Your Thoughts Matter

Hey everyone! I wanted to begin by telling you how impressed I am with this community. You folks are really smart. Seriously—every comment, every response, and all of our interactions on Notes have shown me that time and again. I’m regularly amazed by the insightful comments you make during our conversations. And that’s exactly why I’d like to bounce something off all of you today.

Earlier this week, Amazon emailed me to announce they’re shutting down Kindle Vella, their short fiction initiative. I had high hopes for it, but it never quite hit the mark for me. But it got me thinking about something bigger…

What if we could jumpstart fiction right here on Substack? What would it take for us to transition from these nascent beginnings to a thriving, robust community? I’ve got some ideas (which I’ll share below), but first, I want to be clear that this isn’t a monologue. This is a conversation.

Here’s what I’m proposing: take a look at my plan below and let me know your thoughts. Better yet, if you’ve got a completely different vision, why not write it up on your own newsletter? I'd love to read it and share it with others.

Vella, we hardly knew ya…

Before we dive into our plan, I want to give credit where it's due. Though Kindle Vella didn’t work out, they nailed one thing: making stories discoverable. The way they showcased their fiction really put the spotlight on the stories themselves.

They didn't stop at just one way to feature stories. As you can see in this Top Faved showcase, they created multiple discovery zones throughout the platform. Each section was carefully designed to help different types of stories shine—from monthly favorites like these to other high-performing works that caught readers' attention.

Take a look at their Featured row below. Whether these titles were chosen by algorithms tracking performance (most likely) or human editors (less likely), this prominent placement served an important function: it put carefully selected stories right where readers could find them.

Romance Wins Again

One genre stood out on Vella: romance. No surprise there—romance leads the way, just as it always does.

What makes romance readers special? They’re incredibly adaptable. While some genres have rigid expectations—fantasy readers who demand 500-page epics, for instance—romance readers are different. They’ll embrace any format, any length, any platform... as long as the story delivers what they love. Short fiction? Sure. New distribution method? They’re there. Brand new platform? They’ll give it a shot, especially if it means following their favorite authors.

This flexibility isn’t just a quirk—it's a superpower. Romance readers’ willingness to explore new formats and platforms keeps the genre innovative and thriving. Where they go, other genres often follow.

The Vellys

As shown below, Kindle Vella ran a writing competition with significant prize money at stake. The path to winning combined reader popularity metrics with final selections made by a judging panel.

Here were the basic requirements for entry:

A Plan for Substack

Here’s where I see an opportunity: Substack could step into this space. We already have a growing community of short and serialized fiction writers. And soon, many successful authors will be looking for a new platform. The timing couldn’t be better to invite them into our community.

The Dream

Maybe we can get a patron to put up 25,000 dollars in prize money. Maybe I'll find pirate treasure in my backyard too, but who knows? Anything’s possible.

The tech world has a history of unexpected benefactors, and here’s one such story: Marc Andreessen began following an account on what was then called Twitter. The account, Truth Terminal, was run by a dedicated AI chatbot. As the chatbot gained a large following, the researcher needed to upgrade his servers to handle the increased workload. When Andreessen heard about the need, he gave the researcher a bitcoin to cover the costs. At the time, Bitcoin was trading at around 50k. Given Bitcoin’s current value, we’d only need about 25% of a single coin to hit our target. Yes, it’s unlikely, but you never know who will take an interest in your work.

If you want to watch or listen to the exchange, the link is below. Marc starts talking about it at 25:04 in the recording.

Chris Best

Marc Andreessen on the front foot

Marc Andreessen helped define the web as we know it, has founded multiple billion dollar companies, and is a legendary VC and champion of the tech industry. His firm is also an early backer of Substack…

Listen now

2 years ago · 67 likes · 12 comments · Chris Best

The Stackys

The following is a bit of wishful thinking, but let’s assume we do find a sponsor for this contest. Since the goal is to attract both authors and new readers, we want to make this contest as straightforward as possible. We’ll reach out to existing authors on Substack, but also leverage the fact that fiction authors tend to frequent the same online spaces which gives them non-Substack networks where they can speak about and promote the contest.

Each author would receive a unique signup URL or referral code that their audience could use when creating a new account1. At the end of the contest period, Substack would tally up who brought in the most new people—it’s that simple. No complicated point systems or user types to track, just pure growth. The authors who generate the most signups will be our winners. Substack will recognize the top performers (three? five? ten... however many we decide) with prizes.

• The Core Goal: Drive platform growth by leveraging existing authors’ networks and influence. Instead of complicated metrics or weighted systems, success is measured purely by new signups generated.

• How Authors Participate: Each participating author receives a unique referral code or signup URL. They can share this with their audience across any channel—social media, their newsletter, word of mouth, wherever they have reach.

• Simple Tracking Mechanism: When someone creates a new Substack account using an author's referral code, that author gets credit for the signup. Additionally, if an existing Substack user helped recruit that author to the platform, they also receive credit. This creates a multi-level reward system, similar to a pyramid scheme: users who recruit authors who then bring in many new readers can qualify for monetary prizes.

• Contest Duration: A defined timeframe (like 30 or 60 days) gives authors clear parameters to work within and maintains momentum throughout the competition.

• Selecting Winners: At the contest’s end, the authors who generated the most signups are identified through their referral codes. The top performers receive part of the 25,000 dollar prize money.

I referenced the $25,000 figure because that’s what The Vellys established, but realistically, a smaller amount could just as effectively motivate many authors. While established writers might expect larger sums, there’s a vast pool of aspiring authors out there who would be energized by even a $500 prize. To get things started, an annual contest with a total prize pool of $10,000 (divided into first, second, and third place awards—or however many tiers the contest has) could create significant momentum.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

A More Pragmatic Approach

The dream of an external savior swooping in to revolutionize fiction on this platform is alluring, but ultimately unrealistic. Our best path forward lies in taking action ourselves.

The good news? Writing networks already exist and thrive in digital spaces. Authors gather on Kindle Forums, in private Facebook groups, and countless other online communities. Many of you likely have connections to established authors—perhaps through family, old friendships, or past collaborations. Consider introducing them to Substack, not necessarily for full-length novels, but for shorter works better suited to this platform. Substack offers unique opportunities in this realm.

This is especially relevant for those of you embedded in the romance community. As writers familiar with Kindle Vella, you know talented authors who'll soon need a new home when that platform closes. Why not show them what Substack has to offer?

Every fiction writer who joins strengthens our collective presence here. While external support would be welcome, our success depends on the community we build ourselves.

Your thoughts?

Now it’s your turn—I want to hear your thoughts. Drop a comment below and share your perspective. What parts of this plan resonate with you? What might need rethinking? I’m genuinely curious to hear what you think.

Leave a comment

What’s Next?

I’m working on an illustrated story that I will be publishing to the Drawing Room section of this newsletter. That should go out sometime later this week. It’ll be a short piece of about 500 words, but with illustrations on each page. This is an effort to determine how well Substack is able to present formats similar to pulp style magazines that I grew up with or the Eastern inspired light novel.

I'm excited to tell you about some changes coming to the newsletter in 2025! This past year has shown me what matters most to you through your comments and engagement. You've helped me see which topics really resonate, and I want to dig deeper into those areas.

As the newsletter grows, I want to make sure you get exactly what you want to read. That's why I'm adding topic choices - a simple way for you to pick what shows up in your inbox. Think of it as picking your favorite parts of our weekly conversations.

Below, I'll show you how to choose the topics you want to follow. You can keep getting everything, or choose just the topics that interest you most—it's completely up to you.

I'm looking forward to sharing more with you in the coming months. I know your time matters, and I want to make sure every newsletter is worth your while.

Managing Your Reading Experience: A Quick Guide

One of the things I love about Substack is how it lets you customize your reading experience. My newsletter spans four distinct sections, each with its own focus:

Story Compass: Fiction and Found Favorites - This is where I share my original fiction where ordinary moments take unexpected turns. I also use this space to explore stories, book recommendations, and things I want to recommend.

Spoken Ward: Conversations, Craft & Community - This is where I sit down with creators to explore their work and process, discussing everything from newsletter strategies to creative decisions.

Stack Cartographer: Mapping the Newsletter Frontier - Occasional observations about the evolving Substack ecosystem, analyzing trends, and trying to understand the best tactics for this platform.

Drawing Room: Sketches, Comics & Visual Stories - This is where I share my illustrations, comics, and sketches, offering glimpses into both finished pieces and works in progress.

While some readers enjoy the full spectrum, you might find yourself particularly drawn to specific sections. The beauty of Substack's section-based subscription system is that you can tailor your experience to match your interests.

How to Customize Your Subscription:

1. Visit my newsletter's home page while logged in

2. Look for the toggle switches next to each section title (they appear as orange buttons, like in the image below).

3. Click any toggle to switch it off for sections you'd prefer not to receive

4. The switch will turn grey when you've unsubscribed from that section

5. Your changes save automatically!

Pro tip: You can always preview what you're getting (or missing) by clicking on any section name (while on the homepage) to see past posts from that category.

Think of it like customizing your own magazine – you get to keep the sections you love while skipping the ones that aren't your cup of tea. And remember, there's no pressure! You can adjust these settings anytime, and toggling a section back on will instantly restore your access to that content.

I value every reader, whether you're here for a specific topic or the whole journey. Take a moment to customize your experience, and let me know if you have any questions! You can simply reply to this message or any future emails.

Thanks for being part of the Written Ward community. I'm truly grateful that you have chosen to spend a little time with me each week, and I look forward to making that time even more valuable for you.

Leave a comment

Substack’s reputation problem

Substack has a growing problem. It is quickly developing the reputation that fiction authors can not succeed on this platform. I’ve seen this expressed by several of my author friends whom I have tried to convince to use Substack as a place where they should share their fiction. “Why would I go to Substack when everyone is already using Patreon?”

That’s a fair question and one that I hadn’t really worried about until this past week. After all, I’m talking about a handful of authors. How indicative of a greater trend can a few authors be?

Jane Friedman has a storied career. She has spent her adult life worked as an editor, a teacher, and an author. She is well known as having been the editor at Writer’s Digest for many years. She teaches several classes on writing for The Great Course, and has served on grant panels for The National Endowment for the Arts. In short, she knows what she’s talking about and more to the point I am making, people listen to her and value her insight.

Earlier this year she shared her thoughts about the fiction ecosystem on Substack. She said, “Substack has been mostly a dud for serializing and publishing fiction, despite its built in marketing and promotion features.” This was published in the May issue of her Hot Sheet newsletter. That was seven months ago. Have things changed in all that time? Have we seen Substack make moves to try to be make fiction more viable on its platform?

I believe it’s fair to evaluate how well fiction does on this platform. When compared to non-fiction, I think the honest appraisal that none of us actually want to admit is that “Fiction does abysmally on Substack.”

But, why? And, can it change?

Substack’s culture is a reflection of its founders

Substack was founded by two engineers and a reporter. If you spend any time considering Substack’s actions and directions, you can see how the world views of its founders have influenced and guided every decision. Almost all of the strategic moves that Substack has made have been created with the intention of creating a welcome environment for reporters. The early Substack Pro grants, many the people who were approached on Twitter, and their initiatives to save local reporting and other moves that the company has made have made it clear that reporters and non-fiction authors were welcome here. More than that they were actively courted. Some of them were even paid to switch to this platform.

None of this is bad. In fact, much of it is brilliant. It’s a great strategy and it really did cement Substack as a thought leader in a lot of areas. They quickly went from being some startup to the company that everyone was talking about and that early success is a direct result of those early moves they made to appeal to the non-fiction world.

The other approach that we see guiding Substack’s actions is that of the engineer. Much of their focus has been on creating new features with the goal of offering an alternative platform for content creators in all forms of media. Podcasting has experienced a renaissance in growth and there are several reports that show that it’s a fast growing and profitable industry. How did Substack respond? They incorporated audio features and the ability to create paywalled podcasts. Recently, they have rolled out improved video features in what one would assume is a play at winning over disillusioned YouTube creators or TikTok stars.

These too are great strategies. Not only does it make Substack more appealing to an increasingly diverse set of creators, but it also improves the ecosystem for everyone using this platform. We are seeing the development of an increasingly robust platform. Personally, I believe this is an assault against Patreon and an attempt to woo its creators here. Again, this is a great strategy and I hope it works.

My concern is not their past initiatives nor is it the addition of these new features. It is in the underdeveloped nature of the existing features that I believe are core to the experience of every user, but for the purposes of this article, I will focus on the fiction author specifically.

Nowhere is the emphasis on non-fiction articles and journalism seen more clearly than in the list of possible interests from which readers are expected to choose. There are only two dedicated categories for prose fiction. If you wanted to push you could include comics as a fiction category, but if you read many of the posts that are classified as comics you’ll discover that they are actually non-fiction pieces about the comics field or journal entries from creators working in the comics industry.

This is a large part of why fiction has floundered on Substack. They have not created a welcoming environment for readers. Readers don’t want to sift through every written piece that describes itself as fiction in an effort to find their chosen genre. They want to be able to go to a platform and say, “Show me all of your science fiction or romance or fantasy… or whatever type of story interests them.

Substack clearly understands the need for some degree of granular sorting because we see it evidenced in the many specific categories that have been created for non-fiction. Crypto fans aren’t forced to sort through posts about Fashion & Beauty. The same is not true for the would-be fiction reader on Substack.

The Amazon Opportunity

To me, it seems that Substack is looking for creators who are seeking something better than their native platforms. You can see this in their continual development and refinement of tools devoted to audio and video. These tools are a way to distinguish Substack and leverage its more creator-friendly business model.

It’s a good strategy, but I would like to point out a neglected group: the Amazon author.

There is growing discontent among authors who use Amazon. Year after year they have seen the Kindle Unlimited payouts continue to decline. Many authors have had their read through rates adjusted and cut because… well, sometimes they aren’t even told why. Amazon is capricious like that. Other authors have been accused of cheating the system in some way. Still others have even lost their entire ability to post their work on the platform. Romance authors regularly live in fear of being censored or having their books banned. And recently, Amazon has pivoted to becoming an ads first platform. Their search function is almost entirely unusable because they want to create dependency on ads. Organic discovery has all but disappeared on the platform when compared to just a few years ago. The product has been made worse so Amazon could make more money.

Authors see this and are actively looking for alternatives. Last year, a little over 1000 authors made 20 million dollars from subscriptions.1 That represents a 20% increase from the year before. This means that authors are actively seeking out and sometimes building their own subscription-based websites so they can sell directly to their customers instead of involving an untrustworthy intermediary like Amazon.

Why couldn’t Substack be a viable alternative? The truth is that it could be if it would address core features and improve the existing ecosystem in ways that benefit fiction authors.

Categories: Expand the number of categories so there is representation for at least the major genres of fantasy, science fiction, romance, and mystery. If I have missed a major category add that one as well, but at the very least start with these. In an ideal world, readers would be able to drill down to particular flavors of that major category. Not only do I want to read science fiction, but I’d like to read space opera or cyberpunk or whatever.

Hashtags: Give users the tools they need to follow topics, i.e. some type of hashtag. Movements like Macabre Monday, Tech Tuesday, or Sci-Friday are severely hampered in their ability to grow because of the lack of hashtags and having to manually tag every individual participant.

Search: This matters because these types of movements are how stories go viral. Reader and subscriber numbers go up when everyone starts talking about the same story.

Conversation Flow: While I love the fact that Substack continues to innovate, I do wish that they’d stop focusing on new features and take a moment to fix the existing toolsets. It’s difficult to have a long conversation on Notes. Notifications are wonky. It’s so easy to miss replies and useful viewpoints in a discussion unless someone has replied directly to you or tagged you specifically.

These aren’t just problems for fiction authors. Each and every one of these issues will be a pain point for every podcaster, very video creator, and for anyone else who joins this platform.

Romance authors lead the way

Romance authors are the front line soldiers of the fiction world. They are the Marines storming the beaches, capturing new territory, and making it safe for all who follow after. They are almost always the first ones to explore new features, the first ones to seize new opportunities, and many times they discover innovative and unexpected ways to use existing features to benefit themselves and their readers.

Romance authors are some of the most savvy business people on the planet. They have to be because romance is such a competitive field. There is a lot of money to be made in those happily ever afters.

The romance field is so competitve because romance readers are voracious. They are always looking for the next story and are more willing to try out new authors than readers from any other genre. Additionally, they are willing to follow their favorite authors into unknown territory. Historically, romance authors have been early adopters for Kindle Singles, Kindle Shorts, Kindle Serials, and routinely dominates the best seller lists.

This isn’t true of every genre. Think about that last paragraph. What I have said is that romance readers are willing to accept stand alone stories that are not part of a series, they’ll read short stories, they’ll read serialized stories spread out over a number of weeks, and they read full length novels in such numbers that romance as a genre represents a majority of the titles listed on best seller lists when all of fiction is lumped together.

Fantasy readers tend to reject stand alone stories. They want the series books. LitRPG readers will not read short stories in meaningful numbers. You could go down the list and examine the quirks of every genre, but they all tend to have some media format that they are not willing to try out. Romance readers aren’t like that. They are adventurous and willing to try new things.

Any would-be fiction platform would do very well to court romance authors who will in turn bring their readers to that platform? Would you like an example of a small company who has found success by doing just that?

May I introduce you to Ream?

Ream has fewer than ten employees. They have been out of beta for around a year, but during that time they have seen several individual FICTION authors grow to making just under a million dollars on that platform.

Why are they succeeding? It’s because one of the founders is a romance authors. She, Emilia Rose, primarily serves as an advisor ensuring that the product caters to fiction authors and delivers the features they want and value most.

She teamed up with Michael Evans, a science fiction author, and Sean Patonode, their lone developer, to build a subscription platform for authors. All told, the company has fewer than ten employees and yet the thing that has distinguished them is their focus on fiction authors.

That focus has allowed them to custom tailor the product around the needs of authors. Their entire focus was on ‘What don’t we like about Amazon? How could Patreon’s model be better? What do authors want? What do readers want?’

The user experience

Using Ream is similar to using early Substack. They don’t have all of the features and niceties that a more established platform offers, but what they do have is the ability to deliver features that matter for authors and one of the biggest features they deliver on is an active reader base who is not only hungry for more fiction, but willing to pay for it.

And yet, Ream isn’t a romance only platform. Authors from every genre are welcome there. I have found science fiction, fantasy, and even webcomics hosted on the platform. I do think that romance does much better there than any of these other genres, but that’s always the case. More to the point though, they have created an ecosystem that appeals to fiction readers. Now, it’s just a matter of growing their base and appealing more broadly to other genres.

They are releasing a robust list of genre tags and categories within the next two weeks. This will allow readers to more easily identify authors and stories they would like to follow and help bolster discover. There are additional plans to further aid author discovery in the works as well.

Each author profile also offers a space where authors can create posts for their followers. It’s very similar to the subscriber only message board known as Substack Chat.

Beyond that, authors are free to setup a tiered subscription program with the ability to offer an increasing number of perks and benefits to subscribers at each subscription level. It very much resembles Patreon in that way.

They don’t currently seem to offer an annual subscription which is different than Substack. That interests me and I’m not sure which approach is the right answer. I know that, speaking as a subscriber and a reader, I personally prefer to just pay a lump sum up front and not worry about it for a year, but younger readers may prefer the monthly option. It’s also possible that fiction consumers prefer to pay by the month because it allows them to sample an author’s offerings without committing.

Subscriptions tend to average around five dollars a month, but it’s possible to set the lowest tier to three dollars a month. I have seen some authors who offer tiers that charge 100 dollars every month. Additionally, some perks require membership at a certain level for 3 or 4 months before you qualify for the offered reward. Can you imagine someone paying 100 dollars a month so they could read your stories? And yet, there are people doing this… on a different platform where the culture is different.

Is it time to abandon ship?

It’s fair to point out that Substack does have to prioritize where they put their engineering hours. Staying in business sometimes requires evaluating where to best place your developmental dollars. They see an opportunity in video which causes them to improve the video player and quite honestly do some revolutionary things around the idea of being able to have additional control over how and when to implement paywalls in video. This may lead to growth. It may lead to an entirely new cohort of creators joining Substack and finding paid subscribers from segments who would have never before considered using this platform. That’s possible.

Recently, John Gruber and Nilay Patel were in discussion about the media landscape for writers and Nilay pointed out how that if both of them were in their twenties right now that neither of them would have become bloggers. They would have ended up on TikTok or YouTube because there aren’t really incentives to do blogging when compared to all of the possible rewards for doing video well.

That’s why it makes sense for Substack to pursue these ‘hot’ areas that are growing rapidly. They’re profitable and have a lot of potential upside for the company, but it also makes sense for fiction authors to consider whether their careers are being best served by the features that Substack offers to them.

Fiction on Substack hasn’t improved in the seven months since Jane Friedman spoke about it on her newsletter. Will we be saying the same thing a year from now? Exactly how long should fiction authors have to wait before their concerns are given priority by the engineers?

Am I encouraging people to leave Substack? No. Honestly, I’m not. I believe in Substack. I just want them to evaluate which features are being given primacy. I would like to see basic, core features given a little love.

And while I do not think that anyone should leave Substack, I do think it’s worth remembering that Substack does not have an exclusivity clause. Each of us are free to consider other platforms. Each of us are free to repurpose old content somewhere else and see how well it does there. It may be that you find a more receptive and eager audience for your stories on a platform full of readers who are actively looking for new stories to read.

It’s worth thinking about.

An Update about Ream

Ream has kind of imploded. Maybe? It’s too early to tell. Around July 11, 2024, the CEO of Ream was abruptly fired. They are presenting it as if he stepped down, but I believe that’s an approach at charitable phrasing. The rumors I have seen feature statements from him about how he hasn’t been paid for years and was basically working for free. The founders and owners of Ream have accused him of financial improprieties. He is now suing Ream. I don’t know where this is going, but it would give me pause if I were considering using the platform. It’s possible that they may weather this storm and be stronger for it, but everything is up in the air at the moment.

Here is a link to Ream’s official statement on the matter.

As of this moment, I haven’t seen a statement from Michael Evans, the former CEO, who was very helpful with this article and provided all of the information that I’ve listed above. If and when he posts one, I’ll update this. If you are in the Ream Facebook group and assuming the moderators have not deleted it, there is a statement from his mother as a comment Emilia Rose’s post from July 11th. I would share it here, but that’s a private group.

Fallout from Ream’s Difficulties

This is probably the most visible fallout that happened as a result of the changes at Ream. Several authors are now working on developing their own Subscription platforms. A Facebook group has been created and they are exploring options. Why they won’t join Substack is beyond me, but that’s a different issue.

Here is their announcement about forming the group.

Here’s a link to the Subscriptions for Storytellers Facebook group in case you’re interested in checking it out.

Downsides to these Non-Substack Approaches

The biggest downside that you will face on any of these alternate platforms is that none of them have an organic social component. Notes is just over a year old and it does appear to be gaining more mainstream adoption. Posts that go viral on Notes are starting to see engagement that numbers in the thousands of reactions verses the tens. Moving your fiction entirely off of Substack would deprive you of a very strong and useful promotional tool. That being said, as I stated in my initial conclusion above: Substack does not have an exclusivity clause. If you can diversify and become even moderately successful on multiple platforms, it’s only going to help your career. Personally, I would still try to send everyone back to Substack so you can get their email address and form a more direct relationship with your reader, but different individuals have different priorities and strategies.

Alternate Online Fiction Platforms

Wattpad

As of 2019, Wattpad had 80 million readers using their app. Wattpad is the largest web-based fiction portal. The majority of their readers are under 25 years old.

Radish is for romance/steamy romance

Royal Road is primarily home to stories devoted to the LitRPG and Portal Fantasy genres

Kindle Vella

Tapas- webcomics, fantasy, and romance

Six-figure Subscription Author Accelerator

Ream

I’ve seen several people express concern, dismay, and even confusion about the newly announced improvements to the already existing video feature. Video has existed on Substack for a while now. It’s not new. It’s just better. And yet, some have even gone so far as to decry these newly announced improvements (to an established feature) as the moment Substack has abandoned the primacy of text and pivoted to video.

That’s not what’s happening.

I understand the fear. I have a strong and pronounced preference for text as well. It’s much for me to scan a few thousand words rather than being held hostage by a 15 minute video. We’ve all had the experience where we’re just trying to figure out how to fix a light switch or a plumbing issue and we’re resorted to YouTube. Inevitably, you to wait for the speaker to get to the point or you scrub through the video stopping at random points hoping to stumble into the information you want. Let’s face it: text is better.

Well, it’s better for people who are inclined to text. Not everyone is though. Substack wants to help individuals who create and consume non-text content, but is this a cause for alarm? Perhaps it’s worth taking a step back to understand the goals and maybe even see the opportunity that these changes could bring.

The glory of Notes is that it is currently the best vehicle for newsletter discovery. If you want your subscriber numbers to tick up, get out there and start meeting new people. Leave comments on someone else’s post, yada, yada… we’ve all heard it before.

But, you know what? Notes ain’t big. If you spend much time there you’re going to start bumping into the same core group of people over and over. Some of that is just the nature of how Substack controls what content you see, but a lot of it has to do with the size of your interest graph.

If you’ve put in the effort to build out your network here, you’re probably already speaking to the group who shares your interest. Video and similar features provide a way to increase the size of your potential network because they appeal to a larger demographic than text alone.

Subscribe now

Not A Pivot to Video

This doesn’t mean text is being deprecated or diminished. It doesn’t mean that all of us should start making vlogs (such an ungainly word). It means your pool of potential readers could increase and maybe increase dramatically as more people begin to use Substack.

Video is a big funnel that will attract new creators from established platforms. Those creators, in turn, will try to bring their audiences with them. Some members of that audience will begin to use Notes and may very well discover you or your newsletter. Don’t view the introduction of new features (or the improvement existing ones) as a threat. Addition rarely means destruction. They aren’t taking anything away. They are offering better and more optimized tools for an existing feature.

Targeting Patreon?

Let’s think about what’s really going on. For some time now, Substack has quietly been launching features that compete, attack, or surpass many of the core competencies that have made Patreon such an innovator in this industry.

Patreon has become entrenched. They have scale. They have legacy. They have name recognition. Patreon is understood to be the go to place for creators to monetize content— any type of content. Substack is where you go to monetize newsletters, but could it be more?

My Amazon Experience

I’d like to take you back to my younger days during the waning years of the 20th century. We are on the cusp of a new millennium. Fears about the Y2K problem are just beginning to percolate. I’m a newlywed.

