by Sarah Allen
To say that our online world looks different now than it did a decade ago is a wild understatement. In ye olden social media days of yore, the people who clicked to follow you actually saw your content. Feeds were in chronological order. Twitter was called Twitter and was a genuinely useful space to connect with other writers.
Almost none of those things are true anymore.
Now, as one content creator put it, we have seen the death of the follower and the rise of the algorithm. People who made their living creating content for platforms like TikTok are now seeing their careers untethered. The writing community has made its “X”odus from Twitter and we may never see the cohesive community we had there again. Our online world, now, is a fractured place.
But all hope is not lost for us writers working to build a platform.
In fact, I’d argue that now is a better time than ever to be a writer online.
Enter Substack
Substack, primarily a newsletter platform, launched in 2017, but has seen its largest growth and entrance into the more mainstream conversation in the last couple years.
Substack is still growing and expanding and regularly rolling out new (sometimes) social media-esque features (more on that in a bit.) And if the last several years of existing online have taught us anything, it’s to not put all of our platform eggs in somebody else’s basket, where algorithms change daily, and the basket itself might disappear or get bought out and morphed into something unrecognizable.
So why should you care about Substack specifically?
- As a newsletter platform primarily, you own your content and your email list. This means that whatever happens to Substack in the future, the work you do and the list you build is yours to keep forever.
- As it exists now, Substack’s features allow for unprecedented (in my experience) reachability and discoverability for your newsletter. Speaking for myself, I hosted my newsletter somewhere else for years. Two years ago I moved to Substack with my 90-something subscribers. Now I have over 750 and counting. (I’ll explain the features that helped me grow so well below).
The Two Possible Substack Approaches
There are two possible approaches I’ve seen for how to use Substack. Which approach you take will depend on your priorities and personality, and will impact how you approach things like niching down, topics, titling your newsletter, paid subscriptions, etc.
(Check out my newsletter and see if you can tell which approach I use.)
The Author First Approach:
In this approach, your Substack newsletter is a tool; a means to an end, rather than the end itself. Its primary purpose is to build an audience for your books. You might talk about your writing process and behind-the-scenes stories. You might write on subjects relating to your book, but that might be as varied as writing on everything from haunted houses to the best types of meet-cutes, because your books are varied too.
The draw for this type of newsletter is you. People follow not because you write on a particular topic, but because the way you write is unique and interesting. For this approach:
- Niching Down: It’s still important to have a specific niche, but you can keep that slightly more broad than the other approach does. You can craft a niche that incorporates all your varied interests.
- Paid Subscriptions: Paid subscriptions can and should be available, but most of your content should not be behind a paywall because, remember, Substack is the means to the end, not the end itself. You can and should offer fun goodies as extras for paid subscribers, but pushing and promoting that isn’t as high a priority.
This is the best approach for novelists and writers who are interested in publishing books in many genres and categories. As with your varied books, it’s you your audience comes to see.
The Topic First Approach to Substack
With this approach, your Substack becomes a publishing arm in and of itself. Almost like a business. In a Topic First approach, your specific niche is the draw, and you are the expert. You offer a lot of high-quality premium content for paid subscribers, because you’re working to build this into a significant stream of income (which can be very exciting!)
The draw for this type of newsletter is your specific expertise on a niche subject. People follow you because they are interested in the same topic you are, and want to delve into it as much as you do. For this approach:
- Niching Down: Having a specific niche is more critical in this approach. For example, if you write about gardening, you might get even more specific and focus tightly on carnivorous plants. If you’re a memoirist writing about travel, maybe you focus specifically on safe travel for women. If you’re a novelist who happily lives in a specific genre, maybe all your books have dragons and that’s what your newsletter is about, or you’re a horror writer who talks about various monsters from history and around the world, or you’re a romance writer who specifically writes love stories for the 45+ (I am begging more people to do this one haha!) The point here is to get so specific that you become a must-read for fans of a certain topic—in your books and your newsletter.
- Paid Subscriptions: This approach is also where you can get a bit more business and marketing savvy with your paid subscriptions. You can keep maybe half of your content or so behind a paywall, because your expertise is so good, and because your topic is so interesting to its core audience. You can strategize things like special content for paid subscribers, and how best to make those conversions. This becomes a strong arm of your writing business in and of itself.
How To Start With Substack
Now, if all of that sounds like a lot, and a little bit intense, here’s my suggestion: don’t worry. Save this info for later, when you can better synthesize it. And for now, just start.
