
Today, we’re thrilled to announce that Nadia Eghbal, writer, researcher, and all-round smart person formerly of GitHub and Protocol Labs, has joined our team to help writers flourish with Substack. She has a book about economics of online content creators coming out in 2020. Here, she outlines why she’s at Substack and what she’ll be working on.
Hello! My name is Nadia and I recently joined Substack to drive our writer success efforts. I’ll be focused on making sure that writers have everything they need to connect with, and grow, their communities and readership.
I came to Substack after wrapping up my own time as a writer and researcher. I spent the last four years digging into the stories of developers who make open source software, and how they get paid for their work. (“Open source” = just as a writer might publish a blog post, some developers publish the code they’ve written for anyone to read and use.)
My earliest days were just me, writing on my blog. I still remember the first developer conference I was invited to attend as a member of the press. When I picked up my conference badge, I saw they had listed my affiliation as “Medium.com/@nayafia”. I felt a bit strange standing next to journalists representing established publications, while my writing was just... me.
I’ve often thought to myself that if Substack had existed when I’d first started writing, I might have approached my work very differently. As a writer who built an audience around a niche topic, I’ve wondered why it is so hard to make money directly off of one’s work. I've been lucky that my interests overlapped with the software industry, but what if I’d been obsessed with cataloging perfumes instead, or the causes of Britain’s Industrial Revolution? Many content creators are now able to strike out on their own, thanks to platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch, but writers, journalists, analysts, researchers, curators, and other independent obsessives mostly seem to make money by indirectly translating their reputation into something they can get hired for.
Substack is the first company I’ve come across that made me feel genuinely excited for the future. I think of Substack as a '“kernel,” or seed, that makes it easy for writers to spin up their own mini-media empires, starting with newsletters and podcasts. When I was writing about software developers, I published a newsletter, blog, podcast, talks, and a book (coming out this year!). This wasn’t a strategic decision so much as a natural outgrowth of playing with words and ideas, which lend themselves to being expressed in different forms.
At the core of it all is an audience that wants to follow your work. But it was hard for me to think about where my audience “lived”. I’d list the things I’d written or made on my personal website, but if someone wanted to keep in touch, I didn’t have anywhere to direct them to. Twitter felt a bit like telling a new friend to come to a big party: it’s easy to get lost in the crowd, and there was no guarantee we’d ever actually run into each other.
Eventually, I started directing people to my newsletter. I’d had a mailing list for years, but I didn’t start taking newsletters seriously until last year. No matter what I shared – blog posts, talks, podcasts, books and articles I’d read, random streams of consciousness – I knew that I was talking to the same audience. At first, I thought this was a clever hack on my part. But when I discovered Substack, I realized it was designed with exactly my situation in mind. It’s a place for writers to host their fans: like a private salon, instead of grandstanding in the public square.
Almost by definition, if you’re known for a “thing,” you’ll exclude most people who don’t share your interests, but you’ll strongly attract a subset of people who care about what you’re doing. This sort of dynamic lends itself particularly well to subscription business models. The more you are just “you,” the better you’ll filter for a focused, engaged audience. And while I think there will always be writers who produce for mainstream audiences, we’re currently witnessing the parallel rise of smaller, thoughtful community spaces that serve as a counterpart to the roaring main stage. Subscriptions, then, are less about charging for content, and more about creating a quiet place for like-minded readers to gather.
While I was at GitHub, the platform used by developers to publish code (similar to what Substack is for writers), I worked with open source developers to understand their experience and translate those needs into product. One thing I’ve been consistently amazed by is how creators often end up in silos.
Writing can be an intensely personal process. Collaborations are fun, and you can talk through ideas with your peers, but at some point, it’s just you sitting down alone in front of your keyboard or notebook or phone, making the thing happen. As a result, creators often lack opportunities to learn from what others are doing. There’s tactical support – learning how someone else writes, grows their audience, or communicates their work – as well as personal support: finding your tribe, getting to know others in similar situations, and finding a sense of identity and purpose in one’s work.
I’m excited to bring this support to writers at Substack, whether it’s developing resources, helping writers get to know each other, or just listening to your needs. Please say hi anytime at nadia@substackinc.com or on Twitter. (I still write my own newsletter on Substack, too!) I’d love to hear what your experience has been: what you need from us, what’s working great, what you’re unsure about, or anything else that’s on your mind.
– Nadia
Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash
33 | 11 |
Hi Nadia, great to have you!
Welcome, Nadia! I'm glad you're here. I'll be VERY interested to see what you come up with; I've had a difficult time developing an audience despite having a big social media footprint. I know a lot of other writers here have similar issues, so your brain added into the Substack mix will be helpful!
If you live near others, it could be cool to go old school and pass out a quirky card or put up those fliers w tabs listing your link...Go backwards in time to jump ahead? A stack of little cards at local coffee shop? IDK Growth is normal to be slow. Keep building your body of work and see it jump in bursts. Also I don't care much for men anymore honestly. Have heard a lot from them already over time.
Welcome, Nadia! I love your appreciation for creators and am excited we Substackers have your support.
I loved how you wrote about the natural process of words lending themselves in different forms. And how being ourselves may not appeal to a large cohort but may strongly appeal to a small like-minded group. It does feel like a party at home and not just a crowded gathering in a public street. Thank you for the perspective. And welcome!! <3
Really great stuff. Excited to see substack continue to grow. You're right, figuring out where your audience "lives" is always tricky... I've spent the past 5 years working on client's digital marketing campaigns and time and time again the newsletter continued to be the single greatest factor in communication and sales.
Substack is doing a great job of selectively adding elements to their interface while keeping this "subscriber first" mentality prominent.
Olá Nadia, sou coautor de livro e responsável pela CryptoGiant aqui no Brasil, eu também descobri que o substack tem uma proposta incrível, e sinceramente estou amando utilizar essa plataforma. Inclusive tenho muitas ideias que talvez possa ajudar. Conte comigo, conte a CryptoGiant.
Welcome Nadia!
Hi Nadia. I just joined Substack as a writer and came across your welcome. I hope you are enjoying your position at Substack so far and I look forward to writing through Substack.
Best regards,
Mike
Hi Nadia, I'm new here too. And I believe that photo may be from the Housing Works Used Bookstore and Cafe, where I had an office in the basement for a little while. Great place.
WOW.