100 weeks of posting on substack

My ten tips for successful substacking as a writer, not a content creator

I’ve now posted for 100 weeks in a row!

I’m seeing quite a few writer and poet friends arriving on substack from other platforms, hoping to build and audience here. It might be nice, on this 100 post milestone, to talk about what I’ve learned along the way.

This post is specifically aimed at the authors and poets, of which I am one (both in fact.)

In no particular order.

1. You are not a content creator, you are a writer. There are all sorts of different writers on substack and all sots of different models for writers posting on substack. You have to find the one for you. Some writers solely write creative memoir/fiction/blog style pieces that showcase their work. Some writers write about the writer life. Some writers write well researched and informed essays related to the themes in their work. Some writers provide a space for people to interpret their books. There is no one way for a writer to be on substack. In the early days of my Substack I fell into a trap of feeling I had to be provocative, or have a hot take, or write about stuff happening in the community with a hot take. I doubted that what I was actually interested in (a slow connection to landscape and time, nature, history etc) was interesting enough to engage an audience, despite having established myself as a writer writing about the themes. Perhaps substack seemed so new and interesting and full of people promising they could show you how to think or feel about stuff in the world, or having ideas about growing audiences and hooking people in, that I felt that a quiet voice wouldn’t be enough here. I thought that I probably should be the sort of writer that said something about something important. Those sorts of posts seemed to do really well for other people. I have since learned to check myself and ask myself who defines what is and isn’t an important topic. For a while I felt like I had fallen away from writing, and fallen towards content creating; which for me felt like writing specifically to grow an audience. I’m not a content creator, I’m a writer. I write deeply researched, slow moving non fiction and poetry about nature and history and the interconnectedness of the human experience. I write about grief and I write about belonging. My hot take here is to write what you are already writing. It is far more enjoyable than trying to be what you are not. Substack is a stall for your wares, or a museum for your writing artefacts. It’s another way for you to connect to people, your readers. It does not have to be a whole new fangled sparkly version of yourself, it just needs to be your passion. Look at what is important to you and write about that. I can see the irony in my saying this and then doing a 'how to write on substack’ post.

2. What can you offer? This is not necessarily about finding the thing that people want as in what is the thing that people will fall over themselves to buy, what can they not live without. It is more about, I guess, how you might help people. Sometimes this is just by being present, by being you. Especially important if you are a writer from a group of people who are less represented. It might be as documenting your life as a writer at whatever stage that is at, because there are people out there in the same boat who want to see how their methods and experiences compare. It might be sharing opportunities you’ve come across, or building a community of writers. You might interview writers, you might write excellent reviews. It took me about a year to work out what the thing I could offer was. It turned out that I wanted to build a space for writers to connect to their own place in the world, space to think, as a community - this is my paid subscriber work - alongside essays that are, I hope, thoughtful - about the writing process, notes from connecting to nature, the urge to live a different kind of life, and thoughts on the themes in my books, sometimes even directly talking about the books. Don’t be worried if it takes you a while too, to find the thing that works for you. Substack is a good platform for experimenting, changing, allowing yourself the time to find your feet. I find myself testing different ways to write and connect here, different ways to approach a subject. It is joyful.

3. Your niche is the thing that brings you most pleasure.* People get a bit hung up on the advice to ‘find your niche’. Your niche can be the lens through which you, as a unique individual, see the world. It doesn’t have to be a holy grail, the thing that no one has ever written about before. Build on your own world view, hone that. If you write about the things you love, then that shows through, that joy engages people just because joy engages people.

