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I'm definitely not a new writer (more than 2 1/2 years on Substack), but thought I'd say hi anyway and encourage new writers to connect with others in the community. Connecting with other writers is one of the most important things you can do - it helps give you encouragement and support to keep going and produce quality work and it helps you grow your readership too.
Thanks for the encouragement, Melanie! I'm not new to Substack, either, but I haven't yet nailed down a publishing cadence. I'm working on building community right now--any tips that have worked for you? :)
Two things have helped me. One is looking for other writers who are writing about similar topics and subscribing/ liking/ commenting on their posts. The other is asking my readers questions.
Well, a third thing is participating in these Office Hours
I do ask questions in some of my posts--that's a good tactic. As for finding people writing about the same topics...my newsletter isn't topic-specific. 😅 I am starting to find others whose work I really enjoy, though, so that counts, right?
It took me a long time to build connections. Not all writers seem interested in doing so. Also, I think that when it comes to things like recommendations, you are more likely to get recommended if you have been around and writing for a while.
Yes kettlebells! I honestly am not to worried about it because I am so early in my journey. I am enjoying purposefully rebuilding my Twitter and connecting there as well.
REbuilding Twitter. Also interesting! I quit all social media use in October and haven't gone back, but I've considered doing some light Twitter rebuilding, myself. How's that going...and why is it a rebuild?
Thanks Melanie. I don't feel "new" but I think at 3 months in, I still count as a new writer on Substack;) I think your points are bang-on. What I've enjoyed most about writing here are the comments I have received sometimes leading into a nice back and forth. This engagement has led to new connections and a feeling of developing community. Also, finding other writers' publications and commenting on their work. I've learned so much from the quality of what's being written and depth of insight.
I found quite a few through Office Hours - if you have over a person's name you get the name of their substack and their one-liner. I also used the search function on Substack's "browse" page. This was slow and annoying, but worth the effort. I've found quite a few science/ climate change writers and also writers in my geographical area (New Zealand) by doing this.
Hi Katie! And hi everybody else! I just went through a read all the conversations that were already happening and there is so much interesting stuff on here.
I'm excited this week because I asked my subscribers if they wanted to do The Artist's Way with me, and over 40 people have said yes so far! I've never been able to finish it, and wanted to try again -- this time with community support. We're all using the subscriber chat to check in with each other weekly, and we start February 5th. Lots of people are still trickling in. According to the Substack data, 24 free subscribers are 6 paying subscribers came in after reading one of my two Artist's Way posts, which is a lot for my little newsletter! https://aliv.substack.com/p/do-the-artists-way-with-me-via-the
On the Substack side, I'm wondering if there will ever be an online version of the chat. Some people said they didn't want to use their phone to write, so I'm considering adding monthly email threads (sent only to Artist Way participants), a discord, or monthly check-in Zooms, but just wondering!
That's awesome! I have never been able to finish the Artist's Way either but the ideas have stuck with me. Really cool you are using chat and hosting the journey on Substack.
It's on our team's radar to offer a web version of Chat but no official plans.
Awesome, thank you for letting me know! I do love the chat in the app and I think it will be a such a tremendous way for us all to check in with each other as we go.
And totally, even though I haven't finished it before the artist dates in particular have stuck with me. Excited to finish it this time with the help of my Substack community!
Oh! I have subscribed before even reading your work. I loved The Artist's Way, I used her technicque to manifest a diamond after losing the one in my engagement ring. ;) Thanks for the topic idea too!
That's incredible! I am so excited to do it. I've heard stories about it creating abundance and helping people manifest before, but yours is AMAZING. You should absolutely write about it, and thank you for subscribing!
Thank you!! It's been so fun to see. The process of it is so intimidating (3 months!) so everybody seems to really love the idea of getting support, accountability and encouragement from the community. If you've wanted to do it check it out!
Hi Ali, What a wonderful idea! I myself did The Artist's Way many years ago (and I don't know that I finished it honestly), and it was so wonderful as the author has many suggestions for self-care and nurturing oneself, ideas that were really new to me back then. Am excited to hear about it!
Thank you! I'm definitely craving the artistic reset and inspiration people swear by -- especially reconnecting with why we create in the first place, and letting go of the result. Can't wait to get started.
I came back to tune in here and offer my support for this too! I am about to launch my newsletter and writing here as a painter, writer, collaborator in the visual arts. It has always been part of my website, but now that I have found this community I am keen to share the Art Wonderers PLAY group here too. It dovetails with the principles of the Artist's Way, encouraging people to, as an Art Wonderer group member says "make stuff, and make stuff happen!"
I've tried before and stare at my copy (which I've nestled conveniently in direct eyesight of my reading chair, for extra guilty feels) often. Perhaps now is the time... but the resistance is real.
I know, it's so hard!! It's 100% the reason I wanted to do it with other people. I've had the book for years too -- time to actually get it done and release the guilt!!
Just subscribed! Ironically I've been staring at my copy of this book (which I've also had for years) trying to will myself to commit to actually doing it. Last year was way too busy, but I'm going to take finding this comment and your offering as a message from the universe to jump in. And also not feel guilty if I miss a day :)
The majority of people who've committed to it have had the book for years! We all have a lot in common. So happy you're joining -- and no room for guilty here :)
I'm LOL at how many people haven't finished it! I'm another of them. But one of my 20something daughters just gave the book to her sister for Christmas, so it's reaching into the next generation. Impressive!
Hi Katie and all, I've put together a short tutorial on getting a Substack newsletter started. Just the basic stuff for newbies, and not in any way competing with your own excellent how-to. These are my own thoughts about what they might need to know first.
I'd appreciate it if readers could pass it along to anyone they think might need it. Thanks so much.
I'll be glad to help in any way I can. I've been there!
If you need a kick in the pants, I can do that, too. Joining Writer Everlasting can't hurt, either. We're a great community of writers and we do a lot of commiserating. 😊
I hear ya Diane been that way all my life. Started writing things down more a couple of years ago. My thoughts started coming up onto the paper as verse and poem, plays, short stories ect. I haven't stopped since. But note, get stuff down on paper or use a recorder because some material just floats away and it's gone.
can i suggest something, Vikas? I keep an attractive folder that i've labelled "Substack" rather than have an overwhelming To-Do list stare at me every morning and i open it and just do one task a day till i get more confident with the platform. Slow start but we eventually get there.
My friend told me the same. Just start slow. I have been sending out a newsletter via email to 50 people for 2 months now. I just need to transition to Substack
luckily it is a very comfortable platform to work with once you get all set up, and things make sense, too. Substack team also listen to writers' wants and needs and create new features to help us along.
Hey Medha 😀 Yes, a physical folder. Mine is a glossy A4 size envelope with a button to close and has flamingoes on it. A happy folder that gets me excited to open it up. In it i store bits and bobs of what i'd like to do for Substack. The first page is like a must-do (set-up essentials for Substack) and the rest are literally pieces of paper with ideas about future posts, pix, quotes, etc.
Thank you, I’ve saved it and will definitely consider a subscription once I figure out my strategy for not overwhelming myself. The office hours alone could take up the better part of any of my days.
Hello, I'm not that new (started about 9 months ago) but wanted to say thanks for these writer office hours and all of the new features Substack regularly adds. One I would love to see is integrations, so importing new subscribers from sites like The Sample would be easier than it is now (I know it's not that hard now, but every bit of time saved helps!). I'd also love to be able to get email notifications for new comments but not likes.
Keep up the great work! I'm so glad I chose Substack for my newsletter!
Hi Katie, I visited the accountability thread last week (first time on the Chat function) and as I was getting my hair done - look at the ways we can work due to technology; - I posted about my writing goals and accomplishments. What a wonderful way to remind us of the efforts we are putting in week over week!
Someone from Substack (I can't remember who) mentioned somewhere in this Office Hours (am I sounding vague enough yet?) that adding the chat function to the web version was on the engineers' radar, but not to expect it soon.
The ones I've participateed in for smaller publications tend to be a bit neater. But I haven't really found a way to differentiate the chat from the comments well enough, so I've only used it once or twice so far.
I commented with this above, but in case you don't see it coz Office hours is technically finished, I'm copying it here:
"Someone from Substack (I can't remember who) mentioned somewhere in this Office Hours (am I sounding vague enough yet?) that adding the chat function to the web version was on the engineers' radar, but not to expect it soon."
I am fairly new; I started my Substack about two weeks ago. I have a few posts - Flash Fiction / Non Fiction and a new series of Creative Conundrums which I will be doing weekly posts on. I intend on writing a Writer's Journal too documenting how the process goes for someone who is very new to writing and never studied it / doing it alongside a busy day job!
Hi Siya, Just so you know (I didn't for a while and finally figured it out), you don't have to post the link to your Substack page here because it's automatically a clickable link as part of your picture every time you post or comment during writer office hours.
In the early days, I felt like I was launching my writing into the depths of space. It was hard, and it's still hard with some articles which don't get much engagement. What helps me is that I felt like my writing was something I was doing for me. I could write on any topic I wanted to, when I wanted to (although I did have a specific focus and schedule, that was self-imposed). The other thing that helped is that I'm in the habit of writing. I get up really early to write every day, no matter what. This routine really keeps me going
Thankfully I don't have to get up early to write anymore. But when I was working, I'd get up at 3:30-4:00 am and write until I had to leave for work at 5:30. Now I get up at 7 to move the car so the wife can go to work.
I knew I loved to write and having no subscribers didn't mean that I wasn't having an effect on someone through my writing. I was still getting readers. I wasn't going to stop just because no one had subscribed. I jumped on Office Hours and other's newsletters and commented and subscribed. Eventually, people started signing up. And when I switched to writing funny stories and some non funny stories, things took off. I had to wait for 2 months before I got my first subscriber but now I have many.
I get that. This is the first time I jumped on here, and I can see how it might bring readers to my page. I've started leaving comments on other pages and trying to be more "sociable." I'm hoping to break 100 by the end of the month.(I only need 5 more subscribers.)
I always think I'm doing something wrong when I don't get followers for a week or two. But I tell myself I'm here for the long haul, and don't sweat the small stuff (of course I always do.) When I get down on myself, I look at the stats and see how many people are actually reading the stuff I put out. It helps keep me sane.
You might consider sections if you want to segment the audience around each topic. This will allow you to have one main hub and the people can choose which parts, which sections, they want to subscribe to.
I've been wanting to do that, but I don't want to send the second newsletter to those who are subscribed to my first newsletter. The two audiences are very different. Can't I use two different email lists for different sections?
You could just do two entirely different Substacks. It's a lot to maintain, but I have two and manage it. The audiences are entirely different, so it's much easier to have two than try to segment them using sections. You can see the differences here:
Hi Everyone! I'm new to Substack (just published my 9th issue), and am slowly getting the hang of things. I have a free Substack now and would like to move into monetizing it - somehow, ether through subscribers or affiliate or sponsors. Any advice on how/when to do this? Thanks!
Writers have found success with a variety of approaches to subscriptions , including offering everything for free and putting everything behind a paywall.
This post (https://on.substack.com/p/free-vs-paid) shares tactics available for converting free readers to paid subscriptions, including how to craft your pitch and an overview of how different publications define their free vs. paid tiers.
Hi Abbey. In my view, there''s no need to wait. I did it right from the beginning. As long as it's voluntary, maybe 15% of your free readers will eventually reward you by paying. And I'd keep it to $5 a month cuz almost every reader who pays has a limited budget to work with.
It depends on what you're writing, but I think Substack says the free-to-paid conversion rate is about 5% of subscribers. I think finance 'stacks tend to have higher conversion rates.
I'm writing a combo motivational message type blog combined with media and products that relate to the message... leaving some opportunities to get affiliate $ too.
I write literary (long) short fiction, and was thinking I wouldn't go paid until I built up a huge readership. I'm thinking, if the writing's good, the readers will eventually find me. I've given myself 2-3 years before I convert...unless something happens and suddenly I have 1000's of followers.
I am also rather new (since October). I just published my 31st post (a mix of essays and podcasts). I have been thinking of monetizing myself. I have always offered a paid option but not put anything behind a paywall as I want it accessible. Now I am considering other avenues such as archiving older posts behind a paywall as well as using the 7-day free trial which allows interested viewers to have full access to see if they want to subscribe. I believe it's an organic process of a balance of providing value to readers while also valuing my own contributions and writing.
My latest post is on the unspeakable stories we carry inside:
There's nothing wrong with monetizing right away, but you might want to keep your newsletter open to all for at least a while. No point in turning off potential readers by shutting them out before they even get a chance to get to know you!
I keep my newsletters open, with paid subscriptions optional, because that works best for me, but do check out others and their reasons for doing what they do.
Hello all! Brand new-BRAND NEW to substack! I had my first post last week during office hours but was on a flight and couldn't really network with everybody! I'm trying to serialize a novel on substack before publishing it in April! Can anybody give me some good ins and outs, tips, and pointers about this? I think I'm going to have to start cutting chapters in half and releasing them as two parts because last weeks chapter one was a 22 minute read? Any thoughts?
Long length may not be bad! On my podcast, episodes are sometimes over an hour long, and I post the transcript with each. It's a very long read, but people subscribe!
I don't think it's bad, it was just a thought I had and then one of my friend who read it said it might not be a bad idea to cut them in half because people will see that 22 minute read tag, and think I don't have the time-not your traditional fiction reader, the novices. I think people who loves novels will read anything, it's just about grabbing others!
Thanks for replying! The average number of pages (print, not paperback size) are about 15 pages long. I really don't want to break my chapters in half just to grab readers but it was a thought. Thanks for sharing!
Don’t. I think the people who are interested will read long posts. I just wrote an article on the dangers of foam insulation and from the emails I received from readers I know they read till the end.
Hey hey! I'm relatively new and just hit a big (for me) subscriber milestone this week. I'm so pumped. I'm also excited to try my first thread this week. It will be formatted as a workshop to integrate the wellness concept I wrote about at the start of the week. Got any tips for increasing engagement? Do my subscribers need to create a Substack account to comment?
Also, my eyes are glued to all the tech / media layoffs. Thankful for Substack <3
Hi Jen, excited your hosting your first thread! It's one of the simplest ways to engage with your subscribers. People will need to subscribe to comment.
OK -- I tried it! How can I create a tab / page at the top that pulls out and displays just my threads into one page so these mini workshops are all together and easy to find?
Re: comments. You can determine who gets to comment in your settings - I let everyone, even non-subscribers who just read my newsletter on its Substack page. I don't know if subscribers need an account to comment, though, and I'm definitely not an expert on how Substack works!
Hi, I've been on Substack since Jan. 1 and so far have accumulated more than 100 subscribers, which is great but I'm always looking for more. I've seen Substack publish emails that give new writers a shoutout, and I'm reaching out today to ask for you to do the same for me, please! Thank you in advance! If it's not already clear, my Substack is titled RiseUP With Dawn Ennis. Thanks!
Wait. What? 100 subscribers in less than a month? That's awesome! That's amazing! Now tell me what your secret is, because it's taken me 7 months, and I still haven't broke 100.
I am fortunate to have a loyal social media following after almost a decade as an online journalist. And to be clear all but 6 subscribers are free! But I’ve noticed a spike anytime I write about JK Rowling!
I would love that as well! I brought my subscribers over from Mailchimp and have only gotten a few new subscribers since I joined Substack a few months ago. Then again I'm only just beginning to figure out this new envirnoment.
A shoutout from Substack would be a huge boost!
Maybe you/we will hear from Substack on how to make that happen :)
Thanks to all my fellow Substack writers here who are liking this comment! So, ummm, is there anyone from Substack here who can make this happen? Hellllloooooo?
Thanks for hosting these, Katie. Greetings to other writers. Quick one (I hope). On the "Browse" tab's "Recommendations," I'm wondering how that list of recommended posts get there "VIA" various writers. I'm not finding a way to directly recommend specific posts like that (even though I recommend various writers, of course). Thanks!
Hiya! I'm super new and need to write on this app. It feels wild to have this much power. I've connected with some writers, but looking to connect with more. I'm focused on talking about marketing from a young age to now owning my agency as a freelancer. It's also going to have a mental health component. Any advice is terrific :)
Hi Leah, My newsletter is about mental health and related topics. Check it out and see if you want to connect further. My main advice is set a publishing schedule (once a week, once a month, whatever works for you) and make it publicly known so you will feel obligated to stick to it when you don't feel like writing or have very many subscribers. That's what has worked for me!
Favorite thing is the Audience stats--knowing the geographic reach of my writing has been illuminating and I still haven't figured out how to adjust but I do sense I need to adjust slightly, in awareness that I do indeed have an international audience and to try to grow that audience. Knowledge is power!
Pie in the sky dream? Some mechanism for author-to-author communication/DM system. It would be nice to be able to click on a profile and send a message to an author I would like to collaborate with; better than commenting off-topic or having to find or solicit their email. Maybe there's a way to do this that I don't know (replying to their newsletter in my inbox comes to mind) but I've never tried that nor has anyone done that to me, so I don't know if that is what people are doing.
Yes, you can reply to a newsletter and that will go direct to the author. But even if you don't subscribe, you can email them with substackname@substack.com. Just check that you are using the substack name in the address bar of your browser. So I can be emailed at theturnstone@substack.com
I agree! I love being able to see where the small group of readers I have comes from! It’s so cool to think that people on the other side of the world want to read my writing!
I would like to easily tag posts. I would like to create categories like Covered Calls, Puts, Credit Spreads, StockPicking and show them on the home page where it makes sense to me.
I have sections headings at top of my newsletters. Not sure if they are effective. No comments, no shares, no engagement and no stats. The dropped emails is what floored me.
I am not following but am curious. Can you elaborate? Thank you.
Do you mean the sub heads that you have. For example, 'Connections' and 'Life Journeys'? I like them, good way to categorize. However I felt the words were not clear as could be interpreted differently and therefore needed explanation, maybe a short phrase
An example
Connections: Learn how to connect better with others.
I'd like to be able to format images so they're left or right aligned with text wrap. A portrait oriented image at its full width is very large on Substack. I end up making these smaller but they're centered with no text around them, which looks a little strange. My best solution so far is to use the gallery feature & put 2-3 portrait photos in there.
I agree with Scoot - DMs to other writers would be awesome! I'd also love for cross-posts to show up on my page, not just get emailed to subscribers. I want to use cross-posts, with a brief intro from me about why I chose to share that post, as my newsletter issue occasionally.
As for my favorite new thing, it's hard to choose just one. Substack is constantly adding great features!
I think it's about recommending other writers 😕 Romona. But I thought it was used to summerize my articles for my subscribers Like a tease to read more, so I did went nowhere
I just did one. When you read an article in your email, just click on the cross-post and it will offer you sa chance to say why you want to suggest it. Say a few words if you want. Then another window pops up, and it asks who you want to send it to, as well as sending it to your entire list of followers. Hit it, and it's done.
Interesting. Thanks. I haven't seen any of them come through in my own inbox yet.
I see a use for it, but I'm already uncomfortable with sending too many posts to my readers' inboxes. I'm not sure I would use it that much--though I would love it if others cross-posted my work! LOL.
Yes Ramona, too posts sent to readers can backfire so to speak. This tool is a recommendation hit and did for at least ten writers 😕 still getting posts in my email but not recs for me. This space is the best engagement tool I've found. Note must jump on O Hours Thursdays and not wait til after. I will be reading and sending replies to writers this week as can
Audience stats and threads ingeneral have been great! I'd love to be able to tag someone in a comment like we can in posts. Also, when tagging in posts, it would be cool if both name and publication came up. If I type "@Elizabeth," a thousand show up--it would be cool if it could show "Elizabeth - What to Read If"
When you have a published post and want a similar format for the next post, you can now duplicate the published post and edit it to create your next post. It makes it easier because the formatting etc is already largely done for you, which means you don't need to create it from scratch!
Yes Medha, yes I already figured a way to facilitate that method by setting up title categories in the drafts headed Duplicate Themes or Article Bits 😊
Still having troubles trying to get that audio embed to actually work. Haven't attempted it lately would really like to include it and enhance the reader experience
I love being able to see where my readers are (and aren't, I was curious to discover that I have very few in Australia).
I'd love a way to make these threads a bit more manageable. When someone has replied to one of my comments, and I find my way back via the email notification, I can only see their comment and not my original comment. Because I'm quite active in these threads, I sometimes don't know what I said to prompt that comment.
Yes to the comments comment, Melanie. I'm completely lost sometimes when I try to get back to someone's comment after I've been notified. Sometimes it takes me there but most of the time it doesn't. I haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong.
I liked seeing the audience insights. It helped me understand that I needed to broaden some content but it also told me that my content was interesting to people outside the US and people are facing similar challenges with construction. I really hope there will be a way to add tables to posts and a way to change font colors. Thank you
Chris, thanks for joining this Office Hours. Love the Audience Insights.
I write monthly (over 2 years now) and the archive of issues (most behind the paywall) needs an easy tool for later discovery (beyond search) - visually appealing, simple to use (for author and subscriber). Thanks.
Favorite is the audience tab. For wishes, I hope for a better discovery tab. I can't see all the categories on my monitor unless I click the arrow, so I feel like some topics aren't getting as much discovery as the ones you can see by default. I wish writers had a more granular way of categorizing their newsletters that would make them easier to search for
I asked this in Katie's thread, but maybe it's better here. Is there any way to tag subscribers? I want to make groups of subscribers so I can offer a promotion to a subset of readers, and then follow up on that promotion. I also want to make sure I don't overlap promotions.
If there's no way to do that currently, are you building any way to tag or group subscribers?
You can send a direct email to a subset of subscribers! On your subscriber dash, filter down to whoever you want to send it to ("five-star free subscribers in the last 90 days"), select them using the checkboxes, then hit the button that says email!
Yes, that works for the first email. But if you want to follow up with that same group later there's no way to do it.
For a more specific example: Do exactly what you describe, and comp all those readers for 30 days. Try to do the same promotion some time later, and you'll end up with a mix of people who have already received that promotion, and new subscribers. And you can't do a followup like "I hope you enjoyed the 30 day comped subscription. If you liked..."
I just realized you can send a followup email to a group that you've already emailed. I clicked on the email that I sent to a group I comped. If you click "View email recipients" there's a button "Email again". If you click that, it gives you a blank email form, that has those same people set as recipients. (The "email again" is different than the "Send again" button you'll see on the email page.)
