Adding my comment and expanding it as per your request lol.
As I said in an earlier note, Substack's UI is not set up to favour fiction writers, so they will have a harder time sharing their work or for them to be found.
Here are my recommendations from a content design and UI standpoint:
- Enable chapter and series posts
- Under categories, fiction should be subcategorised to genres
- Have an ongoing and completed option as well as readers look for that
- Enable an authors page, like what Amazon has for authors, where their works/novels are listed. Each work should have its own page with chapters listed. This enables casual browsers to take a chance on the story as it's well organized. Currently they have to dive into the archives and it's not efficient.
- Have a just updated timeline rather than an algorithmic one to ensure everyone, small, big, famous can have a fair chance of being seen.
Personally I find Wattpad’s UI to be great for fiction. So you can have a look there to get what I mean by "good UI for fiction".
That said, Substack was built with the email newsletter in mind. We may not be able to implement any of my suggestions.
Also, from a tech company's standpoint all this takes huge resources to implement, something they may not want to do. It takes a lot of work to even add ONE feature let alone a slew of them. So, they may not think it's a priority right now. However, one can dream.
So what can authors do in the meantime? Wait for Substack to take action?
No, I urge you to be mercenary, selfish and platform agnostic. I do like some asepcts of Substack, for one I appreciate that they enable me to have an email list without burning my bank account. So, stay on Substack if you like, but don't forget other platforms.
It is more work, for sure, to be at more than one place at a same time. But be mercenary about discoverability - don't think Substack only.
Unfortunately, a platform will always have its "preferred genre". It is usually hard to change. Therefore, go where your readers dwell and be there.
PS: I have a background in content design, journalism and tech writing. So I'm very nerdy in that aspect.
The only downside of being more fiction friendly like Wattpad is that you have a lot more amateur authors drawn to it. Substack currently has a fairly high average level of quality. I'd hate to see that change too much.
Understood. Except that, algorithmically, the end result will be to help congregate those who engage the most, regardless of quality of content.
This means the result can (theoretically, I'm talking, of course) be pockets of mediocre-to-low quality authors who crowd out all those who engage less—both better and lesser authors. Engagement becomes the lever, not true popularity (for example, think about the almost *ravenous* engagement of Fanfic sites geared towards things like "What if Naruto and Barbie were dating?" to see what I mean).
For non-fiction, this algorithmic dynamic is a boon. For fiction, no so much.
Thanks, Elizabeth. I also appreciate the insight of how big of an ask I am making from the technical side. I suspect that is why we haven’t seen results in a more timely manner. Here’s hoping it’s in the works.
But, I’ve already done all the hard work for them. I laid out the entire plan and listed the specific areas that need to be fixed. I’m joking. I know I’m not a designer. Just couldn’t resist the joke.
A lot of the component pieces are already there, just in a different form, or implemented for a different purpose. Sure, some features require intensive development, but there's a lot of low hanging fruit quick wins that could be quite transformative, I reckon.
Thanks for the advice on branching out to other platforms...but also for the suggestions from a, as you call it, tech nerd perspective :) Always good stuff from you Elizabeth.
Great suggestions. Two problems I have are 1) the ability of potential readers to read chapters in story order rather than the lastest post order, and 2) being seen on Notes. Hashtags could help with the latter.
Julie, those are really good points and they apply to more than just fiction. I think Substack could be a great platform for webcomics, but artists really need to be able to organize their strips to be certain they are available in the right order. I think there are very manual ways to achieve this with the existing system, but it's a lot of work.
Yes, I've received some good advice from others here (such as provide a link to the next chapter at the bottom of the previous one, etc.). Just the ability to toggle post listings in ascending or descending order would be a game changer for many.
I really appreciate this piece, John. You did a fantastic job and I'm really excited you found Ream. We actually only launched out of Beta in May, so about 7 months ago. We went into Beta in Mid-January last year. We are a small bootstrapped team, but that allows us to focus on our fiction authors. A lot of other players in the space have raised lots and lots of money from VCs and have very high expectations and thus have to chase bigger and bigger markets to just keep the lights on for their next fundraising round. Thus, it is not a surprise that fiction is overlooked. We wanted to change that. And by fiction authors for fiction authors, means that. The authors you see on the home page all joined Ream before we launched to the public and many of which were Emilia's friends. We've grown beyond that to nearly 4,000 authors on the platform now. And we are excited to highlight the depth and diversity of the authors in our community with discovery coming very soon. Excited for what's to come. Storytellers Rule the World!
Hear hear! As co-organizer of Fictionistas (fictionistas.substack.com), a community of fiction writers on Substack, I am astounded at how little attention the platform pays to fiction. We have well over 2000 subscribers, and we created our community specifically as a response to this issue. A couple of years ago, there wasn’t even a fiction category on Substack, but with our numbers, we were able to change that. We truly believe that fiction is a viable category of writing on Substack, and in fact, lots of fiction authors are having a lot of success. Getting paid subscribers is a harder sell than with some types of writing on the platform, to be fair, but that shouldn’t be the only measure of success. Fiction writers have found that it is a great platform to get more exposure for your writing, and meet fellow fiction writers to collaborate with and be inspired by. And despite what some people say, it is a great way to build an author platform.
Those are all great points and beautifully stated. Thank you for your activism that led to the creation of a fiction category. I think all fiction authors are indebted to the work that you and the other fictionists have done.
I was sent this and I figure it’s worth offering my two cents as someone who is actually already serializing romance fiction on Substack and doing modestly well at it (currently hovering around 4K subs).
I got on Substack on the back of Dracula Daily, which I think made an oddly small splash within Substack despite being massively popular. Maybe because its readership is largely not people coming from within the site? But it has somewhere over 250 000 subscribers - people are reