack publishers.
We hope you enjoy this first edition, and please leave us any feedback or ideas in the comments. We’re listening and curious to see how we can make this regular post as valuable to you as possible.
News
We launched direct messaging. Publishers can also now DM paid subscribers who send them notes.
A few weeks ago, we announced an upgrade to our recommendations network designed to increase new subscriptions to your Substack and help new followers find you on Notes. Since the launch, we’ve seen a 30% increase in subscriptions from recommendations in addition to a large increase in following.
Understand how your Substack audience is growing. You can now see both your subscriber and follower count in your subscriber dashboard. To understand how followers and subscribers are growing over time, view the graph in the All followers tab. Learn more.
We shipped advanced layouts. These tools give writers more ways to showcase a variety of offerings on their homepage. You can sort now your homepage into sections like we do on On Substack, add contributors and podcast modules, and more. Head to Settings > Website > Customize. Learn more.
Resources
How to collaborate with fellow publishers. With the launch of DMs and a new recommendations upgrade, there’s a full stack of tools for connecting and collaborating with other writers on Substack. To get inspired for how you might do this, explore our interviews with Anne Byrn and Elizabeth Held, as well as our popular resource How Substack writers can collaborate to grow.
How to customize your Substack website. Now’s a good time to revisit your website design and consider using our new layout tools. Read our guide to customizing and organizing your Substack website and get inspired by watching our interview with Leah Mennies of
about how she makes her own graphics.- shares his podcast tech stack, workflows, and lessons. Glean tips from the successful writer and podcaster in his latest post.
Chatbot question of the week: Where do I find my 1099 form?
Lots of writers are turning to our new chatbot to figure out where to find their 1099 for U.S. tax season. If you are looking for yours, head to your Stripe dashboard and navigate to the tax forms section to download your 1099 form. For more detailed info, you can visit Stripe’s support page here or read our Help Center article.
Do you create resources or workshops for other writers, podcasters, and creators on Substack? Let them know in the comments.
Community
Meetups: Hundreds of writers jumped into the final Office Hours thread to find and connect with like-minded peers. Browse the thread here. Coming up,
is hosting a meetup in Amsterdam, in Charlotte, in San Francisco, plus more hosted online. Don’t see your city or category? Host your own meetup.Milestones:
received two Pushcart Prize nominations for her Substacks. was shortlisted for a True Crime Award. garnered two Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) annual writing contest awards. ’s new book is coming out soon, and announced the sale of his new novel. A film based on an article by premiered this week.In the press: The Washington Post reported on
’s new media company, which recently launched on Substack. The Wall Street Journal profiled leading culture writer Jessica Reed Kraus, of . ’s Jonah Weiner wrote the cover story for the New York Times Magazine. The Business of Fashion interviewed , , and about using Substack to paywall their content.
Celebrating a milestone or press feature? Let us know in the comments.
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