This is a small help, but it doesn't address the impossibility of managing more than one promotion. If you want to start a new promotion, you have no way of filtering out the people who've already received a promotion, or filtering for a group that's never received a promotion, etc.
One more nice thing: you can look at the people who received that promotion, and see if any of them have become paid subscribers or not.
Hello all, and happy Office Hours! Here's a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
It's just a little too easy to be self-critical, isn't it? Especially as a creative person. Many writers have the unfortunate habit of trying to bully ourselves into productivity and inspiration. Does that work? Maybe...but not for long. No one likes to be pushed around! In case you need it, here's a reminder that bullying yourself doesn't work. To stay consistent in your creativity, you need to be gentle and gracious with yourself. Spend time nourishing your instincts and creative hygiene. Recognize your own flow. Read, rest, and spend time looking at something other than a computer sometimes. When you care about yourself, you'll cultivate a much healthier relationship to productivity, and your community will be drawn to your compassionate authenticity!
I think the idea of “more! More! More!” is one we (writers) out on ourselves; especially those of us offering paid subscriptions. In reality, most readers just want to read quality work in a “quieter” environment than, say, Twitter or IG.
Agree completely, Kevin. I always feel an internal pressure (like now) to publish consistently, but my readers don’t seem to care as long as the work is good.
This is interesting to hear, Glenn, especially since online writing "best practices" (and even Substack's advice to authors) hammers home the idea of consistency as key. But I'm started to wonder if people do, in fact, prefer quality to consistency. Both together is probably ideal if you want to make a living off it, but with inboxes and screens constantly flooded with MORE and MORE content, perhaps readers need a break?
No question, one of the biggest challenges we all face is getting our voices heard amid the noise. I did more than 60 pieces last year, part of a personal goal, but the traction was the same whether I published twice a week or once a month.
The problem when you don’t publish frequently is that you’re not accessing new people. It’s a Catch-22, but my vote ultimately goes toward quality and following my creative muse.
That's the way I'm leaning, too. I want to publish something once every two weeks, and I think that's enough. Maybe I'll add shorter posts or little explorations of half-finished thoughts here and there, but overall I want to publish things that I feel are well-crafted and polished.
Absolutely. I tried out a new thread on my substack last week, but then realized it meant people would get an email from me every day of the week. That's seems like too much, and so overwhelming! So I scaled back immediately.
Most important lesson I learned in writing is that when I don't feel like writing I shouldn't write. It feels like it should be obvious but it isn't. I know now that the muse will come back--it never stays away forever.
I like this and agree with you, and yet I also often want to write and then get resistance. Sometimes though when I start even if I think I have no ideas, it just flows and feels like magic ✨
I have had that happen about as often as I feel like writing but I don't feel inspired to write. Usually when I 'feel like writing' but can't seem to produce anything I am satisfied with, I will make drafts and let them sit until lightning strikes again. Just being gentle with ourselves as SE suggests in the OP! Learn our workflow!
Do you ever freewrite when you don't feel like writing? I find that can break me out of a place of resistance. It's also good for nailing down thoughts when they're bouncing around in my head in a disorganized mess!
Yes true, I don't look at the keyboard when I compose I just let my fingers fly with my thoughts😊 then I edit after. This method is fun and effective in terms of time and 'thought wheeling'
Sometimes--I have journals and that's usually where I let ideas out, because usually they don't come out in something intelligible for essay purposes. My ideas sometimes come as images or bullet points or I tug on one thought and other thoughts open up. writing on paper helps connect to my brain and get the ideas out. Then sometimes I'll turn it into a post, or i'll just feel better that it's out of my brain and the urge will go away for a time.
Yessss, exactly. I'm the same way. I don't have as much time to journal as I used to, but I experience very similar things when I do. My notetaking system is likely unintelligible to people outside my own head. 😅
And I find that patterns of thought emerge from journaling that I can go back to later, pick up the scattered threads, and weave them into an essay.
I agree. Although I do keep an ace up my sleeve. If I don't feel like writing or I can't decide WHAT to write, I go for a walk with no stimulation (so no earbuds etc). It's amazing how often I come back from said walk and immediately sit to write!
Thank you for this reminder! This time of year can be especially tough here in the northeast US where the wintry season combines with lots of behind the computer work it's easy to let getting outside take a back seat. But that makes it so much more important to make the time to "nourish" all these things. Think I'll take this as a push to take a walk and push out some stagnation.
Canada too. I live near Toronto, and it's felt like we've barely got any sunshine this month. Plus a big dumping of snow over the last day and a half. I haven't really wanted to go outside much, but I've been focusing more on creative projects.
no sun here in Switzerland either right now. The "right now" lasts for about 5 months here, so treating oneself is important in winter, in whatever ways you can think of. Walking alone sometimes is a good one; no phone, no doggie - just you and you.
And meanwhile...in Vancouver! Although they're just now saying there's going to be an Arctic Outflow warning coming for the weekend. That's okay. It's almost time for our last snowfall of the season anyway.
THANK YOU for the amazing replies to this topic! I know I normally comment and then step back to let things flow, but I wanted to reply to the few folks asking about what I mean when I say "creative hygiene", especially for myself.
Hygiene basically boils down to rituals that we do regularly--daily, weekly--to maintain health. Creative hygiene, then, is how we maintain the health of our craft, our creative lives. This will be different for every single person, so if your creative rituals look different from someone else's, that's totally fine! Personally, I treat my creativity as seasonal. Some seasons are good for planting and cultivating, some are good for harvesting, and some are good for resting.
That said, routine is vital for my mental health as well as my creativity. I try to maintain a daily habit of morning pages (thank you, Julia Cameron!), as well as showing up to do the bare minimum on my projects every day (currently, adding 500 words to my novel whether I want to or not). Substack is also part of my hygiene rituals; staying consistent by posting here every week is more about rhythm than it is about "success".
While creativity can be an end to itself, of course, I see my writing as a gateway to building community, and therefore it is a tool that must be honed and used in order to remain effective. That means that some projects/posts/journal entries will not be fun or exciting to me, or won't land with my readers. But that's okay. As long as I'm maintaining my creative health, I know that "the good stuff" will come out when it's supposed to.
I hope that clears some things up! Feel free to ask any further questions; I love talking about this stuff! 🌿
Yes S.E, when the creative juices so to speak are really flowing it's sometimes occurs that change in environment might interupt inspiration but found opposite to be true at times. Find I can write the outline themes in one sitting. Self care is vital in all things and fresh air is imperative although I don't get enough...miss my dogs. Incidentally I posted a thread on this topic
How lovely that you are also so inspired by Julia, Sarah. Me too! I recognised the expression "creative hygiene". A huge part of my newsletter is based on her teachings. I recently attended one of her workshops that she did in conjunction with her new book and she has an online book launch this Sunday, too, in case you're interested.
I like the sentiment, but it gets very hard sometimes. I mean, I write stuff that a lot of people tell me they like, but getting eyeballs on it in the first place can be quite a challenge!
i have to admit, Terry, that i am struggling a bit with running 2 bands, 10 social accounts plus running Substack. It's definitely not you writing too much.
i'm a pop musician in 2 bands - one solo and one duo - and in my solo one (Synthie dB Shock) i do almost everything myself, including running twitter, instagram, soundcloud, songwriting, recording, singing, editing, etc etc, it's endless!
Yes, reading, resting, and looking at something other than a computer (especially the natural world - I love to walk in parks or other scenic spots) are all SO important! I need to do more reading (for pleasure; I do plenty for research), resting, and getting out of the house. Not only are they good for my mental health, but they also improve the quality of my writing. Stepping away gives me a fresh perspective and new ideas, and I return to writing refreshed and ready to get back to work. Thanks as always for your wise and encouraging words!
I actually finished an essay ahead of schedule and when I posted the draft, I hated it! 😭
I am back in the draft and redoing some sections but I’ll make it on time. Had to give myself some grace to do that. Thanks again for the encouragement!
you're not alone, Chevanne. Can you maybe turn it into 2 or 3 separate topics? That happens to me more often than i like to admit - i think i'm ready to publish and re-read it, realising that i'm covering several different topics!
Yes yes, this was my initial fear as I have so much material and wheels keep turning. Happened with one post and past editor commented on it. Check the length therein lies the clue that you may have went off course/focus
Ha! I was ‘ahead of schedule’ this week but then super critical of my draft. It will be down the wire tonight, but I’m benefiting from a self imposed deadline.
Thanks for this. There’s been a lot going on in life recently and I’ve been feeling creatively stuck and scattered (something that happens often given the writing and photography I do). Easy to go down the rabbit hole of self critique, so seeing your post was timely.
Interesting phrase--creative hygiene. I can think of a couple things in my writing flow.
1. For promotions, I go back into old posts, find one that resonates with that day, and give it a little proofread in the mindset of updating it to a more perennial context and then I re-share the heck out of it. It's creative, but also cleaning up past work.
2. When I only have a small amount of time to work, I usually just add new articles I think I might write about in the future to my citations page (https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/citations). I never send out my citations page, but just update it. Then, when I am actually in the crunch time of publishing, that is one little step where I can just copy-paste the citation into my latest post and I don't have to worry about creating the citations from scratch on publish day. That helps separate different kinds of modes of creativity which feels hygienic to me.
I love this! I've been thinking about it a lot lately, especially recognizing my own flow and creativity. And allowing myself to go slowly and also to sit in what might be uncomfortable boredom. And if I have a day or a few days or a week where I'm not as creatively "productive" as I expected to be, that doesn't mean I failed and it'll never happen. (That last sentence is brought to you by me coming off a week with multiple snow days when my kids were home.)
Hang in there, mama! I actually bought a sticker at a little indie paperie that says, "Normalize bordeom" and stuck it on my wall by my desk. Even as a kid I struggled with boredom. Something I am trying to unlearn as leisure has so many gifts to offer us!
I'd-a loved that as a bumper sticker! As a Houston high-schooler in the early '70s, my dad (who was in radio) once brought home a bumper sticker from an ad agency client, that said, "Eschew Obfuscation".
I immediately stuck it on my car, and ever since, have tried to follow that sage (and occasional tarragon) advice.....even though it was several years later that I even bothered to look up those two words!
Funny how we age.....back then, my back bumper (and painted trunk!!) was festooned with bumper stickers! Now, I scoff at those who do that (excessively anyway) now, while I wouldn't even think ONCE about doing that now!😱
I love writing on Substack. Authors like us, which are also readers, are very supportive. We comment, we engage, we recommend.
But sometimes I ask myself if this is somehow limiting. If we are closing up in our own protected world. Struggling to find people that might end up economically supporting what we write. Like coaches that end up talking with fellow coaches, instead of finding clients.
That is such a great (and healthy!) question to ask. Yeah - I don't know if there's a general answer to it (or what that answer is, if it exists), but it's certainly regularly on my mind. Part of our jobs as writers should be to find new readers in places we've never been before, perhaps where we never knew readers existed - and that is such a hard thing to do (ie. trying to discover what we don't know we don't know!). But it's super-important.
One way to leave that bubble is to just get chatting to random people in real life: at the pub, in a bar, at the library, in a queue at the bank, wherever. It's incredibly time-inefficient, but finding out what non-massively-online people do with their time online, and in particular non-massively-on-Substack people, can get a great way to give you ideas of new places to look and to maybe engineer a bit of attention around your work?
I can pick up a cue! And, what better way to "chat to random people in real life" than to have a business card with your 'Stack name, info, web address, brief "About" blurb, & QR code on it as its own convo starter! It works for me, virtually daily!!
I actually have a linq card for this purpose! It’s a physical business card that’s about the thickness of a credit card and You can either tap your device with the nfc chip and it will take people directly to my linq page which features my links and substack posts. OR it has a QR code on it as the low tech option to get to all the good stuff. Here’s mine for example: https://linqapp.com/alexknepper
I'm waiting for JUST that kind of "fish-in-a-barrel" opportunity! When I was writing about the Houston Astros for The Runner Sports all-sports blog site (2014-20020), I'd take my then-card, go to Minute Maid Park in downtown Houston (where the 'Stros play), and hand my card out to everyone I saw---the fans!
On one hand, I hate that approach, because I love talking about what I write, and engage people personally (doing a good ten minutes to a couple patient and tolerant folks at a time), but in that case, a helicopter-drop over the stadium might've been just the thing!!!😁👍 Go get 'em, and good luck, Valorie!
Sounds and looks great! But, sans smart phone, that all sounds very app-y! I have a flip phone (I'll pause 10 minutes for laughter)......
OK, the other thing I can't expect others to replicate, if not duplicate, is my biz card is that B&W photo (you see to your left) of me, backstage with 2002 Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame inductees, The Ramones....'twas back in '77 in Houston, and I was 22, and the only living being depicted on that card (still living)!
For punk fans/rock fans/Ramones completists, the card is a collector's item (the pic can't be found anywhere else besides here and on my social media accts), and I've seen many disappear off several bulletin boards!
But, that linq card is perfect for many, I'm sure, if not all!! We do we, oui?
Nah, lot's of us have flip phones. Tara from https://www.slowdownfarmstead.com/ recently hosted an epic chat about having a landline plus emergency car phone, but no smartphone, and so many people chimed in on it!
Agree to we do we, though 👍 This is reminding me to go pin more of my business cards... I had them made and now they are just sitting there!
Hey! Traditional business cards are full proof! They make excellent bookmarks and scrap paper and nothing beats a physical thing in your hand. The think I like most about the Linq idea is that if you happen to forget your business cards, it is an excellent back up!
As a side note, I have been having trouble with my smart phone doing its main function… being a phone. Quite useless without this key element! Hail to the flip phone!
And, with a QR code component, you never know who, and how many, are going to walk by and just snap it, rather than have to keep up (like I used to do, buying my own pushpins, in fact!) checking to see if enough cards are still hanging up from folks taking them (which was the point)!
I use VistaPrint(s) online. You can use photos (the pic to your left of me, backstage with The Ramones in 1977 in Houston, is my card front) and they have the tech to turn your 'Stack address into a QR code (mine's on the back)! It's worth it to get the flip side with the QR code.
That way, when you hang it on library, Starbux, and Panera bulletin boards, you just need one pushpin to hang both sides up (the pin will go thru the bottom of the frontside card, and another card, pinned at its top, showing the back! Good luck!
That's awesome. Thanks for the insight and the pushpin hack! My substack is a community-based "magazine," too, so it'll be nice to have a physical object to hand to folks.
Good tips! Just beware the onslaught of Vista Print emails after you place an order. Opt out to the extent possible beforehand, use an alternate email, or plan to get a workout on that Unsubscribe button. Hah!
I forgot, in my original reply, to actually address the "does it work?" question. My philosophy is: To the extent that people, with my card now available to take or snap, have access to my site that would otherwise not.
One of my favorite moments is when I travel, or have an un-planned encounter (accidentally bumping into someone...."oh, excuse me! Say, what kind of music do you like?"), I make sure to try and give them a card. You just never know who might be your next voracious reader!
Kinda like Lotto....you may never win the Big One, but laying a dollar on the counter at least gives you a CHANCE. See that person over there? He/she may never read or even like my stuff....but, if they're given a card..........................So, that's MY definition of the card "working".
Well, the "does it actually work?" component is hard to quantify. Again, with the picture I have, it practically screams to be used, not only online, but as a biz card!
Not many fellow writers can match the 'Stack name I have, the written subject matter, and the attendant photo, all fitting together quite so perfectly! I'd be a fool not to!
Now, if I had "Tony's Insights to Outdoor Plumbing in 1920's Appalachia" Substack (sorry, Tony, if I'm stepping on virtual toes, here), I'd be hard-pressed to use that photo for any practical good. But, for FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE, one couldn't special-order such a perfect representative photo! Thank you, the late Larry Lent, pro photog who took it at the time!
A couple days later, he gave me about 3 different sizes of the pic (after he did the washes and solutions one had to do back in the day!), all of which I kept for 2 1/2 decades, until I digitized them around the turn of the century (this one)!
Finally! My relentless redundancy becomes an asset! Woo-hoo! There are always new and different folks here on any given Thursday! And, I think you'll find that people who had every intention of visiting your "Great Things" might see your card while rummaging for a paper clip, and be just as reminded! Win-win! Thanks, Medha!
Absolutely! I used to work in marketing for authors and their big paying speaking gigs also tended to come from real life. The digital was more like a placeholder to add legitimacy, more than a lead-engine itself. There will be people who want to support you (or who need your work) and will do so because of your relationship, regardless of platform. Those people are the best kind to build your network with and you are so right--you can't always predict when or where that kind of connection will happen!
Granted, a biz card might require a little more human interaction, but I just swallow hard, and pretend I'm invisible.....which might explain why people I encounter appear as if a card is somehow mysteriously floating toward them!😁
Real life conversations was the part missing for me for a long time! But when I started talking about it to friends and family, they started sharing it with their friends too! It compounds similarly to the way online conversions do, but there's more trust built in because it's your friend looking you in the face and saying, "I found this cool writer!"
I 100% hear this! My Instagram community is much larger than my Substack community and I'm struggling to get my people there to understand why I am shifting my content here. I love this space and platform, but I don't think that it's possible to translate all of the people who want to read my work to paying subscribers. So finding that balance of people who really just want to support my creative endeavors in general (patrons of my work, if you will) and people who actually want the additional content behind a paywall. It's why I'm also creating a Patreon account. Love this topic!
To quote a journalist friend who Substacks and Instagrams: People on Instagram don't read. I rush to add that your audience may be an exception, but that's not why most come to Insta. They come to post narcissistic selfies, and look at other people's narcissistic selfies. At most, they want snippets, not actual text. It's less literate than FB. Even less than Twitter. :)
Yes. I have been trying to fit a round hole into the square of insta for 6 years. One of the reasons I feel like a free bird over here. There is so much ROOM. The people who love to read are coming. Small but mighty!
That's interesting. I've worked really hard on Twitter and IG, but done just a little on FB and LinkedIn. However, FB and LinkedIn have brought a similar number of subscribers as Tw/IG. This makes me question my efforts... I think I may just start focusing on the other platforms and see what happens!
I agree. And Instagram's user interface doesn't make it friendly to leave the platform to read even if you want to (obviously, they do this on purpose). Twitter is starting to suppress links that take you off the platform too, which is why doing less direct links and longer threads gets more eyes.
Totally agree. “Teacher instagram” is so toxic. On FB there are wonderful groups to join and learn from (even if I hate using Facebook 😐) Twitter you get basically the same.
Where k-12 teachers post pictures of perfect looking classrooms and questionable instructional materials. Lots of commiserating and the larger accounts are usually TeacherPayTeacher creators that use it to advertise their (questionable) instructional materials.
It is hard to argue with this. What alternatives did you use to grow your readership? Was it primarily connections through Substack? I don't have a large following on social media, and I'm not interested in spending more hours there, so what you say is appealing to me!
You probably already see this, but probably only a small percentage of your followers on Instagram even see your posts mentioning you Substack. And even then, getting people to click ANYTHING, and leave a platform that is BUILT to keep you scrolling.. like, click your link, and then miss this next video? This next perfectly set up photo? Oh wait, a cat video!
Trying to move people from one platform to another is sooo hard!
I also feel that my Instagram followers rarely translate to my Substack followers, and I have made peace with that. Instagram targets a very different audience who mostly looks at photos and very short texts. I feel that if I promote my Substack writing on my Instagram every time when I post, then people might not feel the need to "Subscribe".
They're just such different mediums. I feel like people are very loyal to whatever social media feels right to them and it's hard to get them to jump ship. Substacks are these very thoughtful invitations into someone's world through a newsletter -- I strive for authenticity on my social media but you're just not going to get nearly as much from new as my Insta account. I'm not sure people on my Insta account want more, if that makes sense. They're happy with a sliver of content. And still, how in the world do you grow your audience? Without keywords or a homepage that really pushes your content, has anyone had any success in growing their free subscriber base?
I agree with this. I noticed that someone unsubscribed when I posted a substack link. They just wanted to see my pictures of architectural details. I have different content on each platform and need to figure out the best way to cross-promote. I think Twitter and LinkedIn are more complementary channels.
I had some good success getting on a short video and talking about my Substack in stories, then putting a question box below so people could drop their email in if they were interested in subscribing. They didn't have to try to click a link to get on here and do it themselves, which made it so easy for them to subscribe.
I tried the question box today and got 13 new subscribers so far! Thanks so much for this suggestion - I'll probably repeat it at the end of every month :-)
That’s an excellent approach! When a substack post is on Instagram I don’t think it’s easy for the audience to understand what it’s about and adding context is probably very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Katy I'd be interested to hear about your experience with Patreon. Considered it years ago. I'd be concerned about spreading myself too thin, unless one can somehow post similar or same content on both platforms...
I had Patreon for a while and I didn't like it. The interface isn't very good, and you can't do much customization. There are tons of glitches with scheduling that have been there for years, and their support team never responds to emails (or fixes things).
Hmm how unfortunate, thank you for sharing that Valorie. Sadly a lot of these startups/platforms are created by tech folks who see a great opportunity to disrupt something but they don't follow through all the way and what ends up happening is, a sector or field gets disrupted but there's collateral damage in terms of real people and real livelihoods. I know a thing or two about this model, I live here in Silicon Valley (eye roll)
That is an excellent point, Livio. But I think that the diversity of this platform in and of itself prevents the bubble effect. While it's true that writers tend to support other writers, it's also true that writers are readers. And ultimately, readers are our people, even if many also happen to be writers.
I also feel like Substack's design and the built-in tools for getting our work in front of new eyeballs help. For example, cross-promotion and recommendations create organic growth beyond the bubble. Plus, I've found that many of the writers are willing to talk about their work and promote each other's projects to their audience of readers and writers. This creates an environment where everyone can gain visibility and find new readers.
Ultimately, Substack's platform does a great job of enabling writers to reach a broader audience, which prevents the "bubble effect." So, while it may be true that there is some bubble effect in the world of Substack, I am confident that it's not nearly as strong as it could be. This is why I think Substack is so amazing!
I pay for seven newsletters. Sometimes the newsletter has information I can't get anywhere else, but more often than not I pay because I enjoy the newsletter and I want to support the writer. I don't know if that's going to lead to a full-time living for the writer, but if it keeps them moving forward with their work, I'm there for it. BTW, I'd put those who pay for my newsletter in the same category. Since I write humor, the people who pay are likely paying because they enjoy the stories and want me to keep going.
