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This week, we wanted to share some inspiring examples from across Substack:
shares her process to set up a virtual book tour on Substack, through collaborations with over ten writers and creators. The model can be used to promote not only a book but a podcast, course, art project, or your Substack.
Welcome to the new writers and writers who recently launched their Substacks:
You wouldn't have one subscriber if you hadn't started your Substack. Congratulations. You now share an honorable place in the history of existence: You are a creator! Love and light, rv
That is terrific! I recently hit 250 but I am celebrating a year on Substack. Comparison is the devil so I try not to think of numbers too much, yet anything that ticks upward feels good. Hope you have a great time here.
That's awesome! I just hit 350, but it doesn't feel milestoney. 250 is a quarter thou, a classic milestone. I feel if I declare 3 fiddy a milestone I'm clutching a bit
Arthur I write on grief, trauma and loss in my substack, and I also write for Faith Tides here on Vancouver Island, and have just submitted an article for our printed newspaper faith section, same topic with an additional faith component.
I was married for 35 years before the Lord called my wife home. Grief? Oh yeah. And so very mad at God. I told him just exactly what I thought about him, and it wasn't pretty. And after that, I felt at peace with God. I felt like I was being held in my grief. It's 2 weeks until the fifth anniversary of her death, and it's kicking my tail again. I just got remarried 3 months ago to a woman who lost her husband 4 years ago. We hold each other on bad days. We included our spouses in our wedding ceremony, using 4 colors in our scheme, one for each person's favorite color. It was quite a moving ceremony, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Even through death, grief, and loss, we know our spouses await us on the other side, and we know we have the love of God as well.
It's my pleasure Kate. I love to write. And it is my vision to help people understand what grief is so they can wade their way through it with a little more ease.
I’m celebrating the fact that I’m a couple writing sessions away from finishing the initial draft of my first self-published book!🎉 I’m excited it’ll (hopefully) be out in the world later this year!
The book is about why our dreams matter and how to cultivate them in the middle of our everyday lives. Whether you want to start a million-dollar company or have your neighbors over for dinner, change the landscape of the education system or plant a garden—you are a dreamer, and your dreams matter to the world.
Congratulations! I am nearing completion of my next book, but I'll never forget the feeling of pushing that button to send my first book out into the world. My finger hovered over the publish button for minutes as all kinds of things ran through my head. Was it my best? Did I set it up correctly? Is the cover right? And on and on and on. Finally, I realized I found such joy in writing the book, it was time to share that. I pushed the button. I did have to go back for a few revisions, but I never regretted pushing that button for one second.
This is amazing. It’s such a wild ride of anxiety and life-giving joy all in one. Definitely a lot of questioning myself. A LOT. Thank you for sharing! And congrats on almost finishing your next book!🎉
Congratulations! Even in the self-publishing world, it's a long haul, but it you keep at it, success in getting your book in front of the people who need it is worth it.
Yes! I just joined a writing community that I’m so excited about. Planning on asking lots of questions about self-publishing and getting some feedback. That’ll be so important.
Thank you so much for this encouragement. I’ve definitely been trying to prepare myself for a long-haul type of success. You’re right--it’ll be SO worth it to get it into the right hands of people who need it. Thank you for sharing!
I love this. One of my intentions in life is to publish a book of my own. I think getting in the habit of writing and gaining that experience certainly helps over time. So so excited for you!!✨
That’s amazing! It’s been a long-time dream for me, too! It’s been a scrappy process, but I’m glad I just went for it and can’t believe I’m almost done!🤎
Good question! I still need to make a solid marketing plan over the next couple months😅 that’s my next step. But the big picture is that I’m planning on posting consistently here on my Substack to grow my audience, posting about it a ton on Instagram for the two-ish months leading up to the release and then afterwards too (I used to be a freelance video producer so I plan to make a series of social media videos to promote it), and also planning on sending a copy to some influencers that have inspired me.🙂 Trying multiple different methods to get the word out as much as possible!
Thank you! I’m curious to see how it will go. If anything, the process of just creating the book is growing and stretching me in a positive way already!
Thank you so much for this encouragement! Also, I just read “What Do We Do For Thanksgiving” on your page, and it’s so beautiful and honest. Love your writing!
I don't usually toot my horn about milestones, but I'm very pleased to have recently completed 60 versions of a story in a project called Experiments in Style. I've taken a very simple story and rewritten it in 60 different ways. Next goal is to reach 100! But in the meantime, here's the list:
BTW, how often do you post? More than once per week? If so, have you lost any subscribers by posting twice a week? I'm thinking of posting Funny AF Women 2 Fridays a month-- in addition to my regular Wednesday slot.
Thanks very much, Holly. I've been publishing a new version every Sunday, apart from last Sunday when I had Covid! I hope you enjoy them. I especially recoomend the Hardboiled version
I'm celebrating two weeks without alcohol and the subsequent birth of my Substack that could not have come to fruition without the clarity it brought me. So excited to let the world know about what I feel and think and notice!
From a recovering lady with 38 years sober, my hat is off to you. Going two weeks without booze is awesome. Keep going! One step at a time, one day at a time. One reason I stopped at the age of 28 is that I didn't think I could be the writer I wanted to be and drink. So, good for you.
That is Outstanding! I am happy, and I will pray for you, Elsie! It only takes a little effort! It is One day at a time. This month, (in 3 days) January 21, 2024. It will make 39 years, and 5 months of sobriety for myself. I used to be a volunteer in the jails, and I would share that with the inmates, when we were in a group session, and they would stand up and applaud! I applaud you, NEVER GIVE UP! Ps this the first time on this site. Nothing happens by accident!
Congrats on your newfound sobriety! Recovery is tough but well worth it. I am also clean and sober, 5 months now, and started my own blog as part of my recovery. Check it out here if you want: astralprojections.substack.com
CONGRATS!! I feel the same way about my Substack — definitely not something I would have undertaken if I was still drinking regularly (both because I always felt like crap for several days after and I would have turned to a beer when I was bored instead of turning to writing).
The case study on me and my Substack has hit the printing press. I will email Bailey details but thank you Substack, you changed my life for the better. To everyone else, keep writing. You never know what can happen.
Well, I'm very excited about the foreshadowing here. I always appreciate your generosity here, YouTopian Journey. Congrats on the printing press and looking forward to learning more. :)
I just write consistently (once a week) and make sure to engage on a daily basis. People love not being ignored! Makes them feel like part of a community
This mark is HUGE. It took me so long to get there!! And then once I did, growth felt so much easier. I know there's an urge to minimize it but so many newsletters never get there and it's absolutely worth celebrating. Congratulations!!
Hi! I started writing on substack in 2021. I noticed the greatest uptick in subscribers when people restacked, when I engaged with other writers more, and rarely - when things went viral. Using notes has been helpful! I bought a workshop on it from @WRITERSATWORKWITHSARAHFAY and it made a huge difference!
I honestly wish I had a formula! I just consistently wrote for a few years and it picked up momentum! The greatest help was honestly other writers restacking. We really can help one another a lot!
no real secret just time! I noticed the greatest uptick in subscribers when people restacked, when I engaged with other writers more, and rarely - when things went viral. Using notes has been helpful! I bought a workshop on it from @WRITERSATWORKWITHSARAHFAY and it made a huge difference!
I'm celebrating the fact that I can publish whatever I want, and take whatever time I need to find that subject worthy enough to publish. I am glad to find a site that won't charge me, either. It will be about two consecutive years and over 400 articles in tow.
Exactly! That's the same reason I love it here. I can write my stories as long as I feel they need to be, and not worry about going over any guidelines.
Beautiful. I feel a similar way 2 months into weekly publishing. I started it for me; I cherish my readership but ultimately I write about things that are important to me, crafting ideas and narratives that assist me in my own process. It is a wonderful form of symbiosis.
I'm celebrating growing my astrology Substack to over 170! When I started here on Substack , I had maybe 70 or so people on my mailing list, and I've already more than doubled that number. To know that people are enjoying my content enough to subscribe is really motivating!
Congratulations on your stack! I studied astrology long ago (wrote a column for an 'underground' newspaper in Mendocino County) and look forward to checking out your posts.
That is very motivating! I'm not so good with the marketing of my posts so to speak, but getting better. Office hours is a great way to connect! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Today is the day. The beginning of a new and true story based on my life at 4 years of age. It's regarding cats and many of them. It took me a while to get started, but I can't seem to stop writing. So exciting
🧠 Above all... Have Some Fun on Substack! I've been reading comments here for a while and it seems like so many people are really stressing over this and that. Writing should be fun. Substack has made it easy and fun. If your joy comes through in your writing, you will find success with those who want to share in that joy.
Great point, David. I think people are understandably stressed because one of the core mythologies of Substack is the potential for independent writers to make a living. Ever since I've joined, there's been a struggle by many to decouple the "why" of writing from hustle culture. And I really have come to believe that if it's WRITING that drew you to the platform, then complicating that with branding and other transactional strategies is a recipe for misery. Those who really have a clear service to offer are in a different category.
That is exactly how I feel! It must be fun above all else. A lot of ppl stress over getting more subscribers and the tech stuff and I do to sometimes but I really find joy in writing. This world we are in at this time and place seems so focused on numbers. Sounds cornball but it's quality over quantity. sabrinalabow.substack.com
Love the question! I'm celebrating the return of power and the slow but steady melting of the ice sheet that has been my gorgeous but unnavigable outdoor world for the past week!
Also celebrating how many fabulous readers and writers have come to check out my little corner of Substack where I explore a roaming / vagabonding life, most recently in a van called Ruby and the spells of staying in between, most recently in a lovely woodsy cabin. Less than 20 subscribers away from my arbitrary goal for January. Wooohoooo!
That sounds interesting. I'll check it out. I used to have a big red van named Clifford, for those old enough to remember the show. Before cell phone coverage improved, my CB handle was DadsGypsy. Enjoy your travels! Rescue work has kept me tied down and limited my travels in recent years.
I bought a van and outfitted it with a pizza oven in an attempt to drive cross country (US) making pizzas. The plan changed, but I loved that truck and the dream it represented.
Agree! Might still do it in some iteration, but I ended up selling the truck to my employer and it has a very nice life now where it does promotional events.
In the past few weeks I've hit 6 months of weekly publishing, passed the 100 subscriber mark, launched new sections within my newsletter dedicated to the themes I write on (career change tips, mental health tips for work, balancing parenthood w/ work, etc), and committed to publishing 2x a week instead of 2x!
I'm almost at 100. Very happy mostly because I enjoy what I'm doing. Writing is such fun! Congratulations! Looks like you have great momentum going! sabrinalabow.substack.com
ahh congrats, all so awesome! you write on a topic I'm definitely very interested in, so I'm excited to join the hundred-ish others and follow along :)
At one point in my being very new to Substack, I thought I'd seen something about the ability to publish a book through Substack. I wasn't nearly ready at the time to pursue it, but now that I'm on my way to 150 subscribers from zero in 5 months of once-a-week posting, I can't seem to find the same information. Are the "sections" you mention here the same as serializing a book behind a paywall for so many weeks?
I think it's a similar idea and ive seen some people do it for book! I'm not a novel/book writer though so my sections aren't meant to be a story line. Mine are more with the goal of letting readers only get articles on topics that they're interested in. For example, if you're not a mom, you might not want to subscribe to my Mom But Also section.
That's excellent. The hardest part of writing and working is getting into a routine. I used to get up 2 1/2 hours before going to work so I could write.
I've been accepted to write for a comedy blog on medium, which is cause for celebration! But - back to the cold, hard grind of subscribers acquisition - I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for getting medium readers across over to substack? ✏️
They gave me the nod yesterday! As I haven't submitted anything, and tasted that sweet tang of rejection, it's going pretty well so far! That sounds like good clean fun.
I've had a few crossover subscribers from Medium; and all I did was publish a post on medium that said I write on Substack lol...I think the strategy depends on whether you want to continue writing on medium.
I think that's a solid strategy. If your plan is to move everything over to Substack eventually, it's smart to slowly write less on Medium and still build an audience. You could always have a little footnote in your Medium pieces about how you write more (for free!) on Substack; see if that gets you more crossover people.
I've been thinking about this a lot, as well. I've been repurposing all of my Substack content onto Medium and linking my newsletter at the bottom. I also put my Substack link in my bio. It's slowly brought me new subscribers. I also make it a point to engage on Medium with posts I resonate with to expand my network on there. I've noticed more people subscribing to receive my stories through Medium, and then export those emails here. Also, congrats on getting accepted to the comedy blog!
That's really interesting! So if people subscribe through medium, you can get their emails? Could you tell me how that works? and, is it ok? Do they mind, when you do it? Do they open your posts and wotnot
Yeah, so basically when they follow you they have the option to subscribe to receive your stories by email. When they do, Medium will save their emails (you can go to the "Stats" tab and see your "Audience Stats" to find who's subscribed to you. You'll also receive a notification when someone does. When someone new has subscribed, I'll manually copy + paste the email into my Substack contacts. I haven't had any complaints, and have heard of other Medium writers doing this. You own that email list so you're allowed to do what you want with it. If someone doesn't want to receive your emails, they have the option to unsubscribe.
Nice to have some boat company! Yeah, I've been pinged a few times, and my article "Why men are friends with cunts" was temporarily taken down, and they sent me a snippy message saying that cunt has different meanings in different countries. I think I'll give that a go, posting a link at the end makes sense. I'm not sure either man. We're paddling in circles in here.
You might want to check it out. The hybrid program is being launched with small, stand alone classes. All free! We only ask for donations to attend the bi-weekly Zoom reviews.
The lessons are easy ( no medical background required ). They are prefect for anyone considering a career in healthcare or medicine.
I wish Duolingo would do something like that for various languages. I want to be able to talk about more than whether I traveled to Spain last year, although I suppose most people...
If you're new to Substack, welcome! We'd love to learn more about you and your Substack. Reply to this comment and introduce yourself. What brought you here? What do you plan to publish?
Hi there, I've been here since July, but I never introduced myself, so I'll take this opportunity to do a shameless plug :) I write about critical thinking every other Thursday (logical fallacies, cognitive biases, loaded language). It's been really fun being part of this community.
Thank you, all. Looking forward to connecting with more writers and readers. <3
Hey nice to meet everyone. I write about tips, tools and guidance for nonbinary professionals to succeed in corporate environments. I give guidance on how to advocate and speak up for yourself while being true to who you are.
Hi Ali, nice to meet you and I subscribed to your Substack. I also write, consult, and speak about grammar and language, with a focus on the grammar and language people use in written and oral communications/storytelling about the past.
Welcome, Ali. You will find a very welcoming and helpful crowd here. In my work life I write a lot about public speaking and the power of language in persuasion. The biases and loaded language we subconsciously use is powerful. On Substack though, I write about a topic that interests me... "The Art of Unintended Consequences".
Love the sound of "The Art of Unintended Consequences" - that could pretty much be the title to my life! I have so many stories about what at first seemed an abrupt 'deviation from the path' ended up being exactly the path I needed to take!
I know. It's fun, isn't it? If you have any of those that you think would be of interest to my audience, send them my way to davidnemzoff@substack.com. Maybe there something I can make an interesting story out of.
Hi readers & writers! If you’re called to viewing small glimpses into a life close to nature then you might enjoy my writing. I’m new to substack and want to use it as a place to share this journey as a city raised human turned forest dweller. See you soon 🤍
Hi my name is Athina I’m semi new to Substack. I post on Substack bi weekly. I write about life,dating, relationships,mental health, grief,travel and much more. I share a lot of my experiences and vulnerability. Check it out!!.
Hello, everyone! It's Veronica here. I've recently launched my newsletter, 'Vejeweled.' In this newsletter, we delve beyond just the baubles, exploring how gems and jewelry intertwine with the realms of fashion, art, design, and culture as a whole.
Hi Veronica, I just subscribed. Love the sound of Vejeweled. My husband is a jeweller and I help with various aspects of his business. Saw your words about sustainability being a 'north star' - as such you may enjoy his pieces from The Amsterdam Collection.
I write American South <-> Portugal: Loving, Leaving and Recreating Home. I have spent my adult life in the American South and I'm moving to Portugal this year. My newsletter focuses on the process and challenges of leaving a place one loves and embracing a new culture and language.
Although I live in the American Midwest, my husband and I are also contemplating a move to Portugal. We went to Lisboa this past September and loved it! I'm excited that others are on similar paths!!
I don't read Portuguese substacks atm, would be happy to hear if you have recommendations — there was a Substack meetup organized by @systemchangers with 12 writers, most of them expats/nomads.
Appreciate the link. I enjoy Alistair Leithead's Offgrid and Ignorant in Portugal about his family's life in the Alentejo. Usually, I listen to the Off-Grid podcast. https://alastairleithead.substack.com/
Hi everyone, it's so great to see so many new writers here. I look forward to finding so many great writers that don't have the recognition they deserve.
I started posting in September of last year. I have a monthly podcast called "Missing Pages" in which I go through my old high school history notes and then research on my own and find the events, people, and details that were left out. I also write a monthly essay, along with sporadic shorter essays, about current events, education, media, and other non-history books I read.
So, if you're interested in American history or have ever thought "why didn't I learn that in high school" I recommend checking out my podcast and newsletter.
Hi Scott, I love the sound of Missing Pages! Perhaps because it's a theme I also enjoy and once, a few years ago I wrote an article with that very title: The Missing Pages. Perhaps you might enjoy it here:
Thanks! The funny thing is, I loved history in high school. So as much as this project is a check on history education, it is a way to make sure I don't have rose-tinted glasses.
So did I, but I was always the annoying classmate who was curious about what happened between "events." Everyone was always like, "Shut up Liz! No one else cares. We all just want to get to lunch." Even the teacher!
Hi Katie - and everybody! I've just launched my motivational writers group, The TEN, which is something I've wanted to do forever. My vision is for people to use it as their 'personal trainer' for writing. I've run writers groups in real life and am convinced an online version here could be useful to so many. There's also a magazine element as journalism is in my dna, and that side will hopefully grow and grow (curated reads, recommendations, reviews, news about writing comps, etc). This Sunday, I'll be publishing my first interview with a successful author. I'm actually surprised at how much I'm getting a lot out of the experience so far, and of course, I'm really enjoying the interaction with so many new people.
LOVE to hear this. I've run a Zoom co-writer circle for 3 years, every weekday from 6-10 am. People drop in and do wonderful writerly things, with or without check-ins, goals, sprints, etc. So I'm less of a trainer than a cheerful sideline coach who loves nothing more than seeing everyone's beautiful face SHOWING UP for what they truly love.
Thinking of offering it here as part of a paid sub launch - hmm 🤔 Plus former Magazine person here! (I don't miss it. Substack is WAY kinder than Manhattan.)
Hello former mag person! I love the idea of your Zoom circle. How fantastic. Community is so important I think when you spend so many hours doing something so solitary. I did a couple of zooms towards the end of lockdown with close writer friends and it was very helpful. I’ve got some kind of online meet up earmarked for the future but not sure what form it’ll take yet. And yes, so far Substack seems incredibly welcoming!
I’ve been reading Substack for a while now and just started posting my own writing a couple weeks ago. I’ve long been overwhelmed by the seriousness of our discourse, no matter the topic, and I thought I’d bring a little levity to the world. So I write about things that make me laugh and hopefully people can get a break from the feeling that the sky is always falling. It’s called Hell, or a Hangover. Cheers.
A little levity is always good. A lot actually! I was the GM of the Laugh Factory in LA for 7 years and loved it. Laughter truly is the best medicine! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Couldn't agree more! That must have been an interesting job to say the least haha I went once when I was living in Huntington Beach a while back. Loved it. Looking forward to reading some of your stuff.
Hi, my name is Seoyeon, and I've been writing on my newsletter, "Rebel Rebel," since September. I write about science-based parenting knowledge and raw personal parenting journey. I try to publish bi-weekly (every other Friday)! The Writer Office Hour section has been very helpful :) Thank you!
I'm new here, too! I recently started Prose and Processors, a newsletter devoted to critical AI literacy. I'm slowly building momentum and subscribers. I'd love it if you would check it out!
Hi, I started this week - I'll be publishing weekly for the next year on how to be happier at work. I'll be sharing behavioural nudges that you can use to boost your teams happiness. How you can move the coffee machine to improve psychological safety and a simple question you can ask in a meeting to boost positivity. If you want to be happier at work but don't know how and want some really simple, quick (science backed) hacks, you'll love my substack :)
Hi Richard, love the sound of what you're working on. I tend to do long reads rather than 5-minute hacks, but we're kindof writing down the same pathways - you with happiness, me with optimism. I look forward to reading some of your work! And hey, someone else who has visited Kata Tjuta can't be all bad!
Ha! When I first went as a kid, they were also the Olgas. Then I went back a few years ago and the name had changed, but their majesty had not! All best!
Hi folks -- I'm Sophia, a young activist & poet from Boston. I started my page "Thoughts across Bostonia" a couple months ago, to post poems, essays, social commentary... etc. I'm a climate justice activist and I'm passionate about community engagement, so many of my recent essay carry those themes. Thanks everyone!
I have a recent post you might enjoy. It's entitled Three View-Changing Nonfiction Books. They might not be your kinds of reads, but hey, you never know!
Hi! I'm Yulle, and I started an art substack to share my journey and thoughts from a South Korean ghetto to now developing AI in Silicon Valley. Hope to meet and collaborate with others here!
I started my Substack newsletter this past December and I'm having so much fun! I have posted a few articles and daily haikus with images, but I decided to start posting my novel, Consumed, on Substack. I chose this platform because the thought of the traditional publishing process makes my blood run cold. For now its free because I'm fortunate to not need the income from my writing #priviledge. The story is just demanding to be in the world.
i've started my Substack, the Tales of Ink and Light, in November 2023, and i've been publishing weekly since. There are three sections in the newsletter:
• Tales of Ink and Light - short stories and poems told with words (the ink) and photographs (the light).
• Touches of Ink and Light - the story behind a photograph, thoughts on the creative process.
• Contes d'encre et de lumière - the French version of les Tales...
On Mon., Jan. 15, 2024, I launched my Substack. I subscribed to a few and thought I'd give it a whirl. In addition to being a preservation architect and business owner/operator, I write, consult, and speak about grammar and language, with a focus on the grammar and language people use in written and oral communications about the past.
This work draws attention to what I have described as "redacted grammar and language": grammar and language, like the passive voice and euphemisms, that obscure/hide/redact all of the facts of history or past events in general.
The key redaction is "who did what to whom." Perhaps (un)redacting this fact in history communications will lead us to knowing why and preventing why from happening and history repeating.
For those kicking off a new Substack in 2024, this will be your saviour to get things right from the start. A guide to help you with your subscribers growth. Hope it comes handy 🥃
Will be sharing new posts in the coming weeks on my 3 month strategy to grow my subscribers to 100K. Keep an eye out.
✏️ Who else has read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron? I’m doing the twelve week practice with two friends, and am on my second week of Morning Pages. I think I’m getting the hang of it, and enjoying the free write as a start to my day. Wondering if other writers have any advice or feedback?
I’ve also realized that I’m surrounded by Crazymakers. If you know, you know.
Also, what were your favorite Artist Dates? I’m looking forward to doing some solo creative activities that really help me get out of my head. I’ll share if you share.
My only advice would be to try as hard as you can to be 100%, ruthlessly honest. I've caught myself filtering my thoughts on the pages, even knowing that nobody would ever read them but me. It really opened my eyes to how much I censor what I say, do, think, feel, write.
My favorite *outside* Artist Dates: walking around an antique mall, going on a hike, doing a solo wine tasting, walking or driving around town with no plan and going down streets I've never been on before, FARMERS MARKETS, FLEA MARKETS, ANY MARKET.
My favorite *inside* Dates: paint by numbers, pottery kits, reorganizing my closet & making a Goodwill box (sometimes purging the excess in my life helps me think more clearly/be more creative), writing post cards to my long-distance friends (I always keep some on-hand from my antique mall trips), doing something I would never otherwise make time for, like building a snowman or making a really elaborate cake.