Barnes and Noble is aggressively expanding across the United States. They are opening massive warehouse-sized stores devoted to selling books. Not music. Not video. No toys or games. It’s a bookstore. The size of their physical footprint affords them so much warehouse space that they quickly become the first choice among readers.

B. Dalton Books and Waldenbooks, once the titans of the book industry, lingered for another decade but only as mere specters of what they had once been. Eventually they fell and are no more.

I loved going into Barnes and Noble. There was just so much to read and discover, but the thing about discovery is that it always leaves you hungering to learn something new… to discover yet one more thing. And that’s an area where B&N failed me.

Repeated instances of being told that they didn’t have a book in stock or that they would have to order a title for me, led me to make one of my very first online purchases.

I launched Netscape Navigator, loaded Alta Vista, and did a search for the website. In the search box, I typed a single word: Amazon. Eventually, after I scrolled past references to the Amazon rain forest and the Amazon river, I found the link to the online bookstore. I clicked it and this popped up.

Amazon had the book in stock and I could get it by the end of the week (a week earlier than what Barnes and Noble was offering). Amazon even offered the option of paying an additional six dollars to have FedEx get it to me in two days, but I wasn’t made out of money. I still have that book today.

Imagine my shock just a few short years later when Amazon began to offer things other than books. I really was outraged and wondered if this change meant that I was going to lose my favorite book retailer, but you know what? They are still just as happy to sell me books today as they were back then. And they’ve even improved upon my experience because now many of the books are available without any waiting at all. I can start reading as soon as I finish the ordering process. They even allow me to buy audio books where someone else will do all the hard work of reading it to me if that’s my preference.

You probably know where I’m going with this and you’re right. I think Substack is trying to pull off a similar transition. It’s not that they have decided to stop focusing on newsletters; it’s that they want to offer additional products alongside newsletters.

Share

The Real Pivot: a Creation Platform

We are not seeing a pivot to video. We are seeing the first steps to being something more than just a newsletter hosting site.

Amazon started off by billing itself as The Earth’s Biggest Bookstore. Their relentless focus on making their customers happy caused them to grow beyond selling books alone. They began to offer new products and that expansion has allowed them to transition from being the Biggest Bookstore to being The Everything Store.

What will Substack become? Only time will tell, but all of their focus seems to be on helping creators best connect with their audiences… and, I think that’s a good thing.

Leave a comment

Despite these many benefits, Notes is not the easiest place to have a conversation. I believe there are two issues that are holding Substack Notes back from becoming the salon for discourse that is trying to create in her personal Substack. These are:

1. Notifications

2. Navigation

   ---

Navigation

One major problem is that unless someone replies directly to you or directly to your post, you won’t be notified. Visibility for those replies is entirely dependent on you being logged into the platform at the time the reply is made and being lucky enough to be at the top of the scrolling list of posts. Otherwise, it’ll be lost.

I feel like this is a massive problem with Notes because it deprives users of the connections and relationships that would otherwise happen organically. How many times has someone commented on my post and I didn’t respond simply because I didn’t see their comment?

Go scroll through any post with several replies. You’ll see a lot of interaction at the beginning of the post because that’s when the author of the post was on line. People are replying to them and then the author is responding, but eventually the author is called away to other responsibilities. The problem is that the post itself is persistent and many times will continue to gather replies during the author’s absence. All of those replies will be invisible to the author unless they navigate back to that post, are tagged by one of the users, or if someone replies directly to one of their comments.

That’s less than ideal. It’s a problem for the author because all of those latter replies will wonder why other users received replies and they didn’t. It’s a problem for the end user because their point of view is not being seen… much less considered.

I wish Substack would introduce a new type of notification that says, “New replies have been added to your post” or “New replies have been added to a post you commented on.”

The downside to this is that not everyone wants to receive that many notifications. So, give people the option to disable these types of notifications if they want.

Navigation

The second problem is the way the commenting system works. At present, users are presented with a pop-up box when they comment on a post. By itself this isn’t an issue. The reason it’s problematic is because that pop-up box only shows the post to which you are responding and if that post or comment is very long, it’ll be cut off. Additionally, the inability to see comments from other users while in that composition window stops people from referring to the comments made by other users. So, if Jack, Jill, and Mary are all discussing the merits of different types of window panes, Jill will have a hard time referencing the exact model of window pane that Mary favors in her comment unless she remembers to write it down before entering the comment box. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to back out of a comment box because I wanted to remind myself of how someone said something or make sure I had my facts straight before replying, but I can say it’s happened enough (and many times while I’m right in the middle of writing a comment) that I wanted to write an actual post to try to persuade people to consider a change in design.

The other problem with navigation is that it involves too many clicks. Think about it. You find a post you want to comment on. There are a dozen replies from five different users. The topic really interests you so you want to do more than comment. You want to dig deep and have an actual conversation with these people. So, you click on the original post. The comment box pops up, you leave your remark. Now, you are dumped back to the original post and you move down to the next comment. Click on it, leave a comment, and you’re dumped back to either the main feed or the main post. You’ll repeat this process over and over again for each new reply to which you wish to respond. And, none of this even begins to address the nested replies that can happen when people respond to your initial comment on their comment on the initial post…. you see how convoluted it’s getting?

I’m not saying any of this is a horrible mess that is unworkable because that simply isn’t true. The existing system works and it does so with style, but I do believe a less dynamic version of the site might facilitate conversations more easily.

What if we lost the comment box pop-up and had a flat version of the site? Click on a post and all of the comments are right there. Choose one that you want to reply to and you’re presented with a composition box right there in-line with all of the other comments. You can scroll up or down to see all of the replies because the composition box hasn’t taken over your screen and you still have the ability to navigate even after you’ve entered text. Plus, there’s only one click to enter the post and another one to comment. No more of the in and out of the current system. Even if Substack decides not to implement my specific ideas I do hope they’ll come up with a system that preserves visibility for the entire conversation and minimizes clicks.

This post was inspired by real world usage of the site. A week and a half ago, I encountered a post made by that eventually got around to talking about the book and the movie versions of Dune. As conversations do, this one meandered and morphed into a discussion about What was Dune really about?

It was like catnip for me. I don’t know how many replies I left on that post, but I could still talk about it. I am totally ready for the moment that someone launches a Dunestack!

Yet, the experience of trying to navigate back and forth between the main post, new replies, nested replies, and everything else was frustrating. It also inspired the following four panel comic:

If you have any interest in that original conversation about Dune, the Note is still up and still seeking new comments. If you do choose to leave a comment though, please tag me because otherwise I may not see your reply.

Here’s the original Note:

Share

Substack recently introduced a new feature called Notes. In the past, the introduction of new features has led to dozens of authors sending out newsletters encouraging everyone to try or adopt the newly added capability. I still remember receiving probably a dozen e-mails when they introduced the Chat feature. Each e-mail would explain what it was and how to use it. I do want to talk about Notes, but my focus is different.