I myself have a cutoff, financially as to how many paid newsletters I can afford and I have hit that mark with 6. So even though you mention 1-2, I think the same concern applies, from my view, as I imagine that a lot of the Substack writers (who make up a good portion of my new readers) are also at or near their paid subscription limit. But I am just guessing. Which is why looking outside the Substack community seems essential if building a larger paid subscriber base is important.
I think they will. I do! But I might have just proved your original point! 😂 But in all seriousness, I think that a lot of people are willing to pay for things that add to their lives. Like buying several different types of fruits or beverages.
I started on Substack with articles rather chill featuring a cute little paper minder and my subscribers are business/finance minded types, so who knows were mine articles a pleasant shift for those folks. I have since gotten more political and social in scope. Note, I only recently found out who my subscribers are in terms of reading interests reported in stats
I think that's partly on Substack to figure out how to bring in more people from outside Substack then let them discover our newsletters once they're on here. In some way, all of us are doing our part to help grow the Substack community, we bring a few non-Substack users here and let them trickle over to other publications. But I agree, it can be slow for people who do not have a big following before Substack.
Well, only recently Substack is investing in bringing new audience to writers. Historically, it hasn't been its business. That was one of the key differences, compared to Medium. But I guess they have figured out that they need to push more people to the platform, in order to benefit writers.
In any case, all in all, I believe the main Substack strategy is the following:
1. Get writers with an existing following from other platforms
2. In this way, bring new non-Substack following to the platform
3. Allow existing Substack writers to benefit from 2, through cross promotion features
Yes! It is super important to not snub other writers as your audience. Especially when you think about how traditional publishing works. First you get qualified by other people in the industry before the “normal readers” come. The beauty of substack is that the industry leaders (other writers), instead of being gatekeepers, operate as cheerleaders.
In many ways yes, and with the monetization structure, we are competing for precious dollars. That's why I've been advocating Substack establishes a credit system where a member can buy a dollar value each month, which can roll over. A credit can = $1 and can be used in the following ways:
1. They can pay for subscriptions with credits where there might be a reduced cost option (say 3 credits vs. $5)
2. They can pay for individual essays with credits (1 credit / essay)
3. They can send credits to writers for free essays as a 'tip' for good writing.
So this would break down to allow someone to buy 20 credits - $20 each month.
They could use 9 credits on three subscriptions and have 11 credits to buy / tip for other essays. This would allow a micro-monitization vs. the expectation of a fully committed and yet independent subscriptions. It would help build the broader community aspect of a network of authors as well.
That is very similar to what Post (post.news) does. I can tip anyone's post (comparable to a tweet, but with no character limit) and I can also buy individual articles instead of monthly or yearly subscriptions to major newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, etc. I can also use points to read past the paywall of a long article anyone writes and chooses to paywall.
I was about to say something about Post. That is the beta structure of Post and I think that it has real promise. My hope is that I will be able to do most of my promotional work on just Substack and Post moving into the future.
It's a lovely combination of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram 😂 Really, the honeymoon period right now is lovely because it is not a toxic place to be and the early adopters are determined to keep it that way. I've cut back on all of my social media, but I do like hanging out there. I would start by following fellow Substackers and going through their follow lists. Mine is @sarahstyfwriter
just subscribed to yours as there are a couple of articles I like the look of, incl. AI which I write about too. Plus successfully unsuccessful sounds interesting!
Hey Terry, maybe we could ask Substack to device a way to link or coordinate similar writing themes, so we could respond and calaborate with one other. Do you know what mean. What ya think? Pls don't ask me about how I'm no techy just learning as I go
Love this idea! Would provide easy ways to send quick thank-you tips to writers I’ve been helped by but can’t support on a regular basis.
I do wonder if the processing fees involved via Stripe might be a prohibiting factor. But Substack has been pretty ingenious in finding ways to enable other challenging features. I’ll be curious to see if/how they can handle this one!
This pay-for-credit structure is a really interesting idea for audiences who are in the writing/reading/literature/creator economy. But don't forget there are plenty of newsletters aimed at investors, researchers, professionals, hobbyists - people who might not be compulsive newsletter consumers (like we are!)
My almost 2000 readers subscribe for work and many would have no interest in browsing other newsletters. The credit purchasing structure you described would add friction and confusion for my readers and would almost certainly hurt my conversions.
.... and yet for writer-readers who want to be in an author community the credit system would be great.
I got about 20 clicks this month from Google, so it's not like this is some walled garden and we're all trapped inside.
But this community and some of the people I've met (most of whom do NOT write about the same things I do!) have been very helpful and supportive.
Like... I've used WordPress as long as I can remember, and I KNOW there's a community around it, but I never felt any sort of pull or tug towards it... Substack does a great job of pulling people in I think, esp as the people doing the writing.
It's a nice bubble, Substack. And there are an increasing numbers of readers & writers, so the bubble is expanding. When I started in April 2022, I had to explain what a Substack was to folks. Now they know.
That said, I spend 80% of my time trying to reach out to readers beyond the bubble. Mainly through Facebook, where I have a fair number of fans. I've tried other platforms, but decided to lean into my strength where it was....Hope that's helpful in some small way!
Hmm, good point. I think this is not much of a bubble, to be honest. I am growing an audience for my newsletter both here and in other places. I used to be on Medium, and that was way more restrictive. If you wanted to earn, you needed to put your posts into the Partner Program, which meant that people who were not paying members of Medium, they could only read 5 of those per month. That was a much bigger barrier to participation. At least here you have the choice to invite the entire world to come and read your 'free' pieces without barriers.
On any platform there’s always a risk that your audience will become only (or mainly) other writers. That’s not always a bad thing, but as noted, it’s really important to talk up/share your work outside the bubble.
What Kevin said, especially talking up your work. I share on social media and I've gotten a few subs that way, but by far the best way to get a new sub for me is talking to people (friends, family, friends of friends, friends of family, in-law, outlaws, strangers, etc.). Those conversations always bring in new subs.
Interesting! I haven't really promoted my newsletter to friends and family at all! Although I just got a text from a friend saying she loved the latest post. Not sure how she got on the list. Maybe from the couple of plugs I've done of my socials? But am realising that more of them would enjoy it if I told them about it.
I think you’re right that there is a danger that it’s simply the same people gathering more and more free subscriptions and spreading their attention across more newsletters. For this I would recommend checking the read and engagement stats. If these are rising with your readers then you are probably ok.
However, I think long term you need to have a social media strategy. I have spent quite a bit of time on LinkedIn which has been good but not had many subscribers come from that. Twitter has been much more fruitful so I’m going to spend 30 days focusing on this to see where it goes.
It's a good question, Livio! I don't know if you're in a substack bubble, but whenever I find myself asking if I'm in a Substack bubble, I check my dashboard. The answer is no. I know this because the majority of my readers come from outside the Substack network (although I get a significant number of readers from the network too). Also, fewer than 5% of my readers use the app, which tells me that if Substack went away tomorrow (please don't go, Substack!) nothing would really change for the 95% of my readers who read my stories twice a week via email.
Hi Livio! I ask myself this all the time. Growth has been slow for me. Yet it is happening. I've noticed that the Big Names among us, if I'm looking at those who leave comments, the majority of those readers are not Substack writers. Those readers are coming here FOR those writers... then they might trickle over to those of us don't have a "name." (I've published 11 books with traditional pubs, but it that makes no difference if one has not been Out There in a sizeable public way.)
Really, it's no different than promoting a book or album or visual art. Substack is the new news-stand. I do find that there's a slow trickle from the pieces I write on Medium. I don't write often there now, and what I post here is not what I post there: here is niche--writing-centred. I think my growth is slow because my take on writing is for those who take it seriously as both craft and art. No quick bucks or answers. That doesn't have broad appeal, I'm realizing.
Alison great to meet you... I hear you 1000% about slow growth bc your writing is "for those who take it seriously". There was a piece in The Atlantic about that recently, how important it is to keep reading and writing books (long form content) instead of looking up to celebrity tech people who put down books (SBF, Ye, etc). Our society in general has dissolved its attention span to 220 characters and works in a selfie factory. I trust and hope that communities like this can bring the world back from the brink :)
p.s. Trying to subscribe to your newsletter but the link goes to a page not found error (this is the button on your "About me" pop-up that you see when you hover over your name in the bylines). Ok just tried another subscribe button and that worked but did want to let you know about that one.
Oh my! Good to know--though worrisome. There are momentary glitchy things, yes.
Good to meet you, too. Thank you for subscribing and being persistent. The Atlantic tends to be one of the most thoughtful journals in our N. American world. (I'm not sure what SBF, Ye, etc it :) I know my time spent reading hard copy novels and history help to keep me balanced and sane.
Apologies, SBF is Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced CEO of FTX. Ye is Kanye West. Both of these gentlemen have loudly proclaimed their disdain for books. When you have as large a public platform as they do, it's detrimental. It has an effect on their fans and likely their fans' friends.
I have a handful of pieces on The Writing Cooperative, but mostly I post to Middle-Pause--pieces about relatives and life lesson-type material, the odd poem, all sorts really. A number are about caregiving--which is what my memoir is about: caregiving my spouse through ALS.
I sometimes wonder about this, or I worry that I am alienating people on my list who are outside of Substack too as perhaps they expect less frequent newsletters/don't understand the concept of paid subscriptions/etc.
I've found that, pretty quickly, readers and subbies catch on to the 'Stack way pretty quickly. If you send out an info-specific post to your subbies (as I've done on occasion), you can help "educate" your subbies to what and how to do things on the site! Remember, 25 years ago, people approached eBay with similar trepidation, until suddenly, they didn't!
Well, unless I misspelled it, I mean/meant "subbies," my abbreviation for subscribers. A couple of them are quite short, I'm told, so I refer to them as my stubby subbies.
This is a risk. But I write as a Reporter as well for a news website, so that opens up my world a bit.
I have my own site as well. What I'm liking so far about substack is that it focuses me to a deadline. No matter what I'm putting in the newsletter, it will go out on Sunday. So I may as well figure out something good. Also, I love writing about politics, and haven't had a chance to do so in my day job lately despite there being no end of political stories affecting my community. Substack gives me a chance to do that.
Ooo I like this question - I need to give it some thought. I tend to attract people who are on a similar path to me but perhaps earlier on in that path? Not always but they filter through to buying my products...
I think it's easy to seal yourself in a warm bubble. They're friendly and nice and the positive feedback loop of hearing things you already agree with feels so good! But you have to make sure to get out and share or you'll never grow.
I don't limit my writing to Substack, though I love these writer office hours and am proud of my newsletter. I write on Medium and also get paid to write articles for other media outlets.
As for social media, I'm not even on IG and have no desire to be. I've also left Twitter and don't miss it. The social media platform I do love and highly recommend to other writers is Post (post.news). In two months, and only posting 28 times in those two months, I've already got over 600 followers. I've also found so many kindred spirits there, not all of whom are writers.
I've also gotten tips (less than $1 total; don't expect to earn much there) based on my articles I've linked to there with brief introductions explaining what they're about. Post has no character limit, so longform articles can also be written (or copied and pasted) directly on the platform. If you want you can even paywall some content, but I'm not doing that.
Most posts there are substantive and intelligent, lots of media outlets and figures like Dan Rather and Rachel Maddow are on Post, and there is zero tolerance for hate speech. There's fun stuff too, like pet photos and memes, and lots of rants against right-wing politicians and their policies, but mostly kind and helpful people sharing important information.
They are just followers, as with other social media platforms. Too early to tell if some will subscribe to my Substack, especially since I haven't been consistent about sharing the link to each new issue on Post.
Yes, on Post you can share links to your own articles from Substack or anywhere else, or share links to someone else's content you liked. I haven't written any articles on Post directly yet, just short comments.
I couldn't find a way to copy and paste a link here from Post, but if you go to post.news my profile is @writerwendig and you can see what I've shared.
Is a way to structure the Office Hours segments so writers with similar content or newsletter format can be invited to comment or share strategy without having to sort through all the other writers comments. It takes a good 2 or more hours to add and reply to writers and when you do comment the list defaults back up to the top again, and there you are sorting, searching and snort'en trying to find that link or a particular writer/newsletter. Any easier work around Chris?
Thanks to @Rob Henderson for plugging one of my recent posts. It doubled my subscriber base in 72 hours. It appears there is indeed a network effect once you get to 250 or more subscribers. I now get 2-5 new subscribers per day. Up to 318! Write well and often early on and comment on high profile pubs it may take six months...but it does work...
Free subscribers , sure. But where is the paid growth? I don't see it. I publish daily, I'm recommended by a dozen publications, and I get new free subscribers constantly. But I can't take my list of free subscribers to the energy office and say " waive my bill, I have 1000 free subscribers."
It takes a while for a reader to go from discovering your publication --> paid subscription. On Twitch, for comparative data, I have heard that the same reader relationships flow takes on average 1 year.
Hopefully our Boost program and growth team investments will help make these conversions faster for writers. It's a big focus for us! We'll do what's in our power. Here's a recap of some of what we've done so far: https://on.substack.com/p/turn-on-your-growth-engine
That's not my focus. I have a film career, a woefully neglected novel in progress and other interests.
Substack gave me the impression that publishing every day would lead to growth and stated outright that 10% of free subscribers, on average, would convert.
I don't see it.
I stand by the quality of the work and some very well known people have backed me up on that.
?? I'm impressed that you are currently #3 after Saunders and Palahniuk--both huge names! But you're unhappy with this?
I'm publishing every 5th day or more, as well as running three workshops and posting comments to those... and am in at #10. This is a LOT of work. Hard to know at times HOW to let readers know, or remind. Saunders puts out a flippant "what the hell! It's cheap!" message, but I don't want to go there. But what to do.
I wrote a note in December, and sent to all 4-5 star folks. (Almost 500 of them) I had one go paid.
This month, other than my first of the month post-and-prompt, I've gone paid for all--and had at least 2 people go paid. So there is something to withholding...
Saunders is teaching. He's not publishing new material, so I don't think he should even be on that list.
I'm very proud to be in the same conversation as Chuck.
I'm happy that 300+ people are willing to pay for my work. But if you look at the annual subscription price you'll see that I'm not making a ton of money for writing and publishing daily.
2000 paid subscribers has always been the goal.
Again, the archive is well worth it. I promise if you get a monthly and dig into it you'll be beyond satisfied.
And you'll have a new story every day on top of the existing 888.
And I struggle to make $500-600/month with 120 paid folks--God bless each one of them :) This is hard work.
YES to Chuck--I hear you! As for tenured people, or pension-collecting past-tenured-folks... I hear you there, too. I'm guessing the argument runs that such are driving people to the platform...
I like your posting of the breakdown of what each of your stories costs a sub...!
As me mum used to say...."You can spend your time coming up with all the 84 excuses why NOT to do something, or come up with one good reason of how you CAN do it!" Speaking of eBay (which I did somewhere here a few minutes ago), I sold all my 2,000 LPs (mostly white promo copies, plus promo items) on that site at the turn of the century.
One item I sold was the digitized (from reel-to-reel to CD) of my 1975 David Cassidy interview. Sold hundreds, and after a couple early customers wanted them autographed, and as it was impossible to enlist David in that exercise (if I was still in L.A. and not in TX, I might've given it a shot....I knew someone at his old management offices), I decided to sign them myself (with my name)! Sure, shipping's involved, but that's the nature of the virtual marketplace!
I was joking about the signatures. But merchandising to 300 people who already support me doesn't enthrall me nearly as much as 300 new readers enjoying the nearly 900 stories I've written.
"Every single day" - this might be the problem. It is very likely that the people don't really read you posts because they get them too often. I myself would never subscribe to a daily publication. If you post less frequently maybe you reader would be more excited when they receive an email from you and stat paying attention. You can make an experiment for a month and see.
right now my goal is building a fan base for the launch of my 2024 book. If the book sells and grows the list, I’ll worry about passive income from paid subscriptions...I haven’t built the base yet to worry about. steady growth in paid subs really needs to be anchored in what marketers call strong purchase intent ( I.e. new folks really come in hot for your content and it’s very good)
I guess the real question is why Substack felt confident the conversion rate would be 10% . Someone must have given them that figure.
The more time I spend thinking about all the work I've put into this newsletter and the lack of growth I've gotten the more I think that I've wrung all I'm going to wring from this adventure.
They continue to present more toys for writers and creators to spend more time on, but I don't see anything that draws people to the platform. On social media I still get asked " What the hell is Substack?"
I love to hear this! I only started recently but I'm delighted with the growth - though of course we always wish for more, and I'm certainly not getting 2-5 per day!
Free subscribers , sure. But where is the paid growth? I don't see it. I publish daily, I'm recommended by a dozen publications, and I get new free subscribers constantly. But I can't take my list of free subscribers to the energy office and say " waive my bill, I have 1000 free subscribers."
Every single day. Sometimes deep into a story, when one would hope that readers are somewhat invested.
My paid subscribers ( slightly over 300 ) constantly give me good reviews. " Wow" is a frequent comment. I'm not saying that to bark outside my own carnival, I'm saying it because it's the truth.
Free subscribers get one story a week, paid get all 7 new stories per week, plus access to the entire archive. Right now the archive is 888 works of short fiction, some autobiographical tales from my childhood in Detroit and video of me reading some of my stories.
fascinating. Do you remind folks in your footer about how paid subs work? I've just added that as I had a few emails asking me what the payments were for and how they worked...
I don't have a detailed footer, but on each story, before the paywall, I remind my free subscribers that they could open the whole archive for 6 cents a story. One year breaks down to 16 cents a day.
That sounds very clear! Maybe you need to move it to the bottom as realistically are they likely to scroll back up? I don't know whether that's just me but I tend to get to 'the end' and then make an action or move on?
This question interests me. I'm coming up on my first-year anniversary on Substack and haven't yet offered a paid/pledge option. I've been assuming I needed to create additional content, beyond the weekly free ("best work") essays, and that assumption is precisely why I've been slow to launch any kind of monetized option. I'm not sure I have time to create much more than I'm already doing. That damn time constraints thing again, right?
Hey Jimmy you're in the biz? I used to be, behind the camera. Then moved over into journalism, wrote for Daily Variety and THR for a few years. Now more in the world of tech but back to literary writing. Good to meet you!
Haha I don't. Well, sometimes. We had a lot of fun. Lots of pranks, practical jokes. So many stories. Best experience was Dragonheart back in '94, which was shot in Slovakia. The final result wasn't the best piece of filmmaking but production was a great experience.
You mean Dragonheart? Oh I can share so many stories from that set... it was a truly international production. It was the first feature film to debut a CGI character in the lead role. I was on the visual effects team, with ILM, and among my duties was holding the 18-foot stick that served as reference for the dragon, that Dennis Quaid had to recite his lines to. Heehee he did not enjoy that, having to play second fiddle to a non existent dragon!
I've had some great experiences on so many projects. It does hurt when the finished product isn't what you hoped but the memories and some of the friendships remain.
I'm not sure. Really. Some days it feels like a wave just grabbed me and I'm bodysurfing effortlessly, other days it's like trying to pry my way out of a shark's mouth from inside.
I don't mail them in. There aren't any haiku just to say I published.
New paid subscribers are great incentives and energy boosts.
Yes, comment on other Substack with very high subscriber bases as long as there is some topical overlap. Don’t force it. You can see the largest Substack in the app- the Top pubs are tagged ‘thousands of free/paid subscribers’ or ‘tens of thousands...’
My Substack is daily short fiction. A wide variety of topics and focuses, 7 days a week. Could be crime, love, addiction, music, work, just about anything. Two and a half years straight.
Yes, it's network indeed. Gotta put the time in on Facebook follow ups and wherever you gain followers. The hashtag chase as well 😊 Wish I had of been more visible on social media before I started writing online Yes?
Ending January with just 3 subscribers short of 300!
Contrary to popular advice, I never niched down, didn't really hustle that much, and just wrote and published (hopefully) better and better stuff. At times I wasn't consistent, I opened and closed sections, took breaks, posted on social and kept silent for weeks. In the end of the day, it was slow but sustainable growth that brought me readers that always cheer me up with their messages and comments.
I did feel discouraged at many points of this journey. So my best advice would be: Write. Publish. Try to be better with each issue. And have some fun along the way!
Interesting! Sometimes, I wonder if I have niched down too far. But at the end of the day, without a "boss", it's only the topics that interest me that I want to publish about. And so, that leaves me with a very small niche.
How long have you been writing on Substack to get that many subscribers?
Great take😊 Speaking of #s, are the stats functioning ok or are there still gliches? Stats show emails fails which was upsetting and inspired my 'Trust On Autopilot' post
If you look in your heart of hearts, what is your true end goal for your publication?
For most of you, is it to make a living off of your Substack? I am happy doing mine on the side as a creative expression, but sometimes the success stories from Substack actually make me feel a little critical of myself despite my best efforts.
Is anyone else happy to chug along with a small readership? Or are you truly committed in hopes you find your audience and it all takes off? ⚡️
What a great question to consider. For now, it is three things:
- a place to practice showing up in a new space a little more unapologetically
- a place to explore if community can be built more organically away from the gimmicks and algorithms of social media (although I must admit I'm already seeing how some folks are playing a new game here to get those subscribers)
I needed to see this today Erin! When I started my Substack I wanted it to grow organically and just let the people who need to find it, find it. And now I’m all caught up in everyone else’s success wishing I had a piece of the pie. But this has reminded me that quiet, small and slow is the best and most authentic way to grow. Thank you. 🥰
I'm right there with you Izzy. I have definitely been swept up in the pie seeking. Phew! 😮💨 So happy I'm not the only one. Definitely a great reminder that it's okay to turtle along. 💛
Oh, I’m so glad! I think it’s inevitable that we all get caught up in the chase. So, perhaps we can keep reminding each other that we don’t want to be running in the first place!!
I think there will always be a "game" of sorts to get more subscribers, but I feel less of that pressure here and I'm trying to embrace a "slow and steady" approach to growth. participating here does give me new newsletters to follow and ideas for my own, but I feel more authentic in my writing and audience than I ever did when i was writing on WordPress.
Right now I’m enjoying having some space to myself that I can call my own. It’s great to make publishing goals and I’m happier and more calm in the rest of my life when I write.
Yes! It's me lol. I would love to have hundreds of paid subscribers to write for but it's just not in the cards for the kind of content I make. I'm at peace with that as I'd rather make something unique and interesting rather than what is marketable/popular. Everything these days is curated to be able to be formatted into an advertisement. Even though creating to simply create will not be a cash cow, it holds a lot more value in my opinion.