Fantastic! Authenticity is what I struggle with most. I've written that word dozens of times in my morning pages. I can't help but feel like someone is always looking over my shoulder. Glad to hear someone else struggles with the same. Love your Artist Date suggestions. Mine are: getting a cool coloring book, clean out an old photo pile or make a photo album/book, listen to local live music by yourself; do a sound bath, watch a sunrise/sunset, see a local art show, ride your bike somewhere new.
Yes! I feel you on the purging. Did that last week and it helped me feel a lot more creative, as well. Writing post cards is an excellent idea! I have so many that I haven't used, so this will be a good time.
Boy, I don't know about making you a better artist, but if you're "stuck" creatively, or trying to exercise some demons that are a "monkey on your back," I think it's worth a read. It's a bit more spiritual than I expected, but I'm enjoying that. I don't have a big IRL writing community, so it was nice that two other writers invited me along for the ride. They've done the 12-week program several times with lots of positive feedback. Give it a whirl!
Yes. I’m on my second round (first time was over a decade ago) and it has cracked open my creativity unlike anything I’ve done before. I’m excited for you to try it for yourself z
Hi guys! This feels, in Julia Cameron's words ~synchronistic~, but I am about to launch an Artist's Way study group with my newsletter. Last year, over 100 of us did it together in the Subscriber Chat and it was the most encouraging and supportive experience that helped so much with accountability. The book was transformative for me, my newsletter grew by over 1000, abundance came easily to me, and I felt so connected to my purpose as an artist. If you're interested in doing the workbook alongside dozens of other creatives, please join in! You don't have to be on the exact same timeline, as the community elements are helpful even if you're on another week.
So cool Ali. I totally agree with doing it as a group. Accountability is such a blessing. I'm in a group already, but I wish you all the best, and keep me in mind for 2025 if you continue the tradition! Happy New Year!
I'm currently going through The Artist's Way, as well! I've tried to remind myself to not treat the Morning Pages like a regular journal entry (like I tend to do). I let myself complain, or write about something mundane, or even make lists if I feel like it.
I feel you on the Crazymakers thing! They are everywhere!
Last week, I randomly went through and cleaned out my bedroom for the first time in 5 years -- bins, boxes, clothes, etc. Found a lot of decorative items I'd forgotten about, or even old letters, which were fun to look through. It was a spontaneous Artist Date, but I felt very creatively inspired after. I'm hoping to go see a local play next week. Will probably go thrifting/check out antique stores, as well.
Hello, Mariah 👋. I brought my Projectkin.substack.com community to Substack with a modest, though established base. Events (and recordings of those events) are core to what we do. I'd intended on rolling with embedded video out of Vimeo but the video post feature was introduced days after I launched so I jumped in with both feet.
Bruno's tip on the help pages is very good so I'll let you go there for instructions. I've used a wide range of video editing/posting tools over the last several years and I have to say their implementation is brilliant. Here's why:
I've used Vimeo, Video Milk, Descript, YouTube, Canva, and of course the usual social media platforms... this is perfectly suited to my needs. I'm recording or editing off platform then uploading to Substack.
Reach out directly if you need more. I'm happy to help.
Thank you! I'm curious if you use the Substack generated transcript? I've tried it and found it incredibly hard to edit and when I delete sections it leaves an awkward space. A lot of folks have mentioned Descript but I'm not generating enough income from my newsletter (yet!) to invest in a paying service.
Well, my perspective is primarily driven by my experience in wrestling video over several years so I suppose I'm not coming in with high expectations. 😉. First, I'd say that you shouldn't expect it to be an editor. Period. It's not. It's an incredible tool for distribution that just happens to allow you to record on the spot the way social media does.
Once you start paying for video editing you can go way-way-way up the scale. I keep it simple and use iMovie because it's free and I know it well. There are online video editing options like Camtasia (surprisingly good), Kapwing (not sure how good they are for long pieces) and others. Vimeo's "edit by text" feature (to compete with Descript) is probably pretty good, but is at the paid level.
If you have an hour-long recording where you want to edit out 10 minutes in the middle, then my bone-headed, quick and easy way to do it would be to upload (but not publish) to Substack to get your transcript. Use the transcript to find the right section, then do your delicate edit in something else (like iMovie).
Then delete the post and upload again to Substack. (Sorry, not what substack wants us to do, but it works in a pinch and on a budget.)
In the spirit of paying it forward, I'm happy to share more tricks, reach out to me at projectkin.org@gmail.com. 👋
Thanks for these tips and for taking the time to share your perspective! I'm new to video but am really enjoying the options it offers. I'll be sure to check out your project, too!
It's a delight to have you. I'm happy to talk Family History any time. 😉
I'd always known it was "hot" (in that 🔥McLuhanesque way) but honestly not appreciated it until I watched the differences in engagement levels between text and video.
I use Descript. It's not perfect, but it's worth $15/month for 10 hours of transcription. If you're also sharing the audio in podcast or voiceover form, you can edit the transcript in Descript, and it automatically edits the audio. Then you can export the edited transcript, do some final touches, and paste that into Substack. IMO, the built-in Substack transcript only makes sense if you plan to do minimal editing and are really trying not to pay for another service.
Similarly, I don't use the built-in recording for voiceovers because there is no editing capability. So you either have to do a bunch of takes to get it right (very frustrating) or just embrace imperfection. IMO, it saves time to record in Audacity, edit mistakes, and then import that audio file.
Hi! You can certainly have a video preview available to everyone and the whole video available to paid subscribers only. You'll need to create a video post to do this, though. Shen you share it on Notes, same thing applies. Free readers or non-subscribers will see the free preview, and paid subscribers will see the entire video.
The video won't play in the email app/client, readers will need to click on the video to open it or use the Substack app to see the video.
Thank you! It’d would be super helpful if we could do free previews when we embed a video within the post, too! As video is newer to this platform having the option to experiment is great. Thanks for all you’re doing for us here!
This is great. I didn't know any of that, and I've been reading my stories out via video since September. But I don't make videos, per se. I just hit the video player on the SUBSTACK page and start reading. I don't go back and fix it if I screw up -- you know, mispronounce a word, stumble, or stutter over a sentence. I only re-do it if the wife calls up from down in the kitchen, or the phone rings. We're not very hi-tech over here on this side.
🟧 - I have not met the publishing goals I had set out to accomplish and had promised my readers. Every single one of my paid subscribers is an annual pay. As a bonus--and an apology--I'd like to give them all a free year. Is it possible to give them a free single year as opposed to a lifetime free membership? My plan (of course) is to write like crazy this year.
✏️ hi, this is Takafumi Ide, joined Substack a couple weeks ago. Almost done my "About" page for "purple sketches" but no post yet. I'm preparing the post both in Japanese and English in one place. Do you have any suggestions; pro and con about two languages in one place? Thanks. ✏️ ✏️ ✏️ ✏️ ✏️
Hi Katie, was disappointed to see my question / comment regarding the issue of having read some recent news that Substack has allowed several right wing extremists/Nazis to continue to publish there and profit from their works, I am hesitant to be a contributor to the platform and requesting feedback from other writers here deleted. Am a new SubStacker with plans to do more, but am now reticent. Your thoughts?
🟧 If you make a podcast of your weekly written posts, what would be a good release schedule of the written posts and podcast both, should these be released at the same time?
✏️ People who have workshops, study groups, or classes behind pay walls... what do you do about people who sign up monthly to pay for an offering (worth much more than $5-8) and then cancel their membership after a month? I just launched an Artist's Way study group for paying subscribers and notice a lot of people signing up with monthly memberships. On one hand, it's totally fine! They're entitled to do it, and I'll need to work to make them want to keep subscribing after the 3-month workbook ends. On the other hand, it is disappointing to feel like all this growth will have inevitable drop-off, and that people are devaluing the experience. It also feels unfair to my longtime paid readers to increase the monthly rate significantly. I think the answer is just make content people want to stick around for, but would love any other tools, advice, or wisdom others have from dealing with it. (Would also love an option of certain things only being available to yearly subscribers!)
That's their karma, not mine. I don't think there's anything to be done. You can drip content in othert platforms, but not in Substack unfortunately. https://www.theauthorstack.com/substack
This is a question for the Substack team. (For some weird reason I can’t make the symbol with my iPhone).
I have been experiencing some throttling of my posts on places like Twitter. Is there a way to help combat this? Sometimes my articles have nothing to do with politics and they never see any traction.
My other question is: is substack going to create its own branch of targeted promotional programs, like create a heavy email social media campaign, where advisors can help us reach our full potential that will reach beyond our regular readers? Is that even feasible or is it merely up to the writer at this point on self promotion?
🟧 I'm a newbie who unfortunately hasn't had time to explore or publish much with two new releases by May 1 and a WIP in edits. Is there a Directory somewhere of all the newsletters on Substack? Or do we have to search for a certain topic?
I am celebrating recently hitting 200 subscribers which isn’t huge I know but so soon after that I hit 250 and I’m happy people are appreciating some of what I’m putting out there 🥰
Lots of love and luck to everyone giving this a whirl, being consistent and showing up🔥
Athina, my greatest strategy has always been engagement. On Notes and through comments. I've grown to over 330 subs in 4 months WITHOUT any social media.
You can only grow through patience. It's a slow climb at first. It took me 9 months to hit 100, and then it goes faster and faster. 6 months for the next 100, 3 moths after that. I suggest you don't worry too much about the numbers, and try to make your 'Stack the best you can. Work on the little things. Work on the email subscription page, the ABOUT page, make a table of contents. The more inviting you make the page look, the more likely you will be to get subscribers...and enjoy the process. THAT's the most important part. Enjoy it.
I do a ton of social media promotion just because I've got enough experience to make it flow, but yeah, the majority of my subscribers I don't know personally are from in here.
Yes, recommendations are amazing, both ways. I think I've gotten 28 subscribers from recommendations so far. And for the pubs I recommend, they've gotten so many new subs. It's a great way to network and grow!
That’s awesome! I’m on notes and try engaging in comms. It’s exhausting doing the copy/paste into various social media outlets, so i’m less consistent there. While I have a high open rate among the initial people I gave a free sub to, I find it’s been slow getting new subs just on Substack.
Do you find the more established newsletters is a pathway to more subscribers? And do you push a specific post each time you comment? Thanks for any help!
I don't push any posts when I comment. To me it feels spammy. I truly want to engage with people and the growth comes organically when I'm genuine.
I don't go out of my way to get into the big newsletters hoping to attract attention. I just choose newsletters I like and be genuine about my participation.
Notes is almost like Twitter, but on the Substack platform itself.
Click on your icon in the upper right corner (on desktop) and click "home" and you'll find the notes feed. Also, download the Substack app on your phone.
And quality. I think if you don't have quality, you're not going to have a lot of followers. No one wants to read something that is fll of spelling and grammar issues. Reread your work and make sure it's perfect BEFORE you send it out. READ it out loud to yourself, and you can HEAR the mistakes you made.
I say turn on the tap on and just let it go. Don't think about it too much. Tell your readers the PAID section is on if they want to donate to your cause. I turned mine on...about September, I think. I've picked up a few. I have a total of 15 now. I put my SERIAL stuff behind the paywall, with a promise that my SHORT STORIES AFTER EIGHT will always be free. I also tell them that the FREE section will always be the more important of the two. When I write my SERIALS, I leave a short synopsis of what happened last issue, just so they can see and maybe decide if they want to sign up, and then I close the door, invite those paid readers to leave comments and always interact with them if they leave a comment.
haha but what if they overflow, and flood my ensuite, and then I deal with an ongoing mould issue for the remainder of the decade. You might be right mate. Just go for it! That's interesting. I'm trying to think how I would do it. I do 4 articles a month, so maybe 2 are behind a paywall. But, in truth, I just don't like the thought of some people not being able to see it. I said I'd do it when I hit a thousand, but that's taking way longer than I expected. Another option is I saw a guy just lets people have it for free if they can't afford it, but want to, which is a nice idea
I also said I wasn't going to do it until I hit 1000. The thing about it is that SUBSTACK was always changing; it was growing and figuring itself out with me.. When I first started, I had three friends who signed up the second day as PAID subscribers. I told them I didn't have anything behind the PAYWALL and they said they didn't care. They just wanted to support me as a friend. Sometimes people just want to support you because they think you are worth it. That's the part that's hard to wrap your head around. When I started out, there was no NOTES, or CHAT. I signed up on other 'Stacks because I thought that was how I could show other writers my support. Once they started with the NOTES, I realized I could help get the word out by leaving comments and recommending their 'Stacks. I started off with three or four posts a week and finally settled down to a regular schedule of two/week. My short stories, and my serial novels. It made sense to put one behind the PAYWALL.
That's great news! I love the title of your post. Being consistent is KEY! I do once a week. After office hours I will be on it! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Congratulations. I'm within a couple of 100. Each step of this is a journey, but don't forget to have fun along the way and let your joy and personality show through in your writing.
🧠 Hi everyone! This is a general tip and it's the third time I've made it in these threads, but I keep coming back to it because it's so immensely important and I still see so many new Substack writers not doing. So, in case it's helpful:
*EDIT YOUR WELCOME EMAILS.*
These are the first emails anyone will get when they sign up to read your Substack. They are therefore part of the first impression they’ll get of who you are, what you do and why you’re worth reading. They mean *so much* to your branding. But if you leave them unedited, with just the standard text that Substack has put into them – well, that email will be fine, and contain all the relevant info, but it also won’t sound like YOU. It will entirely fail to sound like you.
(It’ll also fail to point them towards your best stuff, or tell them a story that immediately makes them laugh, or any number of incredibly powerful things you can do to make a winning first impression.)
Substack already recommends you personalise these emails – for example, https://on.substack.com/p/setting-up-your-substack-for-the under “Housekeeping”. But to me, it’s as vital as what’s on your About page. If you spend all that energy to get them to sign up and then their first, damaging impression of your work is “meh, that’s boring” - was it really worth all that effort?
So – as a matter of priority, edit your welcome emails. Go to Settings > Basics > “Welcome email to free subscribers” and click on the Edit button. Make it sound like you. Be surprising and weird and warm and fun. Make it an amazing introduction that will totally make them love you from the starter’s pistol, while *also* making them aware of everything great you’ve done so far, and maybe what else you have to offer, if you have a paid Substack.
(And then, hey, go do the same for “Welcome email to paid subscribers.” And then look for other emails you can edit – there are some under Payments. Anywhere else you can customize? Go find it!)
Sounding unique and interesting from the get-go is incredibly important in this newslettering lark. Everyone is tuning out mechanical-sounding emails. You need to sound amazingly human. And this is an easy humanning win. Go edit those emails and make a rock-star entrance.
I think someone explained it really well in a previous Office Hours, but I don't know where that link is - but basically (if I understand the definition fully) it's an introductory newsletter that you write but *don't* send out to your list, which you then pin to the top of your Substack's homepage. This is mine: https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/welcome-to-everything-is-amazing
I can't believe I haven't done that yet! I've been here for 1 1/2 years and this has just come to me? (I gotta get my head out of the sand.) Must be the Debrenko, Desenko, Demento , you know the guy I mean. I blame him.
🧠 Great point. We tend to "set it and forget it". Even if correct initially, we evolve, our substack evolves, our writing style evolves. Be sure ALL aspects of your Substack evolve along the way.
Thanks, Mike. I have edited my Welcome emails although you offered a couple of tips I hadn't considered, like pointing new subs to the best work. I hadn't thought of that.
I have a problem with figuring out what my best sub is. It's always the last story I've written. I loved a story that was one of my first, ST. FREDA, but then I wrote another one after that, and loved it. But I think when you write fiction, that's the way it SHOULD be. The last story you write should be the one you love best. The one I'm working on right now...is ah-mazing!
I agree ... but maybe look at the stats on your posts and pick one based on those metrics? This is much harder with serial fiction because you don’t necessarily want to drop them in the middle of it.
Yeah, but MY favourite, and my readers' favourites, are always going to be different. And it's hard to tell what a fave is if your numbers are growing. Some of my older stories didn't have as many readers as my newer ones. I repost them on notes, but there aren't any stats for those posts.
🧠 Celebrating...almost getting to 2,000 subscribers! I’m at 1,916 (and started with around 500; the growth is pretty much all from engaging on Substack). I’m also just a few folks away from 100 paid. I consider writing on Substack my most meaningful work, so those numbers mean far more to me than just dollar signs.
Great milestones to hit. Congratulations. It's hard to dig up out of the basement, but when you finally hit street level, it is enlightening. I haven't done it here, but have in other aspects of my life. It's a great ride.
Thank you for letting us know your subscriber growth is mostly from engaging on Substack. Makes sense! It's great to support one another on this ride! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Thank you, Cissy! I spend time on Notes daily, sharing and interacting. I also interact through comments on my own publication and on other people's publications. And I created an annotated directory of fellow Substackers in my niche (addiction recovery and sobriety). That latter step has brought so many wonderful connections, recommendations, and subscribers. It would be a great thing for others to replicate in other niches: https://danaleighlyons.substack.com/p/sober-substack-addiction-recovery-sobriety
🧠 Hello, everybody! Office Hours was such a big help for me in my first months of Substack. In fact, the first time I posted here resulted in my fist big jump in subscribers (10-15 in one day!), and since then, I made a habit to post consistently. This week, since it’s the new year and all, I just want to introduce myself to the new crowd.
I’m Andrei Atanasov, an essayist and memoirist from Romania. If you enjoy hopeful tales, essays that make you consider the everyday in a new light, and CATS, I welcome you to my blog. I’m always eager to learn, and share what I’ve gathered. We’ve built a vibrant little community over at Practice Space!
In other news, the best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten was to just. Do. My. Thing. Draw inspiration from others, but never copy; what worked for someone else might not work for you. Furthermore, it won’t feel natural, and heady readers can spot that. Write from the heart, and eventually the path will reveal itself. Happy weekend!
Hi, Andrei! Great tips. Office Hours was especially helpful to me when I was brand new here. And being able to be as much our authentic self is the key to so much--connecting, belong, relaxing. And making good art ;)
That's fantastic advice! Be YOU! I think we can get caught up in getting more subscribers and catering to what we think our readers want to hear but authenticity and uniqueness are the best attributes! sabrinalabow.substack.com
🧠 Good tips, Andrei. Sometimes we try to be everything EXCEPT our true selves. Especially in writing. I have found when I let go and let me be me, my writing is much more powerful. Oh, and don't forget to have fun doing it.
🧠 I remember going into Office Hours and feeling defeated about my subscriber count. I celebrate everyone here sharing their numbers AND I want to celebrate the folks here who also enjoy the process of writing and connecting with their readers without the worry of numbers. Dan Blank's Note earlier this week was a lovely reminder of this and reiterates one of my New Year's Resolutions, which is to write for an "active an engaged audience" -- no matter the number. https://substack.com/@danblank/note/c-47417975?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=rc2rv
Here's what Dan said if you don't want to click on the link:
"As you consider how you share here on Substack, focus on the people, not the numbers. It’s so easy to become distracted by the data, and by those who are celebrating milestone numbers of subscribers. Instead, consider how you can have one meaningful interaction with readers and writers today."
Thanks for the reminder, Stephanie. Since I write about difficult and "unspeakable" subjects in mental health, as well as more palatable topics, I can get new subscribers and lose them quickly. I am not for everyone. However, I consider who might need my message, who might benefit and if it's one person who reads and has more peace and a sense of solidarity because of my sharing (I'm not alone), that's worth it. It's not about the ego. However I'd like more subs just so that the message can reach those who need it.
I just subscribed because your description of "unspeakable" subjects in mental health are what I am interested in reading! I just read another note that said "The right essays find the right people at the right time."
Yup yup yup! Substack feels different than most social media sites anyway but it's SO important to focus on who's already supporting you and showing up and taking time out to engage and read your work for sure!
Yes, remember the small but mighty crowd of people following and interacting with you. Those are the folks I keep coming back to write my next piece for.
I love this, Stephanie. There is definitely a sense of a "Substack cool club" with all the heavy hitters who have thousands of subscribers. I've felt intimidated, too. But I also feel like I'm starting to carve out my own little corner with people I regularly interact with.
Yes, corners are cool. Corners we've carved out for ourselves and our readers are even cooler :) About to read your piece "an ode to sleep" because it's not even noon right now and I want to take a nap!
Yes to this, thanks Stephanie! I have met the most wonderful and amazing people here. I also hold in my mind those I don’t ‘see’, the quiet readers who choose not to comment. I work from a heart-centered perspective that my writing, which is about listening to our inner whisper and having the courage to follow it, will land where it should. Those who need and want my style of writing will find it and I hold them in my mind as I work. They are not a random number on my way to a milestone (although those are lovely too!)
You bring up such a good point. I have lots of quiet readers. My open rates are there and not everyone likes or comments. I have some friends I don't see very often who are subscribers and then when I do see them, they remind me of all the things I've written in the past. They're actually reading and taking something away from what I've written! Beautiful.
🧠 Dan always has such great advice. One thing I would add is to remember to have fun with the entire process. Writing, reading, growing all have their own challenges but remember that you are here because you WANT to be here. Make sure it stays fun and your joy will shine through.
Agree, this is a great reminder, David. The process is what has kept me going for more than a year. I am still loving it and there is such a high I get from publishing my newsletter each week.
This week I will be launching a new feature called "Flashpoint Fridays," for paid subscribers, who will receive a writing prompt each Friday and be invited to post a paragraph from their write on the CHAT feed, where others can read and comment on their work. This week "Everything is Personal" surpassed the mark of 7500 subscribers and is nearing 500 paid subscribers. Huge thanks to the network of curious, supportive, and generous readers, enjoying a marriage of literary expression and feminist consciousness.
Hey, maybe you want to jump on my new feature called "Flashpoint Fridays," where I send out a prompt, and writers can post a short excerpt on CHAT. This daily practice has meant everything to my becoming a better writer.
Great job, Laurie, and I will check out your substack! I've been a writer for 30-plus years. Any tips for subscriber growth? I'm thrilled I crossed 900 subscribers!
Looking forward to seeing you on the stack. My best tip is post the most accomplished writing you are capable of and invent a voice that doesn’t sound like anyone else and is always in love with the need to talk to you.
🟧 - Substack is an amazing place for sharing and enjoying poetry! I think a few of us poets have these two items on our wishlists:
1. Highlighting text to quote in a Note is an awesome feature. But it doesn't work in the poetry block, which means we poets need to chose between formatting our poems or making them quotable, which impacts the effectiveness of Notes for us. So... Notes quotes from the poetry block! 😊
Yes! We need a way to preserve the formatting of poems on Notes. And why, oh why, is there no Poetry category when there are so many poets writing here?
I'd love to hear from and connect with more poets here. I just began sharing a poetry series titled Bloom: A season of grief and gratitude from the years after my Dad died and I became a mother for the first time.
I've been sharing the poems as a paid offering via video but only pay walling part of the letter. So far it's not gaining as much traction as I was hoping. Have others found success converting paid subs via their poetry? I'd love to hear your ideas!
One of the main things that has boosted my paid subscriber numbers is hosting virtual gatherings. I write in the mental health space and provide weekly journal prompts. Roughly once a quarter, I host a zoom gathering for about an hour where we spend a little time writing together and a little time in conversation about the prompt. Every time I start mentioning our next gathering, my paid numbers go up.
Hey Mana, we rounded up our best guidance in thinking through your paid strategy and converting free to paid subscribers here: https://on.substack.com/p/free-vs-paid
I would create value outside of the writing. One thing I do to build value is offer downloadable books and templates that my community can use for their advancement. Digital products have been my strategy and I've been able to gain 5 paid subscribers in a little over two weeks.
My weekly newsletter serves as a community newspaper for my Dallas suburb. Each edition includes four articles. My free subscribers receive only the final edition of each month, and in those editions, I briefly describe all the content they've missed since they last heard from me. That usually prompts several free subscribers to become paid subscribers. I also put the first article in each weekly edition outside my paywall and encourage my paid subscribers to share it on their social media.