Rather than trying to talk you into using Notes, I would like to explain why I’m enjoying it and I’d like to do this by talking about art.

The Orientalist Art Movement

One of my favorite artistic movement is Orientalism. This was a period of time when European artists traveled to the Middle East to document the locations, life, and society as they encountered it on their travels. These paintings would be sent back to London, Paris, or New York where they would be photographed and printed in leading newspapers of the day. Those photographs, newspaper articles, and exhibits were the very first experience the general public had with Middle Eastern culture.

The aspect I enjoy most about these paintings and this movement is the sense of wonder and romance that these artists succeeded in capturing of their time in those lands. Even now, hundreds of years later, you can still feel the awe that these men felt as they gazed upon the pyramids, a bazaar, or a camel train for the first time. It’s that feeling of seeing the world anew and just being overwhelmed with how exotic and wondrous it all is that appeals to me most.

Here are some of my favorite paintings. All of these images are from The Orientalists by Kristian Davies, copyright 2005. If you can find a copy of this book, do yourself a favor and buy it.

What does any of this have to do with Notes? Am I saying that these short messages will magically transport you to Cairo the way some of these paintings do for me? No, but those messages do offer a window into the lives and interests of other writers and readers on this platform. They will expand your horizon and introduce you to people and ideas you haven’t before encountered.

For me, that’s the magic that’s happening there. I have discovered so many new voices and met a cadre of individuals who share an interest in topics that fascinate me. I’ve participated in discussions about complicated issues that have really made me evaluate how I feel about different topics. I’ve met people who have disagreed with me, but have been civil while explaining their point of view. Notes offers an expanding horizon of possible interactions and a rich ecosystem full of interesting people.

I hope that that you’ll consider giving it a shot. If you do, please let me know. I want to follow you and see the things you’re sharing. I’d like to learn more about you and get a peek at what life is like in whatever exotic clime you may call home.

You can learn more about Notes here:

Substack Reads

Now live: Substack Notes

Today we’re launching Notes to all writers and readers. Notes is a new space where you can find and publish short-form posts and join conversations with writers and fellow readers from across the Substack Network. The Notes tab is designed to inspire, enlighten, and entertain readers based on the writers you’re already reading and help you find new write…

Read more

3 years ago · 1225 likes · 139 comments

Thanks for reading!

Subscribe now

In some ways this is really exciting because if visibility and discoverability are able to be influenced by how active I am on the platform then it gives writers a lever. There’s direct action they can take to help new people to find and consider their work. Want more subscribers? Write more posts. Comment on other people’s posts. The more frequently you touch this app the more discoverable you become. That is both a good and a bad thing.

The Good

It’s kind of obvious when you think about it. I believe there’s probably a very delineated series of events that lead to discovery. Here’s how I imagine the roadmap goes:

1. A Substack author spends a few seconds writing a comment on someone else’s post. It’s something that’s sincere and has meaning. Maybe it’s a reply to someone else’s comment, but it’s relevant to the conversation and adds something real to the topic.

2. The people who read that comment will look at the writer’s profile.

3. Assuming the writer’s profile blurb is interesting, they’ll take a look at the newsletter.

4. Once they are on the page for the newsletter the first thing they’ll notice is how active that writer is.

5. The second thing they’ll notice is whether any of the topics the writer covers appeals to them.

6. If some of the topics are appealing, they’ll actually open one of the articles and evaluate the quality of the writing and the information shared.

I don’t think the next step is a subscription… unless the articles are just amazing. The next step is probably that this potential reader simply moves on about their day.

This isn’t a bad thing. It just means that you haven’t convinced them yet. It also means that you’re now on their radar. The next time they encounter your name or see someone recommend, mention, or cross post one of your articles, it moves you that much closer to gaining a new subscriber. Once there’s a comfort level and familiarity with your content they may very well pull the trigger and click that Subscribe button.

The Bad

IF the nature of discoverability as I’ve described it is true, then it creates an opportunity for missteps. I say this because of the nature of newsletters and e-mail in general.

Most authors follow a predictable pattern. Readers come to expect newsletters to show up on specific days. They grow familiar with the established schedule. If that schedule suddenly changes from this known cadence, the author runs the risk of having people decide that it’s too much.

How much is too much will vary from writer to writer. It’s like asking how much salt to put on a steak. There are some general guidelines, but ultimately everyone’s taste is different.

Substack does offer an option that may help mitigate the issue. Writers can choose to publish directly to the app and website and not send out an e-mail. I can see ways that this would be useful and perhaps even innovative because it allows you to post material that is worth talking about, but isn’t quite developed enough to merit a full post. Of course, iOS users also have the Chat function which offers the same use case.

I’ve always sent my newsletters out to e-mail subscribers, but I’m curious to find out how publishing to the app only would affect open rates. I’d like to experiment with this in future posts to see how well they are received. If I do, I’ll let you know my results.

Anyone reading this via e-mail may want to consider downloading and using the app. It really is a good experience and even offers a great RSS reader. I’ve come to prefer it to receiving updates by e-mail.

Read Written Ward in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Talk to Me

If you post to Substack and have experimented with making posts that didn’t go out to e-mail, I hope you’ll share your insights in the comments. Additionally, if you have any thoughts about discovery, I’d love to hear them. This is your chance to leave that thoughtful comment that will act as an introduction for one of your future subscribers.

Leave a comment

Thanks for reading If this is your first time here, I hope you'll consider checking out past articles or subscribing to receive future ones.

Subscribe now

The feature drew an immediate reaction from the writing community. That reaction was largely negative. At the time of this writing, there are 445 comments on the post and most of them are decrying how unfair the system is for one reason or another. The most common complaint is how it makes authors feel and how this introduces an element of competition to the platform. Eventually, Chris Best showed up to reply. His comment is now pinned as the first one in the comments section.

Maybe Substack isn’t Wrong?

I understand the frustration that writers feel, but those feelings need to be balanced with the health of the platform. I would like to be using Substack decades from now. It offers great features and wonderful discovery tools that seem to be improving on a daily basis, but more than those things it also offers community. I enjoy reading things written by the authors I’ve met here and I don’t want that to go away. The only way that can happen though is if the company continues to be profitable.

As a reader, best seller lists and star ratings help me to identify books that I might enjoy. It’s been that way for decades. Why wouldn’t that same approach work on Substack?

The Underlying Reason for the Pushback

The comments list several reasons why a best seller badge would be a bad thing. They cite a variety of reasons for why they oppose these badges, but I think one of the big, unspoken reasons for the resistance is the feeling of being left out or left behind. I believe that there’s a worry that highlighting what is perceived to be quality content may dissuade would-be readers from trying out non-badged publications. And that does seem like a valid concern.

