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🧠 Welcome to all new Substackers. I always want to help fellow Substackers to get on their feet and this ebook will help you to get started and grow. Feel free to reach out if you find it useful.
Which one is better, serializing on Substack or selling it on Amazon? If I want to publish on Amazon after I serializing on Substack, do you think that is okay?
Hi Kathleen! I've serialized a novel through my Substack, and will be starting to send pieces from my short story collection next week (linking below to both in case you're interested), but there are many other authors serializing as well.
Yep, me! I'm excerpting and serialising my memoir as an audiobook about intergenerational maternal trauma, mental health and the complex interplay between our mental health and the natural world. It's for my paid subscribers but Episode 1 launched last Sunday for everyone if you fancy a listen: https://lindsayjohnstone.substack.com/p/held-in-mind-an-excerpted-memoir#details
I had 16,000 subscribers when I first came to substack and lost nearly 7,000 of them. The problems with delivery are consistently showing up, as in one out of five will come through to the email address. I have a couple back up email addresses I used to test the delivery and it was horrid.
It gets much worse the more often you post until I wondered why they were not delivering to all the followers. Particular to this phenomena, since complaining on this platform, as a writer voicing my concerns, it got worse, not better.
That's completely bizarre. It would be so helpful if a substack staff member could offer some direction on this? Is there some other step we need to take?
✏️ How do I set up promo codes for 1 month free mode? I would like to set up 10 promo codes (1 month free from having to pay from $1 to $10 per month, it's the reader's choice). A Substack user gave me this great idea.
🟧 I am approaching 650 free subscribers after almost two years of mostly regular posting of quality content. I've added about 250 this year. I write for a small audience of covered calls and puts stock options investors.
And I have 5 pledges for about $512 total.
I figure that if I go paid at $240 a year after discounts and fees I might get 50 to 60 paid subscribers who would pay on a monthly basis. I don't want annual subs because if I have to refund subscribers' money if I have to quit in my old age, I don't want lose money on the 13% credit card and Substack commissions.
Just a thought which might help...if it came to you retiring from writing part way through some of the subscriber's one year term, maybe instead of refunding in cash (which as you mentioned would make a mess of finances on here), what about "gifting" something of equal value...say a new book from Amazon or two delivered to their door in the value of whatever was left of their year. Might be easier optically come tax time as well. Make sense?
🟧 - are there plans afoot to promote little or new stacks? I would love, for instance, to receive a 'Substack Reads' featuring smaller & new substacks so that they get their chance in the spotlight. Many of the Substack Kings & Queens dominate, making it hard to discover brilliant new writers with a small following. As with every platform, it's getting more challenging to sift through the noise as those that already have big platforms are always front and centre. Not that I don't love what they do! many thanks, Lucy
Many have asked this, and I am among the people who asked. I hope they'll do a 'Substack Reads' in that direction or change the settings of the 'explore' page with categories for newcomers and writers under 1000 followers.
We actually do make sure that a good chunk of lot of slots of Substack Reads are writers with smaller lists, and we avoid featuring writers multiple times to spread the love. But I hear you, and I'll make sure the team sees this and has the nudge to consider how we might do more.
And just as a reminder, writers collaborating with each other to grow (recommendations, cross-posts, notes) are a way more sustainable and powerful growth path than features from our team.
I appreciate this, Bailey. I will share that when I started writing on Medium (three years ago), I feel like I got a lot more attention from editors there early on, which really helped me to attract an initial following that then continued to build on itself. I believe that growth on Substack is more sustainable over time (followers on Medium have come to mean nothing, and the platform isn't built around email subscribers), which is why I launched a newsletter here about six months ago. I really appreciate Substack, but as I noted in a comment below, there's kind of a "cool kids" vibe that I've found intimidating, and the editors here seem to be less proactive about discovering and promoting new talent. Maybe I'm being impatient, but that's just my take as a relative newbie!
I hear you on that, noting the "cool kids" vibe. I've had a Substack since late January / early February, and there was about a three-month stretch where I found myself getting pretty frustrated by it. I've since been trying to reframe, and just focus on the work but it can be tricky sometimes.
I want to jump in and say I’ve had similar experiences. Been here for several months and not sure how to connect to a larger audience outside of my own social media channels.
I agree wholeheartedly. There is an insider and outsider feel to this where there does seem to be manipulation through the delivery, as I am getting 1 in 5 posts on two identities that are subscribed compared to my own identity I write under. Delivery is suspect.
This gets brought up ever week in office hours but I don't see it happening in real life. I see tons of "Welcome to Substack!" for big name people who bring in thousands of their own subs. But not for people who are starting from zero. Seems a little out of balance and as someone else said, a "cool kids" club.
100%. Every week. Yet to see “Welcome to Substack (little known writers)”. Seems obvious to me that writers switching platforms with thousands of subscribers don’t need a shout out.
I made peace with the capitalist economy. While they don't need the shout-out they bring more money to the platform. It's self perpetuating. If your work is good it will grow, maybe slowly but I see that as a positive to have time to be thoughtful.
After 700 plus posts, some well over ordinary fair, even short books, and coming with 14,000 followers to see it drop to 9500 since moving here three years ago. I have published nearly 6 million words or more, Grammerly says 9,750,000 words checked, but not once a notice or feature, even a note of achievement other than the standard notice wii get. Pictures, How to, creating houses out of salvage, villages out of people with skills and intentions to create a better world. Solutions versus conflict and it appears, Wii become invisible here too. Time to find new soil to plant words in... ideas may flourish with good light.
Yes, but how do I find writers on substack publishing on similar subjects? There's no directory, and it would be easy to build. All you'd have to do is ask substack writers a few questions and a massive searchable database would be created within a month.
Thanks Bailey! One category that could really use some love promoting smaller accounts is Science; about half of the top ten on the leaderboard are very popular anti-vaxx and misinformation publications. Controversy and angry posts definitely attract more engagement compared to well-written and thoughtful science and medical journalism by experts. I would be happy to provide a list of some great accounts to promote (besides myself, obviously 😝)
I think there has to be a popular kids vibe because SubStack needs to make money. So they have to promote the big kids to make people want to come here. We have to learn enough tech to make their search engine find us, I guess. I am leaning towards the alternative search and social routes, because Google can wipe a person out in a day or less. Relying on a single platform and single engine is not the best way to grow. Getting subscribers is a LOT of work, and a commitment to learn tech and media is required..... so I am studying hard.
Something that tends to be forgotten (or not noticed) is that the popular kids sort of pave the way for the rest of us; they don't actually take attention away. I have noticed that I get subscriptions from complete strangers who are already subscribed to Substacks by more famous writers, while close friends who don't know about Substack won't even support me in that way. So I conclude that the popular kids draw new readers to platform, which in turn gets them accustomed to Substack and makes it more likely that they'll subscribe to more Substacks.
I agree. I also have received subscriptions from those who read and comment on those with rather large followings on Substack. I am gratified to occasionally see, for example, that a person subscribes to Robert Reich's substack and to mine!
But this only works if you're subscribed to the popular ones and actively engaging with them. I'm not interested in most of the big ones, they just don't write what I want to read. This is not a complaint, just saying.
I think you're off to the side of my point. If you can find readers of other Substack writers through means other than interacting with their blogs, they're more likely to subscribe to you than people who don't know about Substack at all. The fact that there are famous writers who have drawn them here purely through their personal following works to your advantage because they're already comfortable with the platform.
Truth! Most people usually need some "established" reason to try the new platform. Adding new subscriptions is easy once they get on board.
It's typical / normal that the people close to you won't sign up. They see you personally, and can't see you professionally. That happens to everyone, no matter the profession...
YES - and my little Procrastinator Monkey 🙈 and Impatient Monkey 🙈 HATES all the time it takes to learn new systems! My heart gets happy when I'm willing...
I get that too; does seem to be a clickish dynamic. On the other hand, I’ve found that the popular kids here are actually pretty approachable, relative to other platforms. I do get friendly engagement from popular authors on the various goofy comments I scatter around here, and I think that speaks more to the good attitude of the writers than to my commenting talents or lack thereof.
So I say we start an “unpopular kids” grow and go head on. We start by subscribing to one another’s stack and then promote only the unpopular posts. Who’s with me?
It should be on your navigation bar on your home page OR if you click on your little profile image (top right) and hit home, it'll take you to an explore page. Those are notes.
I hope so! I was happy when I got to three digits, honestly. And even now I find it strange and a little uncomfortable to self-promote (especially since I don't really use social media) so I've resigned myself to residing in my tiny corner of the internet.
I'm in the same place, Jen. I.m gradually weaning myself off of social media for the promises of being discovered on Substack without having to do a ton of self promotion. I was burned out doing self promotion for my former business practice on social media. Now that I've been here for about six months, I'm seeing greater headwinds than I imagined, and there're people who give expert advice about growing your audience outside of Substack, even using paid advertisements. This is actually the opposite of what I wanted to do. I need help!
And there is nothing wrong with that! I write for fun but it would be nice to make money. I just turned on the option for paid. I'm lucky to have another job to make money but it would be nice to do this full time. I'm getting more and more subscribers by interacting with all of you and with Notes. Just keep writing. If you build it they will come even if "they" aren't en masse! sabrinalabow.substack.com
That’s a good idea. And with basic info deets - what your substack is about. It would also be helpful if these sun stacks were organised into categories - food, travel, space, current affairs etc
They don't feature us with much more either if they do not like our content of empowerment it appears. Been here for years. 9,000,000 words published on here, yet crickets. There is a click, paid for with big dollars, and then there is us... the writers self paid and promoted by us alone it appears. Sad, but I think there is a problem as many of my followers do not get all my posts. Some only 1/5 of them. Never have I been contacted or appreciated except their weekly counts of words and scores. Great for their paid for stars I guess.
I’d also like Notes to go back to being less algorithm-y. I see the same posts everyday and know I’m missing a lot from the folks I follow and vice versa!
Substack does make writers “feature publications.” And they do this to publications of all sizes. It happened to my non-fiction publication about 8 months after launch. I was pretty small. I think the reason they tend not to do it for BRAND NEW writers is because most newsletters fold within 3 months of launch. They probably want to be sure you won’t fizzle out
Good point, Cole, and I agree. In my case, I've been publishing quite steadily for over 2 years, so I hope I appear unlikely to fold! I'd also love to be able to add one of those "Featured Publication" badges to all of my newsletter outreach :-)
I do a digest every Friday of awesome writing here that's all related to my niche of art and mental health ... I do include bigger writers but I also include lots of small stacks. I love that we can all co-exist side by side in that way, sharing our wisdom.
Substack paid for, bought writers rather than promote us, the writers who have written millions of words. Not sure how this is supposed to help except for their chosen people they pay to bring. The problems and loss of subscribers by coming here is troubling and the repeated failure to deliver to the followers is troubling as I have two ID followers who are not getting but a fifth of the output. My concerns are for the the promotion of their paid writers over those of us who helped them get up and running. Its about time to move on if the admin is just here to promote their favorites.
I think it can work if it's in different sections. For myself, for example, I do the following:
1. Post on Monday --for everyone
2. Post every other Wednesday -- a letter exchange with @rebecca holden -- for everyone
3. Post on Friday for paid subscribers
4. Post on Sunday for everyone
Plus occasional extra posts
Thus it's mainly 2 posts each week for most people, and 3 every other week. They're all in different sections, so people can switch off the ones they are not interested in
That makes sense. I post roughly fortnightly, because I didn't want to bombard people with emails and I was worried about not having enough to write about if I posted more frequently.
I used to write for Book Riot, and back then I had to submit two articles a month. I always had a list of ideas for future articles because of the fear of not being able to meet a deadline. Now with Substack, I don't have a boss, only my own self-imposed 'write something every two weeks' goal that I've publicly stated — but the same fear of running out of ideas remains. I still have a list of ideas for future Substack posts :)
I also didn't want subscribers to think, 'Not her again! Didn't she *just* email me?' and then not click on the emails...
All of that makes sense, apart from the last para. I shall have a look at yours, but I know there are some newsletters that I open straight away because I like their stuff. I think maybe you could experiment with a sort of bonus post every so often in a week that you're not writing, if you see what I mean
Terry, I am so impressed with your regular posts and while I can’t read them all, I love the ones I read! As someone who is at times struggling to find tine to post weekly, I was wondering how many hours a day do you dedicate to writing? Do you have pipeline of posts you plan in advance and then publish them at a certain cadence?
Oh thanks, Anu, that's very kind of you. Now, about these posts that you DON'T read. You do save them, right? 🙃 I shall answer your questions in a post I think, and send you the link if that is ok with you.
Thanks, Anu. I like yours too, but I just realised I haven't been seeing them for a while, even though you've obviously been posting. Sorry. I have catching up to do.
I post once a week and that's been working pretty well. I think even more important than how often you post is making sure you're consistent to the point readers know when to expect an email from you. If your readers expect to receive a post from you twice a week, then they won't feel annoyed when they see your newsletter pop up in their inbox. But if you post irregularly this might catch them off guard cause they won't know what to expect from you. Hope this helps. :)
Yeah, I've been pretty consistently posting about once a fortnight. Sometimes it's been 17 days between posts, and sometimes 11. Which is why I say in my subscribe button that I write 'every two weeks-ish'. I like the flexibility the 'ish' provides.
Absolutely true! You definitely don't want someone to be annoyed at getting too many emails from you. It's just that we are all so busy. I have 4,000 unread emails--mostly junk--in my inbox. It's never-ending. Just when I clear them they start piling up again. It's why I think it's really important to have a good visual and great title for your posts. sabrinalabow.substack.com
I think expectations and follow through are everything. I have some newsletters (not all from Substack) that only arrive once a month, others once a day. The material is different, and I must admit that I'm more apt to delete the dailies without opening because I just can't take it all in some days. Different approaches for different folxes. 😆 I've settled on once a week and, unless pre-planned, I haven't skipped a week since I launched close to 2 years ago. I also didn't open paid subscriptions until after the first year, to be sure I and my readers knew what we were signing up for.
I think it depends on what format you use, what you write about and whether you post short or long. I try for twice/week, but most of them are fairly brief (4 minute read, according to Substack).
I just cut and pasted your ideas which are fantastic! I think 1-2 times per week to post but I think Notes you could do every day. It's where I have gotten most of my subscriber growth. sabrinalabow.substack.com
Michael's comments are thoughtful. #4 I find too much Notes is hard when the feed is filled with the same stuff as someone in their network already posted which means I see the same post multiple times or people posting about how many subscribers they have. I can only consume small doses.
🟧 Hi Katie, I'm going to ask one more time for a category called 'Creative Nonfiction'. I see you have a 'Fiction' category, so why not non-fiction? Corralling us under 'Culture' just isn't working. That category is way too broad.
We creative nonfiction writers talk about ideas and problems specific to the unique ways we write and it would be great if we could find each other more easily.
Surely there's room for one more category? Thanks for any help.
Oh, I couldn't agree more! Creative Non-Fiction is a writing genre as legitimate as fiction, and in fact, is the style in which most major newspapers write their analysis pieces. The New York Times and the Times Magazine regularly provide great examples of creative non-fiction writing
Yes! I was fortunate to take a writing workshop on Creative Non-fiction from a quite famous writer in the genre, and she was the head of a masters program in CNF at a pretty major college.
I have been writing that, and more but they have a problem with such and thus do not give it attention. They have a leaning toward some things and away from empowerment. Creative Non-Fiction can mess up the distract and destabilize, weaken with whining principles of discordance that may be problem on this admin of site.
Me 3!...er, 30! And, counting. I remember wrestling so much with category selection when I first launched.
Culture?
🤔
Culture? ::scrolls through the list of options again::
🫤
Culture...
😶
There are multiple sub-categories for Politics, plus Art & Illustration as well as Design, but Culture is the closest best option for those of us who are, more or less, generalists. I guess, when it comes right down to it, many of the pre-populated categories are, in fact, components of culture. But, for those of us who don't specialize in one area, Culture feels too broad. In truth, I suppose the same could be said for Creative Non-Fiction. I wonder if Culture & Lifestyle would allow more of us to be seen? Or the other way around (Lifestyle & Culture)?
Tricky to put labels on those of us who prefer to exist outside of them.
How about 'Personal Essays'? That would take in a whole lot of territory while still defining a kind of niche. 'Culture and Lifestyle' would cover one of my Substacks perfectly, but my Sub on writing needs more definition.
Now that you mention it, Writing deserves its own category, for heaven's sake, as does Poetry!
Does Personal Essays sound sufficiently inviting, or does it sound like navel gazing? I'm really digging in here, I know, but I'd love to find a word/term that really sings. (not that Substack will necessarily agree). I did a little Googling and see that both "Life" and "Life Lessons" are very popular tags on another platform. I think those have potential!
🧠 Sometimes I put a lot of work into a story I'm passionate about, and when I release it out into the world, I hear nothing but crickets. I'm sure we've all been there! This was the case with a recent story, "The Most Radical Act of Resistance is To Take Back Our Time," which talked about the increasing pressures my partner has been under at work, leading him to collapse on the job and get approved for 14 weeks under the FLMA. His job informed him that he would be transferred to a different office upon his return and made it clear that his job security was tenuous, at best.
I was so disappointed by the general lack of response to the story, until... his supervisor stumbled across it. Long story short, my partner recently received an email from HR that informed him he could extend his leave if he'd like and return to work at the same office, or if he wanted to part ways (which he does), they would give him a generous severance package, a positive recommendation, and wouldn't contest unemployment benefits.
It just goes to show that you never know who you'll reach when you put something out into the world. This story that initially seemed to make no waves ultimately netted us $30,000 and at least a tiny bit of faith that sometimes there is justice in this world!
EVERY writer hears the sound of crickets at some point. It's usually when you post a piece that you have truly high expectations for. Keep writing. Keep posting. Consistency and dedication to the craft is all we have.
This just happened to me this week! I put a lot of heart and soul into a letter I thought was timely and relevant and hardly any response at all. I wonder if expectations has something to do with it...🧐
I actually had every intention of doing that, but his company explicitly stipulated that we (meaning me!) wouldn't write anything else about them, even though I never mentioned them by name. That's what made me realize how scared they are getting into legal trouble, which made me think we probably *should* sue them, but alas, neither of us have the energy.
Kerala, I've definitely been in the "crickets" category, and mostly I wish I didn't care. But, holy smokes, what a fabulous reminder that it's not always the quantity but the quality of the impact we make. We don't always get to know what that is, but I'm thrilled, on your behalf, that this time it was so obvious!
I’ll just say me too! I did a travel post on Essaouira, Morocco that I marinated for a while. It got some responses but not as much as I had expected. Great to hear about your husband. All the best to you both.
Wow, Kerala, thank you for sharing your story. I'm so sorry to hear that your partner went through such a tough time at work! But what a miracle that his supervisor stumbled upon your article! Very glad that it made such a great impact and I wish your partner a solid recovery back to health.
Yeah, I initially hoped that HR reached out because they felt bad, but I'm quite sure it's because they were worried we would be advised by a lawyer to sue. Either way though, I'm not going to complain about the outcome!
As someone who has been through the discrimination lawsuit circus (got sexually harassed and then punished for reporting said harassment), I would tell you that HR is never, ever reaching out because they feel bad lol. But yeah, it sounds like you had the very best outcome possible!
🟧 Posting again because I believe this would be super beneficial for fiction writers of Substack!
One thing I’d LOVE to be able to do is put up a “free wall” which would work just like a pay wall, except instead of preventing all but paid subscribers from reading a post, it would prevent anyone who is not a subscriber at all from reading a post.
This would be great for fiction writers who want to keep certain content exclusive to actual subscribers as opposed to making everything that’s not behind a paywall available to anyone on the internet.
I like this idea of knowing who is reading it: atleast getting subs from reads. I think you can do something like make it private so you have to subscribe to read a little like instagram private accounts but its on all whereas would be nice on some
Interesting idea. I'm not sure that I would use it, but I would probably at least experiment with it. At the least, it would give us more flexibility over allowing access, which would be good.
Imo this damages the quality of the email ecosystem Substack has amassed. I have a throw away account specifically for the purpose of popping into sites that demand an email address. I never check it. Too many of them will clog up your email list and harm your open rate.
That is exactly what I imagine writers could avoid with a system like I mentioned. I don’t want people to subscribe just to read a little bit in order to determine whether they want to stay Subscribed. The option to make posts available to all or just to subscribers would allow us to choose which pieces to make available for the public (therefore providing the content with which to decide if a subscription is worth your time) and keep the rest exclusive for those who make that commitment. It is better than just sending emails to our subscribers in order to keep content private, because we would also get to provide our subscribers with the organized database of content to refer to for navigation, as well as the app.