I’m going to subscribe to use it as a guide b:c I want to write a Nltr for my condo wh has 1000+ units w 2000+ people. I’m thinking in and around Montebello w a focus on the crap going on w the board (does anyone care?) and heads up & reviews of local events and venues. I want to provide a platform where people can comment w:out being censured. The FB page and other social media have mediators that delete posts such as something as simple as: I got bad service at the Grille. Delete.
Add value through awesome storytelling (and advice/info) that anyone can use to improve their lives. I find people are willing to pay just because they love your content, even if you don't paywall it. I don't have paywalls yet I have paying subscribers!
I found a lot of efficacy in building out my paid archive with courses and other material, while keeping my main publication free to work. I have 600 paid only posts though. Also adding a paywall in the middle of a post helps. Mostly, it's a function of getting more subs and length of time. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/substack
🧠- Here's a cool strategy I engaged in last week. There's been a lot of talk about writing a "hero post." It's sort of like your welcome page but instead it's a post pinned to the top of your homepage. Think of it as an intro and a road map for potential readers...it'll be the very first thing they see when they land on your publication...even before your about page.
I like that. I've been pinning my best stories to the top (well, what I think are the best), but hadn't considered writing one specifically for that purpose. Great food for thought. Thanks!
Hello! I've been here a few months, watching quietly, reading avidly, posting timorously, but am finding my feet. This is the first time I've seen an invitation to introduce ourselves, so here I am! I've published three literary novels, a lighthearted travel memoir and several books on writing craft. I just judged a writing prize, which was an eye-opener. My substack is a creative diary, musings on writing craft and publishing, and my long quest to train a worried Irish horse.
Welcome Roz! No need to be shy around this crowd. I've never been involved in a more receptive, helpful, and generous group of people. Curious where you published your novels. I have one book I published on Amazon. I am currently working on two others and debating whether I want to continue on Amazon or look at other avenues.
I publish everywhere I can. Amazon, of course, but also other platforms that get to a huge range of outlets - Smashwords/Draft2Digital and Kobo. I publish ebooks, print and audiobooks. I don't know how much detail to give you because I don't know your level of expertise and I certainly don't want to teach you to suck eggs... but I can certainly point you to advice if you need it.
Don't I recognise your name from ALLi? I'm terrible at faces, but tend to remember names. I write (here) about anything that takes my fancy. Most recent one was on being present when someone had a heart attack. You can also see me stand on my head (in a 2 minute video attached to a post about standing on your head),
Thanks for subscribing. I subscribed to yours, but I must warn you that I am very fickle. I try quite a lot and settle on a few. There are so many excellent writers here (such as Margaret Atwood, Garrison Keillor et al) that it's a wonder that anyone subscribes to you and me!
Well, I'm interested in life and death and am about to be 82, so I have a bit of experience of this and that. I claim to write about everything from Annunciations (paintings) to orgasms. Funnily enough, the post on the former has more views than the post on the latter. Life is full of surprises. Here is the one showing me standing on my head: https://arichardson.substack.com/p/why-does-anyone-stand-on-their-head. I’ll let you find the others yourself. I am very fond of a piece I wrote about the vulva, but it all depends on your interests (I was going to say ‘tastes’, but that doesn’t sound quite proper in the circs).
🧠 ✏️ 🟧 - It's really great to see Kathryn Vercillo's community building work gaining some attention. She's an excellent connector for multiple writers, and her ability to produce useful, actionable content is impressive!
Love this idea .... and we could share them in Notes, although I would have to look up and see if we can link Notes in a post so somebody could read them all in one place .... however 1914 is not my wheel house (a,though my house was built that year), a hundred years before that I could do. I think that might be fun! Says she who should be formatting the first few posts ready for next month’s launch.
Just plonking in here that you can put Notes into a post, so they could be collected! Ben, I may steal this idea from you (as our wheel houses are so different)
I love researching obscure facts. They inspire plus I like to slide them in as a minor detail. Oooh, instead of lovers what about best friends? Perhaps serving on different fronts or one is a conscientious objector?
A rare skill, particularly in today's intemperate climate. Not enough effort made to understand someone else's point of view. Instead, we have entrenched thinking and desperation to be right.
I've really enjoyed interviewing folks on and off Substack for my Pathfinders series, focused on sharing stories from ordinary folks living extraordinary lives! My collaboration with @KevaEpale is another one of my favorites- we spent a week sending voice notes to each other answering different questions about creativity and then Keva put it all together in a lovely format on her newsletter!
beautiful – love the 5x5 format :) thanks for sharing, Holly! how have you found the process of collabing with others to be different in terms of an individual essay? any differences in engagement?
how have you thought about the theme of 5x5 of who you're collabing with?
This particular collab scheme is so new, I’m mostly learning right now. There’s a lot to consider--the other writer’s time and vision, what will work well for readers, how to use the Substack tools to best publish and share, to name a few. It’s kind of like throwing something out there, watching it grow, reigning it in. There’s a better metaphor that’s not quite coming to me. But it’s been a wonderfully fun process that promotes generosity of spirit and requires a bit of trust. So totally my type of thing. 😉
Right now I have a couple in process, a couple more very nascent. I’m a planner. What I’m learning is it’ll be very different depending on who I’m collaborating with. Also, I’m learning about the importance of clear, concise initial communication on my end. 😂
thanks for sharing your reflections, Holly! inspired by this approach :) sounds like you're planting a bunch of seeds and trusting what is meant to bloom will bloom 🌸
My favourite collab is the letters between Terry Freedman and Rebecca Holden. They have been writing back and forth for quite awhile and it’s wonderful.
This week, I celebrate 400 subscribers! 400 people read my work? I don't even know that many people. I have another 100'ish that "follow" me. I could rent a hall and fill it up with that many people. (Not a BIG hall, but a Hall just the same.) It's been a slow and steady climb. I'm averaging about 1.3 subscriptions a day. I like that, when you average it like that, I mean. Some days go by and there's nothing. Some days go by and three people unsubscribe. But then two days later I'll pick up two, and the day after, three, and then the day after that, two more. If there's one thing I've learned, it's don't sweat the numbers. I LOVE that I've got 400, but I hit 400 eight days ago, and then lost three subscriptions the very next day, and didn't pick up another subscriber for five days. And then I get seven over the course of two days. That kind of yo-yo subscription is enough to drive you bat-shit. Instead of people subscribing, they were "following." They're still reading me, they're just not getting my emails in their inbox. Now I'm on my way to 500!
🧠 - I recently enrolled in my first writing class ever. On day one, the instructor told us: "As of now, you are all writers and you are taking your work seriously." The mindset shift I've experienced after internalizing this simple and obvious statement was huge. Tell yourself that today, and believe it!
🧠 Agreed, take your work seriously. HOWEVER, always remember to have fun doing it and take joy in your own writing. It makes a difference in how your readers feel after reading your work.
Agreed. Becoming yet another gatekeeper trying to enforce a constantly moving and impossible target of everyone's idea of acceptable social values is not cleaning up anyone's reputation. If there are fascist Substacks then don't subscribe, don't read it, don't share it.
Really good topic. Maybe not for this venue, but important. If we stop everything that someone feels is offensive, then what is the point of Substack's self-sorting read-what-you-want ideal?
Thank you so so so very much for this incredible support :)) I'm so very thankful to be here among these brilliant and creative writers and artists. There is so much to learn and experience! I'm so happy. <3
🟧 Substack team: sharing a great thread from the community on their top feature requests for 2024 from last week's office hours!
A few of the popular requests: better essay & writer discovery, DMs, more functionality for paywall & paid flexibility (not closing off comments to only paid subscribers):
Don't try to be a writer, because you might just succeed, and then you're screwed. Be a storyteller, and the reader might be able to get from A to Z without drowning in a glut of adjectives and adverbs. Another tip is to tattoo your Substack URL on your grandmother's head. Seek permission first, obvs. Then just sit back and let the magic happen.
The biggest mistake most writers make is writing like 'a writer', at once sacrificing the only thing that sets them apart from other people and also they're greatest strength, their voice.
Brand it - with permission of course - brand the QR code, I mean with a hot iron. The noise in the media will do enough. "Writer brands QR code into grandmother's forehead," would be great publicity. My grandmothers are dead, though, a couple of marketing ideas that went wrong.
Welcome to all of the new writers here! I’ve been here for 5 months and have just reached the 900 subscriber mark which I can’t quite believe!
The community here is the best part and I have met some wonderful people both virtually and in real life as a result of writing here.
I write about career change, life as a multi-hyphenate creative and I celebrate brilliant women through my podcast ‘Inspiring Creative Career Change’. I’d love to welcome you into the Chez Hanny fold ✨
Hot dang Hannah, congrats! 900 in 6 months is so impressive!
It seems like our niches overlap, it's SO nice to meet a fellow career-focused writer! I'm a holistic career coach who writes about burnout prevention/recovery, career change, and balancing non-work roles (especially parenthood) with work.
Thanks Lydia! It does sound like we have crossover. I recognise now that I was suffering from burnout and the changes I’ve made since have been revelatory. Writing on here has been one of the best things I’ve ever done
I love hearing how helpful writing has been for you! Honestly, that's something I ask my career coaching clients to pay attention to when they're burnt out... yes, they need to offload tasks, but sometimes the key is also ADDING something that you love.
Hello, I'm fairly new to Substack. I launched This Is The Day on January 1. The concept is that each day I will choose one historical event that happened on today's date in history and I'll tell you all about it. Then, I merge that event with Biblical truths and scripture presenting insights into both history and scripture in a comprehensive daily devotional.
(I'm over two weeks late with that NY greeting, but who's counting?)
This year, I'm aiming to collaborate more with the awesome community here.
One initiative was to introduce a segment called "AI Voices" to my Sunday column. Here, other writers on Substack chip in with their tips, advice, or real-world examples of using AI. (For reference, here's last Sunday's issue: https://www.whytryai.com/p/10x-ai-34-gpt-store-luma-labs-genie-website)
But I'd love to get a more diverse range of voices than "people who already write about AI."
As such, if want to contribute to future "AI Voices," I'd be delighted to hear from you.
You can respond here, but it's even better if you drop me a line at whytryai@substack.com. (You can still leave a comment here saying you've done so, in case you somehow end up lost in the Spam Valley of my Inbox.)
I'm also open to other ways of collaborating, like co-writing articles, participating in workshops, and whatever else it is people do when they "collaborate" "together."
I have some experience with AI, most notably (albeit personally), how AI was able to grasp my story and validate my story in a way most humans could not. Incredible and blew my mind. It brought to mind the movie from the early 2000s called "Her" where a man falls in love with the robot voice played by Scarlet Johansen (ok we might all fall in love with her voice Lol). But my experience really moved me. And it was AI. so I am open to further discussions about collaborating.
That's exactly the kind of story I'd love to feature: real people actually getting something out of AI (instead of all the theoretical hype). Write me at whytryai@substack.com and let's see what we can do!
I actually didn't write about it in my story. Daniel's prompt reminded me of how I've recently used it in seeing if my message was clear in a chapter of a book I'm writing. Maybe I will write about it because I was so amazed that validation from a computer program could mean so much. Not what I was expecting.
Daniel – I'm experimenting with a number of AI tools for to support emotional work and doing a mini write-up to support others on their introspection journey outside of just working with a therapist. would love to share it with you!
If you'd like, you could give me just a shorter 100-word summary/teaser for the upcoming Sunday. Then we could ask people to visit your Substack for more!
THANKS for this nice offer for us tech nerds. I've used several AI tools and am very interested in how to train machine learning to speak in my Voice. As a singer, performance artist and writer, my substack is all about being brave to share your authentic (semi-weird) voice. In my AI experiments thus far, Voice is what's missing. I'll reach out via email.
I'm celebrating getting my largest audience with my last Substack. Seventeen of them in and it's starting to make a little headway. I love this platform!
Hey, everyone. I've almost been here a year and started from scratch - zero, zilch, no emails no lists to bring over. I'm still working out my thing but it's all going really well. My writing is free to everyone but people can pay if they want to, the archive goes behind a paywall after three months. I've got 289 subscribers and 6 paid (none of them family!). I have a growing group of regular people that I talk to and respond to and. they are all terrific. Last week I started an audio voice-over with my posts and that has had really good feedback. I'm very excited about continuing to write and talk and growing a group of like-minded people who write and talk about the same sort of things. I'm more than happy for it to be slow and I'm loving Substack.
Hi June! My name is Maggie! Nice to meet you :) I am so curious to learn more about your growth and also your experience of starting audio voice over with your posts! Any advice for someone just getting started on substack with 37 followers?
Hi there. Write regularly and post at a regular time so people know when to expect you in their inbox. Engage with your subscribers - ask for feedback on your posts or comments below the post. Engage on Notes with people who are or seem to be like-minded or write about similar things or things that interest you, leave comments on their posts. At the beginning - show up, write and keep writing. Make your writing as good as it can be and keep improving it. I dont think I can advise about audio as I've only posted one! But it took me a while to gather the courage to do that!
My 2024 wish-list from the ever ambitious Substack tech development team is....
-A minimalist drawing tool within a New Post, as an easy alternative to drawing images with a mouse instead of uploaded photos or ai,
-A Substack-specific ebook creator with great featurea- credit to Winston Malone at the below post for starting this discussion, which we continued in the relevant comments:
-also (but more for other kinds of creators than us fiction authors) it might be cool to create more directories of data, or create synergies with companies that do real-time data output. Think what Marine Traffic does for real time shipping data, or astronomy and weather sites, or Astro.com does for ephemeris and other collections. There are huge creator markets Substack could tap into if it provides the data libraries that would simplify their work.
✏️ Fellow writers who have an organized archive of posts.... how do you organize it? I'm in the process of rebuilding my fiction archive to make it a bit easier. There's a parent page that has links with a quick synopsis of each story. But it's getting a bit long. I'm thinking of breaking it down by collection... or alphabetizing. I'm not really sure what the best way is to handle this!
Thanks for sharing your TOC. I think these are really helpful. You might put an index of jump links at the top that pop readers down to the sections -- since it's long. That still allows a single page, but it make it easier for readers to know "at the top" what the categories on your TOC are. They can then self-select to jump to specific areas of the page.
I am working through some similar organizing .... it's a tedious process, but I'm going through and tagging (and updating tagging) posts, adding some tags to the navigation bar, and thinking through index and "start here" pages. Once posts are tagged, it's easy, of course, to take tags on and off of the navigation bar.
I have a hero post on my publication that lists things, and I have tags plus segments, but Substack is kind of rubbish at organization. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/substack
✏️What I would be so grateful for would be help getting my essay contest widely seen. There's $12,000 in prize money, it is that important to me to get entrees to deal with this unworkable world -- what my Substack is all about -- but my skills here on Substack are shabby and my time is tight. Is there anyone I can pay to guide me? (PS: From my efforts so far -- not great but something -- one result has been a lot of new subscribers!)
ESSAY CONTEST with Cash Prizes!
It’s January 1, 2050. How, in 2024, did we pull off saving the world?
Suzanne, I'm sharing in speculative writer's communities on Facebook. Agree with Cissy that a word count heps us to focus. One could (and many have) write novels on this important topic. As a former Creative Director, I could offer to make a sharable image with details... to help spread this MOST generous and wonderful opportunity. Let's email?
In my announcement I say, "Be as concise as you can so as not to lose readers, while giving details that demonstrate the workability of your ideas." It would be arbitrary to set a word count and I thought this prompt would be better. I could be wrong. Do email me: suzanne@mightycompanions.org.
Suzanne you could reach out to kristikeller@substack.com for help. She might be able to assist you. She writes her own newsletter and knows her way around Substack.
Hmmm. You need a Connector (Malcolm Galdwell coined the term) who can really rock putting out the word. Like a PR rockstar here in Substack. It's hard to reach folx here on Notes unless you have a massive subscriber list... Wish I knew someone like that for you.
LOVE this effort, Suzanne! I may be contributing an essay as saving the world in the form of redefining modern day human flourishing is what I write about (https://www.moremyself.xyz/p/glow-up)
a few suggestions:
- identity writers who write about this space to promote it
- share a bit more guidance on the format of the essay submission (word count, how long you're looking for, etc.)
- invite other writers who write about this space or the broader community to co-judge
I like your ambitious intention. I haven't found people on Substack 'like you,' looking for what we could do to make a massive change, and I'd appreciate any steers to simpatico others.
I don't have an organization that judges would be culled from, so if it were to go to others to judge I'd have to put my thinking cap on. If I get entries with technologies I don't understand, I do have an illustrious organization I belong to, the Scientific and Medical Network, which promotes this as a member's project, to help me.
Since the first article is necessarily six typewritten pages, is that too long for submission? As to type of audience, the focus is on Shakespeare and how events within his plays have been influenced by various aspects of his life. The first article is the longest of the ten or twelve. The others are shorter since they each concentrate on single, individual instances. Again, my question is as follows: Is that first article too long?
Nothing is 'too long' for submission. If it goes too long Substack will tell you it is too long for email, which I think means it will get cut off with a link to the rest.
If you are really worried, why not just to part A and part B.
Thanks for letting me know Substack's policy regarding length. That was what I was looking for. As to A and B? That would disrupt the integrity of the effort but thanks for mentioning it as a possibility.
Next 28 January it will be 16 years since I started a blog in Spanish, Cosas que (me) pasan. In November 2022 I turned it into a newsletter on Subtack. So far I have published on both the blog and Subtack, but from 28 January next year I plan to move completely to Subtack and start taking paid subscriptions. With almost 4300 subscribers, I will start with a post explaining the reason for the paid subscription, what I am offering (among other things an online podcast listening club) and hopefully get lucky. Any advice?
And a suggestion: Why not celebrate "writing hours" in Spanish? There is a huge community.
Bienvenido :) Nos encantaría tener un horario de oficina en español. ¿Participarías regularmente?
Here are some tips to help you transition smoothly:
In your announcement post, be transparent about why you're moving to a paid model. Share your journey and the value your Substack will provide. Highlight the unique offerings like your online podcast listening club. Explain how these will benefit your subscribers and enhance their experience. This guide may be helpful: https://on.substack.com/p/free-vs-paid
You can also consider offering a special rate or bonus content for early subscribers to encourage sign-ups.
And you may want to try features like Chat to foster a sense of community and bring your readers to life together (read more - https://on.substack.com/p/chat-faq).
Yes, I would obviously attend regularly. From what I've seen around, here in Spain, there's a lot of activity in Spanish, with a lot of writers moving to the platform, so I think it would be useful.
Thanks for your tips, I would study them in detail.
New here, just started this week. A former indie book publisher (25 years), I write about some of my favorite topics (and the focus of Conspire Creative, a book business agency I own): creating holistic, sustainable, income-generating author business you love; entrepreneurship for authors; creative book marketing; outreach for authors; and why/how authors are in a growth industry in the age of automation.
I wrote you a lengthy comment, but had tech issues when my screen started jumping up and down. Just want to say how wonderful that you’re bringing this skill set and experience. Very much appreciated and will be highly valued.
Thanks, Christine! After all my years in the business, I didn't realize until the last few years what a specialty and specific viewpoint/advocacy I had developed.
I've recently been so inspired by folx who simply followed what they loved, one step in front of the last, and created so much beauty in this world. Well done! Many authors will find their way to your powerhouse Stack. BTW, I highly recommend @Sarah Fay's Writers at Work. Great newbie strategy, support, and community of serious writers. Check out the chat to crowd-source good titles for your posts or publication.
✏️ I'm interested in the relationship between publishing on Substack and publishing in publications (like newspapers, magazines, etc. that pay writers). How much does it harm the chance for publication in the latter if it's first on your substack? Is it worth it to hold back essays on Siubstack while trying to have them published elsewhere? And strategies on this?
I’m curious about this as well. I would guess most outlets don’t want something that’s already been published, but would love to hear if (and where) writers have been able to do both at the same time.
[Inserting myself into old office hours for fun ;)] Whatever I write weekly here gets picked up (and paid for) by my regional paper. I already had a relationship with them as a reporter previously so when they heard I had a newsletter they wanted me back. I was only willing to share what I was already doing, so I feel like I'm double dipping here and it's taken the pressure off the numbers game on Substack. I'm getting paid regardless, feels great. It is my friends/neighbors, so I get a little shy about what I'm sharing sometimes, but I'll get over it... Did just write about this a bit in my recent 10 tips from my one-year-in perspective if it helps any: https://sleepyhollowink.substack.com/p/hack-your-substack-10-tips
Lots of people have gotten something picked up by a newspaper or magazine. I don't have a list, but I remember it happened to Farrah I think, but they were already a known commodity. My strategy is write a great post and get traction on it. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/substack
🧠 Hi everyone 👋🏼 I'm celebrating 1 year on Substack 🎉. I finished the year with 459 subs, including a few paid. One thing that I've really enjoyed doing is experimenting with different formats and seeing what works for my audience and what doesn't. For example I tried doing regular threads but didn't get loads of engagement so stopped those. My readers seems to enjoy my narrative essays the most so that's what I'm focusing on for 2024 including sharing more about my writing life and I'd also like to do some collaborative work 😊
Congratulations on a full year on Substack!! That's an amazing feat, subbie count, and reflection! It's great to be getting engagement and feedback to see where we should focus more of our time, especially when we're enjoying it as well!
🧠 Congratulations Hannah. Not bad for one year. Agreed, it is important to learn from what we do. What works. What rewards. And what is more of a time consumer than something moving you forward. Just remember to have fun and find joy in what you are doing.
Yay! I'm loving collabs so far -- what kind of collaborations are you inviting? (I'm a rebel and ran longstanding circles for women in mid-life, so lots we could chat bout!) Check out my post "Rebel Monkeys Unite!" https://heartsquest.substack.com/p/rebel-monkeys-unite
Aww 🥰 thank you so much. I’ll take a look at yours and see what my Soul (e.g, gut Intuition says). perhaps we could create prompts, questions that others could respond to. Lots of people here write about midlife, Sarah Bolton at Oldster Magazine, etc.
(I was a little too early to the midlife party. Most did not want to talk about menopause when I began a website/community called joyful midlife. Now I wish I’d stuck with it! 😫)
Thanks Christine. I was a Midlife coach for 5 years... I gave up due to health reasons. Nowadays I mainly write narrative essays about the midlife experience from a neurodivergent perspective. Anyway would love to hear your thoughts once you’ve had a look x
I'm curious to know what unexpected outcomes have come up for you as a result of publishing on this platform. New friends? Job opportunities? Exciting collaborations? Creative breakthroughs?
Yes, it's made me excited about writing again and the possibilities of it. I had so many 'almosts' dealing with various companies within the industry and the whole process was starting to become frustrating, whereas here you can just publish without any 'gatekeepers'. It's a wonderful thing... 😎
It really is, yes. You can also maintain complete control of it, of course, and just write the way you want to without fear of being asked to make changes. That's a wonderful feeling, too! 😎
After some years of feeling bad as a somewhat lapsed novelist (kids, life, work happened), this place--and recommitting to a regular writing practice, weird weekly essays--has lit up my brain again. I'm reading, thinking, absorbing in the best flow kind of way where everything connects, and ideas keep coming. Really love this platform and this community! And it doesn't hurt to be paid a little in the process. I also got picked up by my regional paper, so I guess I'm syndicated ;)
Wow, that's amazing & I'm so happy to hear that Substack has reignited your creativity and led to new opportunities. I'm loving the community here, as well! So many people to learn from, and I love that we're all collectively experimenting :) Thanks for sharing that with me!
Hi Brina - Substack has nudged me to write regularly, to research in support of my writing, to overcome shyness to interact with other writers online and in person, to try new marketing ideas, and to learn a whole bunch of new ideas.
Hi, George. That's great! I can definitely relate to each of these. It's so nice to grow in these different ways! Thanks for sharing your experience and best of luck.
✏️ For writers who write about several topics, and who want to provide value to readers (thereby increasing readership, and monetization), what is a good strategy ?