Setting up your substack, writing the description, finding your niche, writing your first post, none if it has to be perfect. Especially at the beginning. This starts as an experiment! Maybe you try one approach and find that it’s grinding at your soul and you want to change things up. I’ve done that myself! Maybe you think you have a topic, but after a newsletter or two you find out that particular well isn’t as full as you thought it was, and you need to shake things up. I’ve been there too! Maybe your signup email isn’t perfect at first, or your offerings for paid subscribers aren’t working.
It’s all good.
You can find many tutorials on the technical side of setting things up, and you will also learn as you go. The nice thing about being a beginning itty-bitty newsletter is that you can play around and mess things up and nobody really cares! So here are my two suggestions for what you can do right now.
- Read other Substacks. Read especially in your niche. Find other writers who are doing adjacent work to what you want to do. Find Substackers who’s landing pages and layouts you want to emulate. Listen to the conversation going on, and then join in.
- Just start. I said it before and I’ll say it again—just start. If this is a writing venue you’re interested in, don’t let perfectionism keep you from trying.
How to Grow
This is Step 2, after you’ve become comfortable with all of the above, and have your Substack set up and a topic you’re confident you can stick with, at least for a while. Then what? There are two specific aspects to Substack that set it apart from other newsletter hosts, and have been by far the hugest factor in my ability to grow my email list.
1.Referrals.
A gigantic percentage of my growth over the last couple years is because of referrals. Within Substack, newsletters have the capability of “referring” other newsletters. This means that if someone subscribes to a different newsletter that refers mine, Substack will ask them if they want to subscribe to my newsletter too. Subscribers can go to a Substack page and see the other newsletters that it recommends. So how do you get referrals? Well, my biggest suggestion, after you’ve started putting out quality content, is to start referring others! Do it with no expectations, but just to show a willingness to support others and join the community. Karma will come around back to you.
2. Notes*.
Substack, while primarily a newsletter host, also has other features akin to social media. This feature is called Notes. When you post on Notes, only your subscribers who are also on Substack see it, vs it being a post that you send to your whole email list. Essentially it’s the Substack version of Twitter, albeit (currently, anyway) a much more peaceful, enjoyable, and highly literate version. If you’re up for joining in here, it’s also a great way to grow your list and find people interested in your work and your topics.
*Substack allows users to become subscribers or followers. Subscribers are the ones who sign up for your email list, and will get your newsletter in their inbox. Followers are not (yet) part of your email list, but see what you post when they log on to Substack.
This is a whole lot of information, I realize, but take it one bit at a time. You got this. And the world needs your words and your voice. Substack in many ways makes it easier than ever to write what you want to write, and find your perfect readers.
Write on!
by Sarah Allen (@SarahAllenBooks) February 23, 2015
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What about you, scriveners? Have you gone the Substack route? I have been wary of Substack in the past, but I can see it’s working great for Sarah. We’d love to hear about your Substack experiences in the comments. Do you have any questions about Substack for Sarah?
Sarah Allen (No, no relation to Anne. 🙂 ) is the award-winning author of What Stars Are Made Of, Breathing Underwater, The Nightmare House, and the Monster Tree. Her books have been Whitney Award winners, ALA Notable Books, and Jr. Library Guild Selections. Born and raised in Utah, she received an MFA in creative writing from Brigham Young University, and now lives in Orlando. Sarah regularly teaches at writing conferences and presents at schools across the country and spends too much time thinking about Substack. She spends her non-writing time watching David Attenborough documentaries and playing at the Disney parks. Find her online at sarahallenbooks.com and subscribe to her newsletter at https://sarahallen.substack.com/.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
Twelve-year-old Libby Monroe is great at science, being optimistic, and talking to her famous, accomplished friends (okay, maybe that last one is only in her head). She’s not great at playing piano, sitting still, or figuring out how to say the right thing at the right time in real life. Libby was born with Turner Syndrome, and that makes some things hard. But she has lots of people who love her, and that makes her pretty lucky.
When her big sister Nonny tells her she’s pregnant, Libby is thrilled—but worried. Nonny and her husband are in a financial black hole, and Libby knows that babies aren’t always born healthy. So she strikes a deal with the universe: She’ll enter a contest with a project about Cecilia Payne, the first person to discover what stars are made of. If she wins the grand prize and gives all that money to Nonny’s family, then the baby will be perfect. Does she have what it takes to care for the sister that has always cared for her? And what will it take for the universe to notice?
Thanks, Sarah. To date, most of my interaction with Substack articles has involved hitting a paywall and leaving. That means I’ve probably missed a lot of free content. Maybe it’s time I took a closer look.
I’m one of the writers who has deserted eX-Twitter, although I’ve kept my profile online and use it to post links to my blog articles. I’ve found Bluesky a much friendlier and more interactive social media alternative.
On a non-related note, are you related to Anne?
Just replying in order to receive new comments. Ignore, please. 😉
Hi Kathy!