Also, with a "free paywall" like you've described, we can place it anywhere we want. Never would someone be "forced" to subscribe just to access the page. They could still go to the home page, look through available article titles, read any preview content, or read completely free content to decide if they want to subscribe. They would just have to subscribe if they want access to the paywalled content. Authors (I would hope) would leave enough "free to everyone" content that someone new could decide whether they want to subscribe. For example, I write Bible studies that span multiple weeks. I would have the overview post and the first lesson as free to everyone, but the subsequent lessons would have a "free paywall."
No, they will not. I have three years, 700 plus articles, 6 million words published, and lost thousands of followers i came with due to issues. Furthermore, surprising me, delivery is extremely inconsistent to some addresses, one in five getting to my following addresses.
First verify your Substack URL on there, then you'll have access through that "Performance" tab on the left. It's possible there's a better way, but this is the only way I'm aware of.
This is one of the reasons I love office hours! Thanks, Beth and Björn, for pointing me to a thing I didn't even know was a thing. :) About to take my first foray into Google Search Console!
Total rabbit hole that I must go down! I just keep putting it off and write new notes and new posts because the tech stuff sucks. But I will do it! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Thanks to the substack geniuses who created the promos created from quotes from paid subscribers about why they are subscribing. I post them on Instagram and Facebook. I am convinced that they have been responsible for an impressive boost in my numbers. Thank you so much.
Yay! That's awesome. Thanks for sharing, David. I should have come here before posting my own question. Which is this. How do I "turn on" the prompt that asks paid subscribers why they are subscribing?
The feature that prompts paying subscribers for "why" is automatic, since about one month ago. Substack rolled it out without fanfare. My VA picked it up in the notification emails, since I don't read notifications normally.
As with a lot of bells and whistles, I seem to have missed the memo on this. Would you mind sharing more information about how this works? Or maybe Substack has its own link somewhere?
🟧 Does anyone know if it's possible to see stats for Welcome emails?
I recently updated my welcome emails from a simple "Welcome, thank you for subscribing" to something a little longer. The revised version includes some posts people might want to start with, and an invitation to share the newsletter. I'd like to know if anyone is clicking these links, and if so which ones people are responding to the most.
I haven't looked at my "Welcome" email for some time now. I tend to update my "about" page more, because when I finish something and add it to my page, I want anyone dropping by, to see it.
I think About pages are important, but not everyone reads them. Almost every new subscriber sees a welcome email, though.
That's part of why I would expect to see stats available for it. It's such an important part of onboarding, it would be good to know what's resonating with new people and what isn't.
Right after substack hours is over I am going to get into it. I don't know why I keep resisting going to settings but I'm doing it today! I keep mentioning Notes because every time I post, I get more subscribers! sabrinalabow.substack.com
It's helpful to add them as I noticed if you set expectations at the beginning, people signing on don't unsubscribe later because everything wasn't like the first post they read.
Jen, in my experience a very high number of people read my welcome emails... I can tell because I ask people to reply and I get a good volume of replies.
They are a fabulous place to build trust with readers, and if you ask for replies they are great for getting to know more about them too.
What has been everyone's experience with taking breaks? After writing nearly weekly for about six months, I've paused posting new content as I'm drowning in work/family/school stuff.
Still getting new subscribers, so people are finding me, but I guess I have a fear about when I start back up again that my readership and open rate will tank.
Am I overthinking this? Any one have any experience here?
I think taking breaks is healthy as long as they're not too long. One way to take a break is to reprint something you've written before that your new audience may not have read. I do this fairly often, not necessarily to take a break but to let new light shine on a piece I don't want to stay hidden. But it has the same effect: I'm not stewing about what I'm going to write next.
What 👆she said (@Ramona). I'll just add that unless it's unavoidable (and let's face it, sometimes life is) I think it's best to announce total breaks ahead of time. If you have been posting to a consistent schedule and then evaporate, I might be a little put off, especially if I'm a paying subscriber. But that may also be publication-specific. I received a post today from someone who disappeared for a bit, and I was happy to open and read their words again. Some writers just share a simple sentence or two and a photo.
Yes, it's nice when someone I subscribe to takes the time to explain why they'll be gone for a bit. And it's equally nice when they think to check in now and then, even if, as you say, it's just a line or two or a picture.
How do you reprint it? I don’t think you can resend an old post, unless I’m mistaken. I’ve occasionally done a rest and revisit post which has links to 2-3 old posts I thought deserved more attention, but I’d love to know how you do it
I've had several blogs before Substack going back some 15 years so I have a lot to choose from! I just copy and paste the body of the blog and write a quick explanation at the top, telling where it came from, when it was published (usually with a link) and why I want my readers to read it now.
At around 7 months I both took my first break and reevaluated my posting schedule. I went from every week to twice a month, and even opened up some guest posts from other writers to give me a break.
I didn't see my numbers tank. Maybe there was a small dip, but not like I was afraid of.
If you “wake up” your email list after a dormant period, always expect a bit higher churn. I think people are so bombarded though, they may not have even realized you were on hiatus
I think we have to create a cultural expectation here on Substack to support each other in taking offline time. I’d be transparent about it- both when “pausing” and “returning” and honestly, I’d probably pay attention more if I knew you’d come back from a holiday or needed to take leave for personal reasons because I believe we all need to and you’ll probably have fresh ideas/lessons to share!
I’m planning on taking off quite a bit of time during the holidays and have toyed with making a “Best of” post and pinning it so readers have easy access to some of my favorite letters.
When I took a month of in July my subs actually went up because I was engaging more since I wasn’t writing my own letters and had more time to thoughtfully consume here on Substack.
I’d say honor your capacity/limits and build trust with your community and see what happens!
Maybe tweak your content calendar a bit? Come up with something that’s easier to write right now and pick up your normal content later? I have a content calendar that alternates between quick easy to write articles and longer form so that I can sustain whether I’m busy or not because my schedule can get unpredictable.
I was wondering if I had just been missing new posts from you! I have a huge fear of taking breaks and becoming suddenly irrelevant. BUT I suspect my fears are overblown. Consistency is important but I think it's more important to have the time and headspace to create quality content and not just churn something out for the sake of putting something out there.
I'm a little bit in the middle of this—I've just been unable to dedicate time to publishing recently, but I intend to get back to it soon. I imagine I'll lose some subscribers, but the people who really want to stick around and who will actually open the emails and read it won't, and that's what's most important imho.
Breaks really depends on your audience and promise. In my paid newsletter, people are handing over cold hard cash for weekly industry news updates, so it would be disrespectful to skip a week, and would undermine the trust my audience has. I don't take breaks (119 weeks so far).
On the other had, for my free newsletter (Pubstack Success), I happily skipped a week last week and honestly, I don't think anyone noticed.
Some Substack creators spend too much time telling their readers about their newsletter creation process... scheduling, breaks, excuses for why this post is short or why today's post was a day late or why they didn't post last week...
My advice is: No one cares about that stuff as much as you do, so don't waste your reader's precious inbox time talking about it. Acknowledge a break/pause/skip in one sentence and move on.
Bryce ... one idea is to pre-schedule posts for the duration of your break and reuse popular old posts during that period ... maybe with some updated reflection or comments for readers. Or to do some very short "I'm taking a break but here's a thought ... " ... seems like finding an easy way to maintain the consistency schedule would be good.
Taking break is not only important for me but an essential and a variable needed for all. It is as important as getting restorative sleep at night, gaining a reflective time for insight and perspective, and sustaining ones creative flow.
When I took a break due to life issues, 1-2 people unsubscribed and I just comped anyone paid for the time I missed. I probably should have planned better but sometimes when a lot of stuff happens it is stressful and you don't have time to do anything but deal with the fires. In the end,I don't think any of this matters as much as your mental health and wellbeing.
I think no breaks. If you post once a week and skip a week ok. Also, you can always make a post brief. It's like working out. Just keep being consistent and the results will follow. That's my two cents. sabrinalabow.substack.com
I took about 6 weeks off while I was traveling recently. I don't think it's had any major impact, except that I found it hard to get into my rhythm again for a while when I came back!
Some writers I know work a pause into their subscription offering and mention it in their About Page. For example, state upfront that you write 10 or 11 months per year but take one month (or two, if you prefer) off. I think this is a reasonable approach. I stepped away for 6 weeks last year while traveling, and mentioned it in advance to my subscribers. I didn't lose anyone during that period and picked up a net gain in free subscribers...but nothing in terms of paid customers. I will be updating my About Page soon to reflect my publishing schedule for 2024, which will have some built-in time off.
If you're interested in utilizing tags, this is a great way to make them accessible for readers. I have a select number of categories (tags) that I usually write under. Each time I publish a new post, I'll add the relevant tags and the directory is updated automatically. The directory functions as a convenient landing page, facilitating easier post navigation compared to the search feature. I also suggest including brief descriptions for each category.
I've received great feedback from readers on how useful the directory is. Let me know if you have any questions on setup, etc.
It's great to see examples of this! I was debating doing something similar but then opted to add the tags as categories as you scroll down the page (https://julievick.substack.com/) but I only had 3 distinct categories right now, I could see if you have multiple ones done more of a list directory like yours being good.
Do you feel like this has helped readers clarify "what" your newsletter is about? When I look at my newsletter it's hard for me to see a coherent theme just from the titles- even though I know I consistently write about similar topics. Maybe grouping them together would help those threads come through visually?
Just curious as to if that's been a benefit you've seen to the directory!
I do think it helps, although I try to capture what my newsletter is about in an intro sentence first. For example, here's a part of my welcome email:
"I share educational musings that weave archetypal studies and inner work with Jungian psychology via long-form writing and Divinations (audio posts). You can head over to the directory of posts and sift through the full archives on dreams, alchemy, shadow work, tarot, archetypes and more."
In the email, "directory of posts" is hyperlinked. Once they hop over to the directory, it becomes clear what I'm writing about based on the categories and the descriptions.
✏️ Do you find that actively commenting on other substacks helps bring traffic and attention to your own work? Is it helpful to be an active member of the communities with people you hope will become your readers? P.S. Just started my Substack today!
I think, it does, but commenting should always been done with spontaneity and purpose. Not just commenting for the sake of commenting. Some people subscribed to my newsletter because they found a comment I left on another publication interesting that's why I believe comments should be conversation starters that intrigue people to make them curious about the person who wrote it.
Without a doubt. The amount of time you invest engaging in other's work does have a direct return on people checking out your work. It's a community here.
I find commenting on substacks that are in the same niche as mine (travel, fiction) have produced good results. But I only comment when I think I have something genuinely interesting to say. If all I have to say is something bland like "Great post! Can totally relate" I don't really bother. I think commenting is a great way to introduce others to your writing voice, personality, and topics of interest, but you have to be intentional about this.
It depeds. Some do pobably check my stuff out even subscribing. Some dont. Do those that do check out comment and being active back? Some, but very very few.
Engaging with other writers on Notes increased my number of Subscribers. Notes are one of the best ways to be yourself, and expand awareness about your writing.
🟧 Hi Substackians! I'm consistently delighted by the thoughtful roll out of features both in the app and on the website. I have but one tiny little feature request that I think would make a HUGE difference for folks trying to balance paywalled content with free content.
Allow the Voiceover feature to be paywalled on free posts.
That's it! For folks like me who work hard to provide high-quality audio every week, but who are still trying to build a subscriber base, it's important to have something of value to hold back for paid subscribers in every post. You can listen to my latest serial novel and judge for yourself whether the audio is a feature folks would be willing to pay for. Thanks!
Was just talking about this exact feature! Voiceovers take a lot of extra effort. It'd be nice to have this as a paywall option while keeping the written portion free. I've just posted my first article + voiceover. Curious to see how it is received by my audience.
I think audio is invaluable for so many reasons. Beyond just the efficiency of being able to listen on the go, getting to hear a writer's voice gives a depth and dimension that the text alone cannot. Best of luck with your Substack!
I did a recent voiceover and I believe I'm going to make it a paid feature if I continue. But my only workaround I'm thinking of doing is just making an podcast into a paid one and just having it there and adding a note to the free post that upgrading to paid gets you access to the article read to you.
I'll see if that works! A bit of work, but I'm willing to do it.
Not to discourage you, but just to remind you that some people do a lot of their substacking on audio. I know I do. Driving and such. So turning audio 'off' for those 'readers' will mean a bunch of your stuff won't get read at all. So you might want to think about doing it only for some of your posts, so we can get some idea of how your audio sounds etc.
Can I? First of all I know a lot of the automatic voice overs are pay wall or at least it seems like to me. I press the same button. But I only see one button at the top and so I thought you either listen to the voice that the guy did, or you listen to the automatic one.
If you provide a voiceover, the AI voice is disabled. I think there's a setting to actually disable the AI voice for all your posts. I know the button is grayed out on a number of Stacks that I subscribe to.
I guess that will depend on how Substack implements this proposed change to the voiceover feature. I'd be fine with folks listening for free to the robot voice.
Absolutely. I give plenty of audio away for this reason. The narration and production I do for the serial novel takes time and expense so my hope is that the value will be well worth it to folks.
You can certainly do this, but it's not the same experience at all. It does not play in the native mobile player. It's clunkier. I wouldn't want people to pay for that experience.
Meghan Daum publishes her podcast audio as paid-only at first, and then sometimes opens them up to free subscribers after some time, or (also not ideal) publishes versions for paid
Maybe add a poll at the end of your posts asking people whether they read or listened? Many of my subscribers are friends irl, so I just ask them directly if they like the audio narration, and I find that 100% of the time they do! I think you can't go wrong in offering people alternative ways of consuming your writing, especially if it saves them time. For example, I know several friends who prefer to listen to my posts during their commutes. Hope this helps. :)
✏️ Stoked to be co-hosting the first San Francisco / Bay Area Substack meetup on Dec 6! Sign up here → https://lu.ma/l08hen0k
My question for you all is... what's the most provocative / interesting question that someone has or might ask you about yourself as a writer, and about your work?
What made you start writing? What do you want to be remembered for? Who are the people you write for and are those the same people that read your work. Where have you written your best work?
sounds similar to what Russell asked below ⬇️ and, I write for everyone, and also specifically as a man, and for men, although my readers and commenters tend to be pretty evenly distributed across gender. As a relatively new writer, my best work is right here on Substack.
Interesting. I may have misinterpreted the comment. I thought you were asking us what provocative questions a reader could ask a writer. It's fantastic to learn a little bit about your work, thank you. I'll read your post, thank you.
I am still trying to understand whether I fit in here as I don't think of myself as a writer even though I am now writing. I had been meaning to for a while but was waiting for things to slow down but Substack made it easy to start so I started. I write for homeowners who are renovating but it seems like some of the topics are relevant to a wider audience.
to write, that is? yeah, that's a good one. My version of that is why do you write, and do you have an overall motive or goal as a writer?
at the lowest level, mine is that *I'm here to tell the truth* -- and my goal is to do something towards changing the perception of men in the world, by sharing my own story. I wrote about this here → https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/im-here-to-tell-the-truth
I've written 40+ novels, so I've already hit the aims I set and written millions of words on it. I wrote to become immortal. Now, I write to help others become immortal.
How does immortality feel so far? How old are you in measurable years in this body, still mortal, as such things as a writer's mortality hinge on being left out of the best book burnings or hard drive wipes? If your musings were socially impactful and thus dangerous to the powers that wish ignorance to thrive, kudos to your works to disrupt the status quo crafted by the publishers of writers allowed to be published in the past.
I don't understand this comment. It's a pretty common thing to say that you want to write to achieve immortality. I don't know why you are being an asshole about it.
The question I get most often is how I come up with my topics. My newsletter is called stream unconsciousness. Not stream of consciousness, because it is my unconscious I am streaming. I just start talking into my phone. Also, I listen to great podcasts! I think there are people who want to write but are trepidatious. I always try to encourage. The more the merrier! sabrinalabow.substack.com
For other writers who enjoy collaborating: what are your favorite ways to do it? I've probably got about 25 pieces now where I've worked with another author here on Substack. Some were Q&A format where I tagged the writer (probably one of the least intrusive ways to get started), done full co-authored works (published on my page and on theirs), and cross-posted and had my posts cross-posted. There are probably a few other ways we've all worked together.
I like the 'letter exchange' where we debate a topic.... either one we mostly agree on but disagree on some specifics or how to's, or totally disagree on and do a flat out debate.
I love this idea. I've thrown the idea around with a few other writers, but we never ended up finding the right topic or timing. It's such a great way to add nuance around a topic.
Rebecca and I write about British things like the weather and tea, but we've recently branched out into mini reviews of the books we've been reading. https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/a-letter-to-terry-25 I've seen other people decide on a book and then discuss it. That's what @Robert Urbaschek and I are planning on doing
Von, is this like a back and forth, like an essay - response kind of thing? I write a piece, you respond to the piece, and I respond to your reply, and so on?
Substack officially calls it a 'letter exchange' I think. I have found it really helpful. And I enjoy doing them. Feel free to see if there is something we can disagree on :)
Personally, I would love to see this done in a podcast format. If I had the ability to go full time here, I think I would introduce a monthly podcast where I either invite another writer or another friend that I know will spark some kind of meaningful or interesting conversation and record the session. It’s an organic unfolding of another person, a show don’t tell approach, where the audience get’s to spend time with us, not just read a quiz.
Repurposing previously written articles - You can either do a "season of reruns" or a "season of updates" where you take your old posts and either beef them up with new information, or you comment on them with how things have changed in some way. Mike Sowden does this with Everything Is Amazing. Between seasons he will rereleases episodes from his archive, which I think is really smart.
Repurposing things you said on social media - Kathryn Vercillo blew my mind when she tagged me on a “Things I Said in Substack Notes This Week and Have More To Say About” post. This is an ingenious way to repurpose work you have already done.
Voicemails - Either record voicemails for your subscribers or get voicemails from them and do a roundup of them. Meg Conley does this on her Homeculture publication.
Best of lists - This can be compiled by somebody else, like a VA or even AI, if you give them the format. You can also just pull a bunch of quotes about a subject and line them up together, as well. Resilience, Courage, Love, whatever you want. This is also a great way to build SEO with your target audience.
Q and A - If you do take voicemails, you can use them as a Q and A segment where the audience is making most of the content except for your answer. Tara McMullin does this weekly on her Substack.
Hire a "monthly intern" or "guest editor" - Rusty Foster from Today in Tabs has a monthly intern they bring in to write articles.
Asynchronous interviews - Lots of people do asynchronous interviews, where you send a series of similar questions to people and then post their responses. Scott Neumyer does them. Gareth L. Powell does them. Jane Ratcliffe does them. Sari Botton does them.
Cross-posting - One of the easiest things you can do is to cross-post interesting articles to your audience from other Substacks. This takes almost no time, and is criminally underused. It’s a great way to beef up your publication while also promoting other people. I will usually only cross-post work that I've written, but I have been cross-posted before and it's great.
Guest posting - This takes longer if you’re the one writing it, but it’s an amazing way to get more content, especially if you have a publication with some traction.
I don't understand what you are asking. I gave some examples of people who do them and I gave a description. What is not connecting so I can help you? I recommend you just go check out Meg's publication and see for yourself, but I can't explain it any clearer without you saying more things.
I started a Funny AF Women interview feature on my Substack because comedy has always been a boys club and there are some funny af women out there. The interviews post once a month. I love supporting my fellow funny women. (Why isn’t the feminine of Fellow— Fella?)
Thanks for posting this, Andrew! It's a reminder that I really want to dive into collaborations and figure out what that would look like / inspiration to get on it hearing it's worked well for you. I have only amorphous ideas forming just yet and look forward to seeing what others share in this thread. :)
I've done blog hops, where we all write a piece on the same prompt and then link to each others' at the bottom. It's fun because if their audience click through to you, I tend to get higher traffic and some subscribers. And it is a fun way to share some love. We do this often with Exhale (a paid group) and sometimes with my writer's group. I also contribute monthly to Part-Time Poets where about ten of us each write a poem and then the issue goes out each month. We all promote it and then I get subscribers through a bigger audience. It definitely makes my writing feel more communal.
I just did a really fun collaboration with Keva from Your Creative Letter. We asked each other a series of questions about creativity during one week via voice notes and then put it all together to share. It turned out really cool!
I've also done some guest posts and other interview/style collabs which are honestly my favorite. It's why I love this community. I'm open to other ideas and more collaborations so leave a comment if you're interested!
She makes it really easy! One of the most genuine and wise and open-hearted people I've had the pleasure of interacting with. I keep wanting to tag her in the comments, haha!
Felix Purat and I just started a 7-part series where we'll go back and forth, one post by me, one post by him, etc. We'll see what kind of response we get.
Can a person be a substack writer/create a substack as an anonymous writer just until they get a following due to the personal nature of their writing?
Absolutely! You can change your profile name to anything you want and be completely anonymous. However, you might want to set up your substack under a different email, in case you have identifying markers in your personal email address.