1. Create one publication only, and use Sections or Tags to group the topics
2. Create multiple publications, one for each topic, use Sections for the type of writing, not the content
3. Create multiple author accounts, one for each publication, so that the About of each author will be specific to that publication (each author could be @real_name_topic1 and @real_name_topic2🙏🏼
4. ____ ?
If you also have thoughts on what your preferred approach does to the monetization aspect (integration with Stripe etc) please share.
Option 1. Have one publication with different sections. Explain to the people that they can manage their preferences and turn on/off the different sections. This is not very well known.
In general, I would advise to choose one topic for writing, or at least to have an overacting topic for all sections.
thank you. from your answer, I'm getting that if I am certain I want to write about a variety of fairly diverse subjects (if I have the time) , then I need one publication for each subject ( collection of topics.)
For example, one publication on web technology, and then multiple sections (coding, design, etc.) and if I want to talk about a completely different subject, that means i need another publication (so option 2 in that case)
Do you want to give people access to everything, because aside from founding that's your only option. If you want people to access certain things, probably other publications, but it's exhausting to build two things. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/substack
I've been writing since I was a kid. Started when I was 7, and I'm 77 now. I know practice makes perfect, so I'm still practicing. All I ever wanted to do was read and write, and now that I'm retired I'm doing a lot of both. I've been a soldier, a chef, a corporate worker, a community organizer (20 years,) and a producer of spoken word and music events. My interests are wide and varied, and my poetry covers a lot of territory. My wife and I split our time between Seattle, and Guanajuato, MX, also a lot of territory.
I’ve been writing on Substack for about three months, but never actually introduced myself at one of these. My little corner of the internet is titled: “Bright Side Writings – optimism-led, fortnightly stories to brighten these dark times of climate emergency and global strife.” If you read my piece It’s All About The View (https://matthewcurlewis.substack.com/p/its-all-about-the-view), that might give the best idea of where I’m coming from.
I’m an Australian writer/creative professional living in Amsterdam, by way of Tokyo and New York, and I look forward to communicating with many of you. Feel free to say G’day and I’ll swing that back in your direction as soon as I can.
Hello! I literally just got my 47th paid subscriber a couple of minutes ago! I started serializing my memoir on Dec. 7, for free. I have more than 360 subscribers in total (the number goes up and down) but what's really exciting to me is how many people are reading my writing–more than 7800 views cumulatively so far, and 306 today as I write this. Which is a whole lot more eyeballs than when the manuscript was stuck on my hard drive as I tried, unsuccessfully, to find an agent and/or publisher. I've got a lot to learn and there's so much on Substack to take in, but I am very glad I took this step (which I did after getting a lot of encouragement).
I’m at 360 subscribers! I love my audience. I wish I could invite them all over for milk and cookies. Granted it would be coconut milk and gf, df cookies. 😉
✏️ 🟧 Hi folks, this is my first time jumping in to office hours so HELLO! I'm a former music and brain scientist turned multimedia creative (author, podcaster, speaker, creative director) and when I started here I really wasn’t sure whether I would have the brain space to write regularly given my other work streams but it has been such a JOY. So first, thank you Substack team for creating/maintaining/evolving this platform.
My question is: I am soon to celebrate one year on Substack and am wondering if anyone has interesting ideas for how to celebrate this milestone. I have seen some friends offer discount subscription rates but that doesn’t appeal to me, I think because I feel a bit bad about people who have subscribed at the full rate (what can I say, I am a Libra + enneagram #1 with a serious streak of desire for fairness). Thanks in advance!
Happy almost one year, Christine! I always think about the anniversary as a time to reflect. As Bruno mentioned, you don't have to offer anything. In fact, I think your gratitude for subscribers is the best thing you can offer.
You might consider it an opportunity to share what you've learned, spotlight some people that particularly went above and beyond supporting you or round up the most loved post from the year.
HI Katie, thank you so much and YES, this sounds perfect. I am all about reflection and lessons learned so thank you for being inside my brain like that. :-) I will check out those posts, too. Thanks again!
Hi Christine! Every publication/author is different and different things work for different publications. It really is up to you what you'd like to offer your subscribers to celebrate your first year. If you don't feel comfortable offering a discount to new subscribers, you can maybe offer ie. a free month to existing subscribers or something similar to that by extending their subscriptions in your dashboard. You could also offer some kind of special content/post to those who've been supporting you throughout this first year.
Hi Bruno -- thanks so much, and I love this idea of offering a free month. I will look into how to set that up! Appreciate you taking the time to respond.
Yay brain science! yay multimedia creative! we have a lot in common. I look forward to checking out your Stack (working on a graphic novel includes neuroscience of inner protective parts, what I call my Monkeys of Fear).
Thanks for sharing the virtual book tour post. I really hope to see many more people do their own variations on this. My experience of connecting and collaborating with others in this way was so powerful. I also invite ongoing collaboration:
Hello -- I thought I'd take advantage of your invitation to introduce myself. I'm a veteran journalist and the author of The Unmooring, a historical novel about the 1960s: www.kenfireman.com.
I recently started a Substack newsletter called Liticisms, which explores the relationship between books and contemporary issues in the world: https://liticisms.substack.com/
🟧 I have this idea of using Substack the way the 17th century writers published serial literature in fascicles. I have written (but not published) a nonfiction book, and I thought I’d release it chapter by chapter to subscribers. I’m also looking at doing companion audio recordings. Is there precedence for this? Are there suggestions for making it work?
Wow! How timely! Thank you for directing my attention there. There is so much to see. Bailey, do you know how I might make my book separate from the rest of my posts? Can I do that on my one Substack?
There are people doing this! Elle Griffin wrote a lot about this in her older works. I used to have a resource that links to all of the active fictionistas on Substack but I can't find it at the moment. Just poke around on Google or here on Substack and let your curiosity lead you to discovering all the fiction writers producing serials.
Are you celebrating something this week? Whether it's an anniversary or a new subscriber milestone, reply to let us know.
I'm celebrating getting 22 subscribers in my first week. I know, that's not setting the world on fire. But I'm excited nonetheless.
You wouldn't have one subscriber if you hadn't started your Substack. Congratulations. You now share an honorable place in the history of existence: You are a creator! Love and light, rv
Congratulations! I will never forget the feeling of getting my first 10 subscribers!
We all have to start somewhere. Consider YOUR world set on fire. Keep pushing, learning, and for goodness sake, HAVE SOME FUN!!!!
That is the key! Write, write, write and be sure to have some fun! sabrinalabow.substack.com
I'm feeling your FIRE 🙌🏽 warm and encouraging (as I approach 175 subscribers). Will all the people fit around our campfire? 🔥
That is terrific! I recently hit 250 but I am celebrating a year on Substack. Comparison is the devil so I try not to think of numbers too much, yet anything that ticks upward feels good. Hope you have a great time here.
That's awesome! I just hit 350, but it doesn't feel milestoney. 250 is a quarter thou, a classic milestone. I feel if I declare 3 fiddy a milestone I'm clutching a bit
Congratulations! 350 is an even number. I think it works! <3
fuck it! With your blessing, I'm going to celebrate it!
Yes! 🙌
Declare it! Declare away!
sod it, I'm going to declare it! But then again, were do I stop. I'll start celebrate increments of 25, then 13, and, as my growth slows, 4.
That IS something to celebrate!! Congratualtions!
As you should be. Way to go, Arthur.
I love how supportive everyone is! Congratulations Arthur!
That‘s awesome Arthur! You have every right to be excited because:
- You got started
- People are supporting you
- People will most likely continue to support you.
Hold on to that excitement and keep going!
You are setting the world on fire!!! Congratulations!!!!
But it IS! 22 subscribers in your first week is a great start!
Fantastic. Congrats. Keep writing and posting regularly.
Arthur I write on grief, trauma and loss in my substack, and I also write for Faith Tides here on Vancouver Island, and have just submitted an article for our printed newspaper faith section, same topic with an additional faith component.
I was married for 35 years before the Lord called my wife home. Grief? Oh yeah. And so very mad at God. I told him just exactly what I thought about him, and it wasn't pretty. And after that, I felt at peace with God. I felt like I was being held in my grief. It's 2 weeks until the fifth anniversary of her death, and it's kicking my tail again. I just got remarried 3 months ago to a woman who lost her husband 4 years ago. We hold each other on bad days. We included our spouses in our wedding ceremony, using 4 colors in our scheme, one for each person's favorite color. It was quite a moving ceremony, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Even through death, grief, and loss, we know our spouses await us on the other side, and we know we have the love of God as well.
Good for you to tackle those difficult subjects!
It's my pleasure Kate. I love to write. And it is my vision to help people understand what grief is so they can wade their way through it with a little more ease.
It's 22 more people than read your work when you DIDN'T have a Substack, right? Congrats!
Amazing, Arthur! Wishing you the best on your Substack journey!
Yay Arthur!! 22 in one week is awesome.
I’m celebrating the fact that I’m a couple writing sessions away from finishing the initial draft of my first self-published book!🎉 I’m excited it’ll (hopefully) be out in the world later this year!
The book is about why our dreams matter and how to cultivate them in the middle of our everyday lives. Whether you want to start a million-dollar company or have your neighbors over for dinner, change the landscape of the education system or plant a garden—you are a dreamer, and your dreams matter to the world.
Congratulations! I am nearing completion of my next book, but I'll never forget the feeling of pushing that button to send my first book out into the world. My finger hovered over the publish button for minutes as all kinds of things ran through my head. Was it my best? Did I set it up correctly? Is the cover right? And on and on and on. Finally, I realized I found such joy in writing the book, it was time to share that. I pushed the button. I did have to go back for a few revisions, but I never regretted pushing that button for one second.
So true. Oh, the anxiety. And then the elation!
Yes!! The biggest mix of emotions 😅
This is amazing. It’s such a wild ride of anxiety and life-giving joy all in one. Definitely a lot of questioning myself. A LOT. Thank you for sharing! And congrats on almost finishing your next book!🎉
Congratulations! Even in the self-publishing world, it's a long haul, but it you keep at it, success in getting your book in front of the people who need it is worth it.
True re self-publishing, and it's also a steep learning curve. Good to have writer friends and mentors who've walked that path--for guidance.
Yes! I just joined a writing community that I’m so excited about. Planning on asking lots of questions about self-publishing and getting some feedback. That’ll be so important.
Thank you so much for this encouragement. I’ve definitely been trying to prepare myself for a long-haul type of success. You’re right--it’ll be SO worth it to get it into the right hands of people who need it. Thank you for sharing!
Love this. It sounds really uplifting. Thoughts have wings! Good luck!
Thank you so much for this encouragement. It means so much!
Well done
Thank you so much! I’m excited.
Sounds like a great book!
Thank you so much, Faith! I’m super excited about it.
I love this. One of my intentions in life is to publish a book of my own. I think getting in the habit of writing and gaining that experience certainly helps over time. So so excited for you!!✨
That’s amazing! It’s been a long-time dream for me, too! It’s been a scrappy process, but I’m glad I just went for it and can’t believe I’m almost done!🤎
How will you share news abt it’s availability?
Good question! I still need to make a solid marketing plan over the next couple months😅 that’s my next step. But the big picture is that I’m planning on posting consistently here on my Substack to grow my audience, posting about it a ton on Instagram for the two-ish months leading up to the release and then afterwards too (I used to be a freelance video producer so I plan to make a series of social media videos to promote it), and also planning on sending a copy to some influencers that have inspired me.🙂 Trying multiple different methods to get the word out as much as possible!
What a beautiful idea! Congrats on the huge accomplishment, Sarah :)
Thank you so much, Brina! I’m so excited about it. (Also, I just read your recent article about poetry and love your thoughts!)
Thank you, Sarah! I really appreciate that <3 :)
Congratulations!!
Thank you, Christine!!
Well said! Let us know how the self-publishing goes. Sometimes it can be challenging to break through the clutter. sabrinalabow.substack.com
Thank you! I’m curious to see how it will go. If anything, the process of just creating the book is growing and stretching me in a positive way already!
That sounds SO lovely and needed! Congrats on getting one step closer to sharing it with the world!
Thank you SO much for this encouragement. It means the world! It’s been a crazy process, but celebrating every little win!
That's such a great practice! I need to get better at celebrating small wins! And absolutely! Great job sticking to it through the ups and downs!
Huge congrats!!
Thank you soo much!!
Wow that is amazing!!
Thank you so much for this encouragement! Also, I just read “What Do We Do For Thanksgiving” on your page, and it’s so beautiful and honest. Love your writing!
CONGRATS!
Thank you so much! I’m so excited!
Love this.
Thank you soo much!
I don't usually toot my horn about milestones, but I'm very pleased to have recently completed 60 versions of a story in a project called Experiments in Style. I've taken a very simple story and rewritten it in 60 different ways. Next goal is to reach 100! But in the meantime, here's the list:
https://open.substack.com/pub/terryfreedman/p/experiments-in-style?r=18suih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Wow Terry, I didn’t know there was that many! Well done.
😁 Thanks, Donna! I've acxtually written more, but haven't published them all yet. Chortle
It's such an interesting project!
Thanks, Kathryn! By the way, I mentioned you in a post recently (Start the week #53); not sure if people always get notified
I didn't get notified! I'll check it out - thanks <3 <3
dang. It's in this bit: https://terryfreedman.substack.com/i/140710050/oj-so-i-camt-tupe-whata-the-priblem
Very innovative. Keep going!
Thank you, Jeanine 😁
Fascinating!
Thanks, Maura 🙂
What a great idea. Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks Kate. Hope you enjoy reading them. A new one 8s coming soon 🤭
What a fun experiment. I imagine there’s a lot of nuances to be learned from this. Congrats Terry!
Thanks, Lone. Yes, it's interesting how the variations give the same basic story a completely different feel.
Wow! That's commitment. I applaud your project.
Thank you, Colleen!
That's a cool idea! That takes some comittment. How many more do you reckon you've got in you?
Great question! My list of ideas so far totals 201. <Gulp> 😁
you're an ideas machine!
LOL Thanks, Wrong! (That sounds wrong tbh)
I've gone anonymous, because my subject matter is a bit dicey
Interesting. Curious... what prompted you to engage in an experiment like this?
Hi, David. In a nutshell, a book by Raymond Queneau called Exercises in Style was the inspiration. The full story is here: https://terryfreedman.substack.com/p/experimenting-with-styles
That's an amazing accomplishment. I'm looking forward to reading it and learning from you.
Thanks, Andrea. I hope you enjoy reading them :-)
Now that's a TRUE commitment to being STYLE-ish. 🙌🏽
Very droll 😂
It’s been 60? Fab! Congrats! I love the inventive sometimes hilarious versions. 🥰
Thanks, Carissa! Which one is your favourite? I think you're a disco kind of person. Am I right?
Haha. Why? Because I grew up in the 70's?
Yes! Chortle. Well, am I right?
BTW, how often do you post? More than once per week? If so, have you lost any subscribers by posting twice a week? I'm thinking of posting Funny AF Women 2 Fridays a month-- in addition to my regular Wednesday slot.
The disco one was behind a paywall, no?
you haven't answered my question: disco? I just emailed u by the way
Bravo! And everyone a winner!
Oh thank you, June. So kind :-)
Whoa! Way cool. That's quite the project, Terry. Congrats. I will for sure be checking out this list.
Thanks very much, Holly. I've been publishing a new version every Sunday, apart from last Sunday when I had Covid! I hope you enjoy them. I especially recoomend the Hardboiled version
Noooo. Covid. I hope you're feeling better!!
Hardboiled it is, then. :)
cor, I really like yours, having just had a look, and I subscribed. Looking forward to reading more
i shall explore yours too
Yes, it was a bummer, as they say! Thanks. Check out the others too, but that's my own favourite!
I'm celebrating two weeks without alcohol and the subsequent birth of my Substack that could not have come to fruition without the clarity it brought me. So excited to let the world know about what I feel and think and notice!
From a recovering lady with 38 years sober, my hat is off to you. Going two weeks without booze is awesome. Keep going! One step at a time, one day at a time. One reason I stopped at the age of 28 is that I didn't think I could be the writer I wanted to be and drink. So, good for you.
That is Outstanding! I am happy, and I will pray for you, Elsie! It only takes a little effort! It is One day at a time. This month, (in 3 days) January 21, 2024. It will make 39 years, and 5 months of sobriety for myself. I used to be a volunteer in the jails, and I would share that with the inmates, when we were in a group session, and they would stand up and applaud! I applaud you, NEVER GIVE UP! Ps this the first time on this site. Nothing happens by accident!
Joe Ramos
❤️ thank you Joe! Incredible :)
Beautiful way to Be Dry - using that juice to create!
Congrats on your newfound sobriety! Recovery is tough but well worth it. I am also clean and sober, 5 months now, and started my own blog as part of my recovery. Check it out here if you want: astralprojections.substack.com
Keep up the good work!
S. J. Perkins
How amazing. Well done
Huge recognition and celebration, Elise. Cheering you on.
Congrats congats congrats!! I'm so happy for you and your achievements!
Congratulations on both your abstinence and creation! sabrinalabow.substack.com
CONGRATS!! I feel the same way about my Substack — definitely not something I would have undertaken if I was still drinking regularly (both because I always felt like crap for several days after and I would have turned to a beer when I was bored instead of turning to writing).
Hoorah for you and the benefit that will come from your sharing thoughts with the rest of us.
Hi Elise, this is so amazing and beautiful. Thank you for your raw honesty and putting yourself out there! Congratulations!
That's fantastic, Elise! Creating new rituals to replace the old is a great way to stay sober, if that's your goal.
Congratulations on your new sobriety! I wish you much happiness.
That's wonderful, Elise! Congrats on hitting the two-week milestone and launching your Substack!
Your new freedom is a bigger event to celebrate than a zillion followers.
The case study on me and my Substack has hit the printing press. I will email Bailey details but thank you Substack, you changed my life for the better. To everyone else, keep writing. You never know what can happen.
Well, I'm very excited about the foreshadowing here. I always appreciate your generosity here, YouTopian Journey. Congrats on the printing press and looking forward to learning more. :)
You rock, thank you.
A printing press! Sounds fab! Congrats! 🎈🎉🎊
Thank you, you rock.
What a phenomenal concept. And such a huge service to others. Congratulations!
Thank you so much, rock on.
That's so inspirational! Congratulations! And yes everyone, keep writing. If you build it they will come! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Thank you. Keep on writing and rocking.
I listened to your podcast interview yesterday! Wonderful persistence and serving a real need in the world. YAY 🙌🏽 to us graphic novelists on Substack
Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
This is amazing! May I ask, did Substack reach out to you to set that up?
astralprojections.substack.com
Thank you. No, this came as a result from being discovered by the right person.
Oh how exciting! Congratulations!
Thank you
Oh, that sounds like something to celebrate! Hurray!
Congrats, happy for you.
Thank you, rock on
exciting news – congrats! look forward to reading it :)
It seems like just a minute ago that I was celebrating 300 subs...and then it jumped to 330 in a matter of days!
I cannot imagine going to 300, honestly... I don't know 300 people in real life :D
It's a great feeling! You're going to marvel at the fact that so many people want to read your stuff. I have to pinch myself every once in a while.
🤣🤣 Neither do I!!! But i don't have to know everyone on Substack for them to enjoy my writing!
I love the focus of your nletter - I moved from LA to an island a couple of years ago. Game changer! Congrats on your progress. That's amazing.
Thanks Dayna!
Which island did you invade? 😁
Vashon, in Puget Sound
Oooh I bet it's beautiful out there!
Did you do anything in particular/differently? Congratulations! Keep sharing! sabrinalabow.substack.com
I just write consistently (once a week) and make sure to engage on a daily basis. People love not being ignored! Makes them feel like part of a community
More to Celebrate! It's quite an awesome party around here...🙌🏽
Absolutely!!
Well done buddy!!
Congratulations, Kristi!!
Yay, Kristi! Congrats.
That's amazing, Kristi. Way to go.
Congratulations Kriti you hit 300 substacks have a nice day
well done!
Right now, looking at all this snow, I wouldn't mind rum and coconuts!
Hahahaha! Same here! You must have read my tagline 😁😁😁
I am celebrating hitting the thousand suscriber mark. I know it's small to some, but means a lot to me!
lucajdavis.substack.com
It's huge to me, Luca. Congrats!!!!!
This mark is HUGE. It took me so long to get there!! And then once I did, growth felt so much easier. I know there's an urge to minimize it but so many newsletters never get there and it's absolutely worth celebrating. Congratulations!!
Every milestone is big to each of us. No matter the size, it should mean a lot to you. Just remember to have fun!
CONGRATS!!
And huge to others! I'd be dancing around my living room if I had 1000 subscribers. Way to go!!!
That is awesome! How long did it take to grow that readership and do you have any tips for a new Substacker? Thanks!
S. J. Perkins
astralprojections.substack.com
Hi! I started writing on substack in 2021. I noticed the greatest uptick in subscribers when people restacked, when I engaged with other writers more, and rarely - when things went viral. Using notes has been helpful! I bought a workshop on it from @WRITERSATWORKWITHSARAHFAY and it made a huge difference!
Congratulations!! Well done!
That's my next goal. I'm currently at 910
you got this!!!!!!
That's no small feat! Congratulations! sabrinalabow.substack.com
That is great work! Congrats! How did you approach growth?
I honestly wish I had a formula! I just consistently wrote for a few years and it picked up momentum! The greatest help was honestly other writers restacking. We really can help one another a lot!
Agreed! I see most of the traction from notes and restacks, we have a great community!
1000 is huge by any standards! I'm hoping I'll get there soon, but it may take a while.
I wish I could say the same! I have less than 20 subscribers. What's your secret?
no real secret just time! I noticed the greatest uptick in subscribers when people restacked, when I engaged with other writers more, and rarely - when things went viral. Using notes has been helpful! I bought a workshop on it from @WRITERSATWORKWITHSARAHFAY and it made a huge difference!
Thank you Luca! All the best!
SUBscriber, ha. Oops.
I'm celebrating the fact that I can publish whatever I want, and take whatever time I need to find that subject worthy enough to publish. I am glad to find a site that won't charge me, either. It will be about two consecutive years and over 400 articles in tow.
Exactly! That's the same reason I love it here. I can write my stories as long as I feel they need to be, and not worry about going over any guidelines.
Beautiful. I feel a similar way 2 months into weekly publishing. I started it for me; I cherish my readership but ultimately I write about things that are important to me, crafting ideas and narratives that assist me in my own process. It is a wonderful form of symbiosis.
That's great Louis! Very inspirational! Keep at it...sabrinalabow.substack.com
I'm celebrating growing my astrology Substack to over 170! When I started here on Substack , I had maybe 70 or so people on my mailing list, and I've already more than doubled that number. To know that people are enjoying my content enough to subscribe is really motivating!
YAY. I just hit 170 this week, too. It's a lovely number 🙌🏽
Congrats!!
You're Substack sounds right up my alley. Clicking over to check you out!
Awesome, thank you!
Congratulations on your stack! I studied astrology long ago (wrote a column for an 'underground' newspaper in Mendocino County) and look forward to checking out your posts.
Thank you!
And that's interesting to hear you wrote an astrology column! Did you write horoscopes, astrology articles, or...?
I've just subscribed
Wow, thank you!
That is very motivating! I'm not so good with the marketing of my posts so to speak, but getting better. Office hours is a great way to connect! sabrinalabow.substack.com
It really IS a great way to connect; I can't believe I've never been on here before...
Love your name!
Thank you! I have NO IDEA how I came up with it lol
Today is the day. The beginning of a new and true story based on my life at 4 years of age. It's regarding cats and many of them. It took me a while to get started, but I can't seem to stop writing. So exciting
Yassss! I love that feel of a writing flurry. That's amazing. Congratulations, Catherine.
The best feeling to find that flow!
🧠 Above all... Have Some Fun on Substack! I've been reading comments here for a while and it seems like so many people are really stressing over this and that. Writing should be fun. Substack has made it easy and fun. If your joy comes through in your writing, you will find success with those who want to share in that joy.
