Product news for writers: In-app posting, mentions, cross-posts, and more
At Substack, we believe great writing is valuable. We’re focused on building simple tools that help you grow your audience and earn an income directly from subscribers, on your own terms. Learn about the latest tools we’ve built for and with writers to help you do your best work.
Please chime in, in the comments section, with your feedback.
Do your best work all in one place
New tools to make it easier than ever to maintain a publishing cadence on Substack.
Posting from the mobile app allows writers (and readers) in our iOS app to compose basic text posts and send them out to subscribers via email directly in the app. This feature is in beta and will expand to include more robust composition tools and media types, plus the Android app, soon.
Chat is a community space in the Substack iOS and Android app reimagined specifically for writers and creators. You can host Chat conversations for all subscribers, or just those who pay, deepening the value you offer to your audience.
Image galleries allow you to upload up to nine images side-by-side. Navigate to the images icon in your tool bar and select “add gallery.”
Profile links display all your social handles and web-profile links in one place. If you are verified on Twitter, your status will display on your Substack profile, too. Visit your profile to add links.
The Settings page was redesigned so that you can quickly access the different tools and customizations available to you. You will now see a navigation bar on the left side guiding you to customize your publication style, create a section, turn on Chat, utilize the Podcast feature, and more.
Grow your audience
Today, the Substack network is driving more than 40 percent of all subscriptions across the platform, and 12 percent of paid subscriptions. Below are the new and improved tools we’ve added to increase discoverability and help writers cross-pollinate.
Mentions make it easy to prominently hyperlink to other Substack writers, readers, and publications in posts. Simply search and tag others within the Substack network from the editor by typing the “@” key followed by the writer, reader, or publication name.
Cross-posts allow you to share great writing from other publications directly with your audience. When reading a post, tap the cross-post button, then write a blurb to let your subscribers know why you are sharing the post with them. Your cross-post will be sent via email.
Writer referrals celebrate writers and creators who bring their friends to Substack. You can now generate a unique link to share with friends who you want to help start a Substack. Once a writer accepts the referral invite, your relationship will display on your writer profiles, giving you credit for bringing them to Substack.
Browse is a refresh of the Discover tab on the web. It’s designed to help readers browse all the great writing, ideas, art, and audio in the Substack universe. When you visit http://substack.com/browse, you can see the top posts of the day across every category, staff picks, and recommended posts from publications you subscribe to, in addition to category leaderboards.
Great writing is valuable
Substack’s simple tools help writers and creators generate income directly from their subscribers. Below are the new features we’ve added to make earning a living easier than ever on Substack.
Paywall your archive enables writers to put free posts published after a set number of days behind a paywall. For writers with evergreen writing, this is a powerful and passive tool to convert free readers to paid subscribers.
Group subscription improvements make it easier for writers to sell and manage these subscriptions. In your settings, you can create a discounted offer and send it to group administrators via email. We’ve also added ACH as a payment method for groups to pay invoices.
Bestseller badges are ranked in three categories according to how many paid subscribers a publisher has earned. When unlocked, the Bestseller badge sits alongside a writer’s byline and is displayed on their Substack profile. The writer can choose whether to display the badge or not.
For more information on the new and improved tools and features, visit the hyperlinks above. We hope you give them a try.
As always, please feel free to leave feedback and ideas in the comments.
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