If you’re writing about Snowden/Assange- level ITAR regulated information, an anonymous handle on Substack isn’t necessarily guaranteed to protect your privacy. But if one’s planning to write something more like a personal anecdote/confession about absolutely ruining a public stall at a Michelin Star restaurant in Pittsburgh on an unfortunate evening in one’s youth (strictly a hypothetical) and never owning up to it, as intriguing as that may be, nobody’s likely to have the time and tools to track down and dox the author of something like that. Especially since the restaurant has since changed ownership, and there were still other good stalls for customers and staff to use that evening, so it’s really not that big of a deal, in such a contrived hypothetical.
I'm sure you can. The best part about Substack is that they don't censor. That's why so many great writers from The NY Times etc. came over here. sabrinalabow.substack.com
I wish I would’ve been more consistent before with my newsletter but certainly this acts as a boost to my encouragement and look forward to see how Substack will help me with my dream of making a living by sharing life experiences! 😄❤️
What I’ve learned
-Don’t be shy to ask people for their email to keep in touch with them
I'm about to launch my Substack and I'm wondering if it's a best practice to manually opt-in a bunch of people whose email addresses I have, and then let whoever doesn't want to continue to unsubscribe.
I think it's not best practice. BUT I think asking to add--and how you go about doing that--is a wonderful opportunity to get people you already know jazzed to support you or at least check out what you're doing on Substack. Two things that worked well for me: (1) I reached out by email to a small group of my closest people and said straight-up, I'd love to add you. It would mean a lot if you were my first supporters. (2) I posted on my social media feeds something like, hey all, I'm about to start a Substack. DM me your email if you want me to add you as my first friends and family pre-subscribers and get posts from day one.
Good luck! Glad you're here. Substack is a wonderful place to grow as a writer and reader!
As a person who works as a branding and marketing consultant (and who has seen the ugly fallout from my clients adding folks to their email list unprompted, against my advice), I say: definitely don't do it! Holly's alternative--to email them and ask for permission to add them--is brilliant. Do that instead!
I'm going to come right out and say it. I don't know a lot about how to get readers. But I got on to Substack when someone sent me an email with a link to the site. I hummed and hawed about it, and finally looked into it because I was curious. I was just a random email. I was not offended. I was not angered by it. If you send an email out to a stranger, it's on them as to whether they open it or not. If you don't send it, it's already negatively impacting you. If you send it to strangers, it's NOT spamming. It's marketing. They decide whether they want to open it, or delete it. You're not being rude, or intrusive, or insensitive. THEY have to decide if they want to open it. Opening that email was the best thing I ever did. And that's the attitude you have to have if you want to find followers. If you buy ads with Facebook and try to promote something, they send out thousands of emails in the hopes that maybe 5% will open them. You can go on Fiver, or whatever it's called, and find someone who will help you market your 'stack. They do the same thing.
I would personally avoid this strategy unless they have expressed interested. Spamming is never a good way to build a brand. You want quality subscribers who will be engaged and whom you will retain. Otherwise it will be a downward spiral as people start unsubscribing. I started with 0 and hoping to grow organically through promoting my substack and publishing quality content. My two cents!
Well, in the UK and Europe this would probably contravene the data protection laws, which is why I haven't done it myself. Apart from that I don't think it's good practice unless all you're doing in effect is changing your method of sending out the emails, ie the subject matter is exactly the same. In my case it isn't, so people on mmy other lists would wonder why I've brought them over without their permission. I'm not a legal expert, by the way.
I asked for permission when I started mine. It seemed a little rude to just add a bunch of emails without consent, and I wouldn't want that done with my email. So I just texted a lot of people who I already knew to say, 'Hey, I'm doing this thing, would you be interested in reading and can I add your email to my subscriber list?'
Depends on how you got their email addresses. If for example you previously ran a newsletter that you were migrating to Substack, then yeah just migrate them over and explain the change.
Thanks, Cole. Probably 75% of the emails I have are people I know and who won't mind. The rest are just good email addresses (of real people) I got from scraping my Gmail account. I've cleaned the list pretty thoroughly, but the 25% are not friends, just somehow we've emailed in the past. It's that group I'm most worried I'd be spamming (kinda).
You may or may not run afoul of anti-spam policy by opting those people in. Substack WILL ask you where you got the emails if you bring in a list. And they will want to know if these people explicitly consented to getting emails from you
It's been a while since I was reading about these things, but I believe this technically isn't legal, per spamming rules and regulations (see GDPR, 2016; and the CAN-SPAM Act). Unless they've given permission, you can't add people to a newsletter list, and I think Substack can potentially thwart that. If it's friends and family, maybe they won't care, but be a little careful there if you're not talking about an existing list of folks who previously signed up. Don't want you getting shut down before you even start!
I tend toward "ask for forgiveness" rather than "ask for permission." But I only added people who I was 99% sure wouldn't mind and I let them know before starting to send out any stories. I also told them they were free to unsubscribe and never talk to me again, but no one took me up on it!
I'd love to say that's a best practice because I want to do it myself lol. BUT I don't think it is. However, if you have a good relationship with those people it might not be seen as shady. It's a tough call!
I say do it. If someone doesn't want to read it, they'll scroll by it and delete it. I was sending my pieces out to my email list and only one person asked me to take them off. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. The worst that can happen is they ask you to stop. If you don't promote yourself, you won't grow.
But adding people who subscribed to a totally different thing you used to do to a brand new thing you currently do? You didn't received ANY pushback for doing it?
Sorry, I had to go away for a bit. But when I first started, I didn't have anything else I was selling. I literally started with nothing. I had about thirty or forty people on my email. I just sent it out to them. Most of them were receptive to what I sent them. Like I said, I had nothing. I'm not very "techie". I didn't have a job where I used a computer. I was totally "blue collar", worked in a sawmill. But I retired. I decided when I retired that I was going to sell myself as a writer. When you have a small list of people on your email, and most of them are friends and family, they tend to support you more than dump you. Like I said, only one --nope -- two people asked me not to send them things. No biggie. I learned a long time ago the worst someone can say is "No thank you." Now, I have 330'ish people on my email/substack list. I would have to do it differently if I decided I was going to sell retail products. I'd probably send out an email asking if they were interested in it. Other than that, if the worst I'm going to do is hurt someone's feelings? They'll get over it. What you have to tell yourself is that if I throw 20 emails out there and only one or two say no, everybody else said YES. The hardest part of this substack game is promoting yourself. But if you aren't going to do it, who is?
Good question, Kristi. That's why i haven't done it myself. If someone put me on their new list that was completely different to the one I'd signed up for it would damage their brand in my eyes, and be pretty annoying. I get enoughh spam as it is! Besides, I don't think it matters if even nobody complains. It's not a good look
Yeah I tend to lean in the same direction because I have been on the receiving end of emails I never asked for from people who assumed it was okay, and it annoyed the crap out of me.
I’m with Ben here. When I first started 14 months ago I just added 50 people, friends, fam and former book editing clients. Some unsubscribed but most stayed!
I would not do that. People may get pissed off. Send individual emails or texts with a link. You don't want a subscriber who just didn't unsubscribe and deletes your newsletter. It must be more personal. sabrinalabow.substack.com
I personally get annoyed when people add me to a newsletter without first asking if I want to be added, but I think sending an email inviting them to sign up is a good option.
Is there any marketing support for local Substack meetups? I'm organizing one with two other Substackers in Austin for next week. We filled out the form but I'd love a graphic or something visual we can all share with our lists. I can make one in Canva but I wondered if there was someone at Substack I could reach out to.
🟧 What would it be like to have a button where someone can donate or “buy you a coffee” for a specific post? I notice sometimes I don’t want to upgrade to a full subscription, but would love to pay someone for a post I found really helpful. I heard others also sharing this same thought!
I like the idea of something like this too. I think as Substack grows the problem of how to support lots of Substackers is one that will need to be sorted out and something like this could be a good option.
I think there is something on Stripe that allows this. I was looking around there last week because sometimes I like to look at the "other" side of the writing life, and I think there was a link to a "Make a Donation" type thing. I'm going to look into it, because trying to get Paid subscribers is the hardest part of fiction writing. But of someone want to throw in $5 for reading something they liked, I'm good with that!
I tried it once. It was great for producing the most rubbish I've ever written in the shortest possible time😂 Good on the people who stick it out and get a decent first draft out of it though
Yeah, I'm generally suspicious of the whole thing. It seems helpful for jump-starting a regular writing practice, but I don't know how much utility it has beyond that.
Hi, how to grow as a fiction writer in substack? I have been publishing for a while but it seems going nowhere in the platform here. Going paid is a distant illusion, but atleast the basic engagement where to find and how to grow please suggest. 🙂
Hi Triparno. It can be very discouraging. Convincing people to read fiction anywhere it hard but it can feel impossible here. My best advice is to engage other fiction writers, follow them on Notes and leave meaningful comments. The more you engage with other authors, the more their audiences see you and become curious. Above all, be consistent and keep honing your craft. It just takes a couple of readers to champion your work. Make sure that first piece they read is stunning. Best of luck to you!
I agree. The one thing you have to be in consistent. The reader needs to know if they're going to invest time in you, that you will deliver. Quality writing is the one promise you have to make to yourself, because if your writing is shit, no one's going to want to read you. Fiction is a hard sell if you don't have an established following before coming here (I didn't). Read other writers, leave comments, give opinions and be polite.
The Library is a resource for gathering and supporting indie fiction on Substack. If you’d like to send us your work, we’ll be happy to help you get the word out!
The Library is the best tool out there for fiction writers, because you have a place where you can put up your work and let others look at it and decide if they want to follow you. I restack it every time they post.
But so worth it, Michael. It's taken me a lot longer than it took you (I'm still sitting in the 300s), but I think you have to come into the fiction market with a different mindset. You have to tell yourself that what you have is worth someone's time. You have to be consistent. You need a routine, a schedule, and you have to make sure that what you have to offer is good.
From what I've gleaned on the platform in about 19 months, the secret to converting paying subscribers is to offer a service that they keep coming back for. I haven't cracked that puzzle for myself, and I do offer some more practical content, such as interviews with career coaches. It's even more difficult in fiction, I imagine. What most people say is true -- Substack's primary appeal is the community. And growth is a really long game. So I'd recommend clarifying why you're here, what you want to write, and then how long you're willing to let that slowly build. It might ease some of the stress!
I'm just diving into fiction on Substack myself. One thing I try to do is distinguish WHY my fiction is different from the other types of fiction people might read on here and WHO might be interested in my writing. For example, I write for people who want to learn about the culture and history of a city/region/country through the lives of fictional characters--something I haven't seen other travel and fiction writers do (at least, not yet). Really try to emphasize your value proposition on your about page. Here's an example. Mine isn't perfect, but I think it's getting there: https://macyseestheworld.substack.com/about
Your Substack is a page on the internet. How do people know about it? How and why would they visit it? You need to market it. You need to let people know it exists. And there's a thousand ways of doing that.
Can anyone explain the poor technical quality (design, shaping, framing) of the promotional tools automatically sent to me after new posts over the last few weeks? Headlines, for example, won’t fit Instagram anymore. They used to be fine, and I can’t reframe on my end. Thanks!
Well, I would have, but I was on my iPad between classes at the uni where I teach. So I'm really sorry if I broke protocol, but here's a secret: They see it anyway.
🟧 I LOVE the Tripoli theme for Ghost and can see you guys have translated that theme for Bari Weiss’s Substack thefp.com - are there any plans to give us the option of using Tripoli? I would pay handsomely if this were a paid option for example.
A shoutout to @fogchaser who composed Hearthside, a beautiful piece just published on his newsletter. It's not everyday that someone writes a song for you! https://fogchaser.substack.com/p/hearthside
✏️ I’ve been thinking a lot about the “value” I offer my readers and trying to get more clarity! I’d love some crowdsource help for what would be valuable for you!
Currently, I write personal essays on topics like creativity, grief, and motherhood all with the common thread of exploring our shared human connection. I also share poetry and feature interviews with other creatives.
Besides my perspective and experience, what value do you receive from newsletters that are more personal or reflective? I’d love to see some examples!
You really need to know what audience you want to attract before you know what value you should offer. I find the writing is valuable, and I pay to support people being able to write. I just want good writing.
For me, the best stuff I offer is stuff I have already made and don't have to recreate. I have something like 15 books available to people who pay, and courses to help them.
🟧 Hi Substack team- is there a way for an author to better crop images for mobile web browser? I see an image looks great on the app and on the computer browser, but someones face is cut off in the mobile web browser. Thanks!
I keep hoping for an image specs cheat sheet. the images in different places seem to be of different proportions which sometimes leads to odd cropping.
🟧 ✏️ I'm about to launch a Substack for a small but influential nonprofit I work for so we can move our newsletter delivery from Mailchimp and also expand our conversations, have dedicated articles and guest posts. I'm unsure about whether the paid subscriptions option is appropriate, since we're a nonprofit, but would like to make it another avenue for donations. Do any other writers or Substack folks have suggestions or advice to share?
(I'm also about to launch a Stack of my own musings, but that's another topic.)
🟧 Do you plan to have a feature to save comments? I always find Office Hours really great to get advice from your team and fellow writers, but then coming back to them is a tedious process. If it was possible to save them, I believe it would be fantastic. Same goes for Notes.
I have done some googling about best day and time to schedule newsletter emails. Seems that Tuesday and Thursday come up a lot. but it occurred to me that maybe different days and times depend on the type of content. So, I am curious to know if there is a best practice for serialized fiction. Since these will be longer than 200 - 300 words, is Tues or Thurs really best? Or would Saturday or some other day be better when people might be looking for a longer read?
Substack is one of the first platforms where day and time of day doesn’t matter as much (if I’m remembering correctly it’s because there is such an international audience and they all check their emails at different times). But when I publish fiction I send it on Fridays because I imagine that’s something people aren’t generally reading during the weekday, and instead save it for the weekend. (Plus, Fiction Fridays used to be a thing on Medium!)
I've done some research too and ultimately, I don't believe it makes a huge difference what time of day or day of week you publish a serial. What matters is that whatever schedule you set, you stick with it rain or shine and you deliver quality every time. It's all about setting clear expectation and exceeding those. I also think it's important to make it as easy as possible for readers to navigate through your serial by:
1. Creating a dedicated section for your serial.
2. Using a consistent naming convention for your chapters/episodes
3. Keeping the length for each episode consistent
4. Providing navigational links between previous and next chapters
5. Avoiding too much clutter (buttons, images, etc.) that interrupts the reading experience
6. Including a quick summary of what happened in the previous episode at the top of every new one.
I personally add high-quality audio narration for my serial fiction which has received a lot of positive feedback. Best of luck!
I noticed that for your Field Guide you have several items, like Ropes Course, etc. Are those pages? I don't see them listed as sections, but maybe you chose not to list them?
Hi Mark, those are actually links to section within my Field Guide page. If you click one of them it just jumps you further down the page as a shortcut.
Thanks. I was wondering about navigational links. I guess one at top (previous) one at bottom (next)? Of both at the bottom? Thanks for the summary recommendation. That makes a lot of sense. I currently plan to update weekly on Tuesdays unless some compelling reason makes me opt for a different day. Thanks again.
I put something out twice a week. I put up my SHORT STORIES AFTER 8 on Sunday nights, for no particular reason. And I have a SERIAL novel THE SHIELD OF LOCKSLEY that I put up on Wednesdays. I live on the left coast, near Vancouver. I don't worry too much about when people read them. I used to drive myself nuts wondering when the right time would be, but like Elle said, it's an international community now. I try to put my Serial novel up sometime around midnight, my time, so when you wake up on the East coast, you can read it in the morning. But I don't think the "Time" is what matters as much as the DAY you put it up. As long as you follow the course you set yourself, the readers will find you and follow you.
Morning Taegan. I create daily 10 minute unedited SoundScapes with pictures on my old fashioned sustainable farm. They are designed to be calm time out virtual spaces, a soundtrack to writing or journaling or yoga, I would love to have you take a look. Let me know!
🟧 Heads up to other writers: Special Offers do NOT work on pledges.
I learned the hard way - I even sent myself a test email with a special offer/pledge drive, and the link worked (for me) but all subsequent pledgers did not receive the discount, and now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to fix it....
I feel like there was once a way to edit this for each use... when I was just getting started with substack, I felt like it was one of those things you do when you set things up. I could be wrong.
I have some questions regarding the use of tags (because going back through my articles recently, there were some articles where I had none at all.....and I'm not sure what tags
1. Does adding tags actually help generate readership and subscriptions?
2. Is there any particular strategy to selecting or adding them for articles?
3. If the answers to questions #1 and #2 are yes, are there any reliable/reputable people out there who charge reasonable hourly rates to read your articles and add tags to your articles to drive readership? (Part of me thinks that an outsider reading might in some way see where your article belongs better than I will writing it).
On an unrelated note, is Substack working on any pricing features that will allow readers to purchase single articles rather than full subscriptions? Thanks.
I don't work for Substack, but I am a digital marketing consultant in my non-Substack-writing-life, so I'm going to take a swing at this question. It sounds like what you're asking about is search engine optimization (SEO), which focuses on organic rather than paid growth. In which case, *keyword phrases*--if thoughtfully written based upon the type of searches people are performing related to your content--should help drive internet traffic to your Substack. You'd want to implement keyword phrases in your article title, headlines, and sprinkled judicially throughout said articles. SEO involves more than that, of course, but it's a good place to begin.
How exactly Substack's "tags" fit into that equation is still a bit of a mystery to me. As I understand it, tags are really used for internal organization-- to give your subscribers/readers the ability to locate content that interests them. Whether or not they "count" as keyword phrases in the realm of site indexing... I'm not sure.
Thank you! It does help. I greatly appreciate your response.
TBH, I kinda just to write my stuff and not focus on SEO within articles. I'm never going to manage that language. And I think the quality of my writing would suffer if I tried to add stuff in. I'm writing legal and political pieces. If someone finds it valuable, they find it valuable (I'm paywalling all my footnotes now for my articles).
But if adding tags genuinely helped bring people into readership because they were searching for stuff, then I would want to have someone go through them. That was kind of my idea. But if not, it's not worth it.
Totally understandable! Also, cool to see an attorney writing on here! I look forward to reading your work, and I will direct my sibling (also an attorney) to check it out, too.
🧠 Interview Opportunity: I have just launched visual interviews where people are invited to use my Google Form of questions that are all related to art and mental health but to answer in images instead of words. (I also offer the option for a word based interview or both types ...)
The first one (with the wonderful illustrator Sue Clancy) and the info about the opportunity are here:
Hi Kathryn! As someone who's used creative writing to process complex trauma over the past decade, this sounds like such a unique, meaningful idea. I just saw Sue's post and appreciate the creative freedom this interview format offers.
I'd love to offer my insights on this topic; however, would you count writing as an art form? I've found that different people categorize writing in different ways so just wanted to check. :)
I absolutely count writing as an art form! And at the bottom of Sue's post you'll see the opportunity to answer an interview in visual format, words, or you can complete both. <3 <3
1. How about an archive of office hours with a search feature so that we can quickly refer to Q & A's, Tips, etc.?
2. Status on "Donation" option?
3. Has Substack figured out why some of us have readers/subscribers with stats of 80% email and 1-2% (or less) from Substack? Thank you, enjoying the growth and opportunities on Substack!
✏️ It's clearly Gift Guide season. For those who have put out guides already, are your email opens higher? Any other advice for making them not generic - other than offering non-generic products? TIA!
Word count: It's in the bottom left hand corner of your post draft, there's a little "information" button. We built this in part because of Office Hours feedback.
You can export all of your posts and lists: It's in your settings under "export"
✏️ Hi all you brilliant Substackers! How do I generate the prompt for paid subscribers to tell me why they paid? Relatedly, sometimes but not always, when I like someone's post, a little screen pops up saying something to the effect of, Like this post? Why not subscribe/share/upgrade? How would one make that happen?
I come to you all rather than Google to ask this question, as I'd love to riff on paid subscribers. I recently quietly turned my paid option on and got a handful of paid subscribers and feel not only incredibly grateful but also inspired to think bigger, offer more, write better. I had been nervous to do so and was pleasantly surprised. So, I'm wondering what's your experiences been with same? With marketing for paid in a less quiet, more overt way perhaps? Thanks!
🟧 — also, how do you change the little message under the sign up box on the welcome page. I see some people have changed the 'no thanks' to things like 'let me look first', 'maybe later' etc...
The more you can personalize your page, the better it will look. That's why I work on my "ABOUT" page (here:) https://benwoestenburg.substack.com/about and my HOME page (here) https://benwoestenburg.substack.com. It's all a learning experience and you kind of pick things up as you go along. I'd say the best way to figure things out is to go to 'Stacks that have large followings, and smaller ones, to see what's different, and what works.
I just wrote a post on about pages and fully agree with taking inspiration from other newsletters. TO: Caryn Sullivan - I don't but I've seen a few that do and it's always a nice touch.