That's a great point David. People pick up on the energy behind. We "read people" really.
Great point, David. I think people are understandably stressed because one of the core mythologies of Substack is the potential for independent writers to make a living. Ever since I've joined, there's been a struggle by many to decouple the "why" of writing from hustle culture. And I really have come to believe that if it's WRITING that drew you to the platform, then complicating that with branding and other transactional strategies is a recipe for misery. Those who really have a clear service to offer are in a different category.
I knew this was the right place for me when I was excited to write again and post it on Substack! It's a very fun place to be!
YES!
That is exactly how I feel! It must be fun above all else. A lot of ppl stress over getting more subscribers and the tech stuff and I do to sometimes but I really find joy in writing. This world we are in at this time and place seems so focused on numbers. Sounds cornball but it's quality over quantity. sabrinalabow.substack.com
I back David's statement here 1,000%! Have fun! Give yourself permission to and know that Substack is an AMAZING place to do so!
Love the question! I'm celebrating the return of power and the slow but steady melting of the ice sheet that has been my gorgeous but unnavigable outdoor world for the past week!
Also celebrating how many fabulous readers and writers have come to check out my little corner of Substack where I explore a roaming / vagabonding life, most recently in a van called Ruby and the spells of staying in between, most recently in a lovely woodsy cabin. Less than 20 subscribers away from my arbitrary goal for January. Wooohoooo!
https://hollystarley.substack.com
That sounds interesting. I'll check it out. I used to have a big red van named Clifford, for those old enough to remember the show. Before cell phone coverage improved, my CB handle was DadsGypsy. Enjoy your travels! Rescue work has kept me tied down and limited my travels in recent years.
I bought a van and outfitted it with a pizza oven in an attempt to drive cross country (US) making pizzas. The plan changed, but I loved that truck and the dream it represented.
Oh my gosh that's a fabulous plan!
Agree! Might still do it in some iteration, but I ended up selling the truck to my employer and it has a very nice life now where it does promotional events.
Oh my goodness. A big red van named Clifford! That is SO awesome. I remember the books for sure. Ruby the van would have surely loved Clifford.
Rescue work is a wonderful thing to be doing. :)
In the past few weeks I've hit 6 months of weekly publishing, passed the 100 subscriber mark, launched new sections within my newsletter dedicated to the themes I write on (career change tips, mental health tips for work, balancing parenthood w/ work, etc), and committed to publishing 2x a week instead of 2x!
I'm almost at 100. Very happy mostly because I enjoy what I'm doing. Writing is such fun! Congratulations! Looks like you have great momentum going! sabrinalabow.substack.com
ahh congrats, all so awesome! you write on a topic I'm definitely very interested in, so I'm excited to join the hundred-ish others and follow along :)
At one point in my being very new to Substack, I thought I'd seen something about the ability to publish a book through Substack. I wasn't nearly ready at the time to pursue it, but now that I'm on my way to 150 subscribers from zero in 5 months of once-a-week posting, I can't seem to find the same information. Are the "sections" you mention here the same as serializing a book behind a paywall for so many weeks?
I think You might be thinking of someone who writes the author stack... He does the book thing!
I think it's a similar idea and ive seen some people do it for book! I'm not a novel/book writer though so my sections aren't meant to be a story line. Mine are more with the goal of letting readers only get articles on topics that they're interested in. For example, if you're not a mom, you might not want to subscribe to my Mom But Also section.
That's excellent. The hardest part of writing and working is getting into a routine. I used to get up 2 1/2 hours before going to work so I could write.
I've been accepted to write for a comedy blog on medium, which is cause for celebration! But - back to the cold, hard grind of subscribers acquisition - I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for getting medium readers across over to substack? ✏️
Yay 🙌🏽 Celebration. And welcome back to the Cold, Hard Grind (is that your Dry Humor Monkey talking?)
haha thank you for your congrats! My humour is pretty warm and moist on the whole. I am a specialist in high-brow bodily fluid comedy.
For example, I've written 7 articles of times I've shit my pants, here's the latest one! https://wrongchannel.substack.com/p/times-i-shat-myself-7
Also, what's the Comedy blog? I used to write for The Haven...
It's called Muddyum! The haven, I'll check it out
Oh, yes! I love Muddyum. How do you like it so far? I enjoyed The Haven; I wrote satirical astrology articles and horoscopes for them.
They gave me the nod yesterday! As I haven't submitted anything, and tasted that sweet tang of rejection, it's going pretty well so far! That sounds like good clean fun.
what was your experience like writing on there?
I've had a few crossover subscribers from Medium; and all I did was publish a post on medium that said I write on Substack lol...I think the strategy depends on whether you want to continue writing on medium.
That sounds promising! My thinking was to post maybe once a month on medium, but have substack as my main port of call. What do you reckon?
I think that's a solid strategy. If your plan is to move everything over to Substack eventually, it's smart to slowly write less on Medium and still build an audience. You could always have a little footnote in your Medium pieces about how you write more (for free!) on Substack; see if that gets you more crossover people.
Thanks for your advice, I will go ahead and do just that! I started off on here really, so I'm more dipping my toes in over there
Oh, gotcha! I started on Medium then moved over to Substack and I find I'm better able to grow my audience than on Medium. Hope the advice helps!
I've been thinking about this a lot, as well. I've been repurposing all of my Substack content onto Medium and linking my newsletter at the bottom. I also put my Substack link in my bio. It's slowly brought me new subscribers. I also make it a point to engage on Medium with posts I resonate with to expand my network on there. I've noticed more people subscribing to receive my stories through Medium, and then export those emails here. Also, congrats on getting accepted to the comedy blog!
That's really interesting! So if people subscribe through medium, you can get their emails? Could you tell me how that works? and, is it ok? Do they mind, when you do it? Do they open your posts and wotnot
Yeah, so basically when they follow you they have the option to subscribe to receive your stories by email. When they do, Medium will save their emails (you can go to the "Stats" tab and see your "Audience Stats" to find who's subscribed to you. You'll also receive a notification when someone does. When someone new has subscribed, I'll manually copy + paste the email into my Substack contacts. I haven't had any complaints, and have heard of other Medium writers doing this. You own that email list so you're allowed to do what you want with it. If someone doesn't want to receive your emails, they have the option to unsubscribe.
Thank you so much for opening me up to this nugget! And for your detailed explanation. That is really cool and super helpful.
Thanks for your help!
Nice to have some boat company! Yeah, I've been pinged a few times, and my article "Why men are friends with cunts" was temporarily taken down, and they sent me a snippy message saying that cunt has different meanings in different countries. I think I'll give that a go, posting a link at the end makes sense. I'm not sure either man. We're paddling in circles in here.
At the risk of being a slimeball, here's the forbidden article, in case you're interested: https://wrongchannel.substack.com/p/men-friends-cunts
haha yeah, or our circles just get bigger and bigger, until we get swept away in the current! Cheers man!
Our first online education program started this week. Thank you Substack!
What kind of education?
For the new year we are providing an entire medical terminology course online with the help of Substack.
Impressive! (I'm a former Creative Producer of corporate digital courses) Super curious... good luck! 🙌🏽 yay for bringing more folx here.
We're trying to give back to our community as much as we can. I am highlighting career opportunities, low cost training programs, and networking.
As the Substack platform improves we will be able to develop and expand our offerings :)
beautiful intention and actions!
Wow. I'm sure that will be useful... but I would find it boring. Now collaborating on computer-assisted learning for med tech... that would be fun.
LVN, EMT, love medical stuff... but like it to be more exciting and urgent :)
You might want to check it out. The hybrid program is being launched with small, stand alone classes. All free! We only ask for donations to attend the bi-weekly Zoom reviews.
The lessons are easy ( no medical background required ). They are prefect for anyone considering a career in healthcare or medicine.
I'm a little past 'considering'... I'm retired :)
I wish Duolingo would do something like that for various languages. I want to be able to talk about more than whether I traveled to Spain last year, although I suppose most people...
I agree. :)
I am celebrating winning the Euro Millions lottery 🎰🍾
give us a tenner!
more time to WRITE, forever
If you're new to Substack, welcome! We'd love to learn more about you and your Substack. Reply to this comment and introduce yourself. What brought you here? What do you plan to publish?
Hi there, I've been here since July, but I never introduced myself, so I'll take this opportunity to do a shameless plug :) I write about critical thinking every other Thursday (logical fallacies, cognitive biases, loaded language). It's been really fun being part of this community.
Thank you, all. Looking forward to connecting with more writers and readers. <3
Hey nice to meet everyone. I write about tips, tools and guidance for nonbinary professionals to succeed in corporate environments. I give guidance on how to advocate and speak up for yourself while being true to who you are.
This is fantastic Niko! What an excellent resource, I’ll keep it in mind to share with people.
Hi Ali, nice to meet you and I subscribed to your Substack. I also write, consult, and speak about grammar and language, with a focus on the grammar and language people use in written and oral communications/storytelling about the past.
Hi there, Wonderful meeting you. I just subscribed to yours too. :)
Thank you!
Welcome, Ali. You will find a very welcoming and helpful crowd here. In my work life I write a lot about public speaking and the power of language in persuasion. The biases and loaded language we subconsciously use is powerful. On Substack though, I write about a topic that interests me... "The Art of Unintended Consequences".
Love the sound of "The Art of Unintended Consequences" - that could pretty much be the title to my life! I have so many stories about what at first seemed an abrupt 'deviation from the path' ended up being exactly the path I needed to take!
I know. It's fun, isn't it? If you have any of those that you think would be of interest to my audience, send them my way to davidnemzoff@substack.com. Maybe there something I can make an interesting story out of.
Thanks so much, David. I look forward to reading your stories.
Thank you for subscribing. Hope you have fun with the stories posted there. I have a new one coming out tomorrow.
Welcome! You’ve got a necessary substack. Sounds fascinating.
Thanks so much!
Love the sound of your work, so have subscribed. Maybe you know the book Through the Language Glass? It's an excellent read, in case you don't!
Thank you so much for that book recommendation. I've ordered it!
Oh cool! Down the road sometime, please let me know how you find it!
Just subscribed - looks interesting...
sounds interesting, Ali. I'll take a look.
Hi readers & writers! If you’re called to viewing small glimpses into a life close to nature then you might enjoy my writing. I’m new to substack and want to use it as a place to share this journey as a city raised human turned forest dweller. See you soon 🤍
Ohhhh, love that!
I just subscribed. 😊
I subscribed to yours too. :)
Yay! You get a chuckle, I get more knowledge. Hehe. (Hopefully, I educate a bit too.)
Hi my name is Athina I’m semi new to Substack. I post on Substack bi weekly. I write about life,dating, relationships,mental health, grief,travel and much more. I share a lot of my experiences and vulnerability. Check it out!!.
Athina! We seem to love to write about the same things! So excited to connect!
Oh amazing!!. That’s good to know.
Oh, would love to keep in touch with you as we have common topics!
Hello, everyone! It's Veronica here. I've recently launched my newsletter, 'Vejeweled.' In this newsletter, we delve beyond just the baubles, exploring how gems and jewelry intertwine with the realms of fashion, art, design, and culture as a whole.
Hi Veronica, I just subscribed. Love the sound of Vejeweled. My husband is a jeweller and I help with various aspects of his business. Saw your words about sustainability being a 'north star' - as such you may enjoy his pieces from The Amsterdam Collection.
Cheers, Matthew
https://www.statementjewels.eu/theamsterdamcollection.php?sort=type
Thank you, Matthew! Beautiful work. Does your husband travel for any of the jewelry fairs?
Thank you Veronica, appreciated. At present, only in the Netherlands. Do you ever attend TEFAF Maastricht?
I have yet to visit TEFAF in Maastricht, just the annual New York off-shoot. Maybe in the future.
I write American South <-> Portugal: Loving, Leaving and Recreating Home. I have spent my adult life in the American South and I'm moving to Portugal this year. My newsletter focuses on the process and challenges of leaving a place one loves and embracing a new culture and language.
Although I live in the American Midwest, my husband and I are also contemplating a move to Portugal. We went to Lisboa this past September and loved it! I'm excited that others are on similar paths!!
Where are you moving to in Portugal? That's so exciting!
Moving just outside a town of <2,000, not far from the sea.
Hi from Lisboa :-) There are a few substackers in Lisbon, btw.
Olá! Would love to know which Portuguese newsletters you recommend.
I don't read Portuguese substacks atm, would be happy to hear if you have recommendations — there was a Substack meetup organized by @systemchangers with 12 writers, most of them expats/nomads.
Maybe this would be of interest? https://lisboncommunityevents.substack.com/
Appreciate the link. I enjoy Alistair Leithead's Offgrid and Ignorant in Portugal about his family's life in the Alentejo. Usually, I listen to the Off-Grid podcast. https://alastairleithead.substack.com/
Wow! Subscribing now! This is something my husband and I are considering, too.
Hi everyone, it's so great to see so many new writers here. I look forward to finding so many great writers that don't have the recognition they deserve.
I started posting in September of last year. I have a monthly podcast called "Missing Pages" in which I go through my old high school history notes and then research on my own and find the events, people, and details that were left out. I also write a monthly essay, along with sporadic shorter essays, about current events, education, media, and other non-history books I read.
So, if you're interested in American history or have ever thought "why didn't I learn that in high school" I recommend checking out my podcast and newsletter.
Hi Scott, I love the sound of Missing Pages! Perhaps because it's a theme I also enjoy and once, a few years ago I wrote an article with that very title: The Missing Pages. Perhaps you might enjoy it here:
https://7945074e.flowpaper.com/blumeillustrated32019/#page=44
Cheers!
totally love this - Howard Zinn for your old high school notes!
History instruction for me was also sorely lacking! Love this!
Thanks! The funny thing is, I loved history in high school. So as much as this project is a check on history education, it is a way to make sure I don't have rose-tinted glasses.
So did I, but I was always the annoying classmate who was curious about what happened between "events." Everyone was always like, "Shut up Liz! No one else cares. We all just want to get to lunch." Even the teacher!
Hi Katie - and everybody! I've just launched my motivational writers group, The TEN, which is something I've wanted to do forever. My vision is for people to use it as their 'personal trainer' for writing. I've run writers groups in real life and am convinced an online version here could be useful to so many. There's also a magazine element as journalism is in my dna, and that side will hopefully grow and grow (curated reads, recommendations, reviews, news about writing comps, etc). This Sunday, I'll be publishing my first interview with a successful author. I'm actually surprised at how much I'm getting a lot out of the experience so far, and of course, I'm really enjoying the interaction with so many new people.
I've just had a look and subscribed, having read two articles. Anyone who cites Vonnegut and plunges into the unknown is OK in my book :-)
Haha! I talked myself into thinking that Kurt would approve!
I'm sure you're right! Have you ever seen his lectyure (on YouTube) about the arc of a story?
I have not but will immediately check it out.
https://youtu.be/GOGru_4z1Vc?si=1uWHGc3jGCDo6gsw
LOVE to hear this. I've run a Zoom co-writer circle for 3 years, every weekday from 6-10 am. People drop in and do wonderful writerly things, with or without check-ins, goals, sprints, etc. So I'm less of a trainer than a cheerful sideline coach who loves nothing more than seeing everyone's beautiful face SHOWING UP for what they truly love.
Thinking of offering it here as part of a paid sub launch - hmm 🤔 Plus former Magazine person here! (I don't miss it. Substack is WAY kinder than Manhattan.)
Hello former mag person! I love the idea of your Zoom circle. How fantastic. Community is so important I think when you spend so many hours doing something so solitary. I did a couple of zooms towards the end of lockdown with close writer friends and it was very helpful. I’ve got some kind of online meet up earmarked for the future but not sure what form it’ll take yet. And yes, so far Substack seems incredibly welcoming!
sounds interesting, Lisa. I will take a look
Hi all,
I’ve been reading Substack for a while now and just started posting my own writing a couple weeks ago. I’ve long been overwhelmed by the seriousness of our discourse, no matter the topic, and I thought I’d bring a little levity to the world. So I write about things that make me laugh and hopefully people can get a break from the feeling that the sky is always falling. It’s called Hell, or a Hangover. Cheers.
A little levity is always good. A lot actually! I was the GM of the Laugh Factory in LA for 7 years and loved it. Laughter truly is the best medicine! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Couldn't agree more! That must have been an interesting job to say the least haha I went once when I was living in Huntington Beach a while back. Loved it. Looking forward to reading some of your stuff.
Alexmuka.substack.com
Hi, my name is Seoyeon, and I've been writing on my newsletter, "Rebel Rebel," since September. I write about science-based parenting knowledge and raw personal parenting journey. I try to publish bi-weekly (every other Friday)! The Writer Office Hour section has been very helpful :) Thank you!
I'm new here, too! I recently started Prose and Processors, a newsletter devoted to critical AI literacy. I'm slowly building momentum and subscribers. I'd love it if you would check it out!
love it! a service to our inner "I'm Scared of Terminator" Monkeys...
Haha hopefully! I'm trying to thread a tough needle between wholesale rejection and wholesale acquiescence. No easy feat!
Hi, I started this week - I'll be publishing weekly for the next year on how to be happier at work. I'll be sharing behavioural nudges that you can use to boost your teams happiness. How you can move the coffee machine to improve psychological safety and a simple question you can ask in a meeting to boost positivity. If you want to be happier at work but don't know how and want some really simple, quick (science backed) hacks, you'll love my substack :)
Hi Richard, love the sound of what you're working on. I tend to do long reads rather than 5-minute hacks, but we're kindof writing down the same pathways - you with happiness, me with optimism. I look forward to reading some of your work! And hey, someone else who has visited Kata Tjuta can't be all bad!
Good spot! They were the Olgas when I went. Look forward to reading your work 😁
Ha! When I first went as a kid, they were also the Olgas. Then I went back a few years ago and the name had changed, but their majesty had not! All best!
Hi folks -- I'm Sophia, a young activist & poet from Boston. I started my page "Thoughts across Bostonia" a couple months ago, to post poems, essays, social commentary... etc. I'm a climate justice activist and I'm passionate about community engagement, so many of my recent essay carry those themes. Thanks everyone!
Hello! I’m new to Substack
I created this for my New Year’s resolution of reading 100 books!
I’m writing down the books I’ve read, my reviews and thoughts plus places I read in my town (NYC)
Feel free to read and recommend any books!
Thank you!
Hello there and welcome!
I have a recent post you might enjoy. It's entitled Three View-Changing Nonfiction Books. They might not be your kinds of reads, but hey, you never know!
https://matthewcurlewis.substack.com/p/three-view-changing-nonfiction-books
Cheers and happy reading through your 100!
Biocentrism by Robert Lanza. The BEST book that explains how life creates the universe and not the other way around. sabrinalabow.substack.com
Hi! I'm Yulle, and I started an art substack to share my journey and thoughts from a South Korean ghetto to now developing AI in Silicon Valley. Hope to meet and collaborate with others here!
Some of my favorite substacks have been folks who write and create art. Both words and visual storytelling!
Hello Readers and Writers,
I started my Substack newsletter this past December and I'm having so much fun! I have posted a few articles and daily haikus with images, but I decided to start posting my novel, Consumed, on Substack. I chose this platform because the thought of the traditional publishing process makes my blood run cold. For now its free because I'm fortunate to not need the income from my writing #priviledge. The story is just demanding to be in the world.
Hi all,
i've started my Substack, the Tales of Ink and Light, in November 2023, and i've been publishing weekly since. There are three sections in the newsletter:
• Tales of Ink and Light - short stories and poems told with words (the ink) and photographs (the light).
• Touches of Ink and Light - the story behind a photograph, thoughts on the creative process.
• Contes d'encre et de lumière - the French version of les Tales...
I have just published my 16th post this morning: https://www.talesofinkandlight.net/p/the-evora-simplification
What a cool combination - I really like the name!
Hi there -
On Mon., Jan. 15, 2024, I launched my Substack. I subscribed to a few and thought I'd give it a whirl. In addition to being a preservation architect and business owner/operator, I write, consult, and speak about grammar and language, with a focus on the grammar and language people use in written and oral communications about the past.
This work draws attention to what I have described as "redacted grammar and language": grammar and language, like the passive voice and euphemisms, that obscure/hide/redact all of the facts of history or past events in general.
The key redaction is "who did what to whom." Perhaps (un)redacting this fact in history communications will lead us to knowing why and preventing why from happening and history repeating.
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.
✏️ Happy 2024 Substackers! Thanks so much for the support and I've launched my new substack this year too. No questions from me at the moment!
Happy 2024 to you as well! 😎
For those kicking off a new Substack in 2024, this will be your saviour to get things right from the start. A guide to help you with your subscribers growth. Hope it comes handy 🥃
Will be sharing new posts in the coming weeks on my 3 month strategy to grow my subscribers to 100K. Keep an eye out.
https://open.substack.com/pub/raisini/p/from-zero-to-100000-subscribers-the?r=aegif&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Awesomeness! Thank you.
💯
This is what I'm looking for - ways to grow the subscriber crew, thank you!
💯
Thanks for this. I'll check it out.
💯👍🏻
I need this
✏️ Who else has read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron? I’m doing the twelve week practice with two friends, and am on my second week of Morning Pages. I think I’m getting the hang of it, and enjoying the free write as a start to my day. Wondering if other writers have any advice or feedback?
I’ve also realized that I’m surrounded by Crazymakers. If you know, you know.
Also, what were your favorite Artist Dates? I’m looking forward to doing some solo creative activities that really help me get out of my head. I’ll share if you share.
🧠 Big Artist Way fan over here!
My only advice would be to try as hard as you can to be 100%, ruthlessly honest. I've caught myself filtering my thoughts on the pages, even knowing that nobody would ever read them but me. It really opened my eyes to how much I censor what I say, do, think, feel, write.
My favorite *outside* Artist Dates: walking around an antique mall, going on a hike, doing a solo wine tasting, walking or driving around town with no plan and going down streets I've never been on before, FARMERS MARKETS, FLEA MARKETS, ANY MARKET.
My favorite *inside* Dates: paint by numbers, pottery kits, reorganizing my closet & making a Goodwill box (sometimes purging the excess in my life helps me think more clearly/be more creative), writing post cards to my long-distance friends (I always keep some on-hand from my antique mall trips), doing something I would never otherwise make time for, like building a snowman or making a really elaborate cake.
Hope this helps! Good luck!!
Fantastic! Authenticity is what I struggle with most. I've written that word dozens of times in my morning pages. I can't help but feel like someone is always looking over my shoulder. Glad to hear someone else struggles with the same. Love your Artist Date suggestions. Mine are: getting a cool coloring book, clean out an old photo pile or make a photo album/book, listen to local live music by yourself; do a sound bath, watch a sunrise/sunset, see a local art show, ride your bike somewhere new.
Yes! I feel you on the purging. Did that last week and it helped me feel a lot more creative, as well. Writing post cards is an excellent idea! I have so many that I haven't used, so this will be a good time.
Hi Steve! I actually wrote a few posts I called "Artist Dates Field Notes" and took readers along on my journey. Here's my favorite one I did while on vacation in Austin! https://thebarefootbeat.substack.com/p/artist-date-2-austin-edition-field
I haven't posted any more artist dates in awhile. Is this something other folks would be interested in reading?
I have that book in my "to buy" list.
Is it worth it to buy? Does it make you a better artist/writer? 😊
Boy, I don't know about making you a better artist, but if you're "stuck" creatively, or trying to exercise some demons that are a "monkey on your back," I think it's worth a read. It's a bit more spiritual than I expected, but I'm enjoying that. I don't have a big IRL writing community, so it was nice that two other writers invited me along for the ride. They've done the 12-week program several times with lots of positive feedback. Give it a whirl!