My end goal is to complete my WIP and create something subtly transformative.
Thank you for being candid Kerry! I really like how you phrased that - you’re so right about making something unique vs marketable, almost anybody can make things people like but lack soul.
Keep doing what you’re doing, your thoughtfulness already sets you apart ❤️
My goal which is happening as we speak, is simply to put my odd fiction out there for people who enjoy something different. Mainstream and I broke up quite a while back, amicably I might add, and I decided to do my own thing and slowly (or at whatever pace it happens) build an audience of like-minded spirits.
This decision has a couple of additional benefits for me: (1) I get a chance to be exposed to a variety of authors on Substack, which in turn helps move my inspiration, and (2) I stay on track, publishing on a schedule that works for me (weekly)
I'm not doing this for money. If at some point later on I decide to go paid, it will be a voluntary act if someone lays down their credit card. I'd keep keep everything free.
I'm loving this as a creative outlet and if I can make enough to cover my Canva Pro subscription and some other professional tools, it's all good. It also helps me pay to subscribe to other newsletters!
That's a great mindset - I sell creativity journals as a side hustle to my main work and today I realised I would be super happy just to have some profit to pop in the kids bank accounts each year. Sometimes you really need to know 'your why' with work don't you?
My number one goal is to share stories; to inspire others. Always to inspire. I'm a photographer/storyteller who has been wanting a place away from social media where I can share content that people can see in its' own place. Unlike other platforms where even if someone follows you they might not see your posts, but also your work can get lost in the scroll. I feel like a platform like this gives more depth. Our readers have to actively choose to give the newsletter sole attention. They open it and it's the only thing on their screen at that time. I love sitting down with a newsletter that I subscribe to, and taking the time to truly read it and absorb their words.
But also, I do want this to supply at least a part of my income. And I like that the potential to reach a wider audience makes it a possibility of having a decent income from the most reasonable subscription prices (less than a streaming platform!).
All that said, I'll keep writing and sharing regardless of how many people subscribe for free or paid. I enjoy it. And the couple dozen people who have already subscribed enjoy it too.
Yes so true, writing online has given me so much. That first subscriber was such a rush. Having and writing the newsletter has bouyed my confidence and I feel I walk a little taller. "I am somebody" "I am a writer", I heard my self saying 😊 I have always been creative for better or worse but all was in my head, until I started writing..verse,poems, 'picture stories' and even an opera! I couldn't stop writing. I know my writing is transformative and gives great pleasure
What a good question! I think if I'm honest, I write and share that writing with others to feel less alone. I hope that in reading it, others feel less alone, too but my primary goal is a selfish one. I think some of my other goals are to really engage with my readers, to have a conversation rather than an endless cycle of consuming. That give and take is so valuable.
I'm also finishing up my first book and am hoping having an engaged community will be helpful when I'm ready to publish!
I love what I write about, but things really started rolling for me when I started treating my writing (on all platforms) as a business. The community/comments/engagement are huge benefit as well.
I love what I do, and get to write about. The people that read my work constantly surprise and delight me.
That said, all of us are asking readers for their time & attention. That’s not something I take for granted. I’m always asking myself: if I was on the other side of the screen, is this something I’d pay for?
Framing it that way has (I hope!) made for higher quality writing than it would’ve otherwise.
The true goal is to get a few freelance / coaching gigs from the newsletter. With my very-niche newsletter it'll be a long slog to get 25 paying subscribers (I have five now, though haha), but if I could wrangle a monthly retainer to do D2C email marketing work for a client a few hours a month, well... I'll take it!
Great question.. personally my subject is so niche I can't ever see it "taking off" but it's been fun, rewarding and I've learnt a lot through the process..
My Substack is a passion project to focus on my two loves: food and art. It’s free to subscribers, but I want to reach more people so it feels like it’s a good use of my time. I did an experiment this past week, which was a paid ad on Recommendo. So far it’s resulted in about 120 new subscribers and they continue to trickle in.
Yes, the comment wheel. There was chat here on the substack Q&A comment structure. Any improvements or is commenting still difficult in terms of reaching the writer who sent a comment??
My goal is to have fun with my publication. I like to write and I never thought I would be telling all of the funny and not so funny stories from my life. When I started I didn't know what I was going to be talking about. And then I started the funny stories and it took off. I still have a small subscriber base but I know eventually, I'll start getting more people. If I don't, that's okay too. I've met so many nice people through my substack, people I would not have met if I hadn't started it. And I have contacted some off-site, and that is a plus. Getting to know someone adds to the happiness of doing the writing. Having true friends that I can count on when I need to talk is a bonus.
A heavy hitting (great) question. I often find myself falling between the two. If my audience took off...wowza, i'd be amazed and so excited; the thought of having a community of people to chat to all the time, unfathomable. If I just had a small readership...well I think I'd be happy too because at the end of the day, like so many other writers have said to me, you've got to write for yourself and be passionate about what you put out there. I think writing and publishing is also much more than just readership - it's community, it's being yourself, it's being brave and doing what you love.
I'm going to be flat out honest - I want to make money and build a community. I want to write my indie books as my main job and get income from other sources, like newsletters. I think FB and IG and even Tw are useless for me as an indie writer, unless I sink in tens of thousands of dollars to boost my posts. Zuckerberg and Musk have way too much money as it is. It soooo annoys me. Doesn't anyone out there care about helping others - or does everyone turn money grubbing hungry when they grow a platform?? I'm really hoping Substack stays true to its ethos.
I'm working in both Medium and Substack to see if I can use both to grow an audience. (I think the audiences are somewhat different.) On Substack, my unsubsribes are about equal to and balance out new folks, so I'm growing sooooooo slowly. But I've changed focus a few times since I started. I do envy those folks that can do this as a side project and not worry about income at all. I yearn to be you!
And I find your pieces about writing SO helpful. I'm also having about the same stagnation here, but I'm hoping the book publishing process will help that grow, at least a little. Plus I'm making paid subscription changes in March, after I get initial marketing out of the way 😊
I love this question. I'm a brand newbie to Substack. My aim is to switch from Medium as a writing platform (it wasn't feeling like the right "vibe," as my teenagers say lately) and put pieces of my upcoming second (nonfiction and very niched) book out into the world for feedback, discussion, activism... Since my audience is parents and I've encountered other great newsletter offerings for parents and activists in my niche on Substack, I thought I'd give it a try. I appreciate the ease and orientation of the platform and I'm curious if any other folks have advice for brand new 'Stackers building an audience... Thanks for offering this forum!
I made that same move. The one thing I would say is that growth here is slower, but more meaningful. People are subscribing to hear from you, as opposed to having it fed to them via an algorithm. Those early days can be frustrating, but they don’t last too long.
If you’re still active on Medium, make sure you include a CTA about your Substack-you can either do that at the end of each story, in your bio, or both.
I would also highly encourage you to keep seeking out other writers in your same space. Networking, info sharing, and more will all come from it. Same with attending Office Hours. Invariably someone will ask a question you’ve had on your mind, or ask for help with the same problem you’re wrestling with.
Part of me always wants that shiny prize of being paid to write.
But at the end of the day, my entire goal was to practice writing. To put myself on the hook and put some skin in the game to help motivate me.
It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t niche down, it’s Alex Knepper’s Newsletter because its contents one unifying thread is that I wrote it. And it SHOULD be a reflection of what I am interested in. But I find myself getting scared of my audience. What do *they* want to read? Has been the haunting question in my mind. Rather than, what do I want to write?
Maybe hiding behind my audience and my perception of their expectations is a form a resistance. Phew… thanks so much for this prompt I didn’t realize how much I needed it.🤗
I'm finishing up a piece on using my Substack as my writing workshop. It should publish in a couple of weeks. That is what my blog is, a workshop for my writing. Hoping that the changes I have planned for the next month post book publishing helps me to both grow my platform and find a definite direction.
I wish the chat feature was available in the web version. Most of my subscribers aren't substackers so they don't use the app.
Finding it hard to be productive with a bunch of social obligations this week, but reposted an old blog post I wrote about Latvian ethnographic symbols, which was fun to revisit.
I'm with you Anastasia. I thin a web version of the chat would also be so much easier to chat. As much as I love my little iPhone, trying to chat on it in an engaging thread can be a bit difficult.
Seconding this! I'm doing The Artist's Way with my subscribers in the chat and many of them have asked for a website chat option, so I'm considering a discord. But it'd be easier if we could just stay on substack!
Hi, it looks like Substack has expanded the categories; I'm happy to see Health & Wellness as a category now. Any way we can have staff consider a particular newsletter for a category? Of course, I'd love to have mine spotlighted in Health & Wellness, and I also can recommend some. thanks
Very good question. I feel like I get such amazing reviews/feedback on my newsletters, but of course getting NEW eyes on pieces if you don't have a big following still takes time, so having that help/place to submit would be fantastic
I think I went with that category as it was the closest. A personal development/self-help/self-improvement would be great - if you're reading, Substack team :)
Hi there! We don't curate those categories. They are primarily based on the number of subscriptions. That said, you can choose which category you want your publication to be a candidate from in your settings.
Welcome to new writers! Reply here to say hello and let us know what's on your mind.
I'm definitely not a new writer (more than 2 1/2 years on Substack), but thought I'd say hi anyway and encourage new writers to connect with others in the community. Connecting with other writers is one of the most important things you can do - it helps give you encouragement and support to keep going and produce quality work and it helps you grow your readership too.
Thanks for being here Melanie and always bringing writers together.
Thanks for the encouragement, Melanie! I'm not new to Substack, either, but I haven't yet nailed down a publishing cadence. I'm working on building community right now--any tips that have worked for you? :)
Two things have helped me. One is looking for other writers who are writing about similar topics and subscribing/ liking/ commenting on their posts. The other is asking my readers questions.
Well, a third thing is participating in these Office Hours
I do ask questions in some of my posts--that's a good tactic. As for finding people writing about the same topics...my newsletter isn't topic-specific. 😅 I am starting to find others whose work I really enjoy, though, so that counts, right?
Yes, that definitely counts
Thanks for posting! It helps.
Thanks for sharing these tips Melanie.
I have not had a lot of luck with writing (nice, thoughtful) comments on similar Substacks!
It took me a long time to build connections. Not all writers seem interested in doing so. Also, I think that when it comes to things like recommendations, you are more likely to get recommended if you have been around and writing for a while.
Try writing something different that shows knowledge or expertise in a casual way.
I thought I was! Who knows, I will keep trying.
Interesting. What has worked for you?
(I also love kettlebells, btw. 😁)
Yes kettlebells! I honestly am not to worried about it because I am so early in my journey. I am enjoying purposefully rebuilding my Twitter and connecting there as well.
REbuilding Twitter. Also interesting! I quit all social media use in October and haven't gone back, but I've considered doing some light Twitter rebuilding, myself. How's that going...and why is it a rebuild?
TOO!
Thanks Melanie. I don't feel "new" but I think at 3 months in, I still count as a new writer on Substack;) I think your points are bang-on. What I've enjoyed most about writing here are the comments I have received sometimes leading into a nice back and forth. This engagement has led to new connections and a feeling of developing community. Also, finding other writers' publications and commenting on their work. I've learned so much from the quality of what's being written and depth of insight.
Very true. It is a supportive community.
Thank you, Melanie! How lovely. I will check out your newsletter! 💗
Thanks, Melanie. The support in this community is definitely one of its biggest strengths.
Agreed! It's all about the connections.
Might you offer a suggestion of how to find a few authors to read and follow?
I found quite a few through Office Hours - if you have over a person's name you get the name of their substack and their one-liner. I also used the search function on Substack's "browse" page. This was slow and annoying, but worth the effort. I've found quite a few science/ climate change writers and also writers in my geographical area (New Zealand) by doing this.
https://substack.com/inbox
Thank you Melanie. You taught me so much. I will start by checking out your newsletter.
Hi Katie! And hi everybody else! I just went through a read all the conversations that were already happening and there is so much interesting stuff on here.
I'm excited this week because I asked my subscribers if they wanted to do The Artist's Way with me, and over 40 people have said yes so far! I've never been able to finish it, and wanted to try again -- this time with community support. We're all using the subscriber chat to check in with each other weekly, and we start February 5th. Lots of people are still trickling in. According to the Substack data, 24 free subscribers are 6 paying subscribers came in after reading one of my two Artist's Way posts, which is a lot for my little newsletter! https://aliv.substack.com/p/do-the-artists-way-with-me-via-the
On the Substack side, I'm wondering if there will ever be an online version of the chat. Some people said they didn't want to use their phone to write, so I'm considering adding monthly email threads (sent only to Artist Way participants), a discord, or monthly check-in Zooms, but just wondering!
That's awesome! I have never been able to finish the Artist's Way either but the ideas have stuck with me. Really cool you are using chat and hosting the journey on Substack.
It's on our team's radar to offer a web version of Chat but no official plans.
Awesome, thank you for letting me know! I do love the chat in the app and I think it will be a such a tremendous way for us all to check in with each other as we go.
And totally, even though I haven't finished it before the artist dates in particular have stuck with me. Excited to finish it this time with the help of my Substack community!
Oh! I have subscribed before even reading your work. I loved The Artist's Way, I used her technicque to manifest a diamond after losing the one in my engagement ring. ;) Thanks for the topic idea too!
That's incredible! I am so excited to do it. I've heard stories about it creating abundance and helping people manifest before, but yours is AMAZING. You should absolutely write about it, and thank you for subscribing!
Wow this is amazing! I am going to check out your Artist Way’s offering
Thank you!! It's been so fun to see. The process of it is so intimidating (3 months!) so everybody seems to really love the idea of getting support, accountability and encouragement from the community. If you've wanted to do it check it out!
I’m reading the artists way right now as well! I just wrote a post about it recently!
Subscribed - I want to do this with you guys!
yes!! welcome :)
me too... not sure about on the cell, but I will keep up as best I can on the web here
Creative use of the chat functionality!
Thank you! I honestly disliked the chat at first so never used it for my newsletter until now. Excited to see how it goes.
Hi Ali, What a wonderful idea! I myself did The Artist's Way many years ago (and I don't know that I finished it honestly), and it was so wonderful as the author has many suggestions for self-care and nurturing oneself, ideas that were really new to me back then. Am excited to hear about it!
Thank you! I'm definitely craving the artistic reset and inspiration people swear by -- especially reconnecting with why we create in the first place, and letting go of the result. Can't wait to get started.
I actually have a galley book of hers I wonder if it ever got published. Should look into that.
yes!
that book saved me - literally.
Yes it really turned around my view of the world at a time when I needed it. Such a gift - which is why decades later it keeps on giving :)
I came back to tune in here and offer my support for this too! I am about to launch my newsletter and writing here as a painter, writer, collaborator in the visual arts. It has always been part of my website, but now that I have found this community I am keen to share the Art Wonderers PLAY group here too. It dovetails with the principles of the Artist's Way, encouraging people to, as an Art Wonderer group member says "make stuff, and make stuff happen!"
Yes Ali, good book gift from my youngest brother 🤗 Did not finish it as started my newsletter round same time and down the rabbit hole I went. I'm in
Yay, welcome!!
Ahhh!! This is an EXCELLENT idea.
I've tried before and stare at my copy (which I've nestled conveniently in direct eyesight of my reading chair, for extra guilty feels) often. Perhaps now is the time... but the resistance is real.
I know, it's so hard!! It's 100% the reason I wanted to do it with other people. I've had the book for years too -- time to actually get it done and release the guilt!!
Just subscribed! Ironically I've been staring at my copy of this book (which I've also had for years) trying to will myself to commit to actually doing it. Last year was way too busy, but I'm going to take finding this comment and your offering as a message from the universe to jump in. And also not feel guilty if I miss a day :)
The majority of people who've committed to it have had the book for years! We all have a lot in common. So happy you're joining -- and no room for guilty here :)
I'm LOL at how many people haven't finished it! I'm another of them. But one of my 20something daughters just gave the book to her sister for Christmas, so it's reaching into the next generation. Impressive!
Your newsletter looks wonderful. Just subscribed!
Likewise, Jane! Just subscribed to yours too :)
Huge fan of Julia and The Artist's Way, Ali! So happy to see you're getting traction with it.
Thank you! Cannot wait to get started.
lovely to see more newsletters like yours. i also run a creative recovery newsletter. if i can be of any assistance, feel free to reach out.
Thanks Jo! I appreciate that and just subscribed to your newsletter.
thanks Ali. Subscribing to yours, too, once i close down the 25+ tabs i have open!
Hi Katie and all, I've put together a short tutorial on getting a Substack newsletter started. Just the basic stuff for newbies, and not in any way competing with your own excellent how-to. These are my own thoughts about what they might need to know first.
I'd appreciate it if readers could pass it along to anyone they think might need it. Thanks so much.
https://writereverlasting.substack.com/p/exploring-the-mysteries-of-substack
Wow, thanks for sharing Ramona!
You're welcome. I hope it helps!
I just went and checked it out and subscribed in about two seconds. Excellent site, you should look into Katie.
Wow! Thanks, Ben.
Yes! Thank You Ramona! I wrote one newsletter, guest I got spooked and haven't done anything since. Walk around with topics in my head, not on paper.
I'll be glad to help in any way I can. I've been there!
If you need a kick in the pants, I can do that, too. Joining Writer Everlasting can't hurt, either. We're a great community of writers and we do a lot of commiserating. 😊
I hear ya Diane been that way all my life. Started writing things down more a couple of years ago. My thoughts started coming up onto the paper as verse and poem, plays, short stories ect. I haven't stopped since. But note, get stuff down on paper or use a recorder because some material just floats away and it's gone.
Maybe the topics in your head are just percolating? So they get themselves nice and ready for you to write them and share them? : )
Thank you for sharing this. I am having getting-started delays! Lol. So many bells and whistles to adjust
can i suggest something, Vikas? I keep an attractive folder that i've labelled "Substack" rather than have an overwhelming To-Do list stare at me every morning and i open it and just do one task a day till i get more confident with the platform. Slow start but we eventually get there.
My friend told me the same. Just start slow. I have been sending out a newsletter via email to 50 people for 2 months now. I just need to transition to Substack
luckily it is a very comfortable platform to work with once you get all set up, and things make sense, too. Substack team also listen to writers' wants and needs and create new features to help us along.
Oh I love this recommendation! I am copying it for myself!
Hey Jo. Do you mean a physical folder?
Hey Medha 😀 Yes, a physical folder. Mine is a glossy A4 size envelope with a button to close and has flamingoes on it. A happy folder that gets me excited to open it up. In it i store bits and bobs of what i'd like to do for Substack. The first page is like a must-do (set-up essentials for Substack) and the rest are literally pieces of paper with ideas about future posts, pix, quotes, etc.
Aaahhhh... You may just be feeding my pretty notebook addiction with your fabulous recommendation!
You can do it Vikas!
Wow you’re a rockstar! Thank you!
You're extraordinary, Ramona, thank you so much! Will surely pass along.
I appreciate that, Jo. Thanks so much!
Thank you Ramona. How do I save this to come back to after office hours?
Well, you could subscribe to Writer Everlasting. 😊
But at the top right of every post you'll see three dots. Click on it and you'll be able to save any post.
Thank you, I’ve saved it and will definitely consider a subscription once I figure out my strategy for not overwhelming myself. The office hours alone could take up the better part of any of my days.
LOL. I know what you mean! The subscriptions can get overwhelming. Always a problem when we're trying to build an audience from within Substack.
Ramona, can I ask you how many followers you have, and how long it took for you to get there?
I will use this. Thank you!
Great! I hope it's useful. If you have questions, please just ask. Comments are always open.
Will give you feedback
Thanks, Ramona!
Thanks so much for subscribing, Garrett. Welcome!
And once a Michigander, always a Michigander. Those Midwest roots run deep!
Hello, I'm not that new (started about 9 months ago) but wanted to say thanks for these writer office hours and all of the new features Substack regularly adds. One I would love to see is integrations, so importing new subscribers from sites like The Sample would be easier than it is now (I know it's not that hard now, but every bit of time saved helps!). I'd also love to be able to get email notifications for new comments but not likes.
Keep up the great work! I'm so glad I chose Substack for my newsletter!
Thanks for being here Wendi and for the thoughtful ideas/feedback.
Hi all!
I'm not a new writer but I'm new to substack! Looking forward to finding more letters to follow and enjoy!
We're glad you are here, Emmylou
Hi! I’ve been writing on Substack for the past few months, and I’m interested in ways to connect with other like-minded writers!
We're hosting weekly accountability threads in chat on Mondays and Fridays. https://on.substack.com/chat
It's a great to spot and connect with other writers.
You can also respond to any email from a writer you admire to start a conversation.
Sooo grateful for accountability roll call. Thank yoU!
Hi Katie, I visited the accountability thread last week (first time on the Chat function) and as I was getting my hair done - look at the ways we can work due to technology; - I posted about my writing goals and accomplishments. What a wonderful way to remind us of the efforts we are putting in week over week!
Can the Chat be accessed on a laptop yet? Is it only for smartphones? I'm a bit confused about its function. Thanks.
Someone from Substack (I can't remember who) mentioned somewhere in this Office Hours (am I sounding vague enough yet?) that adding the chat function to the web version was on the engineers' radar, but not to expect it soon.
Okay, thanks. I'm not sure I'd use it anyway! I'm not a fan of chat rooms. So much confusion with everyone talking over each other.
The ones I've participateed in for smaller publications tend to be a bit neater. But I haven't really found a way to differentiate the chat from the comments well enough, so I've only used it once or twice so far.
i had the same question...
I know, frustrating. I don't have a phone and have been waiting patiently for it to be accessible on my desktop.
I have a smartphone but I don't use it for much. I prefer my laptop or my iPad.
I commented with this above, but in case you don't see it coz Office hours is technically finished, I'm copying it here:
"Someone from Substack (I can't remember who) mentioned somewhere in this Office Hours (am I sounding vague enough yet?) that adding the chat function to the web version was on the engineers' radar, but not to expect it soon."
Yes! Looking to connect as well!
Thanks, Karen!
Hi Alex. Checking out your newsletter! -- Mike
Thanks so much, Mike!
Hi everyone!