Great comments and questions.
Paywall–You’re right that a certain portion of Substackers keep a certain portion of their content behind a paywall, but that’s only a small part! Spend just a minute or two exploring Substack and you’ll very quickly find writers in your niche with amazing content freely available. One of the advantages of Substack is that it allows us, the writers, to choose what to share publically and what to put behind a paywall. It gives us more options. But as a reader, there’s certainly plenty available to read for free! (My newsletter is not behind a paywall).
Blusky–I love Bluesky too! Many of my writer friends have left Twitter for the much better ground of Bluesky, and I certainly think it’s a great social media option. My reasoning for prioritizing Substack in my efforts is one of ownership. Substack is a mailing list platform, not a social media site. Bluesky is great for now, but who knows what will happen with it tomorrow. Or any social media site! With Substack, I own my content and my email list. That means that if something happens to Substack, I can still take my email list with me. I like that I’m not relying on another platform to get my content in front of people. It goes directly to their inbox.
Oh! And unfortunately I’m not related to Anne. Perhaps a distant ancestor! We’ll have to research that one of these days!
I’ve never considered Substack. I think I should probably give it a try.
Thanks for this helpful post.
Thanks for your comment! I highly recommend it. I like having ownership of my email list, and not relying on a separate platform or algorithm to get my content in front of people, because it goes directly to their inbox.
I recommend the Writer Community on BlueSky. I second Kathy’s comment above that it is a friendlier and more interactive community, well worth getting acquainted.
Great thoughts! I love and use Bluesky too, and love the writing community and kid lit community (my niche) over there. As I mentioned to Kathy above, the reason I’ve prioritized Substack in my platform efforts is because it gives me more ownership and control. Bluesky is great for now, but we’ve seen how turbulent and unreliable social media sites are. Who knows what will happen with it tomorrow! But on Substack, I own my content and my email list. I’m not relying on a platform or algorithm to get my content in front of people, because it goes right to their inbox, because Substack is not primarily social media. And if something did happen to Substack, which may very well happen, I own and can export that whole email list and take it with me wherever I go.
Very intriguing. I haven’t poked around in Substack, but perhaps I should.
I highly recommend it! It’s made me feel more empowered as a writer on the internet than I have in a decade.
Channeling Miss Grundy: “A title for children that ends in a preposition! Teaching bad grammar just with the title! It should be titled, “That With Which Stars Are Made!” 🙂
I never have paid much attention to that rule. I just couldn’t figure it out.
The imp in me was delighted at ending my title in a preposition 😉
I know several authors who use it as their blog, and when commenting, it asks if you want to post to notes as well.
I will save this for later!
Yes, it’s one of the features that helps grow your list on Substack! And I prefer it to a blog, because they don’t have to come to the site and check, my posts go right to their inbox. (I know you can do blog subscriptions too so that posts get emailed to people, but that always felt confusing for me to figure out who was getting what etc in my blogger days).
I started a newsletter on Substack last year to extend my reach. What I’m finding is that the content I want to read (all things literary fiction) is there for the reading. I’m hoping to bail from Facebook at some point.
Glad to hear it!! And yes, I’ve found a ton of great writers of and about literary fiction there. And I know what you mean–substack allowed to me to feel like I could take some of the pressure off of my social media, because I was still building a platform without it, and a much more stable and ownable one at that! Best of luck over there!
I have my own email list, which I developed over a decade ago, so I am not dependent on social media for a mailing list. My own experience on substack where I do post is that it tends to be dominated by less-than-pleasant people, but that is my experience only.
BlueSky is an open-source network, which is a major difference, and it is owned by Jay Graber, CEO, and other employees, so it is considered an employee-owned company. The ownership structure was specifically designed to prevent a single person from having complete control over the platform. That does not mean that it may not all go wrong. There are never guarantees, but that does make it less likely.
I should modify that I have posted on Substack on a few occasions. I am not a regular poster there because my experience did appeal to me. As I said, that is only my experience. It is worth trying out to see for oneself.
Thanks for your thoughts! Yes, Substack is primarily an email list host, NOT social media, which is why I prefer it. I used something else (MailChimp) for my email list before I moved it over to Substack and have found Substack to be much easier to grow. Who knows what will happen with Bluesky OR Substack in coming years (we’ve seen how unreliable all of it is) but I’m glad to have ownership of my email list and a place to grow it right now.
Terrific description, Sarah! Thanks for this. I sometimes feel (as an older author who learned to program on Basic and Fortran) that I will develop a drinking habit if they make me learn another new system! smile. But I thank you for this great introduction.