Yes. I’m on my second round (first time was over a decade ago) and it has cracked open my creativity unlike anything I’ve done before. I’m excited for you to try it for yourself z
Hi guys! This feels, in Julia Cameron's words ~synchronistic~, but I am about to launch an Artist's Way study group with my newsletter. Last year, over 100 of us did it together in the Subscriber Chat and it was the most encouraging and supportive experience that helped so much with accountability. The book was transformative for me, my newsletter grew by over 1000, abundance came easily to me, and I felt so connected to my purpose as an artist. If you're interested in doing the workbook alongside dozens of other creatives, please join in! You don't have to be on the exact same timeline, as the community elements are helpful even if you're on another week.
Here's all the info: https://aliv.substack.com/p/do-you-want-to-do-the-artists-way-0f3
Ahhh, the synchronicity! I've been wanting to start back up, but haven't felt the motivation to do it. Count me in. (:
Incredible Tara! One of the best part of the community is how it keeps you motivated when it become all too easy to give up on yourself. Welcome :)
So cool Ali. I totally agree with doing it as a group. Accountability is such a blessing. I'm in a group already, but I wish you all the best, and keep me in mind for 2025 if you continue the tradition! Happy New Year!
Yes, it's huge! Happy Artist Way-ing and maybe see you in 2025 :)
I'm currently going through The Artist's Way, as well! I've tried to remind myself to not treat the Morning Pages like a regular journal entry (like I tend to do). I let myself complain, or write about something mundane, or even make lists if I feel like it.
I feel you on the Crazymakers thing! They are everywhere!
Last week, I randomly went through and cleaned out my bedroom for the first time in 5 years -- bins, boxes, clothes, etc. Found a lot of decorative items I'd forgotten about, or even old letters, which were fun to look through. It was a spontaneous Artist Date, but I felt very creatively inspired after. I'm hoping to go see a local play next week. Will probably go thrifting/check out antique stores, as well.
🟧✏️ I'm new to the world of posting letters with video and I have some questions.
Is it possible to do a free preview when the video is embedded within the post?
When I share a video letter on Notes, does it only play the free preview or does it play the whole thing?
Lastly, when it's received via email, does any part of the video play within the email or does it have to be clicked on and redirected?
It's hard for me to check these features as I have full access to my newsletter, haha!
I'd love to hear any feedback others have in general about using video on Substack- what's worked for engagement and what hasn't?
Thanks for your help!
Hello, Mariah 👋. I brought my Projectkin.substack.com community to Substack with a modest, though established base. Events (and recordings of those events) are core to what we do. I'd intended on rolling with embedded video out of Vimeo but the video post feature was introduced days after I launched so I jumped in with both feet.
Bruno's tip on the help pages is very good so I'll let you go there for instructions. I've used a wide range of video editing/posting tools over the last several years and I have to say their implementation is brilliant. Here's why:
- SEARCHABLE transcripts automatically generated
- Elegant upload for a title page (thumbnail)
- CLIP sharing — OMG nobody does this
Plus, just yesterday I discovered that I could add a clip from a video post to another video post of my own and get the same core embeds. (Here's that example: https://projectkin.substack.com/p/projectkin-are-hooked-on-stories.) Plus you get downloads and shares.
I've used Vimeo, Video Milk, Descript, YouTube, Canva, and of course the usual social media platforms... this is perfectly suited to my needs. I'm recording or editing off platform then uploading to Substack.
Reach out directly if you need more. I'm happy to help.
Thank you! I'm curious if you use the Substack generated transcript? I've tried it and found it incredibly hard to edit and when I delete sections it leaves an awkward space. A lot of folks have mentioned Descript but I'm not generating enough income from my newsletter (yet!) to invest in a paying service.
Well, my perspective is primarily driven by my experience in wrestling video over several years so I suppose I'm not coming in with high expectations. 😉. First, I'd say that you shouldn't expect it to be an editor. Period. It's not. It's an incredible tool for distribution that just happens to allow you to record on the spot the way social media does.
Once you start paying for video editing you can go way-way-way up the scale. I keep it simple and use iMovie because it's free and I know it well. There are online video editing options like Camtasia (surprisingly good), Kapwing (not sure how good they are for long pieces) and others. Vimeo's "edit by text" feature (to compete with Descript) is probably pretty good, but is at the paid level.
If you have an hour-long recording where you want to edit out 10 minutes in the middle, then my bone-headed, quick and easy way to do it would be to upload (but not publish) to Substack to get your transcript. Use the transcript to find the right section, then do your delicate edit in something else (like iMovie).
Then delete the post and upload again to Substack. (Sorry, not what substack wants us to do, but it works in a pinch and on a budget.)
In the spirit of paying it forward, I'm happy to share more tricks, reach out to me at projectkin.org@gmail.com. 👋
Thanks for these tips and for taking the time to share your perspective! I'm new to video but am really enjoying the options it offers. I'll be sure to check out your project, too!
It's a delight to have you. I'm happy to talk Family History any time. 😉
I'd always known it was "hot" (in that 🔥McLuhanesque way) but honestly not appreciated it until I watched the differences in engagement levels between text and video.
I use Descript. It's not perfect, but it's worth $15/month for 10 hours of transcription. If you're also sharing the audio in podcast or voiceover form, you can edit the transcript in Descript, and it automatically edits the audio. Then you can export the edited transcript, do some final touches, and paste that into Substack. IMO, the built-in Substack transcript only makes sense if you plan to do minimal editing and are really trying not to pay for another service.
Similarly, I don't use the built-in recording for voiceovers because there is no editing capability. So you either have to do a bunch of takes to get it right (very frustrating) or just embrace imperfection. IMO, it saves time to record in Audacity, edit mistakes, and then import that audio file.
Hi! You can certainly have a video preview available to everyone and the whole video available to paid subscribers only. You'll need to create a video post to do this, though. Shen you share it on Notes, same thing applies. Free readers or non-subscribers will see the free preview, and paid subscribers will see the entire video.
The video won't play in the email app/client, readers will need to click on the video to open it or use the Substack app to see the video.
I suggest checking out this help center article for more info: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/4416357212436-How-do-I-add-a-video-to-a-Substack-post
Thank you! It’d would be super helpful if we could do free previews when we embed a video within the post, too! As video is newer to this platform having the option to experiment is great. Thanks for all you’re doing for us here!
This is great. I didn't know any of that, and I've been reading my stories out via video since September. But I don't make videos, per se. I just hit the video player on the SUBSTACK page and start reading. I don't go back and fix it if I screw up -- you know, mispronounce a word, stumble, or stutter over a sentence. I only re-do it if the wife calls up from down in the kitchen, or the phone rings. We're not very hi-tech over here on this side.
🟧 - I have not met the publishing goals I had set out to accomplish and had promised my readers. Every single one of my paid subscribers is an annual pay. As a bonus--and an apology--I'd like to give them all a free year. Is it possible to give them a free single year as opposed to a lifetime free membership? My plan (of course) is to write like crazy this year.
Hi Joseph! You can certainly comp your subscribers for a year or for however long you'd like. Check out this help center article for instructions: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465612-How-do-I-offer-a-complimentary-subscription-to-a-reader-on-Substack
✏️ hi, this is Takafumi Ide, joined Substack a couple weeks ago. Almost done my "About" page for "purple sketches" but no post yet. I'm preparing the post both in Japanese and English in one place. Do you have any suggestions; pro and con about two languages in one place? Thanks. ✏️ ✏️ ✏️ ✏️ ✏️
Ide-san, irashemasu! There is an audience for two-language writing. Check out bunsuke@substack.com and their work!
Thank you so much for your comment. I will check his letter, Best :)
Hi Katie, was disappointed to see my question / comment regarding the issue of having read some recent news that Substack has allowed several right wing extremists/Nazis to continue to publish there and profit from their works, I am hesitant to be a contributor to the platform and requesting feedback from other writers here deleted. Am a new SubStacker with plans to do more, but am now reticent. Your thoughts?
🟧 If you make a podcast of your weekly written posts, what would be a good release schedule of the written posts and podcast both, should these be released at the same time?
✏️ People who have workshops, study groups, or classes behind pay walls... what do you do about people who sign up monthly to pay for an offering (worth much more than $5-8) and then cancel their membership after a month? I just launched an Artist's Way study group for paying subscribers and notice a lot of people signing up with monthly memberships. On one hand, it's totally fine! They're entitled to do it, and I'll need to work to make them want to keep subscribing after the 3-month workbook ends. On the other hand, it is disappointing to feel like all this growth will have inevitable drop-off, and that people are devaluing the experience. It also feels unfair to my longtime paid readers to increase the monthly rate significantly. I think the answer is just make content people want to stick around for, but would love any other tools, advice, or wisdom others have from dealing with it. (Would also love an option of certain things only being available to yearly subscribers!)
That's their karma, not mine. I don't think there's anything to be done. You can drip content in othert platforms, but not in Substack unfortunately. https://www.theauthorstack.com/substack
This is a question for the Substack team. (For some weird reason I can’t make the symbol with my iPhone).
I have been experiencing some throttling of my posts on places like Twitter. Is there a way to help combat this? Sometimes my articles have nothing to do with politics and they never see any traction.
My other question is: is substack going to create its own branch of targeted promotional programs, like create a heavy email social media campaign, where advisors can help us reach our full potential that will reach beyond our regular readers? Is that even feasible or is it merely up to the writer at this point on self promotion?
🟧 I'm a newbie who unfortunately hasn't had time to explore or publish much with two new releases by May 1 and a WIP in edits. Is there a Directory somewhere of all the newsletters on Substack? Or do we have to search for a certain topic?
Hi Sandra, on Substack's explore page you can dive into different writing, podcasts, videos and more by category.
https://substack.com/browse/recommendations
I am celebrating recently hitting 200 subscribers which isn’t huge I know but so soon after that I hit 250 and I’m happy people are appreciating some of what I’m putting out there 🥰
Lots of love and luck to everyone giving this a whirl, being consistent and showing up🔥
Congratulations!! How did you grow your subscribers any tips?.
Athina, my greatest strategy has always been engagement. On Notes and through comments. I've grown to over 330 subs in 4 months WITHOUT any social media.
It's all on Substack!
Yes my largest platform was Twitter but I was banned from there so have no choice but to grow inhouse!
It'll happen! I'm astounded at how fast growth can occur here.
Why were you banned? Now that Elon is at the helm you should not be. sabrinalabow.substack.com
They told me hate speech but wouldn’t tell me what it was I said. I tried to be reinstated but they wouldn’t.
How to grow inhouse? Get recommendations from others? I am new to Substack. So not sure if I grow inhouse.
You can only grow through patience. It's a slow climb at first. It took me 9 months to hit 100, and then it goes faster and faster. 6 months for the next 100, 3 moths after that. I suggest you don't worry too much about the numbers, and try to make your 'Stack the best you can. Work on the little things. Work on the email subscription page, the ABOUT page, make a table of contents. The more inviting you make the page look, the more likely you will be to get subscribers...and enjoy the process. THAT's the most important part. Enjoy it.
Really thank you for your helpful advice. Will try my best working on my pages and posts. Hopefully it works!
The growth via Substack is WILD. Keep it up!
I do a ton of social media promotion just because I've got enough experience to make it flow, but yeah, the majority of my subscribers I don't know personally are from in here.
Did you get any recommendations within Substack? Is that a good way to grow?
Yes, recommendations are amazing, both ways. I think I've gotten 28 subscribers from recommendations so far. And for the pubs I recommend, they've gotten so many new subs. It's a great way to network and grow!
Thanks for your answer! But how to find these recommendations? Shall I find someone related to my category?
Well, as a Substack writer you should also be reading others. If you love someone's publication, leave them a referral!
If you want to get others to recommend yours,
#1. Provide great content consistently.
#2. You could simply ask your subscribers to give you a recommendation if they love what you're writing!
That’s awesome! I’m on notes and try engaging in comms. It’s exhausting doing the copy/paste into various social media outlets, so i’m less consistent there. While I have a high open rate among the initial people I gave a free sub to, I find it’s been slow getting new subs just on Substack.
Do you find the more established newsletters is a pathway to more subscribers? And do you push a specific post each time you comment? Thanks for any help!
I don't push any posts when I comment. To me it feels spammy. I truly want to engage with people and the growth comes organically when I'm genuine.
I don't go out of my way to get into the big newsletters hoping to attract attention. I just choose newsletters I like and be genuine about my participation.
What are the "Notes" ... new here so learning as I go. Thanks!
Notes is almost like Twitter, but on the Substack platform itself.
Click on your icon in the upper right corner (on desktop) and click "home" and you'll find the notes feed. Also, download the Substack app on your phone.
Thank you! I'm on it...
And it’s that you are a night fine writer and very funny. There’s also that!
❤️❤️❤️ I swear you're my biggest cheerleader 😊
Mine, too! I love her! I want to take her out for lunch! (But she lives so far away.)
I think consistency helps a lot.
I see so many people on here just stick something out every now and again or post a couple of times then just give up.
For me posting a couple of times a week seems to work. Too frequently and you get on people’s nerves, too infrequently and people lose connection.
100% this! Consistency and predictability.
And quality. I think if you don't have quality, you're not going to have a lot of followers. No one wants to read something that is fll of spelling and grammar issues. Reread your work and make sure it's perfect BEFORE you send it out. READ it out loud to yourself, and you can HEAR the mistakes you made.
wondering, too! Congrats!
Julie, same here. I was celebrating 300 and almost overnight it flipped to 330+ !!
I have no idea how but I love it!
Yay! Well done you!
I purchased balloons for my first 100. Please check out my article "Faithful Over a Few". Congrats and look forward to seeing your out reach grow!
I’ll celebrate with a glass champagne when I reach a milestone of 10😁
I tried to subscribe but didn't see any posts. Send me something if I am mistaken :)
Followed you!
Followed you back! Please follow the P Study newsletter. I think you'd enjoy it.
I love that! I think we need more rituals of celebration for all of the steps along the way. Congrats and way to cheer for yourself!
2 hundy is nothing to sniff at!
And 2 paid. And I’ve made some money from a ‘Buy me a coffee’ page i set up. Very pleased with that too. All good.
Lots of luck to you. Keep going 🔥
2 paid is great! I'm a bit scared to turn on the taps myself... Good luck to yourself!
I say turn on the tap on and just let it go. Don't think about it too much. Tell your readers the PAID section is on if they want to donate to your cause. I turned mine on...about September, I think. I've picked up a few. I have a total of 15 now. I put my SERIAL stuff behind the paywall, with a promise that my SHORT STORIES AFTER EIGHT will always be free. I also tell them that the FREE section will always be the more important of the two. When I write my SERIALS, I leave a short synopsis of what happened last issue, just so they can see and maybe decide if they want to sign up, and then I close the door, invite those paid readers to leave comments and always interact with them if they leave a comment.
haha but what if they overflow, and flood my ensuite, and then I deal with an ongoing mould issue for the remainder of the decade. You might be right mate. Just go for it! That's interesting. I'm trying to think how I would do it. I do 4 articles a month, so maybe 2 are behind a paywall. But, in truth, I just don't like the thought of some people not being able to see it. I said I'd do it when I hit a thousand, but that's taking way longer than I expected. Another option is I saw a guy just lets people have it for free if they can't afford it, but want to, which is a nice idea
I also said I wasn't going to do it until I hit 1000. The thing about it is that SUBSTACK was always changing; it was growing and figuring itself out with me.. When I first started, I had three friends who signed up the second day as PAID subscribers. I told them I didn't have anything behind the PAYWALL and they said they didn't care. They just wanted to support me as a friend. Sometimes people just want to support you because they think you are worth it. That's the part that's hard to wrap your head around. When I started out, there was no NOTES, or CHAT. I signed up on other 'Stacks because I thought that was how I could show other writers my support. Once they started with the NOTES, I realized I could help get the word out by leaving comments and recommending their 'Stacks. I started off with three or four posts a week and finally settled down to a regular schedule of two/week. My short stories, and my serial novels. It made sense to put one behind the PAYWALL.
That's great news! I love the title of your post. Being consistent is KEY! I do once a week. After office hours I will be on it! sabrinalabow.substack.com
That’s awesome. I have 2 and will be working on a strategy now!
Congrats!
Yippee Julie, congrats on 250!!
Congratulations. I'm within a couple of 100. Each step of this is a journey, but don't forget to have fun along the way and let your joy and personality show through in your writing.
Well done, 200 IS huge! Keep going and keep sharing.
🧠 Hi everyone! This is a general tip and it's the third time I've made it in these threads, but I keep coming back to it because it's so immensely important and I still see so many new Substack writers not doing. So, in case it's helpful:
*EDIT YOUR WELCOME EMAILS.*
These are the first emails anyone will get when they sign up to read your Substack. They are therefore part of the first impression they’ll get of who you are, what you do and why you’re worth reading. They mean *so much* to your branding. But if you leave them unedited, with just the standard text that Substack has put into them – well, that email will be fine, and contain all the relevant info, but it also won’t sound like YOU. It will entirely fail to sound like you.
(It’ll also fail to point them towards your best stuff, or tell them a story that immediately makes them laugh, or any number of incredibly powerful things you can do to make a winning first impression.)
Substack already recommends you personalise these emails – for example, https://on.substack.com/p/setting-up-your-substack-for-the under “Housekeeping”. But to me, it’s as vital as what’s on your About page. If you spend all that energy to get them to sign up and then their first, damaging impression of your work is “meh, that’s boring” - was it really worth all that effort?
So – as a matter of priority, edit your welcome emails. Go to Settings > Basics > “Welcome email to free subscribers” and click on the Edit button. Make it sound like you. Be surprising and weird and warm and fun. Make it an amazing introduction that will totally make them love you from the starter’s pistol, while *also* making them aware of everything great you’ve done so far, and maybe what else you have to offer, if you have a paid Substack.
(And then, hey, go do the same for “Welcome email to paid subscribers.” And then look for other emails you can edit – there are some under Payments. Anywhere else you can customize? Go find it!)
Sounding unique and interesting from the get-go is incredibly important in this newslettering lark. Everyone is tuning out mechanical-sounding emails. You need to sound amazingly human. And this is an easy humanning win. Go edit those emails and make a rock-star entrance.
Amen to this, and to updating them often! Also, writing and pinning a hero post is some of the best advice I've received here.
Yes! It's one of the last things I need to update from my rebrand but I'm glad I did personalize it months and months ago!
Agreed! That's really solid advice. (I have one myself, and it definitely does get clicked on.)
I feel like this is probably a stupid question...but, what’s a hero post?
I think someone explained it really well in a previous Office Hours, but I don't know where that link is - but basically (if I understand the definition fully) it's an introductory newsletter that you write but *don't* send out to your list, which you then pin to the top of your Substack's homepage. This is mine: https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/welcome-to-everything-is-amazing
Yes that's exactly it Mike.
Katie, do check out Mike's and also mine for inspiration.
https://open.substack.com/pub/wildhoodwanted/p/welcome-to-your-wildhood?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2qffbg
I can't believe I haven't done that yet! I've been here for 1 1/2 years and this has just come to me? (I gotta get my head out of the sand.) Must be the Debrenko, Desenko, Demento , you know the guy I mean. I blame him.
THAT GUY RUINS EVERYTHING.
Ain't it so!
Got it! Thank you both! 🙂
My welcome and about pages are similar. @sarahfay recommended this and it makes sense. Let the readers know who you are.
🧠 Great point. We tend to "set it and forget it". Even if correct initially, we evolve, our substack evolves, our writing style evolves. Be sure ALL aspects of your Substack evolve along the way.
Yes SUCH an important piece to your Substack! Luckily I personalized mine but need to finish updating it since my rebrand!
Thanks, Mike. I have edited my Welcome emails although you offered a couple of tips I hadn't considered, like pointing new subs to the best work. I hadn't thought of that.
I have a problem with figuring out what my best sub is. It's always the last story I've written. I loved a story that was one of my first, ST. FREDA, but then I wrote another one after that, and loved it. But I think when you write fiction, that's the way it SHOULD be. The last story you write should be the one you love best. The one I'm working on right now...is ah-mazing!
I agree ... but maybe look at the stats on your posts and pick one based on those metrics? This is much harder with serial fiction because you don’t necessarily want to drop them in the middle of it.
Yeah, but MY favourite, and my readers' favourites, are always going to be different. And it's hard to tell what a fave is if your numbers are growing. Some of my older stories didn't have as many readers as my newer ones. I repost them on notes, but there aren't any stats for those posts.
Yup, that is true. But maybe it doesn’t need to be an either/or situation?
Making a note to do this next week! Thanks for the insights, Mike!
I just cut and pasted your post. What fabulous suggestions! Thank you Mike! sabrinalabow.substack.com
So true!
Thank you for this!
Thank you for sharing this, this is great advice! I didn't have my welcome email edited and am now immediately adding this to my to-do!
🧠 Celebrating...almost getting to 2,000 subscribers! I’m at 1,916 (and started with around 500; the growth is pretty much all from engaging on Substack). I’m also just a few folks away from 100 paid. I consider writing on Substack my most meaningful work, so those numbers mean far more to me than just dollar signs.
I write about addiction, sobriety, soulful living, and Chinese Medicine here: https://danaleighlyons.substack.com/
In your case, it's WAY beyond $$. It's life-saving work you're up to 🙌🏽
Aww. Thank you from my heart, Christine.
Congrats! 🎊
Thank you, CK!
Well done Dana! It’s fantastic that the newsletters about sobriety are gaining influence!!
Thank you, Donna! And yes!! So fantastic!
Great milestones to hit. Congratulations. It's hard to dig up out of the basement, but when you finally hit street level, it is enlightening. I haven't done it here, but have in other aspects of my life. It's a great ride.
Thanks, David! Best wishes to you!
Thank you for letting us know your subscriber growth is mostly from engaging on Substack. Makes sense! It's great to support one another on this ride! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Congrats on the milestone!
It's quite rare to find someone writing on the subject of Chinese Medicine.
Gave you a follow and looking forward to digging through your work. :)
Thanks so much, Mike!
As a recovering drunk, I love this! My substack doesn't cover such issues with regularity, but New Year's Eve I couldn't resist commenting: https://maurac.substack.com/p/three-cheers-for-near-beer
Thank you, Maura! And three cheers to your New Year's brews! I love Partake AF.
Congrats!
Thank you, Lydia!
congrats on nearing the milestone, Dana! :) what's your process of engaging on Substack look like? comments, notes, collabs, etc?
Thank you, Cissy! I spend time on Notes daily, sharing and interacting. I also interact through comments on my own publication and on other people's publications. And I created an annotated directory of fellow Substackers in my niche (addiction recovery and sobriety). That latter step has brought so many wonderful connections, recommendations, and subscribers. It would be a great thing for others to replicate in other niches: https://danaleighlyons.substack.com/p/sober-substack-addiction-recovery-sobriety
this is amazing, Dana – thanks for sharing the directory! what a gift to your readers and other writers in your space :)
inspired for your work – excited to follow your journey!
Thank you, Cissy! So lovely to meet you in this space!
🧠 Hello, everybody! Office Hours was such a big help for me in my first months of Substack. In fact, the first time I posted here resulted in my fist big jump in subscribers (10-15 in one day!), and since then, I made a habit to post consistently. This week, since it’s the new year and all, I just want to introduce myself to the new crowd.
I’m Andrei Atanasov, an essayist and memoirist from Romania. If you enjoy hopeful tales, essays that make you consider the everyday in a new light, and CATS, I welcome you to my blog. I’m always eager to learn, and share what I’ve gathered. We’ve built a vibrant little community over at Practice Space!
In other news, the best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten was to just. Do. My. Thing. Draw inspiration from others, but never copy; what worked for someone else might not work for you. Furthermore, it won’t feel natural, and heady readers can spot that. Write from the heart, and eventually the path will reveal itself. Happy weekend!
Hi, Andrei! Great tips. Office Hours was especially helpful to me when I was brand new here. And being able to be as much our authentic self is the key to so much--connecting, belong, relaxing. And making good art ;)
Excited to check out Practice Space!
Nice to meet you, Holly!
You too, Andrei! Just read about your murderous roomie. Oh my. 😉
Thanks for reading! I’m glad you enjoyed!
What a great idea. I'm going to go and do this right now. "Draw inspiration from others..."