🟧 I'm curious what happens when I block someone on Substack. (Not something I do regularly or like to do...but have done twice in the past little while, and very much appreciate the option for such circumstances.)
One person I blocked entirely, and I assume he will not be able to engage with my content but am wondering whether he can still see it if he tries to look me up.
Another person I blocked from leaving comments on my Substack posts, but it seems it might have resulted in the more general type of blocking anyway (same as the first guy).
Again, mostly just curious, but would like to know the specific ramifications of those moves. Thank you! (And hopefully I'll be doing no more blocking!)
Had my first experience with that recently, as well. It's not something I do lightly, but sometimes a troll is just a troll. Also had a bizarre case last year where my stats shot way up for a post, but there didn't seem to be any comments. Turns out that one user had viewed it like 10,000 times (or a bot), so I had to contact support to have that person removed, so it didn't skew the dashboard too much. Hope this continues to work for you, and you don't get repeat offenders!
I too had my first real troll. Oddly, mine seemed like a person, but just a very tone deaf person who only wanted to comment with hate. It took me a while to get comfortable with blocking them.
✏️ - fellow writers! I am new to Substack and have a question about thumbnails for posts. I have 2 draft posts so far. No thumbnail images show up. Hmmm. How do I get thumbnails for my posts? And yes, one of the draft posts does have an image in it. Thanks!
I only get thumbnails after I hit send. I think because it scans your finished email for any images and includes in the thumbnails. Then I take the thumbnails and post to X, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. Hope this was useful.
Substack pulls from the imagery in the post, so if you add imagery to the post, you'll have the option to pick from when you go to post it. You can hover over the image and change it in the seetings, or upload a new one. I showed more in my 50,000 word guide on substack. https://authorstack.substack.com/p/substackgrowth
I’m not sure if this feature is straight up bugged... but thumb nails only show up for me if I upload them directly to Substack, rather than pulling a thumbnail from the post
✏️ - Any authors here that are having trouble getting published, or would normally go the self-published route, that use Substack as a way to "publish" their books?
Substack is a great way to test-drive ideas for a book and build up a following for it. I am not sure it's a substitute for publishing a book. Many potential readers who look for books won't find your Substack. The reverse is true, too. Some people will find your Substack who wouldn't find your book.
By writing a weekly newsletter on various aspects of being an introvert (portraits of famous introverts, critiques of prejudice against introverts and more) I am in effect researching a book - slowly. If I can attract more subscribers then I would also be creating a "proof of concept" for publishers - showing that there's enough interest for my topic and my approach to it.
I have self published and also published with big publishers like HarperCollins, Penguin and Henry Holt, but next time I want to go with an established publisher again.
That's fantastic Marcia! I'm honored that you took the time to help me learn the landscape a bit. ( I was asking for a friend who was recently denied by Chelsea Green Publishing.)
I want to write a book and while Substack is my genuine attempt to get my own creative platform, it is also a way to test out what book lies within me. I don’t have a full answer yet, but hoping this journey leads me there.
So this is my take on Substack. I write long fiction, and there was never really a big market for it. I write novellas and shorter novelettes. I told myself going in that Substack has a potential to be something great, if you work on it. I no longer look to publish in lit magazines. I may look at publishing a book, but have recently decided that it might be better to try the PRINT ON DEMAND route. You have to look at the long haul idea. I've got 338 Subscribers, 9 of them PAID. I have 103 "followers". I want to convert them to Subscribers. I'm retired now, so I have time to play with this platform. I figure I've got 20-25 years to make something of myself. There are millions of people on Substack. Just give me 2% of them. Let me convert 1500-2000 PAID, and I will consider it a success. SUBSTACK can be what you want it to be. I write fiction though, and that's probably the hardest market to work in at the moment. But why can't I be a best seller on Substack, the same as people are on the NY Times list? The only thing holding me back, is me. Write your book and put it up in little blurbs. You will find a following, and it will grow. I started with 0 followers, and had a small email list of 20-30 people. Don't think it's going to happen overnight, but ask yourself what it will look like in 5 years from now. Like I said, SUBSTACK has a lot to offer, and you can make it work for you if you don't get frustrated and give up.
Thank you for your thoughtful response, Ben! Agree, Substack has a lot of potential and like anything else in life, the more work you put into cultivating it, the better the returns. To me, it’s a bit overwhelming at times to keep up with all the choices. Where are your followers? Subscribers I get of course. All the best with your efforts and post-retirement life!
It takes a bit to find your followers. But if you go to the part of your homepage where it say SUBSCRIBERS, and you hit that, you get SUBSCRIBERS; FOLLOWING; and FOLLOWERS. It's a lot easier to see it on other peoples' 'Stacks...but it's there.
on the whole, publishers can only publish less than 1% of the books they read, so they don't really want you...so you have the choice to publish yourself or not publish, and Substack can help with that. but you should also learn how to self publish your own books well. It's not either/or.
There's no substitute for publishing a "real" book, but if your goal is to at least have the ability to be read, Substack is a great option. I've published one novel and am in the process of releasing a second as a serial. You can check it out here: https://www.catchrelease.net/p/harmony-house-episode-01
So, how do I turn the language feature on when exploring by category? Can you just leave it on the page and not have it wait until I type something in the search bar?
Yeah Noe, what I meant was and I’m not sure how you handle this. I would like to somehow signal that I’m bilingual in English and French and so that anyone can say comment in French on my English writing and also I’d like to mark a given Substack post for what language it’s in. So far, I’ve only written in English but I’m going to have some perhaps that will be bilingual or all in French.
You can put that up on your home page, or on your ABOUT page. You can tell people after you've written whatever you're posting, on the bottom of the page, that you're bilingual and can take questions in either language.
All true, but I was going off the official ways to tag something in order to let people search on it. I don't think any of those would do that, if you see what I mean.
Hey everyone! Happy Thursday! I started a new project called Wrestle Tales. This was created out of my burn out with wrestling content creation since I'm pushing through rather than resting. I still want to finish 2023 strong even if this year has been ups and downs. I haven't turned on paid subscriptions yet, but there are pledges. I wrote article 1 about all of us having a story - where are passions came from, what was born from our passions. Wrestle Tales is an experiment newsletter that combines my love for wrestling and writing and explore wrestling concepts and give you access to my wrestling novel that I'm going to get done in 2024. I'm looking for new readers - as I have no subscribers as of yet - and I'm not going to just send all my other subs from Squared Circle Society to the new one without their permission. Squared Circle Society will remain as wrestling news and updates. One day I'd like to chat with the head of Sports and introduce myself. 👋 Other than that, I'll be working on Wrestling Tales #2 and trying to bring the novel to life.
Does anyone know if it is possible to change text color? I’d like to make certain text stand out / pop but seems like it’s limited to text type and making it bold. thanks!
The style controls are very much locked down in the editor. You'll notice you can't even do simple things like left-align a photo. The goal is to keep pages consistent and readable. The best technique is to get adept at using imagery to add color and eye breaks. You can also use the "pull-quote" style which helps with emphasis.
To help organize the conversation, please use one of the following emojis when you start a new comment.
🧠 - when sharing strategy or advice for fellow writers
✏️ - when asking questions or seeking feedback from fellow writers
🟧 - when asking a question you hope the Substack team can help answer
Use your emoji keyboard or simply copy and paste the emoji at the beginning of your comment.
🧠 Welcome to all new Substackers. I always want to help fellow Substackers to get on their feet and this ebook will help you to get started and grow. Feel free to reach out if you find it useful.
https://open.substack.com/pub/raisini/p/from-zero-to-100000-subscribers-the?r=aegif&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Thanks for the e-book
💯
🔥🔥🔥
💯
Very helpful, thanks!
💯
@RAISINI have you ever used quizzes for list growth?
🟧Maybe you could put together some sort of contest where we could vote on smaller and newer substacks. sabrinalabow.substack.com
Hi Sabrina! Thanks for sharing this idea. We're always looking to improve, so we appreciate the note.
Substackers could have friends and family stuff the ballot box.
✏️ has anyone used substack to write a serial book?
I’m going to serialize my novel (fiction) . I’ve heard nonfiction does better but I’m excited to try anyway.
Go for it. You'll never know until you do.
Which one is better, serializing on Substack or selling it on Amazon? If I want to publish on Amazon after I serializing on Substack, do you think that is okay?
Hi Kathleen! I've serialized a novel through my Substack, and will be starting to send pieces from my short story collection next week (linking below to both in case you're interested), but there are many other authors serializing as well.
Nathan Slake --> https://slake.substack.com/
Claudia Befu --> https://www.storyvoyager.com/
Ben Woestenburg --> https://benwoestenburg.substack.com/
Ben Wakeman --> https://www.catchrelease.net/
And then here's the intro to the novel I serialized --> https://garrettfrancis.substack.com/p/and-in-the-dark-they-are-born-novel
And also the aforementioned story collection --> https://garrettfrancis.substack.com/p/strays-like-us-short-story-collection
Hope this is helpful in some way!
Thank you Garrett. You've been busy. Nice shout outs. And congrats to all of you.
Thanks for the mention, Garrett! 🙏
Thanks for the mention, Garret. I really appreciate it.
Yes, people are serializing on Substack. Fiction and nonfiction both. What are you interested in?
I'm interested in nonfiction.
lots of people. I recommend looking up Fictionistas or Erika Drayton who has a list of all the fiction on Substack, or The Link Library.
thank you Russell.
yes, several others have as well, and I've serialized my memoir here → https://bowendwelle.substack.com/memoir
Congratulations Bowen
Yep, me! I'm excerpting and serialising my memoir as an audiobook about intergenerational maternal trauma, mental health and the complex interplay between our mental health and the natural world. It's for my paid subscribers but Episode 1 launched last Sunday for everyone if you fancy a listen: https://lindsayjohnstone.substack.com/p/held-in-mind-an-excerpted-memoir#details
Thanks Lindsay and congratulations. Will check out your audio book.
Thanks so much, Kathleen!
I’m planning to serialize a Middle Grade novel after Christmas.
Yes, I did. I released several thousand words each week...
well alrighty then. good going
I'm serializing (5 episodes) one of my short mysteries: https://susanwittigalbert.substack.com/s/short-fiction Have another already scheduled for Jan-Feb and another in the works. I benefitted from the work of Simon Jones, who regularly posts on the subject: https://simonkjones.substack.com/s/how-to-write-serialised-fiction
excellent. and congratulations. thanks for responding.
I don't even know how to the emojis.
You can copy/paste by highlighting from Katie's text, or if on PC you can press WindowsKey and . to bring up the in-built emoji menu.
Katie-When I tried to email subscribers with a new post earlier today the email function did not work. Am I missing something? Thanks.
I think there are occasional hicupps like that. The bold heading functions & block quote functions also sometimes don't seem to work.
I had 16,000 subscribers when I first came to substack and lost nearly 7,000 of them. The problems with delivery are consistently showing up, as in one out of five will come through to the email address. I have a couple back up email addresses I used to test the delivery and it was horrid.
this also happened to me. some people received it, but not everyone. I didn't even receive my own post via email???
I got my email right after I posted the newsletter. https://djincometrader.substack.com/p/12-berkshire-hathaway-buys-for-covered?utm_campaign=email-post&r=2l7h7&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Yes, that's how it should work. I got an email on my first two posts but the third time I posted no email??
It gets much worse the more often you post until I wondered why they were not delivering to all the followers. Particular to this phenomena, since complaining on this platform, as a writer voicing my concerns, it got worse, not better.
That's completely bizarre. It would be so helpful if a substack staff member could offer some direction on this? Is there some other step we need to take?
✏️ How do I set up promo codes for 1 month free mode? I would like to set up 10 promo codes (1 month free from having to pay from $1 to $10 per month, it's the reader's choice). A Substack user gave me this great idea.
You go to DASHBOARD>SETTINGS>PAYMENTS>MANAGE SPECIAL OFFERS+
I talk about it in my 50,000 word guide, at the bottom of this part. https://authorstack.substack.com/p/worldclasssubstack
🟧What about having the writers with more followers sponsor another who has fewer? sabrinalabow.substack.com
🟧 I am approaching 650 free subscribers after almost two years of mostly regular posting of quality content. I've added about 250 this year. I write for a small audience of covered calls and puts stock options investors.
And I have 5 pledges for about $512 total.
I figure that if I go paid at $240 a year after discounts and fees I might get 50 to 60 paid subscribers who would pay on a monthly basis. I don't want annual subs because if I have to refund subscribers' money if I have to quit in my old age, I don't want lose money on the 13% credit card and Substack commissions.
Does this make sense?
Just a thought which might help...if it came to you retiring from writing part way through some of the subscriber's one year term, maybe instead of refunding in cash (which as you mentioned would make a mess of finances on here), what about "gifting" something of equal value...say a new book from Amazon or two delivered to their door in the value of whatever was left of their year. Might be easier optically come tax time as well. Make sense?
Katie, I have none of those emojis. How do I get them?
I just copy/paste them.
🟧 - are there plans afoot to promote little or new stacks? I would love, for instance, to receive a 'Substack Reads' featuring smaller & new substacks so that they get their chance in the spotlight. Many of the Substack Kings & Queens dominate, making it hard to discover brilliant new writers with a small following. As with every platform, it's getting more challenging to sift through the noise as those that already have big platforms are always front and centre. Not that I don't love what they do! many thanks, Lucy
Many have asked this, and I am among the people who asked. I hope they'll do a 'Substack Reads' in that direction or change the settings of the 'explore' page with categories for newcomers and writers under 1000 followers.
Oh I like the idea of an explore page with categories allowing searches for us smaller fish!! Brilliant, Emmanuelle!
Glad you like the idea Holly! Hope the Substack team will hear us!
Spotlight for the one with under 1000 subscribers is a great idea!
I really don’t know why they haven’t done it already. It’s pretty basic stuff, really
Such a great idea!
Great ideas.
We actually do make sure that a good chunk of lot of slots of Substack Reads are writers with smaller lists, and we avoid featuring writers multiple times to spread the love. But I hear you, and I'll make sure the team sees this and has the nudge to consider how we might do more.
And just as a reminder, writers collaborating with each other to grow (recommendations, cross-posts, notes) are a way more sustainable and powerful growth path than features from our team.
I appreciate this, Bailey. I will share that when I started writing on Medium (three years ago), I feel like I got a lot more attention from editors there early on, which really helped me to attract an initial following that then continued to build on itself. I believe that growth on Substack is more sustainable over time (followers on Medium have come to mean nothing, and the platform isn't built around email subscribers), which is why I launched a newsletter here about six months ago. I really appreciate Substack, but as I noted in a comment below, there's kind of a "cool kids" vibe that I've found intimidating, and the editors here seem to be less proactive about discovering and promoting new talent. Maybe I'm being impatient, but that's just my take as a relative newbie!
I hear you on that, noting the "cool kids" vibe. I've had a Substack since late January / early February, and there was about a three-month stretch where I found myself getting pretty frustrated by it. I've since been trying to reframe, and just focus on the work but it can be tricky sometimes.
I want to jump in and say I’ve had similar experiences. Been here for several months and not sure how to connect to a larger audience outside of my own social media channels.
See if there is one in your city.
Sing in to substack 703
I agree wholeheartedly. There is an insider and outsider feel to this where there does seem to be manipulation through the delivery, as I am getting 1 in 5 posts on two identities that are subscribed compared to my own identity I write under. Delivery is suspect.
This gets brought up ever week in office hours but I don't see it happening in real life. I see tons of "Welcome to Substack!" for big name people who bring in thousands of their own subs. But not for people who are starting from zero. Seems a little out of balance and as someone else said, a "cool kids" club.
100%. Every week. Yet to see “Welcome to Substack (little known writers)”. Seems obvious to me that writers switching platforms with thousands of subscribers don’t need a shout out.
I made peace with the capitalist economy. While they don't need the shout-out they bring more money to the platform. It's self perpetuating. If your work is good it will grow, maybe slowly but I see that as a positive to have time to be thoughtful.
Would still love to be featured on Substack Reads !
After 700 plus posts, some well over ordinary fair, even short books, and coming with 14,000 followers to see it drop to 9500 since moving here three years ago. I have published nearly 6 million words or more, Grammerly says 9,750,000 words checked, but not once a notice or feature, even a note of achievement other than the standard notice wii get. Pictures, How to, creating houses out of salvage, villages out of people with skills and intentions to create a better world. Solutions versus conflict and it appears, Wii become invisible here too. Time to find new soil to plant words in... ideas may flourish with good light.
Yes, but how do I find writers on substack publishing on similar subjects? There's no directory, and it would be easy to build. All you'd have to do is ask substack writers a few questions and a massive searchable database would be created within a month.
Thanks Bailey! One category that could really use some love promoting smaller accounts is Science; about half of the top ten on the leaderboard are very popular anti-vaxx and misinformation publications. Controversy and angry posts definitely attract more engagement compared to well-written and thoughtful science and medical journalism by experts. I would be happy to provide a list of some great accounts to promote (besides myself, obviously 😝)
Many thanks for youre reply Bailey — I will also push harder on the other growth tools such as recommendations, notes, cross-posts etc.
I love this idea. I'm still new-ish to Substack and there's definitely a "popular kids" vibe to it that's a little intimidating!
I think there has to be a popular kids vibe because SubStack needs to make money. So they have to promote the big kids to make people want to come here. We have to learn enough tech to make their search engine find us, I guess. I am leaning towards the alternative search and social routes, because Google can wipe a person out in a day or less. Relying on a single platform and single engine is not the best way to grow. Getting subscribers is a LOT of work, and a commitment to learn tech and media is required..... so I am studying hard.
Something that tends to be forgotten (or not noticed) is that the popular kids sort of pave the way for the rest of us; they don't actually take attention away. I have noticed that I get subscriptions from complete strangers who are already subscribed to Substacks by more famous writers, while close friends who don't know about Substack won't even support me in that way. So I conclude that the popular kids draw new readers to platform, which in turn gets them accustomed to Substack and makes it more likely that they'll subscribe to more Substacks.
I agree. I also have received subscriptions from those who read and comment on those with rather large followings on Substack. I am gratified to occasionally see, for example, that a person subscribes to Robert Reich's substack and to mine!
But this only works if you're subscribed to the popular ones and actively engaging with them. I'm not interested in most of the big ones, they just don't write what I want to read. This is not a complaint, just saying.
I think you're off to the side of my point. If you can find readers of other Substack writers through means other than interacting with their blogs, they're more likely to subscribe to you than people who don't know about Substack at all. The fact that there are famous writers who have drawn them here purely through their personal following works to your advantage because they're already comfortable with the platform.
Good point, and well said.
Truth! Most people usually need some "established" reason to try the new platform. Adding new subscriptions is easy once they get on board.
It's typical / normal that the people close to you won't sign up. They see you personally, and can't see you professionally. That happens to everyone, no matter the profession...
YES - and my little Procrastinator Monkey 🙈 and Impatient Monkey 🙈 HATES all the time it takes to learn new systems! My heart gets happy when I'm willing...
I need to study too! I keep putting it off:( sabrinalabow.substack.com
I get that too; does seem to be a clickish dynamic. On the other hand, I’ve found that the popular kids here are actually pretty approachable, relative to other platforms. I do get friendly engagement from popular authors on the various goofy comments I scatter around here, and I think that speaks more to the good attitude of the writers than to my commenting talents or lack thereof.
Yes I hear you there
So I say we start an “unpopular kids” grow and go head on. We start by subscribing to one another’s stack and then promote only the unpopular posts. Who’s with me?
Clique with the un-clique clique.
Omg--yes! Feels like high school sometimes! 🫤
Yes. Many have asked for this. It’s a good idea. Maybe feature writers with 1,000 or less subs
1,000 subscribers still seems like a pipe dream at this stage!
We will get there. Engaging with others and Notes, Notes, Notes! It's really great! It's gotten me the most new subscribers. sabrinalabow.substack.com
I am 3 years in and I only have 450 subscribers. Marketing always fall on the creator.
I don’t see Notes as an option! How do I access it?
Notes is available in the app. Everyone has use of it inside the app and it really is fantastic for engagement and bringing in new readers.
Is that the same section as home- explore/following?
It should be on your navigation bar on your home page OR if you click on your little profile image (top right) and hit home, it'll take you to an explore page. Those are notes.
Agreed — but we will get there!
I hope so! I was happy when I got to three digits, honestly. And even now I find it strange and a little uncomfortable to self-promote (especially since I don't really use social media) so I've resigned myself to residing in my tiny corner of the internet.
I'm in the same place, Jen. I.m gradually weaning myself off of social media for the promises of being discovered on Substack without having to do a ton of self promotion. I was burned out doing self promotion for my former business practice on social media. Now that I've been here for about six months, I'm seeing greater headwinds than I imagined, and there're people who give expert advice about growing your audience outside of Substack, even using paid advertisements. This is actually the opposite of what I wanted to do. I need help!