I am fairly new; I started my Substack about two weeks ago. I have a few posts - Flash Fiction / Non Fiction and a new series of Creative Conundrums which I will be doing weekly posts on. I intend on writing a Writer's Journal too documenting how the process goes for someone who is very new to writing and never studied it / doing it alongside a busy day job!
Feel free to check out my work - for free - at:
https://siyanatseva.substack.com
Reply to this message and happy to check out your newsletters too! 💗 Happy writing!
Hi Siya, Just so you know (I didn't for a while and finally figured it out), you don't have to post the link to your Substack page here because it's automatically a clickable link as part of your picture every time you post or comment during writer office hours.
Thank you, Wendi! :) This is rather obvious! But thank you - it did not even cross my mind :)
Welcome, Siya! I remember in October coming to my first Office Hours and launching my first post. I'll check it out!
Thank you, Faith! :) I really appreciate it. Will do the same :)
For Writers who didn't have an audience before joining Substack, what kept you going through the slow or no growth stage?
The idea that the first few I had came back every week to like and comment!
In the early days, I felt like I was launching my writing into the depths of space. It was hard, and it's still hard with some articles which don't get much engagement. What helps me is that I felt like my writing was something I was doing for me. I could write on any topic I wanted to, when I wanted to (although I did have a specific focus and schedule, that was self-imposed). The other thing that helped is that I'm in the habit of writing. I get up really early to write every day, no matter what. This routine really keeps me going
Thankfully I don't have to get up early to write anymore. But when I was working, I'd get up at 3:30-4:00 am and write until I had to leave for work at 5:30. Now I get up at 7 to move the car so the wife can go to work.
That's impressive dedication.
Thank you for sharing your experience Melanie. I'm working on making it a routine.
Finding the pleasure in writing itself and knowing that putting something out into the world is already an accomplishment alone.
I knew I loved to write and having no subscribers didn't mean that I wasn't having an effect on someone through my writing. I was still getting readers. I wasn't going to stop just because no one had subscribed. I jumped on Office Hours and other's newsletters and commented and subscribed. Eventually, people started signing up. And when I switched to writing funny stories and some non funny stories, things took off. I had to wait for 2 months before I got my first subscriber but now I have many.
I get that. This is the first time I jumped on here, and I can see how it might bring readers to my page. I've started leaving comments on other pages and trying to be more "sociable." I'm hoping to break 100 by the end of the month.(I only need 5 more subscribers.)
That's already so impressive!
You're nearly there!
I always think I'm doing something wrong when I don't get followers for a week or two. But I tell myself I'm here for the long haul, and don't sweat the small stuff (of course I always do.) When I get down on myself, I look at the stats and see how many people are actually reading the stuff I put out. It helps keep me sane.
Thanks for sharing Ben, I appreciate it.
I’m pretty new to Substack and this is my first office hours!
I basically moved to sub stack from mailchimp, which I used mostly for marketing.
I want to have three different sub stack newsletters, two for literary pursuits and one for marketing.
I want people to be able to subscribe to the ones that interest them.
I hope that will be workable with sub stack.
Hi Tzivia, welcome!
You might consider sections if you want to segment the audience around each topic. This will allow you to have one main hub and the people can choose which parts, which sections, they want to subscribe to.
https://on.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-publication-sections
I've been wanting to do that, but I don't want to send the second newsletter to those who are subscribed to my first newsletter. The two audiences are very different. Can't I use two different email lists for different sections?
You could just do two entirely different Substacks. It's a lot to maintain, but I have two and manage it. The audiences are entirely different, so it's much easier to have two than try to segment them using sections. You can see the differences here:
http://unrulyfigures.substack.com
http://valorieclark.substack.com
Thank you! That's helpful :)
I have the same question :)
Thank you! I did set mine up like that. So, if someone unsubscribes to one list, they can stay subscribed to another? That was one of my concerns :)
Hi Everyone! I'm new to Substack (just published my 9th issue), and am slowly getting the hang of things. I have a free Substack now and would like to move into monetizing it - somehow, ether through subscribers or affiliate or sponsors. Any advice on how/when to do this? Thanks!
Hi Abbey! Congrats on your 9th issue.
Writers have found success with a variety of approaches to subscriptions , including offering everything for free and putting everything behind a paywall.
This post (https://on.substack.com/p/free-vs-paid) shares tactics available for converting free readers to paid subscriptions, including how to craft your pitch and an overview of how different publications define their free vs. paid tiers.
Great. Thanks. The free-to-paid is sometimes a muddy path. I'm always interested in ways to build a paid following.
Thank you!!! I’ll check it out!
Hi Abbey. In my view, there''s no need to wait. I did it right from the beginning. As long as it's voluntary, maybe 15% of your free readers will eventually reward you by paying. And I'd keep it to $5 a month cuz almost every reader who pays has a limited budget to work with.
It depends on what you're writing, but I think Substack says the free-to-paid conversion rate is about 5% of subscribers. I think finance 'stacks tend to have higher conversion rates.
I'm writing a combo motivational message type blog combined with media and products that relate to the message... leaving some opportunities to get affiliate $ too.
I write literary (long) short fiction, and was thinking I wouldn't go paid until I built up a huge readership. I'm thinking, if the writing's good, the readers will eventually find me. I've given myself 2-3 years before I convert...unless something happens and suddenly I have 1000's of followers.
That's interesting! Is there a reason that you don't want to offer paid alongside free for a few years?
Thanks, Mike!!! Appreciate the comment & advice!
Thanks for this sharing. I am thinking about this too
Congratulations for publishing! You can check out https://substack.com/going-paid-guide for a guide to going paid. Hopefully it helps!
I am also rather new (since October). I just published my 31st post (a mix of essays and podcasts). I have been thinking of monetizing myself. I have always offered a paid option but not put anything behind a paywall as I want it accessible. Now I am considering other avenues such as archiving older posts behind a paywall as well as using the 7-day free trial which allows interested viewers to have full access to see if they want to subscribe. I believe it's an organic process of a balance of providing value to readers while also valuing my own contributions and writing.
My latest post is on the unspeakable stories we carry inside:
https://faithcbergevin.substack.com/p/when-the-story-is-unspeakable
There's nothing wrong with monetizing right away, but you might want to keep your newsletter open to all for at least a while. No point in turning off potential readers by shutting them out before they even get a chance to get to know you!
I keep my newsletters open, with paid subscriptions optional, because that works best for me, but do check out others and their reasons for doing what they do.
And please, just take your time.
Hello all! Brand new-BRAND NEW to substack! I had my first post last week during office hours but was on a flight and couldn't really network with everybody! I'm trying to serialize a novel on substack before publishing it in April! Can anybody give me some good ins and outs, tips, and pointers about this? I think I'm going to have to start cutting chapters in half and releasing them as two parts because last weeks chapter one was a 22 minute read? Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Ace Parker
We hosted an event last year with fiction writers on how they are serializing on Substack: https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-fiction#details
Thank you Katie! I will check this out.
Check out what the Fictionistas have to say about this! https://fictionistas.substack.com/
Long length may not be bad! On my podcast, episodes are sometimes over an hour long, and I post the transcript with each. It's a very long read, but people subscribe!
I don't think it's bad, it was just a thought I had and then one of my friend who read it said it might not be a bad idea to cut them in half because people will see that 22 minute read tag, and think I don't have the time-not your traditional fiction reader, the novices. I think people who loves novels will read anything, it's just about grabbing others!
Thanks for the advice! This is what I need!
Congrats on starting! I wrote a post that is a 20min read. It’s my longest post and it has done well.
Thanks for replying! The average number of pages (print, not paperback size) are about 15 pages long. I really don't want to break my chapters in half just to grab readers but it was a thought. Thanks for sharing!
Don’t. I think the people who are interested will read long posts. I just wrote an article on the dangers of foam insulation and from the emails I received from readers I know they read till the end.
Welcome Ace! I’m new too. I am following your threat because I am curious too
Hi Karen! Ride the wave-hopefully we get some good advice here! What are you writing/publishing on substack?
Notes from my life experiences. Aha moments. And wellness tips.
Hey hey! I'm relatively new and just hit a big (for me) subscriber milestone this week. I'm so pumped. I'm also excited to try my first thread this week. It will be formatted as a workshop to integrate the wellness concept I wrote about at the start of the week. Got any tips for increasing engagement? Do my subscribers need to create a Substack account to comment?
Also, my eyes are glued to all the tech / media layoffs. Thankful for Substack <3
Hi Jen, excited your hosting your first thread! It's one of the simplest ways to engage with your subscribers. People will need to subscribe to comment.
We have a guide that rounds up some of the bes threads and some advice you can checkout here: https://on.substack.com/i/51161892/start-a-conversation
OK -- I tried it! How can I create a tab / page at the top that pulls out and displays just my threads into one page so these mini workshops are all together and easy to find?
https://www.flabwellness.com/p/integratequestions/comments
You're a goldmine, Katie, thank you from me, too
Re: comments. You can determine who gets to comment in your settings - I let everyone, even non-subscribers who just read my newsletter on its Substack page. I don't know if subscribers need an account to comment, though, and I'm definitely not an expert on how Substack works!
I’d be curious to know what the thread is about. Sounds interesting.
Thanks!! It's on "living the questions" a concept taught by Krista Tippet from OnBeing. Feel free to subscribe to get on the list ;)
Hello. I am in the midst of publishing my newsletter.
Hi, I've been on Substack since Jan. 1 and so far have accumulated more than 100 subscribers, which is great but I'm always looking for more. I've seen Substack publish emails that give new writers a shoutout, and I'm reaching out today to ask for you to do the same for me, please! Thank you in advance! If it's not already clear, my Substack is titled RiseUP With Dawn Ennis. Thanks!
Wait. What? 100 subscribers in less than a month? That's awesome! That's amazing! Now tell me what your secret is, because it's taken me 7 months, and I still haven't broke 100.
I am fortunate to have a loyal social media following after almost a decade as an online journalist. And to be clear all but 6 subscribers are free! But I’ve noticed a spike anytime I write about JK Rowling!
Congratulations, Dawn!
I would love that as well! I brought my subscribers over from Mailchimp and have only gotten a few new subscribers since I joined Substack a few months ago. Then again I'm only just beginning to figure out this new envirnoment.
A shoutout from Substack would be a huge boost!
Maybe you/we will hear from Substack on how to make that happen :)
I hope so! I’ve subscribed and recommended both your and Ben’s substack, hope it helps! Meantime consider writing ANYTHING about JK Rowling Lol
Thanks to all my fellow Substack writers here who are liking this comment! So, ummm, is there anyone from Substack here who can make this happen? Hellllloooooo?
Thanks for hosting these, Katie. Greetings to other writers. Quick one (I hope). On the "Browse" tab's "Recommendations," I'm wondering how that list of recommended posts get there "VIA" various writers. I'm not finding a way to directly recommend specific posts like that (even though I recommend various writers, of course). Thanks!
I didn't know that! Thanks for explaining.
Got it (I think). So it's not a post-by-post recommendation, but rather all posts by writers I recommend get there via me? Thanks!
Hiya! I'm super new and need to write on this app. It feels wild to have this much power. I've connected with some writers, but looking to connect with more. I'm focused on talking about marketing from a young age to now owning my agency as a freelancer. It's also going to have a mental health component. Any advice is terrific :)
Hi Leah, My newsletter is about mental health and related topics. Check it out and see if you want to connect further. My main advice is set a publishing schedule (once a week, once a month, whatever works for you) and make it publicly known so you will feel obligated to stick to it when you don't feel like writing or have very many subscribers. That's what has worked for me!
Thanks!
What is your favorite thing that Substack has shipped recently?
What is one thing you wish we would ship soon?
Favorite thing is the Audience stats--knowing the geographic reach of my writing has been illuminating and I still haven't figured out how to adjust but I do sense I need to adjust slightly, in awareness that I do indeed have an international audience and to try to grow that audience. Knowledge is power!
Pie in the sky dream? Some mechanism for author-to-author communication/DM system. It would be nice to be able to click on a profile and send a message to an author I would like to collaborate with; better than commenting off-topic or having to find or solicit their email. Maybe there's a way to do this that I don't know (replying to their newsletter in my inbox comes to mind) but I've never tried that nor has anyone done that to me, so I don't know if that is what people are doing.
Yes!
Yes, you can reply to a newsletter and that will go direct to the author. But even if you don't subscribe, you can email them with substackname@substack.com. Just check that you are using the substack name in the address bar of your browser. So I can be emailed at theturnstone@substack.com
File this one under TIL! I had no idea. Thank you!
I agree! I love being able to see where the small group of readers I have comes from! It’s so cool to think that people on the other side of the world want to read my writing!
Audience stats non existent for me what's up with that?? Chris
You can just reply to them on desktop?
I would like to easily tag posts. I would like to create categories like Covered Calls, Puts, Credit Spreads, StockPicking and show them on the home page where it makes sense to me.
Thanks for the feedback
Seconding tags! I would like to group articles in multiple ways (not just in one way, like writers can do with sections).
Tags would be so helpful as well as a way to list or group related posts together.
I have sections headings at top of my newsletters. Not sure if they are effective. No comments, no shares, no engagement and no stats. The dropped emails is what floored me.
I am not following but am curious. Can you elaborate? Thank you.
Do you mean the sub heads that you have. For example, 'Connections' and 'Life Journeys'? I like them, good way to categorize. However I felt the words were not clear as could be interpreted differently and therefore needed explanation, maybe a short phrase
An example
Connections: Learn how to connect better with others.
This is De, Reno are you asking me? If so pls elaborate
yes i am asking for clarification. Were you referring to your subheads?
Yes to tagging posts. I'd love for users to be able to sort my archive by content tags
Yes, that would be really great
I was wondering about this too! Thanks for raising it up
Yes to this
Yes, tags would be an amazing feature!
I'd love tags or a way to organise some content on my page too! I've tried customised links but it feels too fiddly on my homepage
Yes, please add tags or categories!
Hi Mariya, are responding to the sections headings I have placed at top of my newsletter?
I'd like to be able to format images so they're left or right aligned with text wrap. A portrait oriented image at its full width is very large on Substack. I end up making these smaller but they're centered with no text around them, which looks a little strange. My best solution so far is to use the gallery feature & put 2-3 portrait photos in there.
Yes for me, too. L or R aligned.
Great suggestion!
Under statistics, it will say, "4 shares" for example. I want to know who shared the column and on what platform, if that is possible.
Yes Maura, stats are very important but I am puzzled by the zero # for audience
I second this!
I agree with Scoot - DMs to other writers would be awesome! I'd also love for cross-posts to show up on my page, not just get emailed to subscribers. I want to use cross-posts, with a brief intro from me about why I chose to share that post, as my newsletter issue occasionally.
As for my favorite new thing, it's hard to choose just one. Substack is constantly adding great features!
I still haven't figured out how to use cross-posting. I don't understand its uses, so it just sits there, mocking me!
I think it's about recommending other writers 😕 Romona. But I thought it was used to summerize my articles for my subscribers Like a tease to read more, so I did went nowhere
I just did one. When you read an article in your email, just click on the cross-post and it will offer you sa chance to say why you want to suggest it. Say a few words if you want. Then another window pops up, and it asks who you want to send it to, as well as sending it to your entire list of followers. Hit it, and it's done.
Interesting. Thanks. I haven't seen any of them come through in my own inbox yet.
I see a use for it, but I'm already uncomfortable with sending too many posts to my readers' inboxes. I'm not sure I would use it that much--though I would love it if others cross-posted my work! LOL.
Yes Ramona, too posts sent to readers can backfire so to speak. This tool is a recommendation hit and did for at least ten writers 😕 still getting posts in my email but not recs for me. This space is the best engagement tool I've found. Note must jump on O Hours Thursdays and not wait til after. I will be reading and sending replies to writers this week as can
Audience stats and threads ingeneral have been great! I'd love to be able to tag someone in a comment like we can in posts. Also, when tagging in posts, it would be cool if both name and publication came up. If I type "@Elizabeth," a thousand show up--it would be cool if it could show "Elizabeth - What to Read If"
Agreed!
I'm tied between video posts, the ability to duplicate posts, and the second option for quote formats.
Chat for web would be great.
Being able to duplicate posts has been SO HELPFUL.
Tell me more Calories about duplicating posts please
When you have a published post and want a similar format for the next post, you can now duplicate the published post and edit it to create your next post. It makes it easier because the formatting etc is already largely done for you, which means you don't need to create it from scratch!
Yes Medha, yes I already figured a way to facilitate that method by setting up title categories in the drafts headed Duplicate Themes or Article Bits 😊
My favourite thing is audio embed 🔊 I can add podcast samples and that is very cool and engaging. You should have shipped sooner the flexible paywall.
Still having troubles trying to get that audio embed to actually work. Haven't attempted it lately would really like to include it and enhance the reader experience
I love being able to see where my readers are (and aren't, I was curious to discover that I have very few in Australia).
I'd love a way to make these threads a bit more manageable. When someone has replied to one of my comments, and I find my way back via the email notification, I can only see their comment and not my original comment. Because I'm quite active in these threads, I sometimes don't know what I said to prompt that comment.
Yes to the comments comment, Melanie. I'm completely lost sometimes when I try to get back to someone's comment after I've been notified. Sometimes it takes me there but most of the time it doesn't. I haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong.
I am including the writers name in the reply. Hopefully this will prompt more direct connection 😊
Good idea!
I'm one of your Aussie subs right here!
And omg yes to the comments thing! I end up tied in knots trying to find what they're responding to!
I liked seeing the audience insights. It helped me understand that I needed to broaden some content but it also told me that my content was interesting to people outside the US and people are facing similar challenges with construction. I really hope there will be a way to add tables to posts and a way to change font colors. Thank you
Chris, thanks for joining this Office Hours. Love the Audience Insights.
I write monthly (over 2 years now) and the archive of issues (most behind the paywall) needs an easy tool for later discovery (beyond search) - visually appealing, simple to use (for author and subscriber). Thanks.
+ 1.
Favorite is the audience tab. For wishes, I hope for a better discovery tab. I can't see all the categories on my monitor unless I click the arrow, so I feel like some topics aren't getting as much discovery as the ones you can see by default. I wish writers had a more granular way of categorizing their newsletters that would make them easier to search for
Love the new search functionality.
Having the ability to write from left-to-right and from right-to-left in the same post.
I asked this in Katie's thread, but maybe it's better here. Is there any way to tag subscribers? I want to make groups of subscribers so I can offer a promotion to a subset of readers, and then follow up on that promotion. I also want to make sure I don't overlap promotions.
If there's no way to do that currently, are you building any way to tag or group subscribers?
Currently you can filter subscribers, but there's not a way to tag like you're describing. Thanks for the feedback!
Zero stats for audience Chris how is this possible I have subscribers
You can send a direct email to a subset of subscribers! On your subscriber dash, filter down to whoever you want to send it to ("five-star free subscribers in the last 90 days"), select them using the checkboxes, then hit the button that says email!
That's helpful! Thanks.
Yes, that works for the first email. But if you want to follow up with that same group later there's no way to do it.
For a more specific example: Do exactly what you describe, and comp all those readers for 30 days. Try to do the same promotion some time later, and you'll end up with a mix of people who have already received that promotion, and new subscribers. And you can't do a followup like "I hope you enjoyed the 30 day comped subscription. If you liked..."
I just realized you can send a followup email to a group that you've already emailed. I clicked on the email that I sent to a group I comped. If you click "View email recipients" there's a button "Email again". If you click that, it gives you a blank email form, that has those same people set as recipients. (The "email again" is different than the "Send again" button you'll see on the email page.)
This is a small help, but it doesn't address the impossibility of managing more than one promotion. If you want to start a new promotion, you have no way of filtering out the people who've already received a promotion, or filtering for a group that's never received a promotion, etc.
One more nice thing: you can look at the people who received that promotion, and see if any of them have become paid subscribers or not.
Thanks Eric, this help address the dropped emails
I love the audience insights on the stats page.
Thank you for joining us today at Office Hours! The Substack team is signing off.
Next week we will be taking a break from Office Hours as usual for our monthly Shoutout Thread. RSVP so you don't miss it: https://lu.ma/shoutout
See you there,
Katie, Bailey, Chris B, Chris P, Mel and Evans
Thanks as always for a great session. So many of us appreciate what you do here each week.
Hello all, and happy Office Hours! Here's a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
It's just a little too easy to be self-critical, isn't it? Especially as a creative person. Many writers have the unfortunate habit of trying to bully ourselves into productivity and inspiration. Does that work? Maybe...but not for long. No one likes to be pushed around! In case you need it, here's a reminder that bullying yourself doesn't work. To stay consistent in your creativity, you need to be gentle and gracious with yourself. Spend time nourishing your instincts and creative hygiene. Recognize your own flow. Read, rest, and spend time looking at something other than a computer sometimes. When you care about yourself, you'll cultivate a much healthier relationship to productivity, and your community will be drawn to your compassionate authenticity!
Keep going, keep writing, and DON'T GIVE UP! 🌿
+1
I think the idea of “more! More! More!” is one we (writers) out on ourselves; especially those of us offering paid subscriptions. In reality, most readers just want to read quality work in a “quieter” environment than, say, Twitter or IG.
Agree completely, Kevin. I always feel an internal pressure (like now) to publish consistently, but my readers don’t seem to care as long as the work is good.
This is interesting to hear, Glenn, especially since online writing "best practices" (and even Substack's advice to authors) hammers home the idea of consistency as key. But I'm started to wonder if people do, in fact, prefer quality to consistency. Both together is probably ideal if you want to make a living off it, but with inboxes and screens constantly flooded with MORE and MORE content, perhaps readers need a break?
No question, one of the biggest challenges we all face is getting our voices heard amid the noise. I did more than 60 pieces last year, part of a personal goal, but the traction was the same whether I published twice a week or once a month.
The problem when you don’t publish frequently is that you’re not accessing new people. It’s a Catch-22, but my vote ultimately goes toward quality and following my creative muse.
That's the way I'm leaning, too. I want to publish something once every two weeks, and I think that's enough. Maybe I'll add shorter posts or little explorations of half-finished thoughts here and there, but overall I want to publish things that I feel are well-crafted and polished.
If I’m honest, I’m not sure one could rush the kind of work you’re putting out- even if you wanted to. I’m always happy to wait and see it.
Thanks Kevin! I appreciate it. It’s not great for attracting new sets of eyeballs, but I’d rather put out things people get something from and enjoy.