Oh I completely understand! Honestly, Substack has helped me a lot with this, because it’s a mail list, and not social media. So now with all these new social media sites popping up, because my efforts and priority are on my Substack email list, I feel so much less pressure to jump on whatever new shiny social media train is going on.
I’ve heard of Substack and used to follow a podcaster’s newsletter there. It was great content until he eventually grew tired of it (or put the rest behind a paywall, not sure which). This sounds like the obvious (and probably better) successor to the blog world, and I wish you the best of luck.
Personally, I stay away from the socials that limit you to 250 characters or less, only because I abhor all forms of censorship, and no matter what your opinion may be on how great a platform is, there is always censorship lurking in the background.
Thanks for your thoughts! You’re right that this definitely has become my new blogging platform, PLUS my email list builder, PLUS Substack has some built in growth features, which is why I’m evangalizing it for them for free haha! But I really do love it. And I agree about 250 characters–another reason I love Substack! You can write as much as you want in a regular post, AND in their Notes social media-esque section too.
Thanks for the coherent intro to Substack, yet another promising ‘platform’ to join and learn in the hopes of acquiring readers who will buy books.
Sounds lovely – if you can find the energy and a topic and want to be a guru.
For someone like me, chronically ill, it is laughably impossible to both write mainstream fiction AND spend lots of words hoping people will like ME enough to see that I have books out.
One more thing I consider and doin’t join – or even put on the list of the billions of other ideas I can’t do but sound interesting.
It’s a different world when, to write at all, much less to the standards of a childhood reading everything, you have to spend a huge gob of time every day just taking care of yourself, and struggle to get a coherent chunk of time to work with your own brain on your own stories.
I’m perpetually the kid on the sidewalk peering into the candy store window and smelling the essences of chocolate and vanilla without tasting.
It’s a very good thing that I love my writing results. Because most functional days that’s all I get, and functional days are rare.
Thank you for your thoughts! And I totally get it. But here’s the thing about Substack–you can pretty much use it however you want, and write about whatever you want! If you’re mostly writing fiction normally, guess what–people use their Substack’s to post fiction too. It’s quite a growing community over there.
Of course zero pressure to be on Substack if you don’t want to! It might not be right for everyone! My point is simply that if it IS something you wanted to do, you shouldn’t let anything stop you 🙂 You can do it YOUR way.
Great to see you are back!!
😀 😀 😀
Great information, Sarah. Thank you.
I have a substack account but haven’t posted anything yet. It’s going to be another commitment on an already overcrowded to-do list. Still, I think I should write a couple of posts and see how it goes.
Valid points! And I will say, it takes time and committment to grow on Substack like it does anywhere else. For me personally, it was worth taking some of my efforts and energies away from other places (like a lot of social media) and prioritizing Substack instead!
Good information here! But here’s a question for Sarah (or anyone)… How does one integrate or balance a Substack along with an existing website hub and its email system using, for example, MailerLite, MailChimp, et al.? Thanks.
Great question! Substack is essentially an email list host exactly like MailerLite and MailChimp, just with more features. My very first email list started on MailChimp. That’s what I used for years. I had about 90 subscribers when I moved over to Substack. I simply exported my email list from MailChimp and then uploaded it to Substack, and there were no problems!
You can envision Substack as sort of MailChimp with a BlueSky type feature. I hope that helps!
The imp in me was delighted at ending my title in a preposition 😉
Aha… good to know. Thanks. But quick follow-up: Q: So no additional opt-in required because these emails are already opted-in on the MailerLite platform and I can just import the emails to Substack as a group, correct?
Correct! I didn’t find it too difficult, and I don’t think my subscribers even really noticed, let alone cared, that I was now emailing them from Substack vs Mailchimp.
Thank you, Sarah! I’ll take all the luck I can get.
Hi Sarah! Thanks for such an informative blog. I knew next to nothing about Substack. Now, I know just a little more.
I have two books out with another which might be published this 2025. These three books reflect different genres–travel/adventure, true crime memoir, and a ‘coming of age’ love story (memoir) set in the Middle East. While I’m considered a SME in matters of crime and law enforcement, I enjoy branching out into different topics. However, I think my goal at this time should be to promote these books. I’m assuming I should be focusing on Substack’s “Author First” approach. Does that make sense? Thanks for sharing.
These are so exciting! My suggestion would be to see what, if anything, all these books have in common. What are the threaded themes? Maybe there *is* an element of crime and law enforcement in all of them, and you can lean in to your expertise. But you don’t have to limit yourself to that either! And the key is just to start! Jump in, and you can tweak and adjust as you go 🙂
Thanks, Sarah! This was really informative. I’m still on the fence about Substack, but I will file it away for later. Your book sounds amazing! I have a friend whose daughter has Turners, but I have yet to see that in a book for kids.