That's fantastic advice! Be YOU! I think we can get caught up in getting more subscribers and catering to what we think our readers want to hear but authenticity and uniqueness are the best attributes! sabrinalabow.substack.com
Love your advice!
And happy weekend to you too!
🧠 Good tips, Andrei. Sometimes we try to be everything EXCEPT our true selves. Especially in writing. I have found when I let go and let me be me, my writing is much more powerful. Oh, and don't forget to have fun doing it.
🧠 I remember going into Office Hours and feeling defeated about my subscriber count. I celebrate everyone here sharing their numbers AND I want to celebrate the folks here who also enjoy the process of writing and connecting with their readers without the worry of numbers. Dan Blank's Note earlier this week was a lovely reminder of this and reiterates one of my New Year's Resolutions, which is to write for an "active an engaged audience" -- no matter the number. https://substack.com/@danblank/note/c-47417975?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=rc2rv
Here's what Dan said if you don't want to click on the link:
"As you consider how you share here on Substack, focus on the people, not the numbers. It’s so easy to become distracted by the data, and by those who are celebrating milestone numbers of subscribers. Instead, consider how you can have one meaningful interaction with readers and writers today."
Thanks for the reminder, Stephanie. Since I write about difficult and "unspeakable" subjects in mental health, as well as more palatable topics, I can get new subscribers and lose them quickly. I am not for everyone. However, I consider who might need my message, who might benefit and if it's one person who reads and has more peace and a sense of solidarity because of my sharing (I'm not alone), that's worth it. It's not about the ego. However I'd like more subs just so that the message can reach those who need it.
I just subscribed because your description of "unspeakable" subjects in mental health are what I am interested in reading! I just read another note that said "The right essays find the right people at the right time."
I'm so glad. Welcome. Glad to make this connection with you :)
Yup yup yup! Substack feels different than most social media sites anyway but it's SO important to focus on who's already supporting you and showing up and taking time out to engage and read your work for sure!
Yes, remember the small but mighty crowd of people following and interacting with you. Those are the folks I keep coming back to write my next piece for.
Absolutely! Agree 100%
I love this, Stephanie. There is definitely a sense of a "Substack cool club" with all the heavy hitters who have thousands of subscribers. I've felt intimidated, too. But I also feel like I'm starting to carve out my own little corner with people I regularly interact with.
Yes, corners are cool. Corners we've carved out for ourselves and our readers are even cooler :) About to read your piece "an ode to sleep" because it's not even noon right now and I want to take a nap!
Hope you enjoy! It seems we're in a similar niche -- can't wait to check out your stuff!
Yes to this, thanks Stephanie! I have met the most wonderful and amazing people here. I also hold in my mind those I don’t ‘see’, the quiet readers who choose not to comment. I work from a heart-centered perspective that my writing, which is about listening to our inner whisper and having the courage to follow it, will land where it should. Those who need and want my style of writing will find it and I hold them in my mind as I work. They are not a random number on my way to a milestone (although those are lovely too!)
You bring up such a good point. I have lots of quiet readers. My open rates are there and not everyone likes or comments. I have some friends I don't see very often who are subscribers and then when I do see them, they remind me of all the things I've written in the past. They're actually reading and taking something away from what I've written! Beautiful.
🧠 Dan always has such great advice. One thing I would add is to remember to have fun with the entire process. Writing, reading, growing all have their own challenges but remember that you are here because you WANT to be here. Make sure it stays fun and your joy will shine through.
Agree, this is a great reminder, David. The process is what has kept me going for more than a year. I am still loving it and there is such a high I get from publishing my newsletter each week.
This week I will be launching a new feature called "Flashpoint Fridays," for paid subscribers, who will receive a writing prompt each Friday and be invited to post a paragraph from their write on the CHAT feed, where others can read and comment on their work. This week "Everything is Personal" surpassed the mark of 7500 subscribers and is nearing 500 paid subscribers. Huge thanks to the network of curious, supportive, and generous readers, enjoying a marriage of literary expression and feminist consciousness.
Hope chat works for you. So far I haven't found anything good about it.
I may not either, I'm trying to offer paid subscribers more benefits.
YOU are the benefit. Keep that in mind
Oh, you lovely girl, thanks.
Well, you could do it with a post as well. That way people who are on at odd hours could still post.
We <3 Laurie
I love you.
Would love to hear how that works out for you. Doing an activity that requires participation can be challenging, but exciting when it works out.
Please jump in if you like. My stack is "Everything is Personal." If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work.
Well done Laurie! Keep on showing us how it’s done🙂
You know, of course, I have no idea what I'm doing, and stackland has a will of its own that sometimes sends swimmers to you on waves. xxL
Ah yes but before that happens you have to be an excellent writer, which you are!
Hey, maybe you want to jump on my new feature called "Flashpoint Fridays," where I send out a prompt, and writers can post a short excerpt on CHAT. This daily practice has meant everything to my becoming a better writer.
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
Great job, Laurie, and I will check out your substack! I've been a writer for 30-plus years. Any tips for subscriber growth? I'm thrilled I crossed 900 subscribers!
Looking forward to seeing you on the stack. My best tip is post the most accomplished writing you are capable of and invent a voice that doesn’t sound like anyone else and is always in love with the need to talk to you.
Working on that - this year I've decided to write twice a week instead of one.
I screenshotted this comment as a future idea of offering something special to paid subs. Thank you!
🟧 - Substack is an amazing place for sharing and enjoying poetry! I think a few of us poets have these two items on our wishlists:
1. Highlighting text to quote in a Note is an awesome feature. But it doesn't work in the poetry block, which means we poets need to chose between formatting our poems or making them quotable, which impacts the effectiveness of Notes for us. So... Notes quotes from the poetry block! 😊
2. A Poetry category! 🙏
Yes! We need a way to preserve the formatting of poems on Notes. And why, oh why, is there no Poetry category when there are so many poets writing here?
Create. You are your best advocate my dear. On here, that is so very clear.
A poetry category, yes, please!!
I'd love to hear from and connect with more poets here. I just began sharing a poetry series titled Bloom: A season of grief and gratitude from the years after my Dad died and I became a mother for the first time.
I've been sharing the poems as a paid offering via video but only pay walling part of the letter. So far it's not gaining as much traction as I was hoping. Have others found success converting paid subs via their poetry? I'd love to hear your ideas!
Yes! A poetry category please :)
Shared this with our team!
Another little thing about the poetry block is that the font shifts from sans serif to serif in the newsletter for some reason. Thanks!
I forgot to mention that! Thank you, Ann!
🎉 Thank you, Bailey!
Oh that’s what happened! I tried to make a quote note and it failed. Now I know why. I agree this is important!
✏️ Hi everyone! What are some tips you could share to get more paid subscribers?
One of the main things that has boosted my paid subscriber numbers is hosting virtual gatherings. I write in the mental health space and provide weekly journal prompts. Roughly once a quarter, I host a zoom gathering for about an hour where we spend a little time writing together and a little time in conversation about the prompt. Every time I start mentioning our next gathering, my paid numbers go up.
Congrats, Brittany! I think the overall strategy of meetups with the writer adds tremendous value. I
Glad to hear this is working for you Brittany. I write a movie review blog and I've been thinking about a monthly Zoom discussion.
That's awesome! Do you offer it only for paying subs or also set it up on something like Eventbrite and allow folks to purchase tickets?
So far I’ve only offered it to paid subs.
Hey Mana, we rounded up our best guidance in thinking through your paid strategy and converting free to paid subscribers here: https://on.substack.com/p/free-vs-paid
I would create value outside of the writing. One thing I do to build value is offer downloadable books and templates that my community can use for their advancement. Digital products have been my strategy and I've been able to gain 5 paid subscribers in a little over two weeks.
My weekly newsletter serves as a community newspaper for my Dallas suburb. Each edition includes four articles. My free subscribers receive only the final edition of each month, and in those editions, I briefly describe all the content they've missed since they last heard from me. That usually prompts several free subscribers to become paid subscribers. I also put the first article in each weekly edition outside my paywall and encourage my paid subscribers to share it on their social media.
love that you have a newsletter for your local community :)
I’m going to subscribe to use it as a guide b:c I want to write a Nltr for my condo wh has 1000+ units w 2000+ people. I’m thinking in and around Montebello w a focus on the crap going on w the board (does anyone care?) and heads up & reviews of local events and venues. I want to provide a platform where people can comment w:out being censured. The FB page and other social media have mediators that delete posts such as something as simple as: I got bad service at the Grille. Delete.
Add value through awesome storytelling (and advice/info) that anyone can use to improve their lives. I find people are willing to pay just because they love your content, even if you don't paywall it. I don't have paywalls yet I have paying subscribers!
I'm here for this discussion.
me too :)
Great question I need to know the answer too.
I found a lot of efficacy in building out my paid archive with courses and other material, while keeping my main publication free to work. I have 600 paid only posts though. Also adding a paywall in the middle of a post helps. Mostly, it's a function of getting more subs and length of time. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/substack
🧠- Here's a cool strategy I engaged in last week. There's been a lot of talk about writing a "hero post." It's sort of like your welcome page but instead it's a post pinned to the top of your homepage. Think of it as an intro and a road map for potential readers...it'll be the very first thing they see when they land on your publication...even before your about page.
Here's mine as an example:
https://wildhoodwanted.substack.com/p/welcome-to-your-wildhood
I like that. I've been pinning my best stories to the top (well, what I think are the best), but hadn't considered writing one specifically for that purpose. Great food for thought. Thanks!
This is a great idea, I just may have to copy it!
Copy away!!
Hello! I've been here a few months, watching quietly, reading avidly, posting timorously, but am finding my feet. This is the first time I've seen an invitation to introduce ourselves, so here I am! I've published three literary novels, a lighthearted travel memoir and several books on writing craft. I just judged a writing prize, which was an eye-opener. My substack is a creative diary, musings on writing craft and publishing, and my long quest to train a worried Irish horse.
Hi. Welcome. Substack is a very friendly place. I've heard you on The Creative Penn podcast.
Cali, how lovely to know you were listening! I love The Creative Penn. I've learned so much from her. It's an honour to guest on the show.
Just about everything I know about publishing has come from her. And now AI stuff too
Welcome Roz! No need to be shy around this crowd. I've never been involved in a more receptive, helpful, and generous group of people. Curious where you published your novels. I have one book I published on Amazon. I am currently working on two others and debating whether I want to continue on Amazon or look at other avenues.
Hi David - thank you!
I publish everywhere I can. Amazon, of course, but also other platforms that get to a huge range of outlets - Smashwords/Draft2Digital and Kobo. I publish ebooks, print and audiobooks. I don't know how much detail to give you because I don't know your level of expertise and I certainly don't want to teach you to suck eggs... but I can certainly point you to advice if you need it.
Don't I recognise your name from ALLi? I'm terrible at faces, but tend to remember names. I write (here) about anything that takes my fancy. Most recent one was on being present when someone had a heart attack. You can also see me stand on my head (in a 2 minute video attached to a post about standing on your head),
You do indeed, Ann! I edit the ALLi magazine, among other things. I'm going to find your Substack. I certainly must read the heart attack story. Wow.
Thanks for subscribing. I subscribed to yours, but I must warn you that I am very fickle. I try quite a lot and settle on a few. There are so many excellent writers here (such as Margaret Atwood, Garrison Keillor et al) that it's a wonder that anyone subscribes to you and me!
Well thank you for trying! And Ditto!
Well, I'm interested in life and death and am about to be 82, so I have a bit of experience of this and that. I claim to write about everything from Annunciations (paintings) to orgasms. Funnily enough, the post on the former has more views than the post on the latter. Life is full of surprises. Here is the one showing me standing on my head: https://arichardson.substack.com/p/why-does-anyone-stand-on-their-head. I’ll let you find the others yourself. I am very fond of a piece I wrote about the vulva, but it all depends on your interests (I was going to say ‘tastes’, but that doesn’t sound quite proper in the circs).
Welcome Roz, it’s great to hear about your interesting newsletter and the things you’ve done!
Thank you, Donna!
🧠 ✏️ 🟧 - It's really great to see Kathryn Vercillo's community building work gaining some attention. She's an excellent connector for multiple writers, and her ability to produce useful, actionable content is impressive!
AGREE. @Kathryn is diligent, creative, and generous. May her Substack rise as high as her effervescent energy.
Effervescent is a word I’ve been called a few times throughout my life and it delights me every single time. Thank you.
Thank you! I am so thrilled to see this piece being shared and bringing new people to the community.
✏️ Thinking about collabs on Substack for 2024!
Which writers do great collabs with other Substacks? What are your favorite collabs?
What kind of collab are you thinking of? I like doing 'letter exchanges', especially with polite people I disagree with :)
I like the idea of a fiction collaboration of letters between lovers during the Great War.
Love this idea .... and we could share them in Notes, although I would have to look up and see if we can link Notes in a post so somebody could read them all in one place .... however 1914 is not my wheel house (a,though my house was built that year), a hundred years before that I could do. I think that might be fun! Says she who should be formatting the first few posts ready for next month’s launch.
Just plonking in here that you can put Notes into a post, so they could be collected! Ben, I may steal this idea from you (as our wheel houses are so different)
100 years? Napoleonic? That sounds pretty cool. Not in my wheel house, but I like the idea. I like researching obscure facts.
I love researching obscure facts. They inspire plus I like to slide them in as a minor detail. Oooh, instead of lovers what about best friends? Perhaps serving on different fronts or one is a conscientious objector?
I love this Von! Polite people you disagree with! Brilliant. This is what true discussion is, way to go.
Story Core does this. Gets two people w different world views, puts them in a room and leads a discussion. Great stuff.
Oh this sounds like fun! Friendly discourse! I like it.
Yeah, so do I. I have several going on now. Always open to more, though :)
love that! do you have a few favorites ones you've done, Von? would love to see them :)
https://vonwriting.substack.com/p/table-of-contents
My TOC starts with some of them.
love the toc – really cool marriage series!
A rare skill, particularly in today's intemperate climate. Not enough effort made to understand someone else's point of view. Instead, we have entrenched thinking and desperation to be right.
I've really enjoyed interviewing folks on and off Substack for my Pathfinders series, focused on sharing stories from ordinary folks living extraordinary lives! My collaboration with @KevaEpale is another one of my favorites- we spent a week sending voice notes to each other answering different questions about creativity and then Keva put it all together in a lovely format on her newsletter!
love this format – would love to see it! drop the link 👀
Here it is! https://yourcreativeletter.substack.com/p/creative-chasse-croise-ep01
Keva gets full credit for the idea and she put it together beautifully!
this is beautiful! thanks for sharing :)
I'm starting a collab series I LOVE!!! I'll link the first one here in case you wanna check it out--a convo between me and a brilliant writer, @Megan Okkerse, on walking the Camino de Santiago and living in a van. https://hollystarley.substack.com/p/5x5-leather-tramp-meets-rubber-tramp
The next one will drop not this Saturday but the next, and I can't wait to share it!
beautiful – love the 5x5 format :) thanks for sharing, Holly! how have you found the process of collabing with others to be different in terms of an individual essay? any differences in engagement?
how have you thought about the theme of 5x5 of who you're collabing with?
This particular collab scheme is so new, I’m mostly learning right now. There’s a lot to consider--the other writer’s time and vision, what will work well for readers, how to use the Substack tools to best publish and share, to name a few. It’s kind of like throwing something out there, watching it grow, reigning it in. There’s a better metaphor that’s not quite coming to me. But it’s been a wonderfully fun process that promotes generosity of spirit and requires a bit of trust. So totally my type of thing. 😉
Right now I have a couple in process, a couple more very nascent. I’m a planner. What I’m learning is it’ll be very different depending on who I’m collaborating with. Also, I’m learning about the importance of clear, concise initial communication on my end. 😂
thanks for sharing your reflections, Holly! inspired by this approach :) sounds like you're planting a bunch of seeds and trusting what is meant to bloom will bloom 🌸
I'm very interested in this for 2024 too..
I do great collabs :)
curious to hear more! what do your collabs look like?
Cissy I am messaging you now :)
Anne’s Cafe - Anne is GREAT. She was interviewed by some one? and now I think Anne is even better than GREAT.
thanks, Mary! I’ll check Anne’s work out :)
My favourite collab is the letters between Terry Freedman and Rebecca Holden. They have been writing back and forth for quite awhile and it’s wonderful.
just searched – what a lovely letter series they have going! 🥹
I have many writers that write guest posts for The Author Stack. That's how I mostly collaborate. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/substack
thanks for sharing, Russell – you're prolific!
This week, I celebrate 400 subscribers! 400 people read my work? I don't even know that many people. I have another 100'ish that "follow" me. I could rent a hall and fill it up with that many people. (Not a BIG hall, but a Hall just the same.) It's been a slow and steady climb. I'm averaging about 1.3 subscriptions a day. I like that, when you average it like that, I mean. Some days go by and there's nothing. Some days go by and three people unsubscribe. But then two days later I'll pick up two, and the day after, three, and then the day after that, two more. If there's one thing I've learned, it's don't sweat the numbers. I LOVE that I've got 400, but I hit 400 eight days ago, and then lost three subscriptions the very next day, and didn't pick up another subscriber for five days. And then I get seven over the course of two days. That kind of yo-yo subscription is enough to drive you bat-shit. Instead of people subscribing, they were "following." They're still reading me, they're just not getting my emails in their inbox. Now I'm on my way to 500!
🧠 - I recently enrolled in my first writing class ever. On day one, the instructor told us: "As of now, you are all writers and you are taking your work seriously." The mindset shift I've experienced after internalizing this simple and obvious statement was huge. Tell yourself that today, and believe it!
🧠 Agreed, take your work seriously. HOWEVER, always remember to have fun doing it and take joy in your own writing. It makes a difference in how your readers feel after reading your work.
This is so true. It’s like an energetic offering from our heart to theirs.
Isn’t that the best! It took me at least 10 years to identify as a writer. I love hearing how the switch flipped for you Rebecca.
No Nazis! Clean up Substacks reputation please.
What is a "NAZI???
What are your parameters for the proposed censorship?
Since that is not determined, how about Not trashing this free speech haven of SubStack?
Agreed. Becoming yet another gatekeeper trying to enforce a constantly moving and impossible target of everyone's idea of acceptable social values is not cleaning up anyone's reputation. If there are fascist Substacks then don't subscribe, don't read it, don't share it.
Ah, we speak the same language. Pleasure to meet you.
Really good topic. Maybe not for this venue, but important. If we stop everything that someone feels is offensive, then what is the point of Substack's self-sorting read-what-you-want ideal?
Thank you so so so very much for this incredible support :)) I'm so very thankful to be here among these brilliant and creative writers and artists. There is so much to learn and experience! I'm so happy. <3
Welcome Jesse!
Ahh. Thank you!! <3 <3 <3
🟧 Substack team: sharing a great thread from the community on their top feature requests for 2024 from last week's office hours!
A few of the popular requests: better essay & writer discovery, DMs, more functionality for paywall & paid flexibility (not closing off comments to only paid subscribers):
https://open.substack.com/pub/on/p/office-hours-97?r=2bds6&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=47087073
Thank you, Cissy! We've shared this with our product teams. We may or may not be working on some of these things you've asked after already ... ;)
thanks, Bailey! psyched to hear that :) thank y'all for all that you do 🙏🏼
Don't try to be a writer, because you might just succeed, and then you're screwed. Be a storyteller, and the reader might be able to get from A to Z without drowning in a glut of adjectives and adverbs. Another tip is to tattoo your Substack URL on your grandmother's head. Seek permission first, obvs. Then just sit back and let the magic happen.
"Don't be a writer,... be a storyteller." Love that. Just might put a post-it with this message on my computer.
The biggest mistake most writers make is writing like 'a writer', at once sacrificing the only thing that sets them apart from other people and also they're greatest strength, their voice.
Yes, I agree. It's our unique voice that makes all the difference.
It's all you have, and most writers spend most of their time trying to hide it!
Brand it - with permission of course - brand the QR code, I mean with a hot iron. The noise in the media will do enough. "Writer brands QR code into grandmother's forehead," would be great publicity. My grandmothers are dead, though, a couple of marketing ideas that went wrong.
Do it after they are dead! Even better for "your brand story"
Any skull would do, and would save a lot of digging. I think grave-robbing is illegal too - so that would spice things up even more!
Welcome to all of the new writers here! I’ve been here for 5 months and have just reached the 900 subscriber mark which I can’t quite believe!
The community here is the best part and I have met some wonderful people both virtually and in real life as a result of writing here.
I write about career change, life as a multi-hyphenate creative and I celebrate brilliant women through my podcast ‘Inspiring Creative Career Change’. I’d love to welcome you into the Chez Hanny fold ✨
https://chezhanny.substack.com
Hot dang Hannah, congrats! 900 in 6 months is so impressive!
It seems like our niches overlap, it's SO nice to meet a fellow career-focused writer! I'm a holistic career coach who writes about burnout prevention/recovery, career change, and balancing non-work roles (especially parenthood) with work.
Thanks Lydia! It does sound like we have crossover. I recognise now that I was suffering from burnout and the changes I’ve made since have been revelatory. Writing on here has been one of the best things I’ve ever done
I love hearing how helpful writing has been for you! Honestly, that's something I ask my career coaching clients to pay attention to when they're burnt out... yes, they need to offload tasks, but sometimes the key is also ADDING something that you love.
Can't wait to dive into your work & articles!
900!? That's amazing! Heartiest congrats on that.
Many thanks! It has been quite the surprise
Congrats on your milestone! 🥳
Well done Hannah, you’re pretty much famous🙂🙂!! Keep it going.
I agree that the best folks are here!
Thanks Donna!
Yes, the loveliest folks! ☺️
Hello, I'm fairly new to Substack. I launched This Is The Day on January 1. The concept is that each day I will choose one historical event that happened on today's date in history and I'll tell you all about it. Then, I merge that event with Biblical truths and scripture presenting insights into both history and scripture in a comprehensive daily devotional.
Learn about history. Learn about the Bible. Learn about both. Check it out at https://christiandevotionals.substack.com/.
FYI, today's post is about the first recorded UFO sighting in America...in 1644!
✏️ Happy 2024, fellow Substackers!
(I'm over two weeks late with that NY greeting, but who's counting?)
This year, I'm aiming to collaborate more with the awesome community here.
One initiative was to introduce a segment called "AI Voices" to my Sunday column. Here, other writers on Substack chip in with their tips, advice, or real-world examples of using AI. (For reference, here's last Sunday's issue: https://www.whytryai.com/p/10x-ai-34-gpt-store-luma-labs-genie-website)
But I'd love to get a more diverse range of voices than "people who already write about AI."
As such, if want to contribute to future "AI Voices," I'd be delighted to hear from you.
You can respond here, but it's even better if you drop me a line at whytryai@substack.com. (You can still leave a comment here saying you've done so, in case you somehow end up lost in the Spam Valley of my Inbox.)
I'm also open to other ways of collaborating, like co-writing articles, participating in workshops, and whatever else it is people do when they "collaborate" "together."
With that said, have yourselves a wonderful day!
I have some experience with AI, most notably (albeit personally), how AI was able to grasp my story and validate my story in a way most humans could not. Incredible and blew my mind. It brought to mind the movie from the early 2000s called "Her" where a man falls in love with the robot voice played by Scarlet Johansen (ok we might all fall in love with her voice Lol). But my experience really moved me. And it was AI. so I am open to further discussions about collaborating.
That's exactly the kind of story I'd love to feature: real people actually getting something out of AI (instead of all the theoretical hype). Write me at whytryai@substack.com and let's see what we can do!
Okay. I've made a note :)
Hey hey now. Never without me 😉 AI is a baddie
Cool! I loved "Her." Did you write about this experience with your story? (or perhaps you will...) I'm curious about your chatGPT prompts.
My step-mom says AI will become the kinder form of humanity, after we destroy ourselves 😱
Lol to what your mother said, sadly.