Absolutely. I tried out a new thread on my substack last week, but then realized it meant people would get an email from me every day of the week. That's seems like too much, and so overwhelming! So I scaled back immediately.
Most important lesson I learned in writing is that when I don't feel like writing I shouldn't write. It feels like it should be obvious but it isn't. I know now that the muse will come back--it never stays away forever.
I like this and agree with you, and yet I also often want to write and then get resistance. Sometimes though when I start even if I think I have no ideas, it just flows and feels like magic ✨
I have had that happen about as often as I feel like writing but I don't feel inspired to write. Usually when I 'feel like writing' but can't seem to produce anything I am satisfied with, I will make drafts and let them sit until lightning strikes again. Just being gentle with ourselves as SE suggests in the OP! Learn our workflow!
Do you ever freewrite when you don't feel like writing? I find that can break me out of a place of resistance. It's also good for nailing down thoughts when they're bouncing around in my head in a disorganized mess!
Yes true, I don't look at the keyboard when I compose I just let my fingers fly with my thoughts😊 then I edit after. This method is fun and effective in terms of time and 'thought wheeling'
Sometimes--I have journals and that's usually where I let ideas out, because usually they don't come out in something intelligible for essay purposes. My ideas sometimes come as images or bullet points or I tug on one thought and other thoughts open up. writing on paper helps connect to my brain and get the ideas out. Then sometimes I'll turn it into a post, or i'll just feel better that it's out of my brain and the urge will go away for a time.
Yessss, exactly. I'm the same way. I don't have as much time to journal as I used to, but I experience very similar things when I do. My notetaking system is likely unintelligible to people outside my own head. 😅
And I find that patterns of thought emerge from journaling that I can go back to later, pick up the scattered threads, and weave them into an essay.
Yes, so true and that's when I go back and do updates for articles that felt rushed or just out of flow and changes made were worth it
I agree. Although I do keep an ace up my sleeve. If I don't feel like writing or I can't decide WHAT to write, I go for a walk with no stimulation (so no earbuds etc). It's amazing how often I come back from said walk and immediately sit to write!
absolutely it will, Scott.
Thank you for this reminder! This time of year can be especially tough here in the northeast US where the wintry season combines with lots of behind the computer work it's easy to let getting outside take a back seat. But that makes it so much more important to make the time to "nourish" all these things. Think I'll take this as a push to take a walk and push out some stagnation.
Canada too. I live near Toronto, and it's felt like we've barely got any sunshine this month. Plus a big dumping of snow over the last day and a half. I haven't really wanted to go outside much, but I've been focusing more on creative projects.
no sun here in Switzerland either right now. The "right now" lasts for about 5 months here, so treating oneself is important in winter, in whatever ways you can think of. Walking alone sometimes is a good one; no phone, no doggie - just you and you.
Been there! Buffalo native here, although lately my home in Connecticut has been pretty gray.
No sun in New Jersey either. It is harder to get energized!
And meanwhile...in Vancouver! Although they're just now saying there's going to be an Arctic Outflow warning coming for the weekend. That's okay. It's almost time for our last snowfall of the season anyway.
hang in there, Ben! (your newsletter looks amazing, by the way)
Thanks! If you like fiction, THIS is the place to go!
Hope not Ben
That's okay, they cancelled it! Ha! Gotta love living in Vancouver.
yea, but being warmer, 0c, it snowed. Just a trace, and gone by 9:00 am.
I cannot begin to tell you how much I needed to hear (read) this today!
Thank you 💛
THANK YOU for the amazing replies to this topic! I know I normally comment and then step back to let things flow, but I wanted to reply to the few folks asking about what I mean when I say "creative hygiene", especially for myself.
Hygiene basically boils down to rituals that we do regularly--daily, weekly--to maintain health. Creative hygiene, then, is how we maintain the health of our craft, our creative lives. This will be different for every single person, so if your creative rituals look different from someone else's, that's totally fine! Personally, I treat my creativity as seasonal. Some seasons are good for planting and cultivating, some are good for harvesting, and some are good for resting.
That said, routine is vital for my mental health as well as my creativity. I try to maintain a daily habit of morning pages (thank you, Julia Cameron!), as well as showing up to do the bare minimum on my projects every day (currently, adding 500 words to my novel whether I want to or not). Substack is also part of my hygiene rituals; staying consistent by posting here every week is more about rhythm than it is about "success".
While creativity can be an end to itself, of course, I see my writing as a gateway to building community, and therefore it is a tool that must be honed and used in order to remain effective. That means that some projects/posts/journal entries will not be fun or exciting to me, or won't land with my readers. But that's okay. As long as I'm maintaining my creative health, I know that "the good stuff" will come out when it's supposed to.
I hope that clears some things up! Feel free to ask any further questions; I love talking about this stuff! 🌿
Yes S.E, when the creative juices so to speak are really flowing it's sometimes occurs that change in environment might interupt inspiration but found opposite to be true at times. Find I can write the outline themes in one sitting. Self care is vital in all things and fresh air is imperative although I don't get enough...miss my dogs. Incidentally I posted a thread on this topic
How lovely that you are also so inspired by Julia, Sarah. Me too! I recognised the expression "creative hygiene". A huge part of my newsletter is based on her teachings. I recently attended one of her workshops that she did in conjunction with her new book and she has an online book launch this Sunday, too, in case you're interested.
I like the sentiment, but it gets very hard sometimes. I mean, I write stuff that a lot of people tell me they like, but getting eyeballs on it in the first place can be quite a challenge!
*hides behind curtain for not having opened Terry's last couple of Substacks* 😬
I don't blame you, Jo. I write too much!
i have to admit, Terry, that i am struggling a bit with running 2 bands, 10 social accounts plus running Substack. It's definitely not you writing too much.
Blimey. When you say 'running', you mean managing, or are you in them, or both? What kind of music? 10 social accounts? i can just about manage two!
i'm a pop musician in 2 bands - one solo and one duo - and in my solo one (Synthie dB Shock) i do almost everything myself, including running twitter, instagram, soundcloud, songwriting, recording, singing, editing, etc etc, it's endless!
Yes, reading, resting, and looking at something other than a computer (especially the natural world - I love to walk in parks or other scenic spots) are all SO important! I need to do more reading (for pleasure; I do plenty for research), resting, and getting out of the house. Not only are they good for my mental health, but they also improve the quality of my writing. Stepping away gives me a fresh perspective and new ideas, and I return to writing refreshed and ready to get back to work. Thanks as always for your wise and encouraging words!
I actually finished an essay ahead of schedule and when I posted the draft, I hated it! 😭
I am back in the draft and redoing some sections but I’ll make it on time. Had to give myself some grace to do that. Thanks again for the encouragement!
I regard hating what I've published as part of the process
you're not alone, Chevanne. Can you maybe turn it into 2 or 3 separate topics? That happens to me more often than i like to admit - i think i'm ready to publish and re-read it, realising that i'm covering several different topics!
It can be the same, just needs to stick to a thesis. I’m going to edit it further.
Yes yes, this was my initial fear as I have so much material and wheels keep turning. Happened with one post and past editor commented on it. Check the length therein lies the clue that you may have went off course/focus
Ha! I was ‘ahead of schedule’ this week but then super critical of my draft. It will be down the wire tonight, but I’m benefiting from a self imposed deadline.
One thing about not many eyes on the work..ya don't have worry about deadlines.. just a little 'postive flip' for ya..onward!
It’s amazing how reading the right book can refill the creative well.
(Insert plug about Bret Ellis’ new book here)
Thanks for the wise words and gentle cheer-leading :)
Thanks for this. There’s been a lot going on in life recently and I’ve been feeling creatively stuck and scattered (something that happens often given the writing and photography I do). Easy to go down the rabbit hole of self critique, so seeing your post was timely.
My last post echoes this in some ways 🥰
I always look forward to your Office Hours comments, S.E.!
Could you share more about what you mean by "creative hygiene"? How do you define it, and how do you manage yours?
Yes for me as well 😊
Yes, keep going. Tweak if you think it helps, but keep going.
Oooh, I love this! What does creative hygiene look/feel like? I'd love to hear some examples from others!
Interesting phrase--creative hygiene. I can think of a couple things in my writing flow.
1. For promotions, I go back into old posts, find one that resonates with that day, and give it a little proofread in the mindset of updating it to a more perennial context and then I re-share the heck out of it. It's creative, but also cleaning up past work.
2. When I only have a small amount of time to work, I usually just add new articles I think I might write about in the future to my citations page (https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/citations). I never send out my citations page, but just update it. Then, when I am actually in the crunch time of publishing, that is one little step where I can just copy-paste the citation into my latest post and I don't have to worry about creating the citations from scratch on publish day. That helps separate different kinds of modes of creativity which feels hygienic to me.
Jenn McClearen's publication https://publishnotperish.substack.com/ has a lot of great tips about academic writing that might be interesting, too!
I love this! I've been thinking about it a lot lately, especially recognizing my own flow and creativity. And allowing myself to go slowly and also to sit in what might be uncomfortable boredom. And if I have a day or a few days or a week where I'm not as creatively "productive" as I expected to be, that doesn't mean I failed and it'll never happen. (That last sentence is brought to you by me coming off a week with multiple snow days when my kids were home.)
Hang in there, mama! I actually bought a sticker at a little indie paperie that says, "Normalize bordeom" and stuck it on my wall by my desk. Even as a kid I struggled with boredom. Something I am trying to unlearn as leisure has so many gifts to offer us!
NORMALIZE BOREDOM!!! I love that so much.
I'd-a loved that as a bumper sticker! As a Houston high-schooler in the early '70s, my dad (who was in radio) once brought home a bumper sticker from an ad agency client, that said, "Eschew Obfuscation".
I immediately stuck it on my car, and ever since, have tried to follow that sage (and occasional tarragon) advice.....even though it was several years later that I even bothered to look up those two words!
I've seen that bumper sticker! And I appreciate it. Normalize boredom, normalize weird-ass bumper stickers.
Funny how we age.....back then, my back bumper (and painted trunk!!) was festooned with bumper stickers! Now, I scoff at those who do that (excessively anyway) now, while I wouldn't even think ONCE about doing that now!😱
I have one bumper sticker, advertising my favorite local indie bookstore. Which is very refined as far as bumper stickers go!
boredom, what's that? 😅 i wish i had time for it.
Oh wow I have a whole post about sitting with the uncomfortable boredom that I've yet to publish!
Are we all in a Substack bubble? 🧼
I love writing on Substack. Authors like us, which are also readers, are very supportive. We comment, we engage, we recommend.
But sometimes I ask myself if this is somehow limiting. If we are closing up in our own protected world. Struggling to find people that might end up economically supporting what we write. Like coaches that end up talking with fellow coaches, instead of finding clients.
Happy to know what you experience is!
P.s.: thanks for being here and reading this! ;)
That is such a great (and healthy!) question to ask. Yeah - I don't know if there's a general answer to it (or what that answer is, if it exists), but it's certainly regularly on my mind. Part of our jobs as writers should be to find new readers in places we've never been before, perhaps where we never knew readers existed - and that is such a hard thing to do (ie. trying to discover what we don't know we don't know!). But it's super-important.
One way to leave that bubble is to just get chatting to random people in real life: at the pub, in a bar, at the library, in a queue at the bank, wherever. It's incredibly time-inefficient, but finding out what non-massively-online people do with their time online, and in particular non-massively-on-Substack people, can get a great way to give you ideas of new places to look and to maybe engineer a bit of attention around your work?
I can pick up a cue! And, what better way to "chat to random people in real life" than to have a business card with your 'Stack name, info, web address, brief "About" blurb, & QR code on it as its own convo starter! It works for me, virtually daily!!
I actually have a linq card for this purpose! It’s a physical business card that’s about the thickness of a credit card and You can either tap your device with the nfc chip and it will take people directly to my linq page which features my links and substack posts. OR it has a QR code on it as the low tech option to get to all the good stuff. Here’s mine for example: https://linqapp.com/alexknepper
Oooooh I'm going to a big conference in April. This might be a necessary business expense.
I'm waiting for JUST that kind of "fish-in-a-barrel" opportunity! When I was writing about the Houston Astros for The Runner Sports all-sports blog site (2014-20020), I'd take my then-card, go to Minute Maid Park in downtown Houston (where the 'Stros play), and hand my card out to everyone I saw---the fans!
On one hand, I hate that approach, because I love talking about what I write, and engage people personally (doing a good ten minutes to a couple patient and tolerant folks at a time), but in that case, a helicopter-drop over the stadium might've been just the thing!!!😁👍 Go get 'em, and good luck, Valorie!
Thank you!
Sounds and looks great! But, sans smart phone, that all sounds very app-y! I have a flip phone (I'll pause 10 minutes for laughter)......
OK, the other thing I can't expect others to replicate, if not duplicate, is my biz card is that B&W photo (you see to your left) of me, backstage with 2002 Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame inductees, The Ramones....'twas back in '77 in Houston, and I was 22, and the only living being depicted on that card (still living)!
For punk fans/rock fans/Ramones completists, the card is a collector's item (the pic can't be found anywhere else besides here and on my social media accts), and I've seen many disappear off several bulletin boards!
But, that linq card is perfect for many, I'm sure, if not all!! We do we, oui?
Nah, lot's of us have flip phones. Tara from https://www.slowdownfarmstead.com/ recently hosted an epic chat about having a landline plus emergency car phone, but no smartphone, and so many people chimed in on it!
Agree to we do we, though 👍 This is reminding me to go pin more of my business cards... I had them made and now they are just sitting there!
Hey! Traditional business cards are full proof! They make excellent bookmarks and scrap paper and nothing beats a physical thing in your hand. The think I like most about the Linq idea is that if you happen to forget your business cards, it is an excellent back up!
As a side note, I have been having trouble with my smart phone doing its main function… being a phone. Quite useless without this key element! Hail to the flip phone!
And, with a QR code component, you never know who, and how many, are going to walk by and just snap it, rather than have to keep up (like I used to do, buying my own pushpins, in fact!) checking to see if enough cards are still hanging up from folks taking them (which was the point)!
Ha. I'd never seen linqapp. Thanks for the intro!
Wow. I'm impressed.
I love this idea! Have been thinking about making a business card.
I use VistaPrint(s) online. You can use photos (the pic to your left of me, backstage with The Ramones in 1977 in Houston, is my card front) and they have the tech to turn your 'Stack address into a QR code (mine's on the back)! It's worth it to get the flip side with the QR code.
That way, when you hang it on library, Starbux, and Panera bulletin boards, you just need one pushpin to hang both sides up (the pin will go thru the bottom of the frontside card, and another card, pinned at its top, showing the back! Good luck!
That's awesome. Thanks for the insight and the pushpin hack! My substack is a community-based "magazine," too, so it'll be nice to have a physical object to hand to folks.
Good tips! Just beware the onslaught of Vista Print emails after you place an order. Opt out to the extent possible beforehand, use an alternate email, or plan to get a workout on that Unsubscribe button. Hah!
I like that idea. It is so old-school. Do you actually find that it works? I like both business cards and actual bulletin boards.
I forgot, in my original reply, to actually address the "does it work?" question. My philosophy is: To the extent that people, with my card now available to take or snap, have access to my site that would otherwise not.
One of my favorite moments is when I travel, or have an un-planned encounter (accidentally bumping into someone...."oh, excuse me! Say, what kind of music do you like?"), I make sure to try and give them a card. You just never know who might be your next voracious reader!
Kinda like Lotto....you may never win the Big One, but laying a dollar on the counter at least gives you a CHANCE. See that person over there? He/she may never read or even like my stuff....but, if they're given a card..........................So, that's MY definition of the card "working".
Well, the "does it actually work?" component is hard to quantify. Again, with the picture I have, it practically screams to be used, not only online, but as a biz card!
Not many fellow writers can match the 'Stack name I have, the written subject matter, and the attendant photo, all fitting together quite so perfectly! I'd be a fool not to!
Now, if I had "Tony's Insights to Outdoor Plumbing in 1920's Appalachia" Substack (sorry, Tony, if I'm stepping on virtual toes, here), I'd be hard-pressed to use that photo for any practical good. But, for FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE, one couldn't special-order such a perfect representative photo! Thank you, the late Larry Lent, pro photog who took it at the time!
A couple days later, he gave me about 3 different sizes of the pic (after he did the washes and solutions one had to do back in the day!), all of which I kept for 2 1/2 decades, until I digitized them around the turn of the century (this one)!
I think I saw you mention this before! I thought it was genius, made a mental note to explore it, and the promptly forgot! Thanks for the reminder!
Finally! My relentless redundancy becomes an asset! Woo-hoo! There are always new and different folks here on any given Thursday! And, I think you'll find that people who had every intention of visiting your "Great Things" might see your card while rummaging for a paper clip, and be just as reminded! Win-win! Thanks, Medha!
I like how you think! Remind me again next week? ; )
What remind?! I'll probably start yammering on about it to someone new, forgetting entirely that I just brought it up a week ago!😉Thanks, Medha!
Absolutely! I used to work in marketing for authors and their big paying speaking gigs also tended to come from real life. The digital was more like a placeholder to add legitimacy, more than a lead-engine itself. There will be people who want to support you (or who need your work) and will do so because of your relationship, regardless of platform. Those people are the best kind to build your network with and you are so right--you can't always predict when or where that kind of connection will happen!
I appreciate tips that come from lived experience. Thank you for sharing.
Marketing that must be a great tool to have real experience in Nikko. Care to share some tips that may make be the learning curve a bit less arduous
Many of the things you will read from successful Substack writers are just basic marketing advice for coming across as a valuable, authentic person:
be consistent in giving value
take time to build real relationships with your individual audience members
grow your own network by participating with other people and projects, too
offer a paid tier early on, even if you are still finding your voice
share your work on other platforms and talk about it in-person
...
These are all tips that I read variations of in every single office hours, and they are all good marketing ideas.
Obviously I MUST get out more!
Granted, a biz card might require a little more human interaction, but I just swallow hard, and pretend I'm invisible.....which might explain why people I encounter appear as if a card is somehow mysteriously floating toward them!😁
Real life conversations was the part missing for me for a long time! But when I started talking about it to friends and family, they started sharing it with their friends too! It compounds similarly to the way online conversions do, but there's more trust built in because it's your friend looking you in the face and saying, "I found this cool writer!"
I 100% hear this! My Instagram community is much larger than my Substack community and I'm struggling to get my people there to understand why I am shifting my content here. I love this space and platform, but I don't think that it's possible to translate all of the people who want to read my work to paying subscribers. So finding that balance of people who really just want to support my creative endeavors in general (patrons of my work, if you will) and people who actually want the additional content behind a paywall. It's why I'm also creating a Patreon account. Love this topic!
To quote a journalist friend who Substacks and Instagrams: People on Instagram don't read. I rush to add that your audience may be an exception, but that's not why most come to Insta. They come to post narcissistic selfies, and look at other people's narcissistic selfies. At most, they want snippets, not actual text. It's less literate than FB. Even less than Twitter. :)
Yes. I have been trying to fit a round hole into the square of insta for 6 years. One of the reasons I feel like a free bird over here. There is so much ROOM. The people who love to read are coming. Small but mighty!
Which type of content do you post on Insta, Rachel?
Curious to know how you capture people's attention in such a "low read" environment.
I'm an artist first so high quality mosaic and people who follow what is happening at The Ruins Project definitely helps
Yess!!! I feel the same way!
My insta is a book/library audience so I do have a lot of readers!
That's why I rushed to add that your audience may be an exception, but that this is not why they come to Insta. :)
That's interesting. I've worked really hard on Twitter and IG, but done just a little on FB and LinkedIn. However, FB and LinkedIn have brought a similar number of subscribers as Tw/IG. This makes me question my efforts... I think I may just start focusing on the other platforms and see what happens!
Agreed. I have a massive IG presence but not many people click the link to Substack.
I agree. And Instagram's user interface doesn't make it friendly to leave the platform to read even if you want to (obviously, they do this on purpose). Twitter is starting to suppress links that take you off the platform too, which is why doing less direct links and longer threads gets more eyes.
Yeah. Social networks are more and more walled gardens.
And I do not see any upcoming change in direction.
In the past months, I have spent a lot of time on Linkedin, where I have the biggest audience.
And learned a lot of tactics.
But I believe I am just trying to push the river.
Results are just incremental.
P.s.: in case you use Linkedin, this I have put anyway together my lessons here. Maybe you could find the template for post writing helpful!
https://livmkk.substack.com/p/9-linkedin-posts-gone-wrong-lessons
Totally agree. “Teacher instagram” is so toxic. On FB there are wonderful groups to join and learn from (even if I hate using Facebook 😐) Twitter you get basically the same.
What's "Teacher Instagram"? 😅
Where k-12 teachers post pictures of perfect looking classrooms and questionable instructional materials. Lots of commiserating and the larger accounts are usually TeacherPayTeacher creators that use it to advertise their (questionable) instructional materials.
oooh yes - Teacher Instagram truly is toxic and I tend to hide the recommended posts!
It is hard to argue with this. What alternatives did you use to grow your readership? Was it primarily connections through Substack? I don't have a large following on social media, and I'm not interested in spending more hours there, so what you say is appealing to me!
ha ha. yes
You probably already see this, but probably only a small percentage of your followers on Instagram even see your posts mentioning you Substack. And even then, getting people to click ANYTHING, and leave a platform that is BUILT to keep you scrolling.. like, click your link, and then miss this next video? This next perfectly set up photo? Oh wait, a cat video!
Trying to move people from one platform to another is sooo hard!
Exactly! The instagram algorithm has pushed me hard to move away from the platform. I just need to bring my people with me 😉
Maaaaaaybe DM some people here and there? That sounds very GROWTH HACKER-ish, but... I mean, some of these people might be seeing your posts.
🔥🔥🔥
And that is the challenge. I'm hoping that getting my book published will help me with that.
Agree. I have tried a lot. I have done a lot of Linkedin for many months.
Found and shared many strategies.
Only obtaining incremental improvements.
And now I agree: strategies must be different.
Social networks are simply, more and more, walled gardens.
I also feel that my Instagram followers rarely translate to my Substack followers, and I have made peace with that. Instagram targets a very different audience who mostly looks at photos and very short texts. I feel that if I promote my Substack writing on my Instagram every time when I post, then people might not feel the need to "Subscribe".
Such great insight! I have noticed and I think it’s a good theory that people who need/ want a detox from insta are my people for here!!