And there is nothing wrong with that! I write for fun but it would be nice to make money. I just turned on the option for paid. I'm lucky to have another job to make money but it would be nice to do this full time. I'm getting more and more subscribers by interacting with all of you and with Notes. Just keep writing. If you build it they will come even if "they" aren't en masse! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Glad I'm not alone...
No estas sola, aquí en el otro lado del mundo también me gustaria que sepan de mi!!!!
Yes, may I suggest one Substack Reads featuring posts from those newsletters with less than 1000 subscribers...
That’s a good idea. And with basic info deets - what your substack is about. It would also be helpful if these sun stacks were organised into categories - food, travel, space, current affairs etc
They don't feature us with much more either if they do not like our content of empowerment it appears. Been here for years. 9,000,000 words published on here, yet crickets. There is a click, paid for with big dollars, and then there is us... the writers self paid and promoted by us alone it appears. Sad, but I think there is a problem as many of my followers do not get all my posts. Some only 1/5 of them. Never have I been contacted or appreciated except their weekly counts of words and scores. Great for their paid for stars I guess.
I’d also like Notes to go back to being less algorithm-y. I see the same posts everyday and know I’m missing a lot from the folks I follow and vice versa!
Substack does make writers “feature publications.” And they do this to publications of all sizes. It happened to my non-fiction publication about 8 months after launch. I was pretty small. I think the reason they tend not to do it for BRAND NEW writers is because most newsletters fold within 3 months of launch. They probably want to be sure you won’t fizzle out
Good point, Cole, and I agree. In my case, I've been publishing quite steadily for over 2 years, so I hope I appear unlikely to fold! I'd also love to be able to add one of those "Featured Publication" badges to all of my newsletter outreach :-)
I hope you get picked, Joan :)
Thanks Nathan!
I wish I could tell you what got me picked.
This has been asked many times. I would love to see this for my stack (obviously) and many others I subscribe to.
I too would vote for this. Both as an avid reader and as someone with a smaller following so far.
🟧Maybe they could do some sort of contest where we could vote on smaller and newer substacks. sabrinalabow.substack.com
This is a really good idea!
Looking forward to checking out your stack as I see it's all about creativity!
Definitely would love to see that from Substack.
I do a digest every Friday of awesome writing here that's all related to my niche of art and mental health ... I do include bigger writers but I also include lots of small stacks. I love that we can all co-exist side by side in that way, sharing our wisdom.
Following you! YAY 🙌🏽 Art & mental health are such good partners. (that's my world too - Creative Healing).
<3 <3 <3
Yes many have asked for this previously. I hope so too.
I support this! Great request Lucy.
So true about the Kings and Queens and those coming to Substack with substantial followings already.
Substack paid for, bought writers rather than promote us, the writers who have written millions of words. Not sure how this is supposed to help except for their chosen people they pay to bring. The problems and loss of subscribers by coming here is troubling and the repeated failure to deliver to the followers is troubling as I have two ID followers who are not getting but a fifth of the output. My concerns are for the the promotion of their paid writers over those of us who helped them get up and running. Its about time to move on if the admin is just here to promote their favorites.
Agree on this! Also a Spotify type playlist like "New Music Friday" that showcases some new substack writers and their publications.
Agree. Love this idea!
The key to gaining consistent subscribers I’ve found is:
1. Write quality material and post regularly but not too often (I recommend 1-3 times per week)
2. Read other Stacks and leave comments on their posts
3. RESTACK other writers’ work and add a personal note
4. Use Notes to help attract attention but don’t post Notes constantly
5. Figure out your audience and what’s original/unique about your writing
6. Be patient
7. Don’t come off as desperate for growth. Self-promote but with thoughtfulness
My piece on the purpose of Substack: https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/what-is-the-point-of-substack-making
Michael Mohr
Sincere American Writing
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
You don't think 1–3 times a week isn't too often? That seems like heaps!
I think it can work if it's in different sections. For myself, for example, I do the following:
1. Post on Monday --for everyone
2. Post every other Wednesday -- a letter exchange with @rebecca holden -- for everyone
3. Post on Friday for paid subscribers
4. Post on Sunday for everyone
Plus occasional extra posts
Thus it's mainly 2 posts each week for most people, and 3 every other week. They're all in different sections, so people can switch off the ones they are not interested in
That makes sense. I post roughly fortnightly, because I didn't want to bombard people with emails and I was worried about not having enough to write about if I posted more frequently.
I understand, although I should have thought that writing about food and children would always present possible articles!
I used to write for Book Riot, and back then I had to submit two articles a month. I always had a list of ideas for future articles because of the fear of not being able to meet a deadline. Now with Substack, I don't have a boss, only my own self-imposed 'write something every two weeks' goal that I've publicly stated — but the same fear of running out of ideas remains. I still have a list of ideas for future Substack posts :)
I also didn't want subscribers to think, 'Not her again! Didn't she *just* email me?' and then not click on the emails...
All of that makes sense, apart from the last para. I shall have a look at yours, but I know there are some newsletters that I open straight away because I like their stuff. I think maybe you could experiment with a sort of bonus post every so often in a week that you're not writing, if you see what I mean
Terry, I am so impressed with your regular posts and while I can’t read them all, I love the ones I read! As someone who is at times struggling to find tine to post weekly, I was wondering how many hours a day do you dedicate to writing? Do you have pipeline of posts you plan in advance and then publish them at a certain cadence?
Oh thanks, Anu, that's very kind of you. Now, about these posts that you DON'T read. You do save them, right? 🙃 I shall answer your questions in a post I think, and send you the link if that is ok with you.
Sounds good! I don’t have time in the day to read all I want to, but I hope to read ALL of your posts;)
Thanks, Anu. I like yours too, but I just realised I haven't been seeing them for a while, even though you've obviously been posting. Sorry. I have catching up to do.
He's trying to say he 'writes A LOT'. I am duly impressed.
LOL. I love writing. I even write without publishing sometimes. Chortle!
I post once a week and that's been working pretty well. I think even more important than how often you post is making sure you're consistent to the point readers know when to expect an email from you. If your readers expect to receive a post from you twice a week, then they won't feel annoyed when they see your newsletter pop up in their inbox. But if you post irregularly this might catch them off guard cause they won't know what to expect from you. Hope this helps. :)
Yeah, I've been pretty consistently posting about once a fortnight. Sometimes it's been 17 days between posts, and sometimes 11. Which is why I say in my subscribe button that I write 'every two weeks-ish'. I like the flexibility the 'ish' provides.
Absolutely true! You definitely don't want someone to be annoyed at getting too many emails from you. It's just that we are all so busy. I have 4,000 unread emails--mostly junk--in my inbox. It's never-ending. Just when I clear them they start piling up again. It's why I think it's really important to have a good visual and great title for your posts. sabrinalabow.substack.com
I think expectations and follow through are everything. I have some newsletters (not all from Substack) that only arrive once a month, others once a day. The material is different, and I must admit that I'm more apt to delete the dailies without opening because I just can't take it all in some days. Different approaches for different folxes. 😆 I've settled on once a week and, unless pre-planned, I haven't skipped a week since I launched close to 2 years ago. I also didn't open paid subscriptions until after the first year, to be sure I and my readers knew what we were signing up for.
https://elizabethbeggins.substack.com/
1-2 times a week is ideal I think. But it spans the spectrum. Look at Jimmy Doom (every day) or Kathy Fish (every 4-6 weeks)
I think it depends on what format you use, what you write about and whether you post short or long. I try for twice/week, but most of them are fairly brief (4 minute read, according to Substack).
Some do write that often but I cannot seem to find the time to read three posts though but others may enjoy frequency so I think it depends.
Good list, Michael. Funnily enoughh I bookmarked your article about ten minutes ago.
I just cut and pasted your ideas which are fantastic! I think 1-2 times per week to post but I think Notes you could do every day. It's where I have gotten most of my subscriber growth. sabrinalabow.substack.com
Great tips, I appreciate it.
Thx Michael. 🙏
Excellent
Michael's comments are thoughtful. #4 I find too much Notes is hard when the feed is filled with the same stuff as someone in their network already posted which means I see the same post multiple times or people posting about how many subscribers they have. I can only consume small doses.
🟧 Hi Katie, I'm going to ask one more time for a category called 'Creative Nonfiction'. I see you have a 'Fiction' category, so why not non-fiction? Corralling us under 'Culture' just isn't working. That category is way too broad.
We creative nonfiction writers talk about ideas and problems specific to the unique ways we write and it would be great if we could find each other more easily.
Surely there's room for one more category? Thanks for any help.
Yes, this please!
Great idea, Ramona
Oh, that would be a great category. I'd join it! :)
Oh, I couldn't agree more! Creative Non-Fiction is a writing genre as legitimate as fiction, and in fact, is the style in which most major newspapers write their analysis pieces. The New York Times and the Times Magazine regularly provide great examples of creative non-fiction writing
Yes! It's the stuff of advanced degrees, as well. It's so legit it needs its own Substack category.
@Substack
Yes! I was fortunate to take a writing workshop on Creative Non-fiction from a quite famous writer in the genre, and she was the head of a masters program in CNF at a pretty major college.
I have been writing that, and more but they have a problem with such and thus do not give it attention. They have a leaning toward some things and away from empowerment. Creative Non-Fiction can mess up the distract and destabilize, weaken with whining principles of discordance that may be problem on this admin of site.
Me 3!...er, 30! And, counting. I remember wrestling so much with category selection when I first launched.
Culture?
🤔
Culture? ::scrolls through the list of options again::
🫤
Culture...
😶
There are multiple sub-categories for Politics, plus Art & Illustration as well as Design, but Culture is the closest best option for those of us who are, more or less, generalists. I guess, when it comes right down to it, many of the pre-populated categories are, in fact, components of culture. But, for those of us who don't specialize in one area, Culture feels too broad. In truth, I suppose the same could be said for Creative Non-Fiction. I wonder if Culture & Lifestyle would allow more of us to be seen? Or the other way around (Lifestyle & Culture)?
Tricky to put labels on those of us who prefer to exist outside of them.
How about 'Personal Essays'? That would take in a whole lot of territory while still defining a kind of niche. 'Culture and Lifestyle' would cover one of my Substacks perfectly, but my Sub on writing needs more definition.
It is tricky!
Another great category option, Ramona!
Now that you mention it, Writing deserves its own category, for heaven's sake, as does Poetry!
Does Personal Essays sound sufficiently inviting, or does it sound like navel gazing? I'm really digging in here, I know, but I'd love to find a word/term that really sings. (not that Substack will necessarily agree). I did a little Googling and see that both "Life" and "Life Lessons" are very popular tags on another platform. I think those have potential!
I thinkI’m still partial to ‘creative nonfiction’. It would appeal to both writers and readers.
Culture and Lifestyle should be separated, too. They make no sense together.
Well, one thing's certain: Quite a few of us feel we'd benefit from one or more new categories!
I also would like more categories, especially 'Creative Nonfiction', as my writings don't clearly fit into existing categories.
Yes, to a Creative Nonfiction category. Cool idea.
Would definitely like to see that.
This is a great idea, and I am all for it.
YES! I write memoir based on my teenage diaries and would love to be in a creative non-fic category
Agreed!!
Cosign!!!
🧠 Sometimes I put a lot of work into a story I'm passionate about, and when I release it out into the world, I hear nothing but crickets. I'm sure we've all been there! This was the case with a recent story, "The Most Radical Act of Resistance is To Take Back Our Time," which talked about the increasing pressures my partner has been under at work, leading him to collapse on the job and get approved for 14 weeks under the FLMA. His job informed him that he would be transferred to a different office upon his return and made it clear that his job security was tenuous, at best.
I was so disappointed by the general lack of response to the story, until... his supervisor stumbled across it. Long story short, my partner recently received an email from HR that informed him he could extend his leave if he'd like and return to work at the same office, or if he wanted to part ways (which he does), they would give him a generous severance package, a positive recommendation, and wouldn't contest unemployment benefits.
It just goes to show that you never know who you'll reach when you put something out into the world. This story that initially seemed to make no waves ultimately netted us $30,000 and at least a tiny bit of faith that sometimes there is justice in this world!
EVERY writer hears the sound of crickets at some point. It's usually when you post a piece that you have truly high expectations for. Keep writing. Keep posting. Consistency and dedication to the craft is all we have.
This just happened to me this week! I put a lot of heart and soul into a letter I thought was timely and relevant and hardly any response at all. I wonder if expectations has something to do with it...🧐
Isn't it always our expectations that quietly erode the moorings of our ability to be present and happy?
Yes, couldn't have said it better myself! It's that bit about releasing control that always trips me up :)
Yeah, that silly control thing...:-)
Agreed! Plus images and video is really important! sabrinalabow.substack.com
As long as you are passionate about your work and keep publishing it will inevitably yield results!
Kerala!! Wow, this is such a great story. I'm so very glad to hear that this happened on so many levels. Thank you for sharing.
And yeah, those crickets can sure be loud! May we turn them into the song we write to. ;o) Or something like that.
Whoa! That's so cool!
That's excellent! It says something about the quality of what you wrote. It also says something about the reach and searchability of the platform.
Awesome!! And yes: Sometimes you just don’t get much response. Keep writing.
I'm glad this happened for you and your partner!
Love this so hard. 💗 so happy for you both. Sounds like a IRL Substack success story! Perhaps write this as a post and share with Substack...?
I actually had every intention of doing that, but his company explicitly stipulated that we (meaning me!) wouldn't write anything else about them, even though I never mentioned them by name. That's what made me realize how scared they are getting into legal trouble, which made me think we probably *should* sue them, but alas, neither of us have the energy.
Kerala, I've definitely been in the "crickets" category, and mostly I wish I didn't care. But, holy smokes, what a fabulous reminder that it's not always the quantity but the quality of the impact we make. We don't always get to know what that is, but I'm thrilled, on your behalf, that this time it was so obvious!
I get so mad that I care! I always tell myself I'll be zen about it, then find myself obsessively checking my notifications.
I’ll just say me too! I did a travel post on Essaouira, Morocco that I marinated for a while. It got some responses but not as much as I had expected. Great to hear about your husband. All the best to you both.
Wow, Kerala, thank you for sharing your story. I'm so sorry to hear that your partner went through such a tough time at work! But what a miracle that his supervisor stumbled upon your article! Very glad that it made such a great impact and I wish your partner a solid recovery back to health.
Dang, I was about to say hire an attorney... but it looks like your writing saved the day! Nice work, and I'm wishing your partner a restful recovery.
Yeah, I initially hoped that HR reached out because they felt bad, but I'm quite sure it's because they were worried we would be advised by a lawyer to sue. Either way though, I'm not going to complain about the outcome!
As someone who has been through the discrimination lawsuit circus (got sexually harassed and then punished for reporting said harassment), I would tell you that HR is never, ever reaching out because they feel bad lol. But yeah, it sounds like you had the very best outcome possible!
OMG that's such an uplifting story! How did they come across your post? sabrinalabow.substack.com
🟧 Posting again because I believe this would be super beneficial for fiction writers of Substack!
One thing I’d LOVE to be able to do is put up a “free wall” which would work just like a pay wall, except instead of preventing all but paid subscribers from reading a post, it would prevent anyone who is not a subscriber at all from reading a post.
This would be great for fiction writers who want to keep certain content exclusive to actual subscribers as opposed to making everything that’s not behind a paywall available to anyone on the internet.
Please add this feature, Substack team!!
I like this idea of knowing who is reading it: atleast getting subs from reads. I think you can do something like make it private so you have to subscribe to read a little like instagram private accounts but its on all whereas would be nice on some
Posts
Yes please! I've been wanting something like this too... a way to reward subscribers (eg with more private / insider-y content).
+1 to this!
I have also asked for this
This is an interesting idea, Alexa. Supporting this.
Also curious how something like that might help protect content from AI mining..
+1!
Great suggestion. I have caught myself thinking this would be great a few times myself!
Interesting idea. I'm not sure that I would use it, but I would probably at least experiment with it. At the least, it would give us more flexibility over allowing access, which would be good.
This would very likely help the non-fiction, nerd power too.
I've been asking for this for 2+ years and they haven't added it yet. I hope they listen to the writers and give us this eventually.
I agree! 🤞
Imo this damages the quality of the email ecosystem Substack has amassed. I have a throw away account specifically for the purpose of popping into sites that demand an email address. I never check it. Too many of them will clog up your email list and harm your open rate.
That is exactly what I imagine writers could avoid with a system like I mentioned. I don’t want people to subscribe just to read a little bit in order to determine whether they want to stay Subscribed. The option to make posts available to all or just to subscribers would allow us to choose which pieces to make available for the public (therefore providing the content with which to decide if a subscription is worth your time) and keep the rest exclusive for those who make that commitment. It is better than just sending emails to our subscribers in order to keep content private, because we would also get to provide our subscribers with the organized database of content to refer to for navigation, as well as the app.
Also, with a "free paywall" like you've described, we can place it anywhere we want. Never would someone be "forced" to subscribe just to access the page. They could still go to the home page, look through available article titles, read any preview content, or read completely free content to decide if they want to subscribe. They would just have to subscribe if they want access to the paywalled content. Authors (I would hope) would leave enough "free to everyone" content that someone new could decide whether they want to subscribe. For example, I write Bible studies that span multiple weeks. I would have the overview post and the first lesson as free to everyone, but the subsequent lessons would have a "free paywall."
Precisely! 🤓💃🏻🤞
🟧 I think this is a great idea! Are you listening, Substack?
No, they will not. I have three years, 700 plus articles, 6 million words published, and lost thousands of followers i came with due to issues. Furthermore, surprising me, delivery is extremely inconsistent to some addresses, one in five getting to my following addresses.
Fab idea.
Not a bad idea!
🟧 I would really like to see which words people googled for in Traffic sources, to know how they found my Substack.
You can do that through Google Search Console. :D It's free.
Thanks so much, just connected my Substack to Google Search Console. I'm looking forward to using it.
My top search at the moment is for book reviews "written" by AI. I have to say I found that surprising
That's interesting Terry! Mine was hemp insulation (so boring) but the word "weed" was also in the title.
LOL
Wow, I had no idea about this. Thanks!!
How do we do this? I'd be interested in this too.
Substack has an excellent article on this.
Oh, thanks.
First verify your Substack URL on there, then you'll have access through that "Performance" tab on the left. It's possible there's a better way, but this is the only way I'm aware of.
Thanks again! 🤩
Any tips how to verify my Substack URL? Is there a way to add the Google Search Console link to my Substack on the backend?
Yeah! Grab the code from Google Search Console, then paste it into your Substack Settings. :)
Thanks! Do I paste it into the google analytics measurement ID? The google tag manager ID? Or am I on the wrong tab entirely
I just did it via the DNS option.
Sure thing! It took me a while to figure that out.
This is one of the reasons I love office hours! Thanks, Beth and Björn, for pointing me to a thing I didn't even know was a thing. :) About to take my first foray into Google Search Console!
Have fun! I love nerding out on SEO. It's so fun to see how people find us!
Rabbit hole, here I come. ;0)
Total rabbit hole that I must go down! I just keep putting it off and write new notes and new posts because the tech stuff sucks. But I will do it! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Hey holly if you didn’t manage to sort it I have a guide at:
https://boodsy.substack.com/p/get-your-substack-on-google-search-console
I should have known you'd have the guide. ;)
Thank you, Boodsy!!
I am going to ask AI what its suggestions are. I'll report back to headquarters:) sabrinalabow.substack.com
I am going to connect it to Google Console right away. Thank you! Do people know how we can leverage that data once we have it?
You may want to edit your question and add the 🟧 icon so Substack team can answer how to sort it out. ;)
From John R Pattison: I do not know the basics. A ) how to post a story
B) what becomes of my story C) how can I see the story
Here’s an article to help you! https://on.substack.com/p/start-basics
Yes, and some general tips on 'how to SEO' would be great too.
Sarah Fay's Writer's at Work has an excellent workshop covering the topic:
https://www.writersatwork.net/p/replay-get-discovered-on-substack?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Thank you Beth! I'll check it out!
Hey Jenny I have a free guide you can check out, if you get stuck:
https://boodsy.substack.com/p/the-essential-guide-to-substack-seo
Thanks to the substack geniuses who created the promos created from quotes from paid subscribers about why they are subscribing. I post them on Instagram and Facebook. I am convinced that they have been responsible for an impressive boost in my numbers. Thank you so much.
They are so great aren't they!?
Yes they are!
Yay! That's awesome. Thanks for sharing, David. I should have come here before posting my own question. Which is this. How do I "turn on" the prompt that asks paid subscribers why they are subscribing?
The feature that prompts paying subscribers for "why" is automatic, since about one month ago. Substack rolled it out without fanfare. My VA picked it up in the notification emails, since I don't read notifications normally.