Why Not Flip Things?

Instead of placing all of the focus on drawing attention to publications that are already doing well, let’s create a system that promotes publications that are on the cusp. Ones that are close to breaking through. Personally, I believe such a system could exist alongside best seller badges.

Here are some ideas:

1. Identify some metric that Substack believes make for a good newsletter: consistent delivery, read-through rates, comments, etc. and create a badge for publications that meet that criteria.

2. Make a badge for velocity. If someone gets a sudden influx of new subscribers highlight that in some way.

3. Highlight and recommend popular articles. If an article has gone viral within the Substack ecosystem, why not call attention to it on the main page? Create a new section called Hot Reads or something.

4. Highlight publications that have newly transitioned to paid publications.

5. When a Free Publication reaches a number of subscribers so that it’s plausible for them to make the switch to paid give them a badge that indicates this in some way. It may very well encourage the author of that publication to pull the trigger and begin trying to convert their readership.

Conclusion

I can understand why a top down approach makes sense from the company’s perspective, but I believe a bottom-up approach would strengthen the entire system. Personally, I think Substack should do both. Offer best seller badges, but present them along side other badges designed to help the little guy. I believe this would make things more palatable. More than that though, it establishes Substack as a place for all writers—not just the ones with tens of thousands of paid subscriptions.

I think there is a lot of value in focusing on the newsletters that have hit their groove and found their voice. That’s where growth can come from because it’s going to be easier to replicate a publication with 1000 paid subscribers than it is one that has 1 million paid subscribers. Invest time and energy in helping people reach that plateau and you’ll help Substack’s bottom line and generate good will.

Starting a newsletter is an exercise in trial and error and it’s fraught with persistent insecurity and doubt. I believe that’s why there was such an outcry over these badges. It seemed tilted to favor the winners. Adding a few more badges for people who are still on the journey could provide a meaningful road map to publication authors as they try to navigate their way to that best seller badge.

Could Substack become the modern newspaper habit?

The great hurdle that any new online service must face is the daily routine of its would-be users. This is as true for writers who post their content online as it is for nascent social networks. The very first—and possibly the most difficult obstacle—they must overcome is the daily coffee ritual.

Coffee isn’t mandatory, but becoming part of that ritualized moment is. I’m talking about those moments that all of us have. It’s that time of day when we sit down to check our e-mail or catch up on the news. If a writer or a platform is able to become part of that habit then their success is almost guaranteed.

Substack has succeeded in becoming a part of my daily routine. I’m not alone in this. Many thousands of people are now checking their inboxes or opening the Substack Reader app so they can read the latest updates from their favorite writers. I don’t know if Substack readers are as ubiquitous as newspaper readers once were, but they have built the foundation and one can hope that they will continue to grow in that direction.

The Nightly Wind-down

Routines aren’t limited to mornings. Many of us have nightly routines. Whether that’s tucking the kids into bed and reading them a story, brushing your teeth, or engaging in some type of skin care regimin there are many possible routines that people follow.

One thing I do every single night before I go to sleep is to read fiction. Sometimes for far longer than I should. I’ve been doing it since I was a child. I’m not sure I could go to sleep now without reading at least a few pages of something.

Could Substack make an entry into this ritual as well? There are several authors serializing their books on the platform. There are others who are uploading short stories. There are even several people posting comics on a regular basis.

I love all of those things, but I’d like to be able to read full-length stories without waiting for the serialization process to end. It made me wonder if Substack could begin to offer content like that? The more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that there is a need for another venue that offers book-length fiction outside of Amazon.

I feel like my suggestion is an obvious one. It may actually be part of their existing growth strategy. I say that because the company has already built so much of the needed infrastructure to make this happen. I believe Substack should consider creating a storefront for both e-books and audio books.

Two Reasons Why:

The first reason is that online fiction is a growth market. At the moment much of that growth is in the Asian markets for sites like Webnovel, Dreame, GoodNovel, and Fizzo. It’s been reported that this is a 3.7 billion dollar market in Asia. Indeed there is so much potential here that even Amazon has made tentative steps to move into this market with their newish Vella program.

The second—and probably more obvious reason—is that this feels like a natural expansion of what the Substack team is already building. They’ve built a site, an app, and business model focused entirely on writers. Selling books and audiobooks on that site is merely the next step in pursuit of their stated goal of helping writers.

It’s true that this current iteration of Substack is focused on newsletters, but how many authors of said newsletters have also written books of some sort? How many reporters are currently developing an in-depth examination of some recent or historical event? How many analysts want to more fully explore the ideas that guide their incisive think pieces? How many fiction writers have already written novels or collections of short stories? Offering a storefront for these volumes right here on the site solves several problems:"

1. It allows authors to directly speak with their readers. This is something that no other book store (to my knowledge) or platform-based website offers writers working with book-length titles.

2. It would encourage authors who are not currently using Substack to consider this as a viable alternative to their existing distribution methods.

3. It provides authors with an existing network of potential readers because thousands of people are already using Substack.

4. It creates a new growth path for Substack because as more authors migrate to this platform their fans will create accounts or begin using the app to read their work.

5. An increase in the number of Substack accounts benefits every author on the platform because it creates a larger funnel of potential readers who may discover their work.

Why Would Authors Switch?

For the past decade Amazon has been the only game in town for self-published authors. Yes, there are some outliers who have been able to build followings via Kobo or Barnes and Noble, but the great bulk of working authors who are able to support themselves with their writing are uploading titles to Amazon and many of them are doing so exclusively.

Let’s just examine a few of the reasons why authors may want to expand distribution beyond Amazon alone. The biggest reason is that Substack provides a direct relationship with readers. The importance of that relationship can not be overstated. That relationship allows authors to bypass algorithms, corporate buyouts, changing business models, and the shifting focus that so many platforms experience as they continue to seek out new ways to find revenue.1

Kindle Unlimited’s Golden Handcuffs

Kindle Unlimited has been a tremendous boon to the self-publishing community, but it has also created a series of problems. Chief among those problems are the fluctuations in how payouts are calculated.

From WrittenWordMedia:

…Looking at these numbers, it is easy to see why many authors were upset by the change to pay per page. Before KU, if you wrote a 150 page eBook, and priced it at $2.99 you would make $2.09 (after Amazon’s 30% royalty) off of a sale of that book and you would realize that revenue as soon as a reader downloaded the book. Under KU, that same book nets you $0.75, and that is only once a reader completes the entire book, which may happen within 24 hours or 6 months of the reader borrowing the book. Additionally, as an author, you do not know what the payout per page will be until the following month, so it’s hard to determine what the max. value of your book in KU is in any given month.