4. Be realistic with your time. It’s good to be committed. But also, realistically, when you first start out you will not immediately be able to see the impact your work has on people, you will not be able to see your work reaching people and it will feel like you are talking into a void. It takes time for people to find you. If you have decided, as a new year’s resolution perhaps, that you will spend six hours a week creating the most perfect, intelligent, aesthetically pleasing substack you possibly can, and you find it hard work, because it IS hard work, and you are struggling to get through your To Do list because substack takes up so much time, and then you see very little growth in engagement or reach, then you will be put off. It will become a chore. It is better to grow exponentially. Start your substack in a way that you can be consistent with. A couple of hours a week. Set that time aside, work out what good quality writing you can achieve in that time and STICK TO IT. Set a target and a reaction to that target - 20 more people subscribed = an extra twenty minutes to spend on the substack, time enough to add something else to your substack whether that’s a quirky book review every couple of weeks, a little video essay or whatever. But start with time you can spare and aim for quality within that time frame.

5. Consistency. This is the key. Even if you are changing up the substack every now and again, adapting and growing, consistent posting is the key to connecting to people. You have got to be present for people to see you.

6. Treat your substack as work. This ties into the consistency thing. Take your work seriously. Take your writing seriously. Even this, that you might do for free. Take it seriously. Be committed to yourself for no other reason than producing good, strong art. Obviously not every week can be a post that could win the Nobel prize, but be as good as you possibly can be with the time, resources, energy and health that you have in that moment.

7. Unsubscribes are not always bad news. People dropping away are often the people you don’t want to reach. It’s not a failure, it just means you are honing your audience. You are producing a type of writing that some people will like. Some people won’t like it. Why would you want to hold on to readers who don’t like your work? Sometimes people unsubscribe because they are overwhelmed and your beautiful words dropping into their inbox is a cause of further overwhelm. There are all sorts of reasons. But it just means that the people who are continuing to support you, read your work, are there because they enjoy your work. They are your audience.

8. Have a flexible posting plan. I like to have a structure of themes, rather than specifics, because it allows me to write about what I might be interested in that week, under a particular theme, rather than feeling tied in to a certain subject and perhaps not doing my best with it because my scatty, monkey brain has decided that an entirely different thing is more interesting. I like flexibility with structure. The structure is there for continuity and ease, the flexibility is there for the joy of inspiration. I keep files of notes on my computer for inspiration too, to help in those times when my brain is a blank.

9. You are not employed by your audience. Rather, it is a mutual relationship. they should respect you, and you should respect them. They don’t owe you anything and you don’t owe them anything. You don’t need to apologise for having a life outside of substack. An explanation of late posting, missed posting, cancellations is polite, but a grovelling apology is not necessary. This is easier said than done is you are a people pleaser or struggle with imposter syndrome etc. But I do feel that being clear about the boundaries around what is and isn’t expected or required of you is important in order to feel at ease in your work here.

10. The work comes first. You are a writer, not a content creator. If you want to be a substack writer full time, then that’s fine. People can and do do this. But most of the writers and poets I know here are here because of the joy of sharing with a community, to reach their audience on a more personal level, to explore different ways of working and to showcase their work. If you need time away from substack to work on your book, to finish it, to finish the edits, do it. That is your priority because, as a writer, the substack is growing from your work as a writer. Set a specific time limit to be away completely, or reduce the amount you post. Explain why and what you are doing and use that experience in your substack work. Trust your audience understands this, that they are rooting for you, that they want you to complete more work.

I hope there is something here that you find helpful. Substack is an excellent platform. I follow all sorts of writers, artists, historians, crafters etc. It’s genuinely pleasurable to sit with a cup of coffee and work my way through fantastic substacks.

If you are interested in becoming a paid subscriber, I run online substack courses aimed at connecting t the world around us, nature writing, and also some zoom write along sessions.

If you’d like to read my work…

If you would like to read my nature/landscape memoir, The Ghost lake, you can find all the ways of purchasing it here: The Ghost lake

And if you’d like to buy a copy of my brand new poetry collection, Blackbird Singing at Dusk, you can buy it here.

*originally mistyped this as ‘your niche is whatever gives you moist pleasure’ which would have been an entirely different kind of substack.

Until next time

x