Oh, interesting. Thanks, Karen.
I'd like to know, too. I didn't know this existed.
Great idea to post on social media.
Oh my gosh, it's one of the best Substack features.
Agree! I used to make them manually with Canva and agree they are great marketing tools. It's lovely that Substack now makes them for me!
As with a lot of bells and whistles, I seem to have missed the memo on this. Would you mind sharing more information about how this works? Or maybe Substack has its own link somewhere?
🟧 Does anyone know if it's possible to see stats for Welcome emails?
I recently updated my welcome emails from a simple "Welcome, thank you for subscribing" to something a little longer. The revised version includes some posts people might want to start with, and an invitation to share the newsletter. I'd like to know if anyone is clicking these links, and if so which ones people are responding to the most.
Today it's not possible but I see how that could be helpful. I am flagging with team for consideration.
Thanks!
I haven't looked at my "Welcome" email for some time now. I tend to update my "about" page more, because when I finish something and add it to my page, I want anyone dropping by, to see it.
I update mine every so often, Ben. I think it's a good thing to do, to keep it fresh
I think About pages are important, but not everyone reads them. Almost every new subscriber sees a welcome email, though.
That's part of why I would expect to see stats available for it. It's such an important part of onboarding, it would be good to know what's resonating with new people and what isn't.
That is an excellent idea!
Right after substack hours is over I am going to get into it. I don't know why I keep resisting going to settings but I'm doing it today! I keep mentioning Notes because every time I post, I get more subscribers! sabrinalabow.substack.com
I love the idea of adding links to published articles the Welcome Email — will pinch that one if you don't mind :)
It's helpful to add them as I noticed if you set expectations at the beginning, people signing on don't unsubscribe later because everything wasn't like the first post they read.
I've wondered about this too. You can see clicks on links in individual posts so it would be great to see it in the welcome email too.
I’ve wondered about this also.
Thank you for the reminder to make sure my welcome email is decent. 😁
I haven't even looked at mine since I started but will today! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Oh what a great idea to include some post links, may do this myself. Thanks for the idea 😊
+1 on this!
Great question. Following.
I completely forgot the existence of the welcome email. I wonder if anyone *does* read it... Hmm.
Jen, in my experience a very high number of people read my welcome emails... I can tell because I ask people to reply and I get a good volume of replies.
They are a fabulous place to build trust with readers, and if you ask for replies they are great for getting to know more about them too.
What has been everyone's experience with taking breaks? After writing nearly weekly for about six months, I've paused posting new content as I'm drowning in work/family/school stuff.
Still getting new subscribers, so people are finding me, but I guess I have a fear about when I start back up again that my readership and open rate will tank.
Am I overthinking this? Any one have any experience here?
I think taking breaks is healthy as long as they're not too long. One way to take a break is to reprint something you've written before that your new audience may not have read. I do this fairly often, not necessarily to take a break but to let new light shine on a piece I don't want to stay hidden. But it has the same effect: I'm not stewing about what I'm going to write next.
Such a good idea!
Agree!
What 👆she said (@Ramona). I'll just add that unless it's unavoidable (and let's face it, sometimes life is) I think it's best to announce total breaks ahead of time. If you have been posting to a consistent schedule and then evaporate, I might be a little put off, especially if I'm a paying subscriber. But that may also be publication-specific. I received a post today from someone who disappeared for a bit, and I was happy to open and read their words again. Some writers just share a simple sentence or two and a photo.
Yes, it's nice when someone I subscribe to takes the time to explain why they'll be gone for a bit. And it's equally nice when they think to check in now and then, even if, as you say, it's just a line or two or a picture.
Such a simple thing but it feels personal.
How do you reprint it? I don’t think you can resend an old post, unless I’m mistaken. I’ve occasionally done a rest and revisit post which has links to 2-3 old posts I thought deserved more attention, but I’d love to know how you do it
I've had several blogs before Substack going back some 15 years so I have a lot to choose from! I just copy and paste the body of the blog and write a quick explanation at the top, telling where it came from, when it was published (usually with a link) and why I want my readers to read it now.
There's gold in them thar oldies!
That makes sense. Thank you for sharing. And I just subscribed as your Stack looks great
She's the bee's knees! 😁
Thank you!
At around 7 months I both took my first break and reevaluated my posting schedule. I went from every week to twice a month, and even opened up some guest posts from other writers to give me a break.
I didn't see my numbers tank. Maybe there was a small dip, but not like I was afraid of.
Consider continuing to post but just slowing down. Do posts less often. Schedule some ahead.
If you “wake up” your email list after a dormant period, always expect a bit higher churn. I think people are so bombarded though, they may not have even realized you were on hiatus
That's true re: bombardment. The best is when someone asks when will your next post be coming:) sabrinalabow.substack.com
I think we have to create a cultural expectation here on Substack to support each other in taking offline time. I’d be transparent about it- both when “pausing” and “returning” and honestly, I’d probably pay attention more if I knew you’d come back from a holiday or needed to take leave for personal reasons because I believe we all need to and you’ll probably have fresh ideas/lessons to share!
I’m planning on taking off quite a bit of time during the holidays and have toyed with making a “Best of” post and pinning it so readers have easy access to some of my favorite letters.
When I took a month of in July my subs actually went up because I was engaging more since I wasn’t writing my own letters and had more time to thoughtfully consume here on Substack.
I’d say honor your capacity/limits and build trust with your community and see what happens!
Maybe tweak your content calendar a bit? Come up with something that’s easier to write right now and pick up your normal content later? I have a content calendar that alternates between quick easy to write articles and longer form so that I can sustain whether I’m busy or not because my schedule can get unpredictable.
I was wondering if I had just been missing new posts from you! I have a huge fear of taking breaks and becoming suddenly irrelevant. BUT I suspect my fears are overblown. Consistency is important but I think it's more important to have the time and headspace to create quality content and not just churn something out for the sake of putting something out there.
I'm a little bit in the middle of this—I've just been unable to dedicate time to publishing recently, but I intend to get back to it soon. I imagine I'll lose some subscribers, but the people who really want to stick around and who will actually open the emails and read it won't, and that's what's most important imho.
I agree with you. The first time I took a break I was too stressed but the second time, I let subscribers know which I believe was helpful.
Breaks really depends on your audience and promise. In my paid newsletter, people are handing over cold hard cash for weekly industry news updates, so it would be disrespectful to skip a week, and would undermine the trust my audience has. I don't take breaks (119 weeks so far).
On the other had, for my free newsletter (Pubstack Success), I happily skipped a week last week and honestly, I don't think anyone noticed.
Some Substack creators spend too much time telling their readers about their newsletter creation process... scheduling, breaks, excuses for why this post is short or why today's post was a day late or why they didn't post last week...
My advice is: No one cares about that stuff as much as you do, so don't waste your reader's precious inbox time talking about it. Acknowledge a break/pause/skip in one sentence and move on.
Bryce ... one idea is to pre-schedule posts for the duration of your break and reuse popular old posts during that period ... maybe with some updated reflection or comments for readers. Or to do some very short "I'm taking a break but here's a thought ... " ... seems like finding an easy way to maintain the consistency schedule would be good.
Taking break is not only important for me but an essential and a variable needed for all. It is as important as getting restorative sleep at night, gaining a reflective time for insight and perspective, and sustaining ones creative flow.
When I took a break due to life issues, 1-2 people unsubscribed and I just comped anyone paid for the time I missed. I probably should have planned better but sometimes when a lot of stuff happens it is stressful and you don't have time to do anything but deal with the fires. In the end,I don't think any of this matters as much as your mental health and wellbeing.
I think no breaks. If you post once a week and skip a week ok. Also, you can always make a post brief. It's like working out. Just keep being consistent and the results will follow. That's my two cents. sabrinalabow.substack.com
I took about 6 weeks off while I was traveling recently. I don't think it's had any major impact, except that I found it hard to get into my rhythm again for a while when I came back!
Some writers I know work a pause into their subscription offering and mention it in their About Page. For example, state upfront that you write 10 or 11 months per year but take one month (or two, if you prefer) off. I think this is a reasonable approach. I stepped away for 6 weeks last year while traveling, and mentioned it in advance to my subscribers. I didn't lose anyone during that period and picked up a net gain in free subscribers...but nothing in terms of paid customers. I will be updating my About Page soon to reflect my publishing schedule for 2024, which will have some built-in time off.
🧠 - Add a Directory of Posts to your Substack
Hey Substack writers, I'm sharing an example of how I organize posts via a directory page. See here: https://alyssapolizzi.substack.com/p/directory
If you're interested in utilizing tags, this is a great way to make them accessible for readers. I have a select number of categories (tags) that I usually write under. Each time I publish a new post, I'll add the relevant tags and the directory is updated automatically. The directory functions as a convenient landing page, facilitating easier post navigation compared to the search feature. I also suggest including brief descriptions for each category.
I've received great feedback from readers on how useful the directory is. Let me know if you have any questions on setup, etc.
It's great to see examples of this! I was debating doing something similar but then opted to add the tags as categories as you scroll down the page (https://julievick.substack.com/) but I only had 3 distinct categories right now, I could see if you have multiple ones done more of a list directory like yours being good.
Oh interesting, what settings allows you add these categories on the homepage?
You have go to in to the edit theme settings and then add the tags or sections you want to under "groups" -- there are some directions toward the end of the page here: https://on.substack.com/p/guide-website-customization-organization
Thank you!!
this is great. I've been meaning to do something like this. Thanks for sharing.
You're welcome!
I do something similar, except I call it an Index. https://www.groundedinthebible.com/p/master-index I'm sure there are lots of good options to help readers navigate your work more easily.
I don't know how helpful it is for readers, but it certainly helps me as a writer when I'm trying to find previous posts!
Agreed, I refer back to it all the time :)
This is an excellent example. Thanks for posting this!
You're welcome!
Do you feel like this has helped readers clarify "what" your newsletter is about? When I look at my newsletter it's hard for me to see a coherent theme just from the titles- even though I know I consistently write about similar topics. Maybe grouping them together would help those threads come through visually?
Just curious as to if that's been a benefit you've seen to the directory!
I do think it helps, although I try to capture what my newsletter is about in an intro sentence first. For example, here's a part of my welcome email:
"I share educational musings that weave archetypal studies and inner work with Jungian psychology via long-form writing and Divinations (audio posts). You can head over to the directory of posts and sift through the full archives on dreams, alchemy, shadow work, tarot, archetypes and more."
In the email, "directory of posts" is hyperlinked. Once they hop over to the directory, it becomes clear what I'm writing about based on the categories and the descriptions.
Alyssa I love this idea - very useful for what I write about.
✏️ Do you find that actively commenting on other substacks helps bring traffic and attention to your own work? Is it helpful to be an active member of the communities with people you hope will become your readers? P.S. Just started my Substack today!
I think, it does, but commenting should always been done with spontaneity and purpose. Not just commenting for the sake of commenting. Some people subscribed to my newsletter because they found a comment I left on another publication interesting that's why I believe comments should be conversation starters that intrigue people to make them curious about the person who wrote it.
Yes! I've especially found that restacking posts through Notes is good for this. Include a thoughtful comment on why that post was meaningful to you.
I have, yes!
Without a doubt. The amount of time you invest engaging in other's work does have a direct return on people checking out your work. It's a community here.
I must do that more. Thanks for pointing that out. I love when we get good suggestions like that. Ty. sabrinalabow.substack.com
Congrats on taking the leap, and yes, absolutely engaging with others on Substack is the KEY, imho.
1. Genuinely love engaging with and supporting other writers.
2. You might get subscribers this way but it’s hard to know.
3. Be patient. I have to remind myself of this too.
4. Restack your favorite essays on Notes. Potential subscribers want to know who you are and what inspires you.
I find commenting on substacks that are in the same niche as mine (travel, fiction) have produced good results. But I only comment when I think I have something genuinely interesting to say. If all I have to say is something bland like "Great post! Can totally relate" I don't really bother. I think commenting is a great way to introduce others to your writing voice, personality, and topics of interest, but you have to be intentional about this.
YES! The best thing a writer can do on Substack is be an active reader on Substack!
It depeds. Some do pobably check my stuff out even subscribing. Some dont. Do those that do check out comment and being active back? Some, but very very few.
Its a roller-Coaster.
yes. It's one of the best ways. Notes as well, as long as they are helpful.
Engaging with other writers on Notes increased my number of Subscribers. Notes are one of the best ways to be yourself, and expand awareness about your writing.
For sure. Office Hours too. Just like...be cool and exist is a pretty good growth strategy, as long as people know you exist.
If you are interesting.
Yes it does. But try to say something about why you have restocked or why you enjoyed the post. Substack is conversational rather than statements!
Yes. It’s massively helpful in getting engagement
yes. I've found the same.
🟧 Hi Substackians! I'm consistently delighted by the thoughtful roll out of features both in the app and on the website. I have but one tiny little feature request that I think would make a HUGE difference for folks trying to balance paywalled content with free content.
Allow the Voiceover feature to be paywalled on free posts.
That's it! For folks like me who work hard to provide high-quality audio every week, but who are still trying to build a subscriber base, it's important to have something of value to hold back for paid subscribers in every post. You can listen to my latest serial novel and judge for yourself whether the audio is a feature folks would be willing to pay for. Thanks!
https://www.catchrelease.net/p/harmony-house-episode-01
Was just talking about this exact feature! Voiceovers take a lot of extra effort. It'd be nice to have this as a paywall option while keeping the written portion free. I've just posted my first article + voiceover. Curious to see how it is received by my audience.
I think audio is invaluable for so many reasons. Beyond just the efficiency of being able to listen on the go, getting to hear a writer's voice gives a depth and dimension that the text alone cannot. Best of luck with your Substack!
I did a recent voiceover and I believe I'm going to make it a paid feature if I continue. But my only workaround I'm thinking of doing is just making an podcast into a paid one and just having it there and adding a note to the free post that upgrading to paid gets you access to the article read to you.
I'll see if that works! A bit of work, but I'm willing to do it.
I do this, Cierra. Around 5 percent of my paying subscribers listen to the paid podcast voiceovers.
Ahhh thank you for letting me know you do this! I appreciate your input!
I totally see where this could be helpful! I will share the feedback with the team.
Not to discourage you, but just to remind you that some people do a lot of their substacking on audio. I know I do. Driving and such. So turning audio 'off' for those 'readers' will mean a bunch of your stuff won't get read at all. So you might want to think about doing it only for some of your posts, so we can get some idea of how your audio sounds etc.
people who want to listen for free could still use the automatic voiceover...
Can I? First of all I know a lot of the automatic voice overs are pay wall or at least it seems like to me. I press the same button. But I only see one button at the top and so I thought you either listen to the voice that the guy did, or you listen to the automatic one.
If you provide a voiceover, the AI voice is disabled. I think there's a setting to actually disable the AI voice for all your posts. I know the button is grayed out on a number of Stacks that I subscribe to.
good point
Good point, Bowen!
I guess that will depend on how Substack implements this proposed change to the voiceover feature. I'd be fine with folks listening for free to the robot voice.
Absolutely. I give plenty of audio away for this reason. The narration and production I do for the serial novel takes time and expense so my hope is that the value will be well worth it to folks.
I think you could put an audio embed below an inline "paywall", so that the audio embed is only available to paying subscribers. Right?
You can certainly do this, but it's not the same experience at all. It does not play in the native mobile player. It's clunkier. I wouldn't want people to pay for that experience.
yeah I agree, it's not ideal at all.
Meghan Daum publishes her podcast audio as paid-only at first, and then sometimes opens them up to free subscribers after some time, or (also not ideal) publishes versions for paid
https://open.substack.com/pub/meghandaum/p/christine-emba-sex-positivity-dating-apps-men
...and free subscribers
https://open.substack.com/pub/meghandaum/p/free-what-can-a-man-do-christine-emba
Def a lot of room for improvement in Substack's paywall features, in many ways.
I like this idea.
Omg yes. I use paywalled podcast episodes as voiceovers for free posts, but it's more work to deliver.
On the other hand the paid podcasts can be streamed to subscriber's podcast apps using RSS feeds, which I don't think is possible for voiceovers.
Is there a way to see the number of people who listen to a voiceover on any given post?
Today there is not a way to see voiceover stats but I am flagging as a request to our team.
I asked about that last week and was told not yet....
I know that videos on Substack track watch time, and podcasts track opens vs plays, so the technology has to already be baked in...
Maybe add a poll at the end of your posts asking people whether they read or listened? Many of my subscribers are friends irl, so I just ask them directly if they like the audio narration, and I find that 100% of the time they do! I think you can't go wrong in offering people alternative ways of consuming your writing, especially if it saves them time. For example, I know several friends who prefer to listen to my posts during their commutes. Hope this helps. :)
✏️ Stoked to be co-hosting the first San Francisco / Bay Area Substack meetup on Dec 6! Sign up here → https://lu.ma/l08hen0k
My question for you all is... what's the most provocative / interesting question that someone has or might ask you about yourself as a writer, and about your work?
What made you start writing? What do you want to be remembered for? Who are the people you write for and are those the same people that read your work. Where have you written your best work?
sounds similar to what Russell asked below ⬇️ and, I write for everyone, and also specifically as a man, and for men, although my readers and commenters tend to be pretty evenly distributed across gender. As a relatively new writer, my best work is right here on Substack.
One piece that continues to ring my own bells is this one about my own journey not having children ➡️ https://open.substack.com/pub/bowendwelle/p/the-man-pays
What about you?
Interesting. I may have misinterpreted the comment. I thought you were asking us what provocative questions a reader could ask a writer. It's fantastic to learn a little bit about your work, thank you. I'll read your post, thank you.
I am still trying to understand whether I fit in here as I don't think of myself as a writer even though I am now writing. I had been meaning to for a while but was waiting for things to slow down but Substack made it easy to start so I started. I write for homeowners who are renovating but it seems like some of the topics are relevant to a wider audience.
why did you even bother?
to write, that is? yeah, that's a good one. My version of that is why do you write, and do you have an overall motive or goal as a writer?
at the lowest level, mine is that *I'm here to tell the truth* -- and my goal is to do something towards changing the perception of men in the world, by sharing my own story. I wrote about this here → https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/im-here-to-tell-the-truth
so, what are *you* aiming for Russell?
I've written 40+ novels, so I've already hit the aims I set and written millions of words on it. I wrote to become immortal. Now, I write to help others become immortal.
https://authorstack.substack.com/p/substackgrowth
How does immortality feel so far? How old are you in measurable years in this body, still mortal, as such things as a writer's mortality hinge on being left out of the best book burnings or hard drive wipes? If your musings were socially impactful and thus dangerous to the powers that wish ignorance to thrive, kudos to your works to disrupt the status quo crafted by the publishers of writers allowed to be published in the past.
I don't understand this comment. It's a pretty common thing to say that you want to write to achieve immortality. I don't know why you are being an asshole about it.
I'm registered and looking forward to it!
The question I get most often is how I come up with my topics. My newsletter is called stream unconsciousness. Not stream of consciousness, because it is my unconscious I am streaming. I just start talking into my phone. Also, I listen to great podcasts! I think there are people who want to write but are trepidatious. I always try to encourage. The more the merrier! sabrinalabow.substack.com
For other writers who enjoy collaborating: what are your favorite ways to do it? I've probably got about 25 pieces now where I've worked with another author here on Substack. Some were Q&A format where I tagged the writer (probably one of the least intrusive ways to get started), done full co-authored works (published on my page and on theirs), and cross-posted and had my posts cross-posted. There are probably a few other ways we've all worked together.
What do you enjoy the most, and why?
I like the 'letter exchange' where we debate a topic.... either one we mostly agree on but disagree on some specifics or how to's, or totally disagree on and do a flat out debate.
That's what @rebecca holden and I have been doing for nearly a year: https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/a-letter-to-terry-25 It's good fun, and informative
It would really be nice to have some automatic tools for it I must say.
Wot, you mean like ChatGPT??😱 😂
I love this idea. I've thrown the idea around with a few other writers, but we never ended up finding the right topic or timing. It's such a great way to add nuance around a topic.
Rebecca and I write about British things like the weather and tea, but we've recently branched out into mini reviews of the books we've been reading. https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/a-letter-to-terry-25 I've seen other people decide on a book and then discuss it. That's what @Robert Urbaschek and I are planning on doing
Thanks Terry. That's a brilliant idea. I really appreciate it
pleasure, Latham
This is a brilliant idea. Will need to find another writer to do this with me.
Von, is this like a back and forth, like an essay - response kind of thing? I write a piece, you respond to the piece, and I respond to your reply, and so on?
Substack officially calls it a 'letter exchange' I think. I have found it really helpful. And I enjoy doing them. Feel free to see if there is something we can disagree on :)
Yes. I have done several, posted one just today:
https://vonwriting.substack.com/p/the-knowledge-of-pizza-defintion
Gotcha, makes sense. I've done some of these somewhat more organically, but never in a deliberate fashion like this. Thanks!