Authors do have a choice of whether or not their book is included in KU. An author can simply opt-out of KU altogether by not enrolling their book in KDP Select. This decision proves agonizing for many authors, and there are authors who make good arguments for both sides…

Another area of concern is the opaque nature of the algorithms that Amazon uses to calculate sales rank and how the Kindle Unlimited enrollment status may affect those numbers.

…It is thought that Amazon gives preferential treatment to KU titles, although there is no definitive proof. A glance through the Kindle Top Charts shows a large portion of the best performing books as eligible through KU. Perhaps this is simply because a KU borrow counts the same as a normal sale or download, so it is easier for these titles to climb the charts. The effect of this is discussed in the most recent Author Earnings report.

The major publishing houses don’t publish their books through the KU program, so the competition within the KU program (which includes the books listed in the Kindle Countdown Deal charts, and elsewhere) are other indies or small presses. The major traditional publishers are not currently competing…

That being said, I believe that many authors have made peace with those issues. It’s less than ideal, but for the most part it’s been something they’ve been willing to live with in exchange for access to the large number of readers who are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

Share

It’s an Ad, Ad World

Amazon’s decision to offer ads in the search results has created a certain degree of angst within the author community. It’s not too difficult to imagine scenarios where authors have to pay for visibility. Some authors feel this has already happened. I’m not sure things have gone that far yet, but the algorithms have been introduced.

There are two ways of looking at this. The first is that Amazon does have to preserve the basic utility of its search function because to do otherwise would frustrate the end user. The other side points out that that’s the entire point. The end user has no viable alternative choice. Why not fill the top results with paid advertising? Not doing so is just leaving money on the table, right? Regardless of which approach is correct, the frustration and fears that authors experience regarding this issue do exist.

Not Just eBooks

Author discontent with Amazon is not limited to the written form. It also extends to the audio equivalent. Audible is in the midst of a class-action lawsuit because authors who sell books through that site feel that the company has used deceptive accounting practices.

From the About page of AudibleGate:

Corporate greed and antitrust drama courtesy of your friendly Audible App

Authors docked 100% for each return & Audible keeps 100% of the profits  

Welcome to Audiblegate, the public site of the Fair Deal for Authors and Narrators group.

We are currently at war with Audible, who have for years clawed back sales from authors secretly through opaque reporting, while they gave away our books via their over-generous "Easy Exchange" policy for readers.

Since October 2020, when a glitch at ACX, (associated Amazon company through which independent authors post their books to Audible) revealed the true depth of the returns, we authors, narrators and rights holders have waged a war of words with Audible to force them to reveal our returns data and pay us compensation. Audible charges 100% of the cost of returned and exchanged books to authors, narrators and rights holders, all at zero cost to Audible. Audible keeps the membership fees and keep us under contract while they give away our content in an unauthorized lending scheme…

And this:

…Along the way, though, we learned that Audible has been misleading authors, misrepresenting earnings and calculation rates. They have ignored their own contracts with authors and have been paying us incorrectly for years. When we brought this to their attention, they denied this.

So, we call on legislators around the world to examine Audible CEO Bob Carrigan, Don Katz, and their co-conspirators in these manipulative practices against not only authors, narrators and rights holders but also against consumers. 

Audible has employed an #antitrust #anticompetitive system for years to habituate readers, while manipulating sales prices to prevent competition. They have underpaid authors in manipulating payouts through concealment and denial…

Authors are Already Looking for a Way Out

The few issues I’ve listed above and many others have led to a quiet discontent within the author community. It’s becoming increasingly common for authors to announce that they have set up a Shopify store on their personal webpage. That store allows them to sell their books directly to their readers and allows the readers to feel good about purchasing the books from them there because it allows the author to keep a greater percentage of the profits.

Joanna Penn has begun to offer a class where she explains why authors need to go independent and then provides them with an overview of how to setup a Shopify account so you can begin selling direct.

BookFunnel is a distribution tool. Authors who aren’t quite ready to make the jump to Shopify have used this with success. Authors using this approach still need to setup a payment system on their site, but once that’s done Bookfunnel is capable of delivering the files to end user’s reader of choice.

Cory Doctorow is running a Kickstarter right now to help fund the publication of his newest book Chokepoint Capitalism. The premise of that book is that large tech platforms have been exploiting creatives for years by laying claim to an inordinately large share of their earnings and then designing systems to lock those creators onto that platform.

I fully agree that authors are best served if they handle everything themselves. That being said, I just don’t want to do all of the technical stuff required to make an online store work… and keep working.

I would much rather trade 10% of paid revenue (and payment processing fees) and have Substack handle all those things for me. Let them handle the security updates and all of the technical maintenance. I’d prefer to focus on the writing part.

I am willing to go all in on Substack because I feel that their cut of the profits is fair and—more importantly—they allow me to own the essential element that all other retailers lock down: the customer relationship.

Discoverability

On top of that, Substack seems to be actively striving to improve the the biggest pain point for any author: discoverability. Since I joined the platform they have made vast improvements to the site’s search feature and have introduced a slew of other features all with the goal of helping readers to find and connect with new authors. You can read about some of the steps they have taken in the article below.

On Substack

Substack generates 1 in 3 new subscriptions on the platform

Today, more than 30% of all new free subscriptions and around 10% of paid subscriptions to Substacks come from within our network. That means a significant portion of new free and paid subscriptions are coming from readers who discovered your writing through the Substack ecosystem…

Read more

4 years ago · 208 likes · 87 comments

Additionally, they have begun beta testing a new feature called Threads that I love. This is a community feature that allows authors to host conversations with their subscribers. I’m really excited about this because visibility is limited to publication subscribers. Let me say the same thing using different words. The only ones who will see the posts are the ones who have expressed a shared interest around that publication’s topic. Finding a community of people who shares your passion or interest in a topic is so powerful and Threads seems like the perfect tool to leverage that opportunity in a way that can help authors and encourage readers to spread the word about the great conversations that are taking place in that space. All of these things together can lead to increased visibility and allow new readers to discover your publication.

It’s still early days with the company and their offerings, but you can see the dominoes lining up… or at least, it feels that way to me. Even now authors are getting to know one another, meeting and conversing with readers in the comments section, responding to one publication’s essays with a post of their own to share their point of view. I love all of that stuff and feel that this is one of Substack’s killer features… albeit in its first iteration.

Subscribe now

My Take

Seeing the way Substack has grown and iterated has caused me to dream about other areas where it could potentially upend the writing environment. It is my hope that a future version of Substack provides a home for book-length material that is made available not only as part of a subscription (as they offer with newsletters), but also at retail through an online storefront.

I feel like the idea of asking Substack to host a retail outlet for books and audio books may get pushback because it seems to be outside their core competency and the initial focus on which they were founded. All of those things are true. However, there was a time when Amazon sold only physical books.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your objections, suggestions, or alternate ideas. Speak up in the comments and tell me if you agree or think I’m wrong. I’d love to know your point of view.