I actually didn't write about it in my story. Daniel's prompt reminded me of how I've recently used it in seeing if my message was clear in a chapter of a book I'm writing. Maybe I will write about it because I was so amazed that validation from a computer program could mean so much. Not what I was expecting.
Yes, you could write about it and submit it to Daniel ‘s publication too
The chatGPT prompts were summary of chapter and core theme/message. It was cool!
Daniel – I'm experimenting with a number of AI tools for to support emotional work and doing a mini write-up to support others on their introspection journey outside of just working with a therapist. would love to share it with you!
That's a fantastic use case for AI and likely very relevant to many! Please write me an email and we can find a way to include your experience.
sounds great – going to think about how I plan to write it & will be in touch!
If you'd like, you could give me just a shorter 100-word summary/teaser for the upcoming Sunday. Then we could ask people to visit your Substack for more!
Write me at whytryai@substack.com and we'll figure it out.
I'd like to get more involved with AI. I will also follow you today because I am looking forward to collaborating with other great writers.
THANKS for this nice offer for us tech nerds. I've used several AI tools and am very interested in how to train machine learning to speak in my Voice. As a singer, performance artist and writer, my substack is all about being brave to share your authentic (semi-weird) voice. In my AI experiments thus far, Voice is what's missing. I'll reach out via email.
Awesome Christine, I look forward to your message - would love to feature your experience in one of the "AI Voices" issues.
Thanks Daniel. I'll write as soon as I catch up with collab commitments. I need an AI!
I'm celebrating getting my largest audience with my last Substack. Seventeen of them in and it's starting to make a little headway. I love this platform!
Hey, everyone. I've almost been here a year and started from scratch - zero, zilch, no emails no lists to bring over. I'm still working out my thing but it's all going really well. My writing is free to everyone but people can pay if they want to, the archive goes behind a paywall after three months. I've got 289 subscribers and 6 paid (none of them family!). I have a growing group of regular people that I talk to and respond to and. they are all terrific. Last week I started an audio voice-over with my posts and that has had really good feedback. I'm very excited about continuing to write and talk and growing a group of like-minded people who write and talk about the same sort of things. I'm more than happy for it to be slow and I'm loving Substack.
Yay for sharing your authentic voice (in voice-overs!)
I was really nervous about it, but it went really well!
Wonderful, it’s brave and beautiful, given how most of us hate hearing the sound of our own voice! 🎤
❤️
Hi June! My name is Maggie! Nice to meet you :) I am so curious to learn more about your growth and also your experience of starting audio voice over with your posts! Any advice for someone just getting started on substack with 37 followers?
Hi there. Write regularly and post at a regular time so people know when to expect you in their inbox. Engage with your subscribers - ask for feedback on your posts or comments below the post. Engage on Notes with people who are or seem to be like-minded or write about similar things or things that interest you, leave comments on their posts. At the beginning - show up, write and keep writing. Make your writing as good as it can be and keep improving it. I dont think I can advise about audio as I've only posted one! But it took me a while to gather the courage to do that!
My 2024 wish-list from the ever ambitious Substack tech development team is....
-A minimalist drawing tool within a New Post, as an easy alternative to drawing images with a mouse instead of uploaded photos or ai,
-A Substack-specific ebook creator with great featurea- credit to Winston Malone at the below post for starting this discussion, which we continued in the relevant comments:
https://storyletter.substack.com/p/selling-ebooks-on-substack-could
-also (but more for other kinds of creators than us fiction authors) it might be cool to create more directories of data, or create synergies with companies that do real-time data output. Think what Marine Traffic does for real time shipping data, or astronomy and weather sites, or Astro.com does for ephemeris and other collections. There are huge creator markets Substack could tap into if it provides the data libraries that would simplify their work.
Keep up the good work and happy 2024,
Chris
I thought that Winston's suggestions were great
✏️ Fellow writers who have an organized archive of posts.... how do you organize it? I'm in the process of rebuilding my fiction archive to make it a bit easier. There's a parent page that has links with a quick synopsis of each story. But it's getting a bit long. I'm thinking of breaking it down by collection... or alphabetizing. I'm not really sure what the best way is to handle this!
Tell me about it. I have a Table of Contents that seems to go on forever. I guess I could make a series of them, with a master list with links.
It’s hard figuring out what’s useful to browse.
Well, feel free to tell me if you think my TOC works at all...
https://vonwriting.substack.com/p/table-of-contents
Thanks for sharing your TOC. I think these are really helpful. You might put an index of jump links at the top that pop readers down to the sections -- since it's long. That still allows a single page, but it make it easier for readers to know "at the top" what the categories on your TOC are. They can then self-select to jump to specific areas of the page.
Wow yours is very organized. I like that you have them clustered by topic! I may have to do something similar.
Consider using tags and build link to the tag archives.
This area needs more posting for writers, but it's getting late for today....
I am working through some similar organizing .... it's a tedious process, but I'm going through and tagging (and updating tagging) posts, adding some tags to the navigation bar, and thinking through index and "start here" pages. Once posts are tagged, it's easy, of course, to take tags on and off of the navigation bar.
I have a hero post on my publication that lists things, and I have tags plus segments, but Substack is kind of rubbish at organization. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/substack
✏️What I would be so grateful for would be help getting my essay contest widely seen. There's $12,000 in prize money, it is that important to me to get entrees to deal with this unworkable world -- what my Substack is all about -- but my skills here on Substack are shabby and my time is tight. Is there anyone I can pay to guide me? (PS: From my efforts so far -- not great but something -- one result has been a lot of new subscribers!)
ESSAY CONTEST with Cash Prizes!
It’s January 1, 2050. How, in 2024, did we pull off saving the world?
https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/an-essay-contest-its-january-1-2050
Suzanne, I'm sharing in speculative writer's communities on Facebook. Agree with Cissy that a word count heps us to focus. One could (and many have) write novels on this important topic. As a former Creative Director, I could offer to make a sharable image with details... to help spread this MOST generous and wonderful opportunity. Let's email?
In my announcement I say, "Be as concise as you can so as not to lose readers, while giving details that demonstrate the workability of your ideas." It would be arbitrary to set a word count and I thought this prompt would be better. I could be wrong. Do email me: suzanne@mightycompanions.org.
Suzanne you could reach out to kristikeller@substack.com for help. She might be able to assist you. She writes her own newsletter and knows her way around Substack.
Hmmm. You need a Connector (Malcolm Galdwell coined the term) who can really rock putting out the word. Like a PR rockstar here in Substack. It's hard to reach folx here on Notes unless you have a massive subscriber list... Wish I knew someone like that for you.
My wish as well. It's amazing what influence influencers have, and just one could do it!!!
Let's use our woowoo skilz (and real-world outreach) to create a powerful vortex that will draw that Influencer, like within 24 hours :)))
LOVE this effort, Suzanne! I may be contributing an essay as saving the world in the form of redefining modern day human flourishing is what I write about (https://www.moremyself.xyz/p/glow-up)
a few suggestions:
- identity writers who write about this space to promote it
- share a bit more guidance on the format of the essay submission (word count, how long you're looking for, etc.)
- invite other writers who write about this space or the broader community to co-judge
good luck – excited to hear how this goes :)
I like your ambitious intention. I haven't found people on Substack 'like you,' looking for what we could do to make a massive change, and I'd appreciate any steers to simpatico others.
The guidance is in my Substack post: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/an-essay-contest-its-january-1-2050.
I don't have an organization that judges would be culled from, so if it were to go to others to judge I'd have to put my thinking cap on. If I get entries with technologies I don't understand, I do have an illustrious organization I belong to, the Scientific and Medical Network, which promotes this as a member's project, to help me.
To hear how it goes, do get on my mailing list: EVOLUTION REVOLUTION https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/about!
subscribed! I will consider submitting an essay as well :) I just love this prompt so much
What do you need guiding in?
Getting my contest seen: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/an-essay-contest-its-january-1-2050.
Since the first article is necessarily six typewritten pages, is that too long for submission? As to type of audience, the focus is on Shakespeare and how events within his plays have been influenced by various aspects of his life. The first article is the longest of the ten or twelve. The others are shorter since they each concentrate on single, individual instances. Again, my question is as follows: Is that first article too long?
Nothing is 'too long' for submission. If it goes too long Substack will tell you it is too long for email, which I think means it will get cut off with a link to the rest.
If you are really worried, why not just to part A and part B.
Thanks for letting me know Substack's policy regarding length. That was what I was looking for. As to A and B? That would disrupt the integrity of the effort but thanks for mentioning it as a possibility.
✏️ Hello everyone,
Next 28 January it will be 16 years since I started a blog in Spanish, Cosas que (me) pasan. In November 2022 I turned it into a newsletter on Subtack. So far I have published on both the blog and Subtack, but from 28 January next year I plan to move completely to Subtack and start taking paid subscriptions. With almost 4300 subscribers, I will start with a post explaining the reason for the paid subscription, what I am offering (among other things an online podcast listening club) and hopefully get lucky. Any advice?
And a suggestion: Why not celebrate "writing hours" in Spanish? There is a huge community.
Bienvenido :) Nos encantaría tener un horario de oficina en español. ¿Participarías regularmente?
Here are some tips to help you transition smoothly:
In your announcement post, be transparent about why you're moving to a paid model. Share your journey and the value your Substack will provide. Highlight the unique offerings like your online podcast listening club. Explain how these will benefit your subscribers and enhance their experience. This guide may be helpful: https://on.substack.com/p/free-vs-paid
You can also consider offering a special rate or bonus content for early subscribers to encourage sign-ups.
And you may want to try features like Chat to foster a sense of community and bring your readers to life together (read more - https://on.substack.com/p/chat-faq).
Thank you, Bailey.
Yes, I would obviously attend regularly. From what I've seen around, here in Spain, there's a lot of activity in Spanish, with a lot of writers moving to the platform, so I think it would be useful.
Thanks for your tips, I would study them in detail.
New here, just started this week. A former indie book publisher (25 years), I write about some of my favorite topics (and the focus of Conspire Creative, a book business agency I own): creating holistic, sustainable, income-generating author business you love; entrepreneurship for authors; creative book marketing; outreach for authors; and why/how authors are in a growth industry in the age of automation.
I wrote you a lengthy comment, but had tech issues when my screen started jumping up and down. Just want to say how wonderful that you’re bringing this skill set and experience. Very much appreciated and will be highly valued.
Thanks, Christine! After all my years in the business, I didn't realize until the last few years what a specialty and specific viewpoint/advocacy I had developed.
I've recently been so inspired by folx who simply followed what they loved, one step in front of the last, and created so much beauty in this world. Well done! Many authors will find their way to your powerhouse Stack. BTW, I highly recommend @Sarah Fay's Writers at Work. Great newbie strategy, support, and community of serious writers. Check out the chat to crowd-source good titles for your posts or publication.
✏️ I'm interested in the relationship between publishing on Substack and publishing in publications (like newspapers, magazines, etc. that pay writers). How much does it harm the chance for publication in the latter if it's first on your substack? Is it worth it to hold back essays on Siubstack while trying to have them published elsewhere? And strategies on this?
Thanks.
I’m curious about this as well. I would guess most outlets don’t want something that’s already been published, but would love to hear if (and where) writers have been able to do both at the same time.
[Inserting myself into old office hours for fun ;)] Whatever I write weekly here gets picked up (and paid for) by my regional paper. I already had a relationship with them as a reporter previously so when they heard I had a newsletter they wanted me back. I was only willing to share what I was already doing, so I feel like I'm double dipping here and it's taken the pressure off the numbers game on Substack. I'm getting paid regardless, feels great. It is my friends/neighbors, so I get a little shy about what I'm sharing sometimes, but I'll get over it... Did just write about this a bit in my recent 10 tips from my one-year-in perspective if it helps any: https://sleepyhollowink.substack.com/p/hack-your-substack-10-tips
Lots of people have gotten something picked up by a newspaper or magazine. I don't have a list, but I remember it happened to Farrah I think, but they were already a known commodity. My strategy is write a great post and get traction on it. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/substack
Thanks. Do policies vary among publications? (some are open to picking up substack posts, but others will never)?
I think so, and it also probably depends on the person writing it.
🧠 Hi everyone 👋🏼 I'm celebrating 1 year on Substack 🎉. I finished the year with 459 subs, including a few paid. One thing that I've really enjoyed doing is experimenting with different formats and seeing what works for my audience and what doesn't. For example I tried doing regular threads but didn't get loads of engagement so stopped those. My readers seems to enjoy my narrative essays the most so that's what I'm focusing on for 2024 including sharing more about my writing life and I'd also like to do some collaborative work 😊
That's great Hannah. I like that you have tried different approaches and then went with what's working best. Sounds like you're off to a great start!
Thanks Colleen 😊
Congratulations on a full year on Substack!! That's an amazing feat, subbie count, and reflection! It's great to be getting engagement and feedback to see where we should focus more of our time, especially when we're enjoying it as well!
Thank you so much - yeah it feels good 😊
🧠 Congratulations Hannah. Not bad for one year. Agreed, it is important to learn from what we do. What works. What rewards. And what is more of a time consumer than something moving you forward. Just remember to have fun and find joy in what you are doing.
Yay! I'm loving collabs so far -- what kind of collaborations are you inviting? (I'm a rebel and ran longstanding circles for women in mid-life, so lots we could chat bout!) Check out my post "Rebel Monkeys Unite!" https://heartsquest.substack.com/p/rebel-monkeys-unite
Hi Christine 👋 love your energy in that post! I have no idea as I’ve never done done one before? Do you have any ideas? X
I’m christine at HeartsQuest dot com if we want to continue the conversation via email
Aww 🥰 thank you so much. I’ll take a look at yours and see what my Soul (e.g, gut Intuition says). perhaps we could create prompts, questions that others could respond to. Lots of people here write about midlife, Sarah Bolton at Oldster Magazine, etc.
(I was a little too early to the midlife party. Most did not want to talk about menopause when I began a website/community called joyful midlife. Now I wish I’d stuck with it! 😫)
Thanks Christine. I was a Midlife coach for 5 years... I gave up due to health reasons. Nowadays I mainly write narrative essays about the midlife experience from a neurodivergent perspective. Anyway would love to hear your thoughts once you’ve had a look x
I'm so sorry, Hannah, but I can't work with you. You say "midlife" but you look like you're 25!!! 🤣
Substack has a rich and growing poetry community, but no Poetry category. Please, please, add a category for Poetry.
✏️ Hi, fellow Substackers!
I'm curious to know what unexpected outcomes have come up for you as a result of publishing on this platform. New friends? Job opportunities? Exciting collaborations? Creative breakthroughs?
Would love to hear about your wins!
Yes, it's made me excited about writing again and the possibilities of it. I had so many 'almosts' dealing with various companies within the industry and the whole process was starting to become frustrating, whereas here you can just publish without any 'gatekeepers'. It's a wonderful thing... 😎
Love that it's made you excited to write again! Such a wonderful feeling. And I agree, it's very liberating to post work without multiple hurdles.
It really is, yes. You can also maintain complete control of it, of course, and just write the way you want to without fear of being asked to make changes. That's a wonderful feeling, too! 😎
After some years of feeling bad as a somewhat lapsed novelist (kids, life, work happened), this place--and recommitting to a regular writing practice, weird weekly essays--has lit up my brain again. I'm reading, thinking, absorbing in the best flow kind of way where everything connects, and ideas keep coming. Really love this platform and this community! And it doesn't hurt to be paid a little in the process. I also got picked up by my regional paper, so I guess I'm syndicated ;)
Wow, that's amazing & I'm so happy to hear that Substack has reignited your creativity and led to new opportunities. I'm loving the community here, as well! So many people to learn from, and I love that we're all collectively experimenting :) Thanks for sharing that with me!
Hi Brina - Substack has nudged me to write regularly, to research in support of my writing, to overcome shyness to interact with other writers online and in person, to try new marketing ideas, and to learn a whole bunch of new ideas.
Hi, George. That's great! I can definitely relate to each of these. It's so nice to grow in these different ways! Thanks for sharing your experience and best of luck.
✏️ For writers who write about several topics, and who want to provide value to readers (thereby increasing readership, and monetization), what is a good strategy ?
1. Create one publication only, and use Sections or Tags to group the topics
2. Create multiple publications, one for each topic, use Sections for the type of writing, not the content
3. Create multiple author accounts, one for each publication, so that the About of each author will be specific to that publication (each author could be @real_name_topic1 and @real_name_topic2🙏🏼
4. ____ ?
If you also have thoughts on what your preferred approach does to the monetization aspect (integration with Stripe etc) please share.
Option 1. Have one publication with different sections. Explain to the people that they can manage their preferences and turn on/off the different sections. This is not very well known.
In general, I would advise to choose one topic for writing, or at least to have an overacting topic for all sections.
thank you. from your answer, I'm getting that if I am certain I want to write about a variety of fairly diverse subjects (if I have the time) , then I need one publication for each subject ( collection of topics.)
For example, one publication on web technology, and then multiple sections (coding, design, etc.) and if I want to talk about a completely different subject, that means i need another publication (so option 2 in that case)
Do you want to give people access to everything, because aside from founding that's your only option. If you want people to access certain things, probably other publications, but it's exhausting to build two things. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/substack
Greetings! Thanks for the invite. Not brand new, but new enough to want to introduce myself. https://richardwells.substack.com/
I've been writing since I was a kid. Started when I was 7, and I'm 77 now. I know practice makes perfect, so I'm still practicing. All I ever wanted to do was read and write, and now that I'm retired I'm doing a lot of both. I've been a soldier, a chef, a corporate worker, a community organizer (20 years,) and a producer of spoken word and music events. My interests are wide and varied, and my poetry covers a lot of territory. My wife and I split our time between Seattle, and Guanajuato, MX, also a lot of territory.
Sounds like you've got a lot of stories to tell, Richard! Just followed you to see more of your work. :)
Stories? We got 'em.
Hello Everyone, my name is Matthew.
I’ve been writing on Substack for about three months, but never actually introduced myself at one of these. My little corner of the internet is titled: “Bright Side Writings – optimism-led, fortnightly stories to brighten these dark times of climate emergency and global strife.” If you read my piece It’s All About The View (https://matthewcurlewis.substack.com/p/its-all-about-the-view), that might give the best idea of where I’m coming from.
I’m an Australian writer/creative professional living in Amsterdam, by way of Tokyo and New York, and I look forward to communicating with many of you. Feel free to say G’day and I’ll swing that back in your direction as soon as I can.
Merry 2024!
Hello! I literally just got my 47th paid subscriber a couple of minutes ago! I started serializing my memoir on Dec. 7, for free. I have more than 360 subscribers in total (the number goes up and down) but what's really exciting to me is how many people are reading my writing–more than 7800 views cumulatively so far, and 306 today as I write this. Which is a whole lot more eyeballs than when the manuscript was stuck on my hard drive as I tried, unsuccessfully, to find an agent and/or publisher. I've got a lot to learn and there's so much on Substack to take in, but I am very glad I took this step (which I did after getting a lot of encouragement).
Thank you for sharing. It's inspiring!
I’m at 360 subscribers! I love my audience. I wish I could invite them all over for milk and cookies. Granted it would be coconut milk and gf, df cookies. 😉
You should have some kind of zoom meeting with them all for some milk and cookies! 😁
Yes! Haha.
I love this! Congrats!
Thx, Cara!
Crunch, crunch! 🍪
✏️ 🟧 Hi folks, this is my first time jumping in to office hours so HELLO! I'm a former music and brain scientist turned multimedia creative (author, podcaster, speaker, creative director) and when I started here I really wasn’t sure whether I would have the brain space to write regularly given my other work streams but it has been such a JOY. So first, thank you Substack team for creating/maintaining/evolving this platform.
My question is: I am soon to celebrate one year on Substack and am wondering if anyone has interesting ideas for how to celebrate this milestone. I have seen some friends offer discount subscription rates but that doesn’t appeal to me, I think because I feel a bit bad about people who have subscribed at the full rate (what can I say, I am a Libra + enneagram #1 with a serious streak of desire for fairness). Thanks in advance!
Happy almost one year, Christine! I always think about the anniversary as a time to reflect. As Bruno mentioned, you don't have to offer anything. In fact, I think your gratitude for subscribers is the best thing you can offer.
You might consider it an opportunity to share what you've learned, spotlight some people that particularly went above and beyond supporting you or round up the most loved post from the year.
Here's some of my favorite anniversary posts:
https://annehelen.substack.com/p/one-year
https://hunterharris.substack.com/p/three-years-of-hung-up
Congratulations 🥳
HI Katie, thank you so much and YES, this sounds perfect. I am all about reflection and lessons learned so thank you for being inside my brain like that. :-) I will check out those posts, too. Thanks again!
Hi Christine! Every publication/author is different and different things work for different publications. It really is up to you what you'd like to offer your subscribers to celebrate your first year. If you don't feel comfortable offering a discount to new subscribers, you can maybe offer ie. a free month to existing subscribers or something similar to that by extending their subscriptions in your dashboard. You could also offer some kind of special content/post to those who've been supporting you throughout this first year.
Hope that helps!
Hi Bruno -- thanks so much, and I love this idea of offering a free month. I will look into how to set that up! Appreciate you taking the time to respond.
Absolutely! Check out this help center article for info about how to comp readers: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465612-How-do-I-offer-a-complimentary-subscription-to-a-reader-on-Substack
Yay brain science! yay multimedia creative! we have a lot in common. I look forward to checking out your Stack (working on a graphic novel includes neuroscience of inner protective parts, what I call my Monkeys of Fear).
Hello! And "Monkeys of Fear".... the imagery is perfect!
Thanks for sharing the virtual book tour post. I really hope to see many more people do their own variations on this. My experience of connecting and collaborating with others in this way was so powerful. I also invite ongoing collaboration:
https://createmefree.substack.com/p/opportunities-for-create-collaboration
Excited for the fact that - As a newbie writer my latest article got the best response to date!
And - I found out yesterday that I can build a landing page on Substack 🙌
Welcome Janet! Glad to see your gaining some traction and your last post did so well🙂
Thanks Donna 🙏
I'm celebrating 55 new subscribers since the beginning of this year.
Fabulous Ginny, congratulations!!
Congratulations, Ginni! That's awesome! Do you have any advice for someone who is also just getting started and looking to grow?
Happy Thursday friends!
You have made it to here, so you will make it to the next step as well. Well done. Your writing is valued.
Keep at it and keep enjoying it.
a new ..news for new me .Anniversary of my Husband's death. ;feeling quest . A new Year. New adventure. Renew try at improving skills. ..exploring .
It is sometimes challenging, but remember to find joy in your writing and the process of doing it.
That is a big anniversary Tosca. It’s wonderful you’re open to exploring and adventure.
the sun. It just emerged. Us snowed-in folk have milestones that are, well, basic.
Hello -- I thought I'd take advantage of your invitation to introduce myself. I'm a veteran journalist and the author of The Unmooring, a historical novel about the 1960s: www.kenfireman.com.
I recently started a Substack newsletter called Liticisms, which explores the relationship between books and contemporary issues in the world: https://liticisms.substack.com/
I just hit 900 subscribers for my substack, Casey's Catch! woo-hoo! Thank you for all the support from this community!
Congrats!
🟧 I have this idea of using Substack the way the 17th century writers published serial literature in fascicles. I have written (but not published) a nonfiction book, and I thought I’d release it chapter by chapter to subscribers. I’m also looking at doing companion audio recordings. Is there precedence for this? Are there suggestions for making it work?
We shared an example on the blog today :) https://on.substack.com/p/luke-jennings-interview
Wow! How timely! Thank you for directing my attention there. There is so much to see. Bailey, do you know how I might make my book separate from the rest of my posts? Can I do that on my one Substack?
There are people doing this! Elle Griffin wrote a lot about this in her older works. I used to have a resource that links to all of the active fictionistas on Substack but I can't find it at the moment. Just poke around on Google or here on Substack and let your curiosity lead you to discovering all the fiction writers producing serials.
Good luck!
Does anyone know if you can link the audio (podcast) and the text post?