I am in a very similar boat. I keep trying to come up with new, intriguing ways to lure them over.
Nice. Yeah. I guess Insta (or Tiktok or similar) are more to give reach, while Substack is to engage with the dearest "1000 true fans".
Exactly. Insta is the funnel to bring the 1000 over to our beautiful, layered, deeper worlds
They're just such different mediums. I feel like people are very loyal to whatever social media feels right to them and it's hard to get them to jump ship. Substacks are these very thoughtful invitations into someone's world through a newsletter -- I strive for authenticity on my social media but you're just not going to get nearly as much from new as my Insta account. I'm not sure people on my Insta account want more, if that makes sense. They're happy with a sliver of content. And still, how in the world do you grow your audience? Without keywords or a homepage that really pushes your content, has anyone had any success in growing their free subscriber base?
I agree with this. I noticed that someone unsubscribed when I posted a substack link. They just wanted to see my pictures of architectural details. I have different content on each platform and need to figure out the best way to cross-promote. I think Twitter and LinkedIn are more complementary channels.
Which layout do you use? Do you think it affects your SEO? I've tried a couple of layouts and I'm not sure which does the best job selling.
I just the Magazine format because I think it looks nice but not sure it works to improve readers. What about you?
I use the basic layout with one pinned post because I like being able to put my series posts in the sidebar.
I have the exact same struggle with my instagram community. Still trying to sort out how to get them to follow me here
I had some good success getting on a short video and talking about my Substack in stories, then putting a question box below so people could drop their email in if they were interested in subscribing. They didn't have to try to click a link to get on here and do it themselves, which made it so easy for them to subscribe.
I tried the question box today and got 13 new subscribers so far! Thanks so much for this suggestion - I'll probably repeat it at the end of every month :-)
I'm so glad that worked!
Updated to add that after 24 hours I gained 45 new subscribers from this! Definitely a winner ❤️
Ooooh I love that! Definitely trying!
Oh thats a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing!
That’s an excellent approach! When a substack post is on Instagram I don’t think it’s easy for the audience to understand what it’s about and adding context is probably very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
That's a great strategy!
Katy I'd be interested to hear about your experience with Patreon. Considered it years ago. I'd be concerned about spreading myself too thin, unless one can somehow post similar or same content on both platforms...
I had Patreon for a while and I didn't like it. The interface isn't very good, and you can't do much customization. There are tons of glitches with scheduling that have been there for years, and their support team never responds to emails (or fixes things).
Hmm how unfortunate, thank you for sharing that Valorie. Sadly a lot of these startups/platforms are created by tech folks who see a great opportunity to disrupt something but they don't follow through all the way and what ends up happening is, a sector or field gets disrupted but there's collateral damage in terms of real people and real livelihoods. I know a thing or two about this model, I live here in Silicon Valley (eye roll)
That's where I've been stuck - what to offer there vs here. I'm going to keep working on it!
Also, just subscribed to your newsletter. What's the best way to contact you outside these office hours?
Best of luck Katy! When you have it set up ping me, happy to look at it and maybe offer my first impressions :)
I've subscribed to yours. I'm looking forward to reading your ChatGPT article, as I've written a couple myself.
Can you both share the link to ChatGPT articles?
Here's mine! https://mindfullibrarian.substack.com/p/ai-writing-makes-my-heart-hurt
https://open.substack.com/pub/terryfreedman/p/course-outlines-written-by-chatgpt?utm_source=direct&r=18suih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://open.substack.com/pub/terryfreedman/p/can-ai-write-decent-book-reviews?utm_source=direct&r=18suih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thank you so much! I'll take a look at yours as well :-)
I have a similar challenge, Katy
That is an excellent point, Livio. But I think that the diversity of this platform in and of itself prevents the bubble effect. While it's true that writers tend to support other writers, it's also true that writers are readers. And ultimately, readers are our people, even if many also happen to be writers.
I also feel like Substack's design and the built-in tools for getting our work in front of new eyeballs help. For example, cross-promotion and recommendations create organic growth beyond the bubble. Plus, I've found that many of the writers are willing to talk about their work and promote each other's projects to their audience of readers and writers. This creates an environment where everyone can gain visibility and find new readers.
Ultimately, Substack's platform does a great job of enabling writers to reach a broader audience, which prevents the "bubble effect." So, while it may be true that there is some bubble effect in the world of Substack, I am confident that it's not nearly as strong as it could be. This is why I think Substack is so amazing!
Maybe I am secretly also asking myself... would people pay for more than 1-2 paid newsletter?
I pay for seven newsletters. Sometimes the newsletter has information I can't get anywhere else, but more often than not I pay because I enjoy the newsletter and I want to support the writer. I don't know if that's going to lead to a full-time living for the writer, but if it keeps them moving forward with their work, I'm there for it. BTW, I'd put those who pay for my newsletter in the same category. Since I write humor, the people who pay are likely paying because they enjoy the stories and want me to keep going.
Thanks for sharing, Michael.
I have not started with paid yet.
But this is encouraging.
Me too.
It's amazing the difference one paid sub makes for the writer! Each is significant! Good for you.
I pay for five, sooo... yes? haha
Yes, I think I have 5 or 6 now. There really is some GREAT work here!
I like your newsletter.
Thank you, Terry. My hope for it is that it's useful.
I myself have a cutoff, financially as to how many paid newsletters I can afford and I have hit that mark with 6. So even though you mention 1-2, I think the same concern applies, from my view, as I imagine that a lot of the Substack writers (who make up a good portion of my new readers) are also at or near their paid subscription limit. But I am just guessing. Which is why looking outside the Substack community seems essential if building a larger paid subscriber base is important.
I think most of us have some sort of cap. I roll some of my own profits from paid subs back toward other writers, and would love to add more.
Someday, I’ll be a wealthy publishing titan, but today’s not that day.
What about tomorrow?:)
Time’ll tell!
Thanks for sharing. I can relate to your take!
I think they will. I do! But I might have just proved your original point! 😂 But in all seriousness, I think that a lot of people are willing to pay for things that add to their lives. Like buying several different types of fruits or beverages.
YES. ADD to their lives.
And stuff that isn't EVERYWHERE. I don't need to pay for "music news" because it is EVERYWHERE.
But I pay for the Stream and Destroy newsletter because he includes a bunch of relevant numbers and figures that I CAN'T find elsewhere.
Yes this.
(He said, as a music writer)
Thanks for reading between those lines, Kevin! haha
Thanks for sharing the numbers.
I have counted at least 5 replies with people with 5+ active paid subscriptions. I love it! 😇
I might start with paid one day.
For now, I just keep writing about my overanalytical struggles. That same ones that led to write this comment ;)
You're great!
I pay for at least 5 now!
I pay for four or five!
I do.
I pay for 7 I think, atm. I just love them and feel like I want to support them.
I started on Substack with articles rather chill featuring a cute little paper minder and my subscribers are business/finance minded types, so who knows were mine articles a pleasant shift for those folks. I have since gotten more political and social in scope. Note, I only recently found out who my subscribers are in terms of reading interests reported in stats
Fair point.
I was not really speaking about convincing non readers (very tough, as you've said).
But rather having readers from outside Substack ;)
I think that's partly on Substack to figure out how to bring in more people from outside Substack then let them discover our newsletters once they're on here. In some way, all of us are doing our part to help grow the Substack community, we bring a few non-Substack users here and let them trickle over to other publications. But I agree, it can be slow for people who do not have a big following before Substack.
Well, only recently Substack is investing in bringing new audience to writers. Historically, it hasn't been its business. That was one of the key differences, compared to Medium. But I guess they have figured out that they need to push more people to the platform, in order to benefit writers.
In any case, all in all, I believe the main Substack strategy is the following:
1. Get writers with an existing following from other platforms
2. In this way, bring new non-Substack following to the platform
3. Allow existing Substack writers to benefit from 2, through cross promotion features
Long live the Substack bubble! 👑
Yes! It is super important to not snub other writers as your audience. Especially when you think about how traditional publishing works. First you get qualified by other people in the industry before the “normal readers” come. The beauty of substack is that the industry leaders (other writers), instead of being gatekeepers, operate as cheerleaders.
Thanks Garrett! Sometimes readers don’t know what to look for until other writers are like “this one is cool, check them out!”
In many ways yes, and with the monetization structure, we are competing for precious dollars. That's why I've been advocating Substack establishes a credit system where a member can buy a dollar value each month, which can roll over. A credit can = $1 and can be used in the following ways:
1. They can pay for subscriptions with credits where there might be a reduced cost option (say 3 credits vs. $5)
2. They can pay for individual essays with credits (1 credit / essay)
3. They can send credits to writers for free essays as a 'tip' for good writing.
So this would break down to allow someone to buy 20 credits - $20 each month.
They could use 9 credits on three subscriptions and have 11 credits to buy / tip for other essays. This would allow a micro-monitization vs. the expectation of a fully committed and yet independent subscriptions. It would help build the broader community aspect of a network of authors as well.
I think that could really work.
I would quite happily pay $1 to read one article but paying out for a monthly subscription at $5 is just too much to do across multiple substacks.
itunes model?
99¢ per song
That is very similar to what Post (post.news) does. I can tip anyone's post (comparable to a tweet, but with no character limit) and I can also buy individual articles instead of monthly or yearly subscriptions to major newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, etc. I can also use points to read past the paywall of a long article anyone writes and chooses to paywall.
I was about to say something about Post. That is the beta structure of Post and I think that it has real promise. My hope is that I will be able to do most of my promotional work on just Substack and Post moving into the future.
About sign on with Post Sarah. Can you tell me more how it functions?
It's a lovely combination of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram 😂 Really, the honeymoon period right now is lovely because it is not a toxic place to be and the early adopters are determined to keep it that way. I've cut back on all of my social media, but I do like hanging out there. I would start by following fellow Substackers and going through their follow lists. Mine is @sarahstyfwriter
Great insight!
That exactly my feeling.
agreed
just subscribed to yours as there are a couple of articles I like the look of, incl. AI which I write about too. Plus successfully unsuccessful sounds interesting!
Thanks. Successfully Unsuccessful is a good one and the essay on Functional Stupidity is a lot of the underlying problem!
Hey Terry, maybe we could ask Substack to device a way to link or coordinate similar writing themes, so we could respond and calaborate with one other. Do you know what mean. What ya think? Pls don't ask me about how I'm no techy just learning as I go
Love the credit idea, could be further gamified as well.
Love this idea! Would provide easy ways to send quick thank-you tips to writers I’ve been helped by but can’t support on a regular basis.
I do wonder if the processing fees involved via Stripe might be a prohibiting factor. But Substack has been pretty ingenious in finding ways to enable other challenging features. I’ll be curious to see if/how they can handle this one!
What a cool concept! I'm really glad there are people 'out there' whose minds work like this! :)
great idea, Michael
Sounds interesting must read this again. Let know if Substack adopts any of these concepts 😊 Thanks for your effort
This pay-for-credit structure is a really interesting idea for audiences who are in the writing/reading/literature/creator economy. But don't forget there are plenty of newsletters aimed at investors, researchers, professionals, hobbyists - people who might not be compulsive newsletter consumers (like we are!)
My almost 2000 readers subscribe for work and many would have no interest in browsing other newsletters. The credit purchasing structure you described would add friction and confusion for my readers and would almost certainly hurt my conversions.
.... and yet for writer-readers who want to be in an author community the credit system would be great.
I got about 20 clicks this month from Google, so it's not like this is some walled garden and we're all trapped inside.
But this community and some of the people I've met (most of whom do NOT write about the same things I do!) have been very helpful and supportive.
Like... I've used WordPress as long as I can remember, and I KNOW there's a community around it, but I never felt any sort of pull or tug towards it... Substack does a great job of pulling people in I think, esp as the people doing the writing.
Hi Brad - I appreciate your invite! I work with a client who just worked Stryper's latest album haha - small world, this rock and roll stuff :)
It's a nice bubble, Substack. And there are an increasing numbers of readers & writers, so the bubble is expanding. When I started in April 2022, I had to explain what a Substack was to folks. Now they know.
That said, I spend 80% of my time trying to reach out to readers beyond the bubble. Mainly through Facebook, where I have a fair number of fans. I've tried other platforms, but decided to lean into my strength where it was....Hope that's helpful in some small way!
Now they know... yes, often!
The stats on where readers are in world is not showing anything for me. How is this possible?? Has anyone had similar experience?
Hmm, good point. I think this is not much of a bubble, to be honest. I am growing an audience for my newsletter both here and in other places. I used to be on Medium, and that was way more restrictive. If you wanted to earn, you needed to put your posts into the Partner Program, which meant that people who were not paying members of Medium, they could only read 5 of those per month. That was a much bigger barrier to participation. At least here you have the choice to invite the entire world to come and read your 'free' pieces without barriers.
On any platform there’s always a risk that your audience will become only (or mainly) other writers. That’s not always a bad thing, but as noted, it’s really important to talk up/share your work outside the bubble.
👆
What Kevin said, especially talking up your work. I share on social media and I've gotten a few subs that way, but by far the best way to get a new sub for me is talking to people (friends, family, friends of friends, friends of family, in-law, outlaws, strangers, etc.). Those conversations always bring in new subs.
Interesting! I haven't really promoted my newsletter to friends and family at all! Although I just got a text from a friend saying she loved the latest post. Not sure how she got on the list. Maybe from the couple of plugs I've done of my socials? But am realising that more of them would enjoy it if I told them about it.
Hi Livio
I think you’re right that there is a danger that it’s simply the same people gathering more and more free subscriptions and spreading their attention across more newsletters. For this I would recommend checking the read and engagement stats. If these are rising with your readers then you are probably ok.
However, I think long term you need to have a social media strategy. I have spent quite a bit of time on LinkedIn which has been good but not had many subscribers come from that. Twitter has been much more fruitful so I’m going to spend 30 days focusing on this to see where it goes.
Thanks for strategy tips. I am experimenting with sample and off twitter and hesitate to go to tick tock.
It's a good question, Livio! I don't know if you're in a substack bubble, but whenever I find myself asking if I'm in a Substack bubble, I check my dashboard. The answer is no. I know this because the majority of my readers come from outside the Substack network (although I get a significant number of readers from the network too). Also, fewer than 5% of my readers use the app, which tells me that if Substack went away tomorrow (please don't go, Substack!) nothing would really change for the 95% of my readers who read my stories twice a week via email.
Interesting! As a big fan of yours, can I ask where you're getting the bulk of your subs from (the outside SS ones)?
Hi Livio! I ask myself this all the time. Growth has been slow for me. Yet it is happening. I've noticed that the Big Names among us, if I'm looking at those who leave comments, the majority of those readers are not Substack writers. Those readers are coming here FOR those writers... then they might trickle over to those of us don't have a "name." (I've published 11 books with traditional pubs, but it that makes no difference if one has not been Out There in a sizeable public way.)
Really, it's no different than promoting a book or album or visual art. Substack is the new news-stand. I do find that there's a slow trickle from the pieces I write on Medium. I don't write often there now, and what I post here is not what I post there: here is niche--writing-centred. I think my growth is slow because my take on writing is for those who take it seriously as both craft and art. No quick bucks or answers. That doesn't have broad appeal, I'm realizing.
Alison great to meet you... I hear you 1000% about slow growth bc your writing is "for those who take it seriously". There was a piece in The Atlantic about that recently, how important it is to keep reading and writing books (long form content) instead of looking up to celebrity tech people who put down books (SBF, Ye, etc). Our society in general has dissolved its attention span to 220 characters and works in a selfie factory. I trust and hope that communities like this can bring the world back from the brink :)
p.s. Trying to subscribe to your newsletter but the link goes to a page not found error (this is the button on your "About me" pop-up that you see when you hover over your name in the bylines). Ok just tried another subscribe button and that worked but did want to let you know about that one.
Oh my! Good to know--though worrisome. There are momentary glitchy things, yes.
Good to meet you, too. Thank you for subscribing and being persistent. The Atlantic tends to be one of the most thoughtful journals in our N. American world. (I'm not sure what SBF, Ye, etc it :) I know my time spent reading hard copy novels and history help to keep me balanced and sane.
Thank you, Birgitte!
Apologies, SBF is Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced CEO of FTX. Ye is Kanye West. Both of these gentlemen have loudly proclaimed their disdain for books. When you have as large a public platform as they do, it's detrimental. It has an effect on their fans and likely their fans' friends.
Alison, what do you rather post on Medium? How's different?
I have a handful of pieces on The Writing Cooperative, but mostly I post to Middle-Pause--pieces about relatives and life lesson-type material, the odd poem, all sorts really. A number are about caregiving--which is what my memoir is about: caregiving my spouse through ALS.
https://medium.com/illumination-curated/caregiving-stories-3b7eb3d67acf
My Substack is the continued labour of working within an MFA program, teaching writing.
I joined the writing cooperative too, but just don't like Medium enough to invest much time in it.
I sometimes wonder about this, or I worry that I am alienating people on my list who are outside of Substack too as perhaps they expect less frequent newsletters/don't understand the concept of paid subscriptions/etc.
I've found that, pretty quickly, readers and subbies catch on to the 'Stack way pretty quickly. If you send out an info-specific post to your subbies (as I've done on occasion), you can help "educate" your subbies to what and how to do things on the site! Remember, 25 years ago, people approached eBay with similar trepidation, until suddenly, they didn't!
What are subies?
Well, unless I misspelled it, I mean/meant "subbies," my abbreviation for subscribers. A couple of them are quite short, I'm told, so I refer to them as my stubby subbies.
Lol
At kindergarten, their kids stow their items in the classroom stubby subby cubbies. I'll stop now.
This is a risk. But I write as a Reporter as well for a news website, so that opens up my world a bit.
I have my own site as well. What I'm liking so far about substack is that it focuses me to a deadline. No matter what I'm putting in the newsletter, it will go out on Sunday. So I may as well figure out something good. Also, I love writing about politics, and haven't had a chance to do so in my day job lately despite there being no end of political stories affecting my community. Substack gives me a chance to do that.
What isn't political when ya think about it Laura. I hesitate to put that I write on political themes as it can encompass such a broad area
Ooo I like this question - I need to give it some thought. I tend to attract people who are on a similar path to me but perhaps earlier on in that path? Not always but they filter through to buying my products...
I think it's easy to seal yourself in a warm bubble. They're friendly and nice and the positive feedback loop of hearing things you already agree with feels so good! But you have to make sure to get out and share or you'll never grow.
I don't limit my writing to Substack, though I love these writer office hours and am proud of my newsletter. I write on Medium and also get paid to write articles for other media outlets.
As for social media, I'm not even on IG and have no desire to be. I've also left Twitter and don't miss it. The social media platform I do love and highly recommend to other writers is Post (post.news). In two months, and only posting 28 times in those two months, I've already got over 600 followers. I've also found so many kindred spirits there, not all of whom are writers.
I've also gotten tips (less than $1 total; don't expect to earn much there) based on my articles I've linked to there with brief introductions explaining what they're about. Post has no character limit, so longform articles can also be written (or copied and pasted) directly on the platform. If you want you can even paywall some content, but I'm not doing that.
Most posts there are substantive and intelligent, lots of media outlets and figures like Dan Rather and Rachel Maddow are on Post, and there is zero tolerance for hate speech. There's fun stuff too, like pet photos and memes, and lots of rants against right-wing politicians and their policies, but mostly kind and helpful people sharing important information.
Wendi, are your post followers = emails? Or rather social followers (like would be on Insta)?
They are just followers, as with other social media platforms. Too early to tell if some will subscribe to my Substack, especially since I haven't been consistent about sharing the link to each new issue on Post.
Can you share a link to one of your articles there?
Yes, on Post you can share links to your own articles from Substack or anywhere else, or share links to someone else's content you liked. I haven't written any articles on Post directly yet, just short comments.
I couldn't find a way to copy and paste a link here from Post, but if you go to post.news my profile is @writerwendig and you can see what I've shared.
Cannot find your profile :(
Hi everyone!
Hi Chris, good to see you here.
Is a way to structure the Office Hours segments so writers with similar content or newsletter format can be invited to comment or share strategy without having to sort through all the other writers comments. It takes a good 2 or more hours to add and reply to writers and when you do comment the list defaults back up to the top again, and there you are sorting, searching and snort'en trying to find that link or a particular writer/newsletter. Any easier work around Chris?
Thanks to @Rob Henderson for plugging one of my recent posts. It doubled my subscriber base in 72 hours. It appears there is indeed a network effect once you get to 250 or more subscribers. I now get 2-5 new subscribers per day. Up to 318! Write well and often early on and comment on high profile pubs it may take six months...but it does work...
Free subscribers , sure. But where is the paid growth? I don't see it. I publish daily, I'm recommended by a dozen publications, and I get new free subscribers constantly. But I can't take my list of free subscribers to the energy office and say " waive my bill, I have 1000 free subscribers."
It takes a while for a reader to go from discovering your publication --> paid subscription. On Twitch, for comparative data, I have heard that the same reader relationships flow takes on average 1 year.
Hopefully our Boost program and growth team investments will help make these conversions faster for writers. It's a big focus for us! We'll do what's in our power. Here's a recap of some of what we've done so far: https://on.substack.com/p/turn-on-your-growth-engine
I was at 700 free over a year and a half ago.
I know people are working hard, but it seems like some outfacing advertising would help. Creating a buzz around the brand, maybe.
Interesting stats. I find that if people don't go paid within a few weeks, the likelihood they will is very small.
Who knows. We don't know. It's frustrating. Proud of the writing I've done and I'll have the thousands of good reviews to keep forever.
Can you monetise them another way Jimmy? Digital products/courses/1-1 mentorship/done-for-you services etc
That's not my focus. I have a film career, a woefully neglected novel in progress and other interests.
Substack gave me the impression that publishing every day would lead to growth and stated outright that 10% of free subscribers, on average, would convert.
I don't see it.
I stand by the quality of the work and some very well known people have backed me up on that.
?? I'm impressed that you are currently #3 after Saunders and Palahniuk--both huge names! But you're unhappy with this?
I'm publishing every 5th day or more, as well as running three workshops and posting comments to those... and am in at #10. This is a LOT of work. Hard to know at times HOW to let readers know, or remind. Saunders puts out a flippant "what the hell! It's cheap!" message, but I don't want to go there. But what to do.
I wrote a note in December, and sent to all 4-5 star folks. (Almost 500 of them) I had one go paid.
This month, other than my first of the month post-and-prompt, I've gone paid for all--and had at least 2 people go paid. So there is something to withholding...
Saunders is teaching. He's not publishing new material, so I don't think he should even be on that list.
I'm very proud to be in the same conversation as Chuck.
I'm happy that 300+ people are willing to pay for my work. But if you look at the annual subscription price you'll see that I'm not making a ton of money for writing and publishing daily.
2000 paid subscribers has always been the goal.
Again, the archive is well worth it. I promise if you get a monthly and dig into it you'll be beyond satisfied.
And you'll have a new story every day on top of the existing 888.
And I struggle to make $500-600/month with 120 paid folks--God bless each one of them :) This is hard work.
YES to Chuck--I hear you! As for tenured people, or pension-collecting past-tenured-folks... I hear you there, too. I'm guessing the argument runs that such are driving people to the platform...
I like your posting of the breakdown of what each of your stories costs a sub...!
Merch?
A rock n roll guy would say that. 😎 My brother was a touring merch manager for years.
Could I sell Jimmy Doom's Roulette Weal shirts? Maybe. But I couldn't sign em backstage.
As me mum used to say...."You can spend your time coming up with all the 84 excuses why NOT to do something, or come up with one good reason of how you CAN do it!" Speaking of eBay (which I did somewhere here a few minutes ago), I sold all my 2,000 LPs (mostly white promo copies, plus promo items) on that site at the turn of the century.
One item I sold was the digitized (from reel-to-reel to CD) of my 1975 David Cassidy interview. Sold hundreds, and after a couple early customers wanted them autographed, and as it was impossible to enlist David in that exercise (if I was still in L.A. and not in TX, I might've given it a shot....I knew someone at his old management offices), I decided to sign them myself (with my name)! Sure, shipping's involved, but that's the nature of the virtual marketplace!
I was joking about the signatures. But merchandising to 300 people who already support me doesn't enthrall me nearly as much as 300 new readers enjoying the nearly 900 stories I've written.
Make ‘em in the style of a Red Wings logo! 😀
The Ilitch boys coming after me would be great publicity
"Every single day" - this might be the problem. It is very likely that the people don't really read you posts because they get them too often. I myself would never subscribe to a daily publication. If you post less frequently maybe you reader would be more excited when they receive an email from you and stat paying attention. You can make an experiment for a month and see.
I have 300+ paid subscribers. I'm #3 on the Substack fiction list. I doubt I can grow that number by offering less.
right now my goal is building a fan base for the launch of my 2024 book. If the book sells and grows the list, I’ll worry about passive income from paid subscriptions...I haven’t built the base yet to worry about. steady growth in paid subs really needs to be anchored in what marketers call strong purchase intent ( I.e. new folks really come in hot for your content and it’s very good)
Thanks for sharing the numbers, Jimmy.
A bit of a delayed message on my side.
What do you think it is the reason why they do not convert into paid?
I'm not sure. I wish I knew.
I guess the real question is why Substack felt confident the conversion rate would be 10% . Someone must have given them that figure.
The more time I spend thinking about all the work I've put into this newsletter and the lack of growth I've gotten the more I think that I've wrung all I'm going to wring from this adventure.
They continue to present more toys for writers and creators to spend more time on, but I don't see anything that draws people to the platform. On social media I still get asked " What the hell is Substack?"
Do you think there could be ways to ask readers? Maybe with a survey? Or even by emailing individually?
Just brainstorming, using my product management mindset ;)
I get very little response from my free subscribers when I reach out like that.
I love to hear this! I only started recently but I'm delighted with the growth - though of course we always wish for more, and I'm certainly not getting 2-5 per day!
You just got another!
Thanks!
Oh that’s super interesting!! The snowball!!
Free subscribers , sure. But where is the paid growth? I don't see it. I publish daily, I'm recommended by a dozen publications, and I get new free subscribers constantly. But I can't take my list of free subscribers to the energy office and say " waive my bill, I have 1000 free subscribers."
Do you offer “previews” of your paid only posts?
Every single day. Sometimes deep into a story, when one would hope that readers are somewhat invested.
My paid subscribers ( slightly over 300 ) constantly give me good reviews. " Wow" is a frequent comment. I'm not saying that to bark outside my own carnival, I'm saying it because it's the truth.
I do sometimes - do you?
What do you offer paid folks Jimmy?
Free subscribers get one story a week, paid get all 7 new stories per week, plus access to the entire archive. Right now the archive is 888 works of short fiction, some autobiographical tales from my childhood in Detroit and video of me reading some of my stories.
fascinating. Do you remind folks in your footer about how paid subs work? I've just added that as I had a few emails asking me what the payments were for and how they worked...
I don't have a detailed footer, but on each story, before the paywall, I remind my free subscribers that they could open the whole archive for 6 cents a story. One year breaks down to 16 cents a day.
That sounds very clear! Maybe you need to move it to the bottom as realistically are they likely to scroll back up? I don't know whether that's just me but I tend to get to 'the end' and then make an action or move on?
This question interests me. I'm coming up on my first-year anniversary on Substack and haven't yet offered a paid/pledge option. I've been assuming I needed to create additional content, beyond the weekly free ("best work") essays, and that assumption is precisely why I've been slow to launch any kind of monetized option. I'm not sure I have time to create much more than I'm already doing. That damn time constraints thing again, right?
Hey Jimmy you're in the biz? I used to be, behind the camera. Then moved over into journalism, wrote for Daily Variety and THR for a few years. Now more in the world of tech but back to literary writing. Good to meet you!
Yeah, Im lucky to have had and still have a decent career.
I'm guessing you don't miss the 16 hour on set days.
Haha I don't. Well, sometimes. We had a lot of fun. Lots of pranks, practical jokes. So many stories. Best experience was Dragonheart back in '94, which was shot in Slovakia. The final result wasn't the best piece of filmmaking but production was a great experience.
Oh my! My three sons--grown up now--STILL love that movie, still gather to watch it, and my oldest is a grip :)
The only people cooler than grips on a movie set are stunts.
You mean Dragonheart? Oh I can share so many stories from that set... it was a truly international production. It was the first feature film to debut a CGI character in the lead role. I was on the visual effects team, with ILM, and among my duties was holding the 18-foot stick that served as reference for the dragon, that Dennis Quaid had to recite his lines to. Heehee he did not enjoy that, having to play second fiddle to a non existent dragon!
I've had some great experiences on so many projects. It does hurt when the finished product isn't what you hoped but the memories and some of the friendships remain.
https://m.imdb.com/name/nm3224066/
Same here.
How on earth do you get the energy to publish daily??
I'm not sure. Really. Some days it feels like a wave just grabbed me and I'm bodysurfing effortlessly, other days it's like trying to pry my way out of a shark's mouth from inside.
I don't mail them in. There aren't any haiku just to say I published.
New paid subscribers are great incentives and energy boosts.
I agree with you regarding the snowball effect. I've written on SS for two years - now have 450 subscribers - 100 in the last three months.
Congrats Janice!
That's so exciting! It's a bit thrilling to watch the numbers climb each day. Is it terrible that I'm jealous?!
Nope! It’s completely human. Just keep putting your best work out into the world. Your time in the sun is coming. ✌️
Thank you Kevin! Have a fab day! x
I'm subbed to both of you and your comment is encouraging! Congrats and thanks for sharing!
Thanks Medha.
Thanks Medha. Please leave comments on the stories you love
Hi James. When you say 'comment on high profile pubs', are you referring to other Substack publications?
PS - What's your Substack about? :-)
Yes, comment on other Substack with very high subscriber bases as long as there is some topical overlap. Don’t force it. You can see the largest Substack in the app- the Top pubs are tagged ‘thousands of free/paid subscribers’ or ‘tens of thousands...’
Substack has changed how it displays 'top' publications. You used to be able to find them under 'discovery', but that' no longer the case.
What's the best way to find the Substacks with the highest bases? I'm struggling with that!
Thanks so much for your guidance, James.
Thanks so much, James. Definitely agree - don't force it! Life's too short for that!
My Substack is daily short fiction. A wide variety of topics and focuses, 7 days a week. Could be crime, love, addiction, music, work, just about anything. Two and a half years straight.
Amazing! Congratulations on the growth.
Congratulations!
What has happened? Very curious :)
That's the dream! I appear to have plateaued around 100 subscribers and struggling to attract new ones.
Yes, it's network indeed. Gotta put the time in on Facebook follow ups and wherever you gain followers. The hashtag chase as well 😊 Wish I had of been more visible on social media before I started writing online Yes?
Ending January with just 3 subscribers short of 300!
Contrary to popular advice, I never niched down, didn't really hustle that much, and just wrote and published (hopefully) better and better stuff. At times I wasn't consistent, I opened and closed sections, took breaks, posted on social and kept silent for weeks. In the end of the day, it was slow but sustainable growth that brought me readers that always cheer me up with their messages and comments.
I did feel discouraged at many points of this journey. So my best advice would be: Write. Publish. Try to be better with each issue. And have some fun along the way!
Congratulations Oleg! I’m right behind you and feel similarly about just writing and publishing.
Congrats, Oleg! Well done!
Nice one Oleg, love that you’re making it your own way. 297 is major!
Interesting! Sometimes, I wonder if I have niched down too far. But at the end of the day, without a "boss", it's only the topics that interest me that I want to publish about. And so, that leaves me with a very small niche.
How long have you been writing on Substack to get that many subscribers?
I started in May 2022!
Same philosophy as me. How often do you publish?
Once or twice a week.
Great take😊 Speaking of #s, are the stats functioning ok or are there still gliches? Stats show emails fails which was upsetting and inspired my 'Trust On Autopilot' post
Yes, yes, yes, and YES! Curious, though: Across what amount of time have you gathered those 297 subscribers?
May 2022 to now :)
If you look in your heart of hearts, what is your true end goal for your publication?
For most of you, is it to make a living off of your Substack? I am happy doing mine on the side as a creative expression, but sometimes the success stories from Substack actually make me feel a little critical of myself despite my best efforts.
Is anyone else happy to chug along with a small readership? Or are you truly committed in hopes you find your audience and it all takes off? ⚡️
What a great question to consider. For now, it is three things:
- a place to practice showing up in a new space a little more unapologetically
- a place to explore if community can be built more organically away from the gimmicks and algorithms of social media (although I must admit I'm already seeing how some folks are playing a new game here to get those subscribers)
- a place to embrace quiet, small and slow
I needed to see this today Erin! When I started my Substack I wanted it to grow organically and just let the people who need to find it, find it. And now I’m all caught up in everyone else’s success wishing I had a piece of the pie. But this has reminded me that quiet, small and slow is the best and most authentic way to grow. Thank you. 🥰
I'm right there with you Izzy. I have definitely been swept up in the pie seeking. Phew! 😮💨 So happy I'm not the only one. Definitely a great reminder that it's okay to turtle along. 💛
Oh, I’m so glad! I think it’s inevitable that we all get caught up in the chase. So, perhaps we can keep reminding each other that we don’t want to be running in the first place!!
I love this, Erin. All these points resonate with me.
MK, I’m also here mostly for the creative outlet and community, and I’m content with small, slow, and steady growth.
Really love what you’ve said about embracing quiet, small and slow! Such a lovely mentality to have as a creator
I think there will always be a "game" of sorts to get more subscribers, but I feel less of that pressure here and I'm trying to embrace a "slow and steady" approach to growth. participating here does give me new newsletters to follow and ideas for my own, but I feel more authentic in my writing and audience than I ever did when i was writing on WordPress.
Yes to getting away from gimmicks and algorithms!
I agree with these things--and I will add that for me it is a place to discipline myself to write consistently.
Right now I’m enjoying having some space to myself that I can call my own. It’s great to make publishing goals and I’m happier and more calm in the rest of my life when I write.
Yes! It's me lol. I would love to have hundreds of paid subscribers to write for but it's just not in the cards for the kind of content I make. I'm at peace with that as I'd rather make something unique and interesting rather than what is marketable/popular. Everything these days is curated to be able to be formatted into an advertisement. Even though creating to simply create will not be a cash cow, it holds a lot more value in my opinion.
My end goal is to complete my WIP and create something subtly transformative.
Thanks for this thread!
Thank you for being candid Kerry! I really like how you phrased that - you’re so right about making something unique vs marketable, almost anybody can make things people like but lack soul.
Keep doing what you’re doing, your thoughtfulness already sets you apart ❤️
My goal which is happening as we speak, is simply to put my odd fiction out there for people who enjoy something different. Mainstream and I broke up quite a while back, amicably I might add, and I decided to do my own thing and slowly (or at whatever pace it happens) build an audience of like-minded spirits.
This decision has a couple of additional benefits for me: (1) I get a chance to be exposed to a variety of authors on Substack, which in turn helps move my inspiration, and (2) I stay on track, publishing on a schedule that works for me (weekly)
I'm not doing this for money. If at some point later on I decide to go paid, it will be a voluntary act if someone lays down their credit card. I'd keep keep everything free.
I'm loving this as a creative outlet and if I can make enough to cover my Canva Pro subscription and some other professional tools, it's all good. It also helps me pay to subscribe to other newsletters!
That's a great mindset - I sell creativity journals as a side hustle to my main work and today I realised I would be super happy just to have some profit to pop in the kids bank accounts each year. Sometimes you really need to know 'your why' with work don't you?
My number one goal is to share stories; to inspire others. Always to inspire. I'm a photographer/storyteller who has been wanting a place away from social media where I can share content that people can see in its' own place. Unlike other platforms where even if someone follows you they might not see your posts, but also your work can get lost in the scroll. I feel like a platform like this gives more depth. Our readers have to actively choose to give the newsletter sole attention. They open it and it's the only thing on their screen at that time. I love sitting down with a newsletter that I subscribe to, and taking the time to truly read it and absorb their words.
But also, I do want this to supply at least a part of my income. And I like that the potential to reach a wider audience makes it a possibility of having a decent income from the most reasonable subscription prices (less than a streaming platform!).
All that said, I'll keep writing and sharing regardless of how many people subscribe for free or paid. I enjoy it. And the couple dozen people who have already subscribed enjoy it too.
Yes so true, writing online has given me so much. That first subscriber was such a rush. Having and writing the newsletter has bouyed my confidence and I feel I walk a little taller. "I am somebody" "I am a writer", I heard my self saying 😊 I have always been creative for better or worse but all was in my head, until I started writing..verse,poems, 'picture stories' and even an opera! I couldn't stop writing. I know my writing is transformative and gives great pleasure
What a good question! I think if I'm honest, I write and share that writing with others to feel less alone. I hope that in reading it, others feel less alone, too but my primary goal is a selfish one. I think some of my other goals are to really engage with my readers, to have a conversation rather than an endless cycle of consuming. That give and take is so valuable.
I'm also finishing up my first book and am hoping having an engaged community will be helpful when I'm ready to publish!
Well said!!
I love what I write about, but things really started rolling for me when I started treating my writing (on all platforms) as a business. The community/comments/engagement are huge benefit as well.
Treating a passion like a business. Need to hear more about that please 😊
I love what I do, and get to write about. The people that read my work constantly surprise and delight me.
That said, all of us are asking readers for their time & attention. That’s not something I take for granted. I’m always asking myself: if I was on the other side of the screen, is this something I’d pay for?
Framing it that way has (I hope!) made for higher quality writing than it would’ve otherwise.
The true goal is to get a few freelance / coaching gigs from the newsletter. With my very-niche newsletter it'll be a long slog to get 25 paying subscribers (I have five now, though haha), but if I could wrangle a monthly retainer to do D2C email marketing work for a client a few hours a month, well... I'll take it!
Yes, would love to have a weekly column in a magazine or newspaper.
Yep, there you go. The ole saying, "you get hired for what you're doing already." hah
Great question.. personally my subject is so niche I can't ever see it "taking off" but it's been fun, rewarding and I've learnt a lot through the process..
I feel like sustainable growth for me is small because I like to reply to everyone and that takes time doesn’t it?
My Substack is a passion project to focus on my two loves: food and art. It’s free to subscribers, but I want to reach more people so it feels like it’s a good use of my time. I did an experiment this past week, which was a paid ad on Recommendo. So far it’s resulted in about 120 new subscribers and they continue to trickle in.
This is really great insight, thank you Amy 😊
Yes, there is an option to include ads with Sample platform but not sure about it. Any advice on using Sample??
That’s a lovely way to engage, but yes, very time consuming I imagine!
Yes, the comment wheel. There was chat here on the substack Q&A comment structure. Any improvements or is commenting still difficult in terms of reaching the writer who sent a comment??
My goal is to have fun with my publication. I like to write and I never thought I would be telling all of the funny and not so funny stories from my life. When I started I didn't know what I was going to be talking about. And then I started the funny stories and it took off. I still have a small subscriber base but I know eventually, I'll start getting more people. If I don't, that's okay too. I've met so many nice people through my substack, people I would not have met if I hadn't started it. And I have contacted some off-site, and that is a plus. Getting to know someone adds to the happiness of doing the writing. Having true friends that I can count on when I need to talk is a bonus.
A heavy hitting (great) question. I often find myself falling between the two. If my audience took off...wowza, i'd be amazed and so excited; the thought of having a community of people to chat to all the time, unfathomable. If I just had a small readership...well I think I'd be happy too because at the end of the day, like so many other writers have said to me, you've got to write for yourself and be passionate about what you put out there. I think writing and publishing is also much more than just readership - it's community, it's being yourself, it's being brave and doing what you love.
Not to make a living but to supplement living
I'm going to be flat out honest - I want to make money and build a community. I want to write my indie books as my main job and get income from other sources, like newsletters. I think FB and IG and even Tw are useless for me as an indie writer, unless I sink in tens of thousands of dollars to boost my posts. Zuckerberg and Musk have way too much money as it is. It soooo annoys me. Doesn't anyone out there care about helping others - or does everyone turn money grubbing hungry when they grow a platform?? I'm really hoping Substack stays true to its ethos.
I'm working in both Medium and Substack to see if I can use both to grow an audience. (I think the audiences are somewhat different.) On Substack, my unsubsribes are about equal to and balance out new folks, so I'm growing sooooooo slowly. But I've changed focus a few times since I started. I do envy those folks that can do this as a side project and not worry about income at all. I yearn to be you!
Nothing wrong with wanting to monetize AND grow a community! We’ve all been conditioned to shy away from that (especially GenXers, IMO).
And I find your pieces about writing SO helpful. I'm also having about the same stagnation here, but I'm hoping the book publishing process will help that grow, at least a little. Plus I'm making paid subscription changes in March, after I get initial marketing out of the way 😊
I love this question. I'm a brand newbie to Substack. My aim is to switch from Medium as a writing platform (it wasn't feeling like the right "vibe," as my teenagers say lately) and put pieces of my upcoming second (nonfiction and very niched) book out into the world for feedback, discussion, activism... Since my audience is parents and I've encountered other great newsletter offerings for parents and activists in my niche on Substack, I thought I'd give it a try. I appreciate the ease and orientation of the platform and I'm curious if any other folks have advice for brand new 'Stackers building an audience... Thanks for offering this forum!
Good luck!
Interesting! I am finishing the self-publishing process of a book of essays/memoir pieces that I've published on both WordPress and Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/sarahstyf/p/why-i-chose-to-self-publish-my-first?r=jbxzo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I made that same move. The one thing I would say is that growth here is slower, but more meaningful. People are subscribing to hear from you, as opposed to having it fed to them via an algorithm. Those early days can be frustrating, but they don’t last too long.
If you’re still active on Medium, make sure you include a CTA about your Substack-you can either do that at the end of each story, in your bio, or both.
I would also highly encourage you to keep seeking out other writers in your same space. Networking, info sharing, and more will all come from it. Same with attending Office Hours. Invariably someone will ask a question you’ve had on your mind, or ask for help with the same problem you’re wrestling with.
Thanks so much, Kevin, for the helpful and thoughtful reply.
Part of me always wants that shiny prize of being paid to write.
But at the end of the day, my entire goal was to practice writing. To put myself on the hook and put some skin in the game to help motivate me.
It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t niche down, it’s Alex Knepper’s Newsletter because its contents one unifying thread is that I wrote it. And it SHOULD be a reflection of what I am interested in. But I find myself getting scared of my audience. What do *they* want to read? Has been the haunting question in my mind. Rather than, what do I want to write?
Maybe hiding behind my audience and my perception of their expectations is a form a resistance. Phew… thanks so much for this prompt I didn’t realize how much I needed it.🤗
I'm finishing up a piece on using my Substack as my writing workshop. It should publish in a couple of weeks. That is what my blog is, a workshop for my writing. Hoping that the changes I have planned for the next month post book publishing helps me to both grow my platform and find a definite direction.
I wish the chat feature was available in the web version. Most of my subscribers aren't substackers so they don't use the app.
Finding it hard to be productive with a bunch of social obligations this week, but reposted an old blog post I wrote about Latvian ethnographic symbols, which was fun to revisit.
I'm with you Anastasia. I thin a web version of the chat would also be so much easier to chat. As much as I love my little iPhone, trying to chat on it in an engaging thread can be a bit difficult.
Yes, have you tried Sample it too has a chat feature. I just signed on. Chat with substack going nowhere
Yes! I also find it tough to compose the initial chat on my phone.
Ooo I love a revisit!!
Seconding this! I'm doing The Artist's Way with my subscribers in the chat and many of them have asked for a website chat option, so I'm considering a discord. But it'd be easier if we could just stay on substack!
Agreed! I almost never use the app. I prefer the web for sure.
Agree! I barely use the app. I might consider chat if it was available on the web version.
Agree 100%
I would love for chat to be in the web version, too!
Hi, it looks like Substack has expanded the categories; I'm happy to see Health & Wellness as a category now. Any way we can have staff consider a particular newsletter for a category? Of course, I'd love to have mine spotlighted in Health & Wellness, and I also can recommend some. thanks
Very good question. I feel like I get such amazing reviews/feedback on my newsletters, but of course getting NEW eyes on pieces if you don't have a big following still takes time, so having that help/place to submit would be fantastic
I think I went with that category as it was the closest. A personal development/self-help/self-improvement would be great - if you're reading, Substack team :)
Hi there! We don't curate those categories. They are primarily based on the number of subscriptions. That said, you can choose which category you want your publication to be a candidate from in your settings.
This is the answer I was after in my own question. Thanks Bailey. 😁
Same! I'd love to see mindfulness and spirituality (not religion)