Personally, I would love to see this done in a podcast format. If I had the ability to go full time here, I think I would introduce a monthly podcast where I either invite another writer or another friend that I know will spark some kind of meaningful or interesting conversation and record the session. It’s an organic unfolding of another person, a show don’t tell approach, where the audience get’s to spend time with us, not just read a quiz.
I've started experimenting with doing video style interviews or conversations and really love the organic nature/spontaneity of it!
Yes! I agree that would be a way cool thing to do.
I like this idea!
I wrote about it in a recent post, but these are the ones I like best. https://authorstack.substack.com/p/growth-or-something-like-it
Repurposing previously written articles - You can either do a "season of reruns" or a "season of updates" where you take your old posts and either beef them up with new information, or you comment on them with how things have changed in some way. Mike Sowden does this with Everything Is Amazing. Between seasons he will rereleases episodes from his archive, which I think is really smart.
Repurposing things you said on social media - Kathryn Vercillo blew my mind when she tagged me on a “Things I Said in Substack Notes This Week and Have More To Say About” post. This is an ingenious way to repurpose work you have already done.
Voicemails - Either record voicemails for your subscribers or get voicemails from them and do a roundup of them. Meg Conley does this on her Homeculture publication.
Best of lists - This can be compiled by somebody else, like a VA or even AI, if you give them the format. You can also just pull a bunch of quotes about a subject and line them up together, as well. Resilience, Courage, Love, whatever you want. This is also a great way to build SEO with your target audience.
Q and A - If you do take voicemails, you can use them as a Q and A segment where the audience is making most of the content except for your answer. Tara McMullin does this weekly on her Substack.
Hire a "monthly intern" or "guest editor" - Rusty Foster from Today in Tabs has a monthly intern they bring in to write articles.
Asynchronous interviews - Lots of people do asynchronous interviews, where you send a series of similar questions to people and then post their responses. Scott Neumyer does them. Gareth L. Powell does them. Jane Ratcliffe does them. Sari Botton does them.
Cross-posting - One of the easiest things you can do is to cross-post interesting articles to your audience from other Substacks. This takes almost no time, and is criminally underused. It’s a great way to beef up your publication while also promoting other people. I will usually only cross-post work that I've written, but I have been cross-posted before and it's great.
Guest posting - This takes longer if you’re the one writing it, but it’s an amazing way to get more content, especially if you have a publication with some traction.
These are great ideas. I've often done several of them on the other lists I'm running (non-substack).
What are Voicemails?
I don't understand what you are asking. I gave some examples of people who do them and I gave a description. What is not connecting so I can help you? I recommend you just go check out Meg's publication and see for yourself, but I can't explain it any clearer without you saying more things.
Whenever I hear the word Voicemails I’m drawn back to the early 80s when you could leave a Voicemail on someone’s machine. Hehe.
https://homeculture.substack.com/p/i-left-you-a-voicemail
I had no idea this feature was on Substack. Thx so much for sharing the link and taking the time to explain!! Truly appreciate it! 🙏
no entiendo bien como se hace esto, podrían alguien explicármelo brevemente? publicar desde otro newsletter?? Mil gracias!!
Russell, which of these do you enjoy the most?
I get bored quickly, so like...all of them?
For me, I hate cross-posting. I feel it removes all of the soul of a piece, but then again, it's not really supposed to be *yours* per se.
OTOH, I publish every single day, and I think that colors my view strongly.
Q&A style is by far the easiest.
I started a Funny AF Women interview feature on my Substack because comedy has always been a boys club and there are some funny af women out there. The interviews post once a month. I love supporting my fellow funny women. (Why isn’t the feminine of Fellow— Fella?)
Do you typically use Q&A format, or co-author?
I have a set of questions I email to the interviewee. She can have control over her answers that way. I owe it to @saribottom for this technique.
Sari's stuff is very good.
Thanks for posting this, Andrew! It's a reminder that I really want to dive into collaborations and figure out what that would look like / inspiration to get on it hearing it's worked well for you. I have only amorphous ideas forming just yet and look forward to seeing what others share in this thread. :)
That's great, Holly. I love it when something I say gets those creative juices flowing!
I've done blog hops, where we all write a piece on the same prompt and then link to each others' at the bottom. It's fun because if their audience click through to you, I tend to get higher traffic and some subscribers. And it is a fun way to share some love. We do this often with Exhale (a paid group) and sometimes with my writer's group. I also contribute monthly to Part-Time Poets where about ten of us each write a poem and then the issue goes out each month. We all promote it and then I get subscribers through a bigger audience. It definitely makes my writing feel more communal.
We've been doing something similar with Sci-Friday (scroll to the bottom of the piece to see other participants): https://goatfury.substack.com/p/3-sci-fi-genres-for-thinking
I just did a really fun collaboration with Keva from Your Creative Letter. We asked each other a series of questions about creativity during one week via voice notes and then put it all together to share. It turned out really cool!
Check it out here: https://open.substack.com/pub/yourcreativeletter/p/creative-chasse-croise-ep01?r=1tmjxe&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I've also done some guest posts and other interview/style collabs which are honestly my favorite. It's why I love this community. I'm open to other ideas and more collaborations so leave a comment if you're interested!
Keva is great! I liked this piece.
She's such a lovely human, and it was all her idea, I was just happy to go along for the ride!
Keva was one of the first people I connected with here on substack in a meaningful way.
She makes it really easy! One of the most genuine and wise and open-hearted people I've had the pleasure of interacting with. I keep wanting to tag her in the comments, haha!
100%. Here's the piece where she included some of my thoughts: https://yourcreativeletter.substack.com/p/do-you-miss-the-90s
Felix Purat and I just started a 7-part series where we'll go back and forth, one post by me, one post by him, etc. We'll see what kind of response we get.
Feel free to keep me posted!
Can a person be a substack writer/create a substack as an anonymous writer just until they get a following due to the personal nature of their writing?
Yes, no problem. You can call yourself anything you want.
Absolutely! You can change your profile name to anything you want and be completely anonymous. However, you might want to set up your substack under a different email, in case you have identifying markers in your personal email address.
Why not? 😊
If you’re writing about Snowden/Assange- level ITAR regulated information, an anonymous handle on Substack isn’t necessarily guaranteed to protect your privacy. But if one’s planning to write something more like a personal anecdote/confession about absolutely ruining a public stall at a Michelin Star restaurant in Pittsburgh on an unfortunate evening in one’s youth (strictly a hypothetical) and never owning up to it, as intriguing as that may be, nobody’s likely to have the time and tools to track down and dox the author of something like that. Especially since the restaurant has since changed ownership, and there were still other good stalls for customers and staff to use that evening, so it’s really not that big of a deal, in such a contrived hypothetical.
I'm sure you can. The best part about Substack is that they don't censor. That's why so many great writers from The NY Times etc. came over here. sabrinalabow.substack.com
Certainly. It's all about how you engage with your readers and what they take away from your writing.
🧠 I got my first paid subscriber!!!
I wish I would’ve been more consistent before with my newsletter but certainly this acts as a boost to my encouragement and look forward to see how Substack will help me with my dream of making a living by sharing life experiences! 😄❤️
What I’ve learned
-Don’t be shy to ask people for their email to keep in touch with them
-Be consistent with uploading
Subscribe please!!!
excellent!
Thank you Ben!!! :D
Congratulations!
Thank you!!! 😃❤️
I'm about to launch my Substack and I'm wondering if it's a best practice to manually opt-in a bunch of people whose email addresses I have, and then let whoever doesn't want to continue to unsubscribe.
I think it's not best practice. BUT I think asking to add--and how you go about doing that--is a wonderful opportunity to get people you already know jazzed to support you or at least check out what you're doing on Substack. Two things that worked well for me: (1) I reached out by email to a small group of my closest people and said straight-up, I'd love to add you. It would mean a lot if you were my first supporters. (2) I posted on my social media feeds something like, hey all, I'm about to start a Substack. DM me your email if you want me to add you as my first friends and family pre-subscribers and get posts from day one.
Good luck! Glad you're here. Substack is a wonderful place to grow as a writer and reader!
As a person who works as a branding and marketing consultant (and who has seen the ugly fallout from my clients adding folks to their email list unprompted, against my advice), I say: definitely don't do it! Holly's alternative--to email them and ask for permission to add them--is brilliant. Do that instead!
Thanks, Alexandra! Great to hear from someone in the know that I’m on the right path. 😊
So helpful. Thank you, Holly.
I'm going to come right out and say it. I don't know a lot about how to get readers. But I got on to Substack when someone sent me an email with a link to the site. I hummed and hawed about it, and finally looked into it because I was curious. I was just a random email. I was not offended. I was not angered by it. If you send an email out to a stranger, it's on them as to whether they open it or not. If you don't send it, it's already negatively impacting you. If you send it to strangers, it's NOT spamming. It's marketing. They decide whether they want to open it, or delete it. You're not being rude, or intrusive, or insensitive. THEY have to decide if they want to open it. Opening that email was the best thing I ever did. And that's the attitude you have to have if you want to find followers. If you buy ads with Facebook and try to promote something, they send out thousands of emails in the hopes that maybe 5% will open them. You can go on Fiver, or whatever it's called, and find someone who will help you market your 'stack. They do the same thing.
I would personally avoid this strategy unless they have expressed interested. Spamming is never a good way to build a brand. You want quality subscribers who will be engaged and whom you will retain. Otherwise it will be a downward spiral as people start unsubscribing. I started with 0 and hoping to grow organically through promoting my substack and publishing quality content. My two cents!
Well, in the UK and Europe this would probably contravene the data protection laws, which is why I haven't done it myself. Apart from that I don't think it's good practice unless all you're doing in effect is changing your method of sending out the emails, ie the subject matter is exactly the same. In my case it isn't, so people on mmy other lists would wonder why I've brought them over without their permission. I'm not a legal expert, by the way.
I asked for permission when I started mine. It seemed a little rude to just add a bunch of emails without consent, and I wouldn't want that done with my email. So I just texted a lot of people who I already knew to say, 'Hey, I'm doing this thing, would you be interested in reading and can I add your email to my subscriber list?'
Depends on how you got their email addresses. If for example you previously ran a newsletter that you were migrating to Substack, then yeah just migrate them over and explain the change.
Thanks, Cole. Probably 75% of the emails I have are people I know and who won't mind. The rest are just good email addresses (of real people) I got from scraping my Gmail account. I've cleaned the list pretty thoroughly, but the 25% are not friends, just somehow we've emailed in the past. It's that group I'm most worried I'd be spamming (kinda).
You may or may not run afoul of anti-spam policy by opting those people in. Substack WILL ask you where you got the emails if you bring in a list. And they will want to know if these people explicitly consented to getting emails from you
It's been a while since I was reading about these things, but I believe this technically isn't legal, per spamming rules and regulations (see GDPR, 2016; and the CAN-SPAM Act). Unless they've given permission, you can't add people to a newsletter list, and I think Substack can potentially thwart that. If it's friends and family, maybe they won't care, but be a little careful there if you're not talking about an existing list of folks who previously signed up. Don't want you getting shut down before you even start!
That's pretty much what I said Karin, I agree. https://gdpr-info.eu/issues/consent/
Looks like we were typing at about the same time, Terry!
Great minds etc, Karin!
Wow - good info, Karin. Thank you.
I do. That's what I did. I wrote about how to do it in the bonus section of this post. https://authorstack.substack.com/p/how-to-use-substack-sections-to-beef
Amazing. Thank you, Russell.
Go for it
I tend toward "ask for forgiveness" rather than "ask for permission." But I only added people who I was 99% sure wouldn't mind and I let them know before starting to send out any stories. I also told them they were free to unsubscribe and never talk to me again, but no one took me up on it!
I'd love to say that's a best practice because I want to do it myself lol. BUT I don't think it is. However, if you have a good relationship with those people it might not be seen as shady. It's a tough call!
I say do it. If someone doesn't want to read it, they'll scroll by it and delete it. I was sending my pieces out to my email list and only one person asked me to take them off. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. The worst that can happen is they ask you to stop. If you don't promote yourself, you won't grow.
But adding people who subscribed to a totally different thing you used to do to a brand new thing you currently do? You didn't received ANY pushback for doing it?
Sorry, I had to go away for a bit. But when I first started, I didn't have anything else I was selling. I literally started with nothing. I had about thirty or forty people on my email. I just sent it out to them. Most of them were receptive to what I sent them. Like I said, I had nothing. I'm not very "techie". I didn't have a job where I used a computer. I was totally "blue collar", worked in a sawmill. But I retired. I decided when I retired that I was going to sell myself as a writer. When you have a small list of people on your email, and most of them are friends and family, they tend to support you more than dump you. Like I said, only one --nope -- two people asked me not to send them things. No biggie. I learned a long time ago the worst someone can say is "No thank you." Now, I have 330'ish people on my email/substack list. I would have to do it differently if I decided I was going to sell retail products. I'd probably send out an email asking if they were interested in it. Other than that, if the worst I'm going to do is hurt someone's feelings? They'll get over it. What you have to tell yourself is that if I throw 20 emails out there and only one or two say no, everybody else said YES. The hardest part of this substack game is promoting yourself. But if you aren't going to do it, who is?
Good question, Kristi. That's why i haven't done it myself. If someone put me on their new list that was completely different to the one I'd signed up for it would damage their brand in my eyes, and be pretty annoying. I get enoughh spam as it is! Besides, I don't think it matters if even nobody complains. It's not a good look
Yeah I tend to lean in the same direction because I have been on the receiving end of emails I never asked for from people who assumed it was okay, and it annoyed the crap out of me.
Exactly
I’m with Ben here. When I first started 14 months ago I just added 50 people, friends, fam and former book editing clients. Some unsubscribed but most stayed!
I would not do that. People may get pissed off. Send individual emails or texts with a link. You don't want a subscriber who just didn't unsubscribe and deletes your newsletter. It must be more personal. sabrinalabow.substack.com
I personally get annoyed when people add me to a newsletter without first asking if I want to be added, but I think sending an email inviting them to sign up is a good option.
Is there any marketing support for local Substack meetups? I'm organizing one with two other Substackers in Austin for next week. We filled out the form but I'd love a graphic or something visual we can all share with our lists. I can make one in Canva but I wondered if there was someone at Substack I could reach out to.
We'd love to make these meetups a regular thing!
Hi Jen! You are co-hosting with Kristi, correct? I sent her a note today :)
I am! Thanks so much. Does that mean I can skip the Canva thing? She and I are meeting for coffee tomorrow to discuss details!
You can create any graphics you like to promote the meetup :)
But will Substack provide us with a graphic to use? Thanks for letting me know!
@bowen dwelle is doing an SF one
🟧 What would it be like to have a button where someone can donate or “buy you a coffee” for a specific post? I notice sometimes I don’t want to upgrade to a full subscription, but would love to pay someone for a post I found really helpful. I heard others also sharing this same thought!
I like the idea of something like this too. I think as Substack grows the problem of how to support lots of Substackers is one that will need to be sorted out and something like this could be a good option.
I like this idea!
I think there is something on Stripe that allows this. I was looking around there last week because sometimes I like to look at the "other" side of the writing life, and I think there was a link to a "Make a Donation" type thing. I'm going to look into it, because trying to get Paid subscribers is the hardest part of fiction writing. But of someone want to throw in $5 for reading something they liked, I'm good with that!
I hope all the Nanowrimo participants out there are holding up okay. Learn to rest, not quit!
I watch NaNoWriMo each year and it looks harrowing. lol
I tried it once. It was great for producing the most rubbish I've ever written in the shortest possible time😂 Good on the people who stick it out and get a decent first draft out of it though
Yeah, I'm generally suspicious of the whole thing. It seems helpful for jump-starting a regular writing practice, but I don't know how much utility it has beyond that.
I agree, Stephen. But then I don't write fiction, apart from my to-do list, so I'm probably not the best person to comment on it.
Mmm same.
I did the NaNo last year and came up with a fantasy novel that I kept writing even after the end of November. It was a great experience. It taught me a lot about myself as a writer. A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO TIME TRAVEL https://open.substack.com/pub/benwoestenburg/p/a-beginners-guide-to-time-travel?r=254e8w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web It was, as I said, a great experience.
Yes, it is a writer Olympics of sorts lol
Writer Olympics:😂
Hi, how to grow as a fiction writer in substack? I have been publishing for a while but it seems going nowhere in the platform here. Going paid is a distant illusion, but atleast the basic engagement where to find and how to grow please suggest. 🙂
Hi Triparno. It can be very discouraging. Convincing people to read fiction anywhere it hard but it can feel impossible here. My best advice is to engage other fiction writers, follow them on Notes and leave meaningful comments. The more you engage with other authors, the more their audiences see you and become curious. Above all, be consistent and keep honing your craft. It just takes a couple of readers to champion your work. Make sure that first piece they read is stunning. Best of luck to you!
Thank you Ben
I agree. The one thing you have to be in consistent. The reader needs to know if they're going to invest time in you, that you will deliver. Quality writing is the one promise you have to make to yourself, because if your writing is shit, no one's going to want to read you. Fiction is a hard sell if you don't have an established following before coming here (I didn't). Read other writers, leave comments, give opinions and be polite.
Thanks Ben
There's a community called Fictionistas, for Substack Fiction writers. You can learn lots from them. https://fictionistas.substack.com/
They’re great!
Thanks, been looking for something like this!
Thx for the reminder. I forgot about them.
What?! How could you forget them? I'm shocked! 🤣
Thank you 😊
I have found fiction hard, too. Have you submitted to the Library?
No can you please suggest any?
It is a Substack, called 'the Library'. Search on it. If you can't find it I will look it up.
https://thelinklibrary.substack.com/
I just subscribed. Looks great.
Thank you 😊
The Library is a resource for gathering and supporting indie fiction on Substack. If you’d like to send us your work, we’ll be happy to help you get the word out!
The Library is the best tool out there for fiction writers, because you have a place where you can put up your work and let others look at it and decide if they want to follow you. I restack it every time they post.
Find other fiction and crosspromote together. EDW keeps a list of people who are writing fiction. https://ericadrayton.substack.com/s/free-writing-fridays
I also wrote all about substack growth in this 50,000 word guide. https://authorstack.substack.com/p/substackgrowth
Fiction is much harder than essays as far as readers at this point
But so worth it, Michael. It's taken me a lot longer than it took you (I'm still sitting in the 300s), but I think you have to come into the fiction market with a different mindset. You have to tell yourself that what you have is worth someone's time. You have to be consistent. You need a routine, a schedule, and you have to make sure that what you have to offer is good.
From what I've gleaned on the platform in about 19 months, the secret to converting paying subscribers is to offer a service that they keep coming back for. I haven't cracked that puzzle for myself, and I do offer some more practical content, such as interviews with career coaches. It's even more difficult in fiction, I imagine. What most people say is true -- Substack's primary appeal is the community. And growth is a really long game. So I'd recommend clarifying why you're here, what you want to write, and then how long you're willing to let that slowly build. It might ease some of the stress!
Thank you Joshua very insightful inputs.
I'm just diving into fiction on Substack myself. One thing I try to do is distinguish WHY my fiction is different from the other types of fiction people might read on here and WHO might be interested in my writing. For example, I write for people who want to learn about the culture and history of a city/region/country through the lives of fictional characters--something I haven't seen other travel and fiction writers do (at least, not yet). Really try to emphasize your value proposition on your about page. Here's an example. Mine isn't perfect, but I think it's getting there: https://macyseestheworld.substack.com/about
Your Substack is a page on the internet. How do people know about it? How and why would they visit it? You need to market it. You need to let people know it exists. And there's a thousand ways of doing that.
Can anyone explain the poor technical quality (design, shaping, framing) of the promotional tools automatically sent to me after new posts over the last few weeks? Headlines, for example, won’t fit Instagram anymore. They used to be fine, and I can’t reframe on my end. Thanks!
Hi Wayne, thanks for the feedback. I flagged with the team that the update seems to have changed the format.
Thanks Katie!
Put an orange sq 🟧 before you post so those @substack can answer. I’d like to know too.
Well, I would have, but I was on my iPad between classes at the uni where I teach. So I'm really sorry if I broke protocol, but here's a secret: They see it anyway.
I've been struggling with this too.
I did wonder whether they are set up for stories or possibly reels as opposed to posts?
🟧 I LOVE the Tripoli theme for Ghost and can see you guys have translated that theme for Bari Weiss’s Substack thefp.com - are there any plans to give us the option of using Tripoli? I would pay handsomely if this were a paid option for example.
