144 Comments

SO MUCH GOOD STUFF HERE from folk who try out new ideas so fearlessly and put so much heart into their work. Next generation of Substack writers: please start here (then experiment away wildly until you're as delightfully weird as they are).

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I have the milestones to report of over 3500 subscribers and over 200 paid subscribers within 7 months for “Everything is Personal,” a literary publication alternating memoir, fiction, social commentary, and criticism. lauriestone.Substack.com.

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Hello from another publication in the unofficial "Everything Is..." Substack multiverse. 😁

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Rad rad rad!! Congrats!

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Laurie, how many did you start with? Did you have a following, pre-Substack?

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I transferred about 900 from my email contacts list and built up from there. I already had a following on Facebook and people kindly subscribed and are paying to support an entirely literary project. Please take a look if you like.

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This is super inspiring Laurie! I was wondering about whether to transfer my (pretty cold) list of around 400 email subscribers into my Substack, or write to them first and invite them to subscribe. Was it straightforward for you?

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Well, you appear to be a person with a rigorous sense of boundaries. I basically took them hostage, hoping for the Stockholm syndrome to set in. An astonishing number of my people are academics, who probably are too inept to unsubscribe.

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Also, I just subscribed!

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Thanks for the info, Laurie!

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Wow that’s super impressive Laurie, way to go! Love your work, especially as a fellow memoirist!

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That is smashing to hear. Huge thanks.

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Congratulations to everyone and thank you for sharing your stories 🎉 I’m new to Substack and am celebrating 2 new subscribers this month 🥰

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Thanks Substack! Imma celebrate my wins: I got one new sign up last month!!! 🎉

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Congrats to everyone . I just finished two years too and just published my anniversary issue at Journeys and Jottings and have set a goal to get my next 1000 subscribers within this year

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Thank you, Subtack, for your warmth and cheer,

For fulfilling dreams I've held so dear,

Together, in this dance of words we share,

I am eternally grateful you are there.

❤️❤️

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Appreciate the shoutout Substack team. Thank you for featuring our newsletter.

Congratulations to all. Great work!

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I’m very close to 200 subscribers at the moment. It’s feeling pretty good. Hoping to get to 300 by the end of the year.

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Nice work Andrew! You can do it.

I'd love to hit 100 by the end of the year, but I'm really grateful to have the subscribers I already have and how much weekly encouragement it brings me to keep writing and enjoying the process and community.

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For sure. How long have you been writing? It took me about a year and 3 months to reach 50, by a year and a half I had 100. By the end of my second year, I had 150. So just to give you a general concept of how long it might take.

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That's great to hear your journey. I feel like that's something we don't often get to see or know, though of course I'm sure it's different for everyone.

I'm, err, two months in haha.

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How far have you gotten along? I've seen people say they got further than I have in that time and people who have struggled.

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I'm just shy of 30 subs, so I'm super happy with where I'm at. I'm not into social media (plus I'm writing under a pseudonym) and so really just trying to grow organically as much as I can.

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Totally get that. Personally what I've done is found places where people are talking about what I'm writing, namely about film and television. So I post about my content on social media groups where these places are often discussed.

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Good job. I'm tickled because I had 20 reads! Up to 3 subscribers and digging it.

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Thank you for the mention 🤗

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Congratulations to you for your amazing success, Peter!

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Thanks for the shout-out! It really has been lovely to build a little community around topics dear to my heart... like how writing is impossible and will completely wreck you (kidding, mostly)

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Congrats Mason (and to everyone else featured, and to everyone else for simply following their dreams of writing).

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Celebrating two full years on Substack with Wine Wanderings with almost 2400 subscribers, 39 paid. Most importantly tourism bureaus (France, Spain, US), PR firms, Wineries, distilleries, other magazines, and new readers are contacting me directly. Lots of great content to come. Thanks, Substack!

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Congratulations!

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Congratulations, Tricia! That's steady, healthy growth.

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Also, I just subscribed! Feel free to check out www.brunettegardens.com as well.

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These are all so inspiring! I am very new here in Substack, lots to learn. Congratulations to all that have made such amazing contributions to this platform and their readers.

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Isn’t it so lovely to see. ✨

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My two-year Substack anniversary is coming up in a month, but here is my one-year milestone post:

• "My One-Year Substack Anniversary! + In Five Years (a Short Story)" (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/my-one-year-substack-anniversary)

The subsequent year has been even more epic. Within the past week alone, I've appeared as a guest on the Glenn Beck show (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/woke-is-not-a-slur-heres-what-it-actually-means/id620967489?i=1000604531516 @ 1:26:08) and published a video collaboration (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem-57a) with Dr. Tess Lawrie (https://drtesslawrie.substack.com/) reading my poem (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem) as filmed by Mark Lawrie, the director of my #1 red-pilling video (https://rumble.com/vwfia3-a-letter-to-andrew-hill-dr-tess-lawrie-oracle-films.html), and our video has been trending on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MargaretAnnaAl1) for three days and counting, garnering millions of views and enthusiastic responses from dozens of prominent international figures among thousands of other folks!

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Awesome!

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Congratulations! Those are significant strides.

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Thank you, Lisa, and I love the garden pics at your Stack!

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Thank you so much!

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Congrats MAA - I am eternally in your debt for getting me on Substack last year but I still repost to the monkeys at the zoo, lovely bunch of paper terrorists- they always have dollops of wisdom to give:

https://www.theburningplatform.com/author/austrian-peter/

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Awesome list, including all of the great suggestions on connecting with an audience! I celebrated one year on Future Thief (https://futurethief.substack.com) not too long ago, and the one thing I'll say that has helped the most is consistent, quality content, and letting people know you exist. Not through shameless self-promotion, but by providing genuine feedback on other Substacks, getting involved in communities and collectives and by contributing back to the readers and writers around you.

On another note, I have a new anniversary... er, birth announcement? I launched a new Substack called the Lunar Awards (https://lunarawards.substack.com), which aims to recognize and award authors of speculative fiction across Substack. This is a natural trajectory to gather our peeps together, get more eyes on their fiction short stories and read great science fiction and fantasy. It's a way for me to give back and continue to grow a fantastic community. Join us!

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Two reasons for a congratulations!

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Congratulations 👏 great to read. I am writing Concepts of Finance, which I’ve just recently started. Excited by all these newsletter stories.

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