Thank you! 🙏🏻
I'll share your feedback with the team! We've done some work to expand our themes, but can do more. (If you want to read about that, head here: https://on.substack.com/p/homepage-layouts-and-tags)
A shoutout to @fogchaser who composed Hearthside, a beautiful piece just published on his newsletter. It's not everyday that someone writes a song for you! https://fogchaser.substack.com/p/hearthside
That made my morning!
It sure made mine, too, Katie!
Fogchaser is brilliant!
✏️ I’ve been thinking a lot about the “value” I offer my readers and trying to get more clarity! I’d love some crowdsource help for what would be valuable for you!
Currently, I write personal essays on topics like creativity, grief, and motherhood all with the common thread of exploring our shared human connection. I also share poetry and feature interviews with other creatives.
Besides my perspective and experience, what value do you receive from newsletters that are more personal or reflective? I’d love to see some examples!
I wrote a lot of that in my free guide. https://authorstack.substack.com/p/substackgrowth
You really need to know what audience you want to attract before you know what value you should offer. I find the writing is valuable, and I pay to support people being able to write. I just want good writing.
For me, the best stuff I offer is stuff I have already made and don't have to recreate. I have something like 15 books available to people who pay, and courses to help them.
🟧 Hi Substack team- is there a way for an author to better crop images for mobile web browser? I see an image looks great on the app and on the computer browser, but someones face is cut off in the mobile web browser. Thanks!
I keep hoping for an image specs cheat sheet. the images in different places seem to be of different proportions which sometimes leads to odd cropping.
🟧 ✏️ I'm about to launch a Substack for a small but influential nonprofit I work for so we can move our newsletter delivery from Mailchimp and also expand our conversations, have dedicated articles and guest posts. I'm unsure about whether the paid subscriptions option is appropriate, since we're a nonprofit, but would like to make it another avenue for donations. Do any other writers or Substack folks have suggestions or advice to share?
(I'm also about to launch a Stack of my own musings, but that's another topic.)
🟧 Do you plan to have a feature to save comments? I always find Office Hours really great to get advice from your team and fellow writers, but then coming back to them is a tedious process. If it was possible to save them, I believe it would be fantastic. Same goes for Notes.
Interesting feedback. Where would you want these saved to ideally - your inbox in the app...? Something else?
Hello @Bailey,
I'd say the app, like what is done for the saved posts. A category for saved comments.
✏️
I have done some googling about best day and time to schedule newsletter emails. Seems that Tuesday and Thursday come up a lot. but it occurred to me that maybe different days and times depend on the type of content. So, I am curious to know if there is a best practice for serialized fiction. Since these will be longer than 200 - 300 words, is Tues or Thurs really best? Or would Saturday or some other day be better when people might be looking for a longer read?
Thank you.
Substack is one of the first platforms where day and time of day doesn’t matter as much (if I’m remembering correctly it’s because there is such an international audience and they all check their emails at different times). But when I publish fiction I send it on Fridays because I imagine that’s something people aren’t generally reading during the weekday, and instead save it for the weekend. (Plus, Fiction Fridays used to be a thing on Medium!)
Fictions Fridays. That sounds like it was fun. Thanks for the insight.
I've done some research too and ultimately, I don't believe it makes a huge difference what time of day or day of week you publish a serial. What matters is that whatever schedule you set, you stick with it rain or shine and you deliver quality every time. It's all about setting clear expectation and exceeding those. I also think it's important to make it as easy as possible for readers to navigate through your serial by:
1. Creating a dedicated section for your serial.
2. Using a consistent naming convention for your chapters/episodes
3. Keeping the length for each episode consistent
4. Providing navigational links between previous and next chapters
5. Avoiding too much clutter (buttons, images, etc.) that interrupts the reading experience
6. Including a quick summary of what happened in the previous episode at the top of every new one.
I personally add high-quality audio narration for my serial fiction which has received a lot of positive feedback. Best of luck!
I noticed that for your Field Guide you have several items, like Ropes Course, etc. Are those pages? I don't see them listed as sections, but maybe you chose not to list them?
Hi Mark, those are actually links to section within my Field Guide page. If you click one of them it just jumps you further down the page as a shortcut.
Thanks. I was wondering about navigational links. I guess one at top (previous) one at bottom (next)? Of both at the bottom? Thanks for the summary recommendation. That makes a lot of sense. I currently plan to update weekly on Tuesdays unless some compelling reason makes me opt for a different day. Thanks again.
You can see examples of all the things I'm talking about with my latest novel here: https://www.catchrelease.net/p/harmony-house-episode-01
Very nice. Thank you again.
I'm diving into serialized fiction soon as well and am wondering the same thing!
Best of luck to you!
We've received some good answers so far. What a great community.
I put something out twice a week. I put up my SHORT STORIES AFTER 8 on Sunday nights, for no particular reason. And I have a SERIAL novel THE SHIELD OF LOCKSLEY that I put up on Wednesdays. I live on the left coast, near Vancouver. I don't worry too much about when people read them. I used to drive myself nuts wondering when the right time would be, but like Elle said, it's an international community now. I try to put my Serial novel up sometime around midnight, my time, so when you wake up on the East coast, you can read it in the morning. But I don't think the "Time" is what matters as much as the DAY you put it up. As long as you follow the course you set yourself, the readers will find you and follow you.
Thank you.
Usually it's best to do 1000-1500 words for serialized fiction. It doesn't matter when you post, really. It's that you are consistent.
Thank you.
Anyone producing video content on the platform? I’m on a mission to cut my YouTube time. Send your videos my way!
We have some exciting news coming soon ;)
Ahhh. This is reassuring.
!!! Can’t wait to hear what you have in store
Morning Taegan. I create daily 10 minute unedited SoundScapes with pictures on my old fashioned sustainable farm. They are designed to be calm time out virtual spaces, a soundtrack to writing or journaling or yoga, I would love to have you take a look. Let me know!
🟧 Heads up to other writers: Special Offers do NOT work on pledges.
I learned the hard way - I even sent myself a test email with a special offer/pledge drive, and the link worked (for me) but all subsequent pledgers did not receive the discount, and now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to fix it....
🟧 when inserting buttons to prompt readers to subscribe or share a posting, how do I change the text used in that prompt?
this old post has been helpful for me in creating custom buttons
https://subpub.substack.com/p/customize-all-the-buttons
perfect! This process should be made more intiutive and visible
I've done this, and I think I typically just click on the text that's written and it allows me to change it.
You can change the attached text but not the actual button. That's a different process.
I feel like there was once a way to edit this for each use... when I was just getting started with substack, I felt like it was one of those things you do when you set things up. I could be wrong.
🟧 One more time...I need some design and paywall help...does Substack have a preferred vendor list?
🟧 ✏️
Hello! Is there a way to edit or add music to Substack podcasts?
I am currently uploading recordings and wondering if there are built in tools to jazz it up and create segments?
Thanks, in advance!
Hi Angela! I dabbled in Substack podcasts a few months ago. I also wanted to add music, but since I don't have any editing skills, I found a great, affordable audio editor to help me spice things up instead: https://www.fiverr.com/dimaog/professionally-edit-your-podcast-audio?source=order_page_summary_gig_link_title&funnel=21080e4b6b270f3529617198cfe17d33
Hope this helps. :)
I have some questions regarding the use of tags (because going back through my articles recently, there were some articles where I had none at all.....and I'm not sure what tags
1. Does adding tags actually help generate readership and subscriptions?
2. Is there any particular strategy to selecting or adding them for articles?
3. If the answers to questions #1 and #2 are yes, are there any reliable/reputable people out there who charge reasonable hourly rates to read your articles and add tags to your articles to drive readership? (Part of me thinks that an outsider reading might in some way see where your article belongs better than I will writing it).
On an unrelated note, is Substack working on any pricing features that will allow readers to purchase single articles rather than full subscriptions? Thanks.
I'd love the ability to pay for 1 or 2 posts by themselves.
I don't work for Substack, but I am a digital marketing consultant in my non-Substack-writing-life, so I'm going to take a swing at this question. It sounds like what you're asking about is search engine optimization (SEO), which focuses on organic rather than paid growth. In which case, *keyword phrases*--if thoughtfully written based upon the type of searches people are performing related to your content--should help drive internet traffic to your Substack. You'd want to implement keyword phrases in your article title, headlines, and sprinkled judicially throughout said articles. SEO involves more than that, of course, but it's a good place to begin.
How exactly Substack's "tags" fit into that equation is still a bit of a mystery to me. As I understand it, tags are really used for internal organization-- to give your subscribers/readers the ability to locate content that interests them. Whether or not they "count" as keyword phrases in the realm of site indexing... I'm not sure.
In terms of how to start selecting keyword phrases to implement (if that's something you want to bootstrap yourself), I recommend checking out this article from Hubspot: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht
There's also a guy further up in this thread who talks about setting up Google Search Console, which I'd recommend doing, as well.
I hope this helps in some small way!
Thank you! It does help. I greatly appreciate your response.
TBH, I kinda just to write my stuff and not focus on SEO within articles. I'm never going to manage that language. And I think the quality of my writing would suffer if I tried to add stuff in. I'm writing legal and political pieces. If someone finds it valuable, they find it valuable (I'm paywalling all my footnotes now for my articles).
But if adding tags genuinely helped bring people into readership because they were searching for stuff, then I would want to have someone go through them. That was kind of my idea. But if not, it's not worth it.
But I appreciate your response greatly.
Totally understandable! Also, cool to see an attorney writing on here! I look forward to reading your work, and I will direct my sibling (also an attorney) to check it out, too.
Should have added this emoji to this. ✏️ (For first three questions)
For final question, I'll add this emoji. 🟧
🧠 Interview Opportunity: I have just launched visual interviews where people are invited to use my Google Form of questions that are all related to art and mental health but to answer in images instead of words. (I also offer the option for a word based interview or both types ...)
The first one (with the wonderful illustrator Sue Clancy) and the info about the opportunity are here:
https://createmefree.substack.com/p/answer-in-images-art-and-mental-health
Wonderful, thanks for cool opportunity!
Happy to get a chance to share other creatives with my readers!
Hi Kathryn! As someone who's used creative writing to process complex trauma over the past decade, this sounds like such a unique, meaningful idea. I just saw Sue's post and appreciate the creative freedom this interview format offers.
I'd love to offer my insights on this topic; however, would you count writing as an art form? I've found that different people categorize writing in different ways so just wanted to check. :)
I absolutely count writing as an art form! And at the bottom of Sue's post you'll see the opportunity to answer an interview in visual format, words, or you can complete both. <3 <3
🟧 (3) parts here:
1. How about an archive of office hours with a search feature so that we can quickly refer to Q & A's, Tips, etc.?
2. Status on "Donation" option?
3. Has Substack figured out why some of us have readers/subscribers with stats of 80% email and 1-2% (or less) from Substack? Thank you, enjoying the growth and opportunities on Substack!
✏️ It's clearly Gift Guide season. For those who have put out guides already, are your email opens higher? Any other advice for making them not generic - other than offering non-generic products? TIA!
🟧 - Thank you for giving us back the social images w/o the quotes!
Other things I'd love:
- Word Count
- Integration with Google Photos
- Ability export my posts to Word or a PDF. G-d forbid Substack goes under (puh, puh, puh) I'd love to save and store my content.
We do have a few of these -->
Word count: It's in the bottom left hand corner of your post draft, there's a little "information" button. We built this in part because of Office Hours feedback.
You can export all of your posts and lists: It's in your settings under "export"
Oh wow! Thank you!
✏️ Hi all you brilliant Substackers! How do I generate the prompt for paid subscribers to tell me why they paid? Relatedly, sometimes but not always, when I like someone's post, a little screen pops up saying something to the effect of, Like this post? Why not subscribe/share/upgrade? How would one make that happen?
I come to you all rather than Google to ask this question, as I'd love to riff on paid subscribers. I recently quietly turned my paid option on and got a handful of paid subscribers and feel not only incredibly grateful but also inspired to think bigger, offer more, write better. I had been nervous to do so and was pleasantly surprised. So, I'm wondering what's your experiences been with same? With marketing for paid in a less quiet, more overt way perhaps? Thanks!
This is a helpful opener for new Substack writers curious about free versus paid subscriptions etc: https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/what-is-the-point-of-substack-making
Could you email them individually after and ask them? That way you are personalizing the engagement and connecting at another level.
🟧 — also, how do you change the little message under the sign up box on the welcome page. I see some people have changed the 'no thanks' to things like 'let me look first', 'maybe later' etc...
Look for the "Opt out message on the welcome page" section in your settings.
go to stats -> subscribers -> add emails -> “edit welcome email”
Thanks so much!
I am about to share my first Substack and wonder if others put something in the email header and footer.
The more you can personalize your page, the better it will look. That's why I work on my "ABOUT" page (here:) https://benwoestenburg.substack.com/about and my HOME page (here) https://benwoestenburg.substack.com. It's all a learning experience and you kind of pick things up as you go along. I'd say the best way to figure things out is to go to 'Stacks that have large followings, and smaller ones, to see what's different, and what works.
I just wrote a post on about pages and fully agree with taking inspiration from other newsletters. TO: Caryn Sullivan - I don't but I've seen a few that do and it's always a nice touch.
We recommend doing this! Here's a little video if it's helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhK0NFpzADk
🟧 I'm curious what happens when I block someone on Substack. (Not something I do regularly or like to do...but have done twice in the past little while, and very much appreciate the option for such circumstances.)
One person I blocked entirely, and I assume he will not be able to engage with my content but am wondering whether he can still see it if he tries to look me up.
Another person I blocked from leaving comments on my Substack posts, but it seems it might have resulted in the more general type of blocking anyway (same as the first guy).
Again, mostly just curious, but would like to know the specific ramifications of those moves. Thank you! (And hopefully I'll be doing no more blocking!)
Had my first experience with that recently, as well. It's not something I do lightly, but sometimes a troll is just a troll. Also had a bizarre case last year where my stats shot way up for a post, but there didn't seem to be any comments. Turns out that one user had viewed it like 10,000 times (or a bot), so I had to contact support to have that person removed, so it didn't skew the dashboard too much. Hope this continues to work for you, and you don't get repeat offenders!
I too had my first real troll. Oddly, mine seemed like a person, but just a very tone deaf person who only wanted to comment with hate. It took me a while to get comfortable with blocking them.
Yikes! And yeah, I don't do this lightly. But sometimes, it seems to be the only way someone gets it.
I'm not sure but if it's like all other platforms, they will be able to see all your content, just not engage with it.
✏️ - fellow writers! I am new to Substack and have a question about thumbnails for posts. I have 2 draft posts so far. No thumbnail images show up. Hmmm. How do I get thumbnails for my posts? And yes, one of the draft posts does have an image in it. Thanks!
I only get thumbnails after I hit send. I think because it scans your finished email for any images and includes in the thumbnails. Then I take the thumbnails and post to X, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. Hope this was useful.
Ditto. My experience as well!
Sounds like a bug. It always take a image from the post as a thumbnail, I even can change between them all.
Substack pulls from the imagery in the post, so if you add imagery to the post, you'll have the option to pick from when you go to post it. You can hover over the image and change it in the seetings, or upload a new one. I showed more in my 50,000 word guide on substack. https://authorstack.substack.com/p/substackgrowth
I’m not sure if this feature is straight up bugged... but thumb nails only show up for me if I upload them directly to Substack, rather than pulling a thumbnail from the post
✏️ - Any authors here that are having trouble getting published, or would normally go the self-published route, that use Substack as a way to "publish" their books?
Substack is a great way to test-drive ideas for a book and build up a following for it. I am not sure it's a substitute for publishing a book. Many potential readers who look for books won't find your Substack. The reverse is true, too. Some people will find your Substack who wouldn't find your book.
Thank you so much Marcia for these tips! Love the concept of your stack as well. Are you busy writing a book ? (:
By writing a weekly newsletter on various aspects of being an introvert (portraits of famous introverts, critiques of prejudice against introverts and more) I am in effect researching a book - slowly. If I can attract more subscribers then I would also be creating a "proof of concept" for publishers - showing that there's enough interest for my topic and my approach to it.
I have self published and also published with big publishers like HarperCollins, Penguin and Henry Holt, but next time I want to go with an established publisher again.
That's fantastic Marcia! I'm honored that you took the time to help me learn the landscape a bit. ( I was asking for a friend who was recently denied by Chelsea Green Publishing.)
I want to write a book and while Substack is my genuine attempt to get my own creative platform, it is also a way to test out what book lies within me. I don’t have a full answer yet, but hoping this journey leads me there.
So this is my take on Substack. I write long fiction, and there was never really a big market for it. I write novellas and shorter novelettes. I told myself going in that Substack has a potential to be something great, if you work on it. I no longer look to publish in lit magazines. I may look at publishing a book, but have recently decided that it might be better to try the PRINT ON DEMAND route. You have to look at the long haul idea. I've got 338 Subscribers, 9 of them PAID. I have 103 "followers". I want to convert them to Subscribers. I'm retired now, so I have time to play with this platform. I figure I've got 20-25 years to make something of myself. There are millions of people on Substack. Just give me 2% of them. Let me convert 1500-2000 PAID, and I will consider it a success. SUBSTACK can be what you want it to be. I write fiction though, and that's probably the hardest market to work in at the moment. But why can't I be a best seller on Substack, the same as people are on the NY Times list? The only thing holding me back, is me. Write your book and put it up in little blurbs. You will find a following, and it will grow. I started with 0 followers, and had a small email list of 20-30 people. Don't think it's going to happen overnight, but ask yourself what it will look like in 5 years from now. Like I said, SUBSTACK has a lot to offer, and you can make it work for you if you don't get frustrated and give up.
Thank you for your thoughtful response, Ben! Agree, Substack has a lot of potential and like anything else in life, the more work you put into cultivating it, the better the returns. To me, it’s a bit overwhelming at times to keep up with all the choices. Where are your followers? Subscribers I get of course. All the best with your efforts and post-retirement life!
It takes a bit to find your followers. But if you go to the part of your homepage where it say SUBSCRIBERS, and you hit that, you get SUBSCRIBERS; FOLLOWING; and FOLLOWERS. It's a lot easier to see it on other peoples' 'Stacks...but it's there.
on the whole, publishers can only publish less than 1% of the books they read, so they don't really want you...so you have the choice to publish yourself or not publish, and Substack can help with that. but you should also learn how to self publish your own books well. It's not either/or.
Thank you kindly for your input here Russell. Love the 1% stat. Makes sense.
You're welcome. Hope to see you on The Author Stack. Helping authors build better businesses is our jam, especially on Substack. https://authorstack.substack.com/p/substackgrowth
There's no substitute for publishing a "real" book, but if your goal is to at least have the ability to be read, Substack is a great option. I've published one novel and am in the process of releasing a second as a serial. You can check it out here: https://www.catchrelease.net/p/harmony-house-episode-01
Best of luck, whatever you decide.
I have three of my novels on my stack for paid subs
So, for the 'preferred language' thing... can we do that as writers as well? I would like to have two preferred languages, is that possible?
Hey Von, anyone can use the feature when searching.
So, how do I turn the language feature on when exploring by category? Can you just leave it on the page and not have it wait until I type something in the search bar?
Yeah Noe, what I meant was and I’m not sure how you handle this. I would like to somehow signal that I’m bilingual in English and French and so that anyone can say comment in French on my English writing and also I’d like to mark a given Substack post for what language it’s in. So far, I’ve only written in English but I’m going to have some perhaps that will be bilingual or all in French.
You can put that up on your home page, or on your ABOUT page. You can tell people after you've written whatever you're posting, on the bottom of the page, that you're bilingual and can take questions in either language.
All true, but I was going off the official ways to tag something in order to let people search on it. I don't think any of those would do that, if you see what I mean.
Hey everyone! Happy Thursday! I started a new project called Wrestle Tales. This was created out of my burn out with wrestling content creation since I'm pushing through rather than resting. I still want to finish 2023 strong even if this year has been ups and downs. I haven't turned on paid subscriptions yet, but there are pledges. I wrote article 1 about all of us having a story - where are passions came from, what was born from our passions. Wrestle Tales is an experiment newsletter that combines my love for wrestling and writing and explore wrestling concepts and give you access to my wrestling novel that I'm going to get done in 2024. I'm looking for new readers - as I have no subscribers as of yet - and I'm not going to just send all my other subs from Squared Circle Society to the new one without their permission. Squared Circle Society will remain as wrestling news and updates. One day I'd like to chat with the head of Sports and introduce myself. 👋 Other than that, I'll be working on Wrestling Tales #2 and trying to bring the novel to life.
Visit: https://wrestletales.substack.com
Does anyone know if it is possible to change text color? I’d like to make certain text stand out / pop but seems like it’s limited to text type and making it bold. thanks!
The style controls are very much locked down in the editor. You'll notice you can't even do simple things like left-align a photo. The goal is to keep pages consistent and readable. The best technique is to get adept at using imagery to add color and eye breaks. You can also use the "pull-quote" style which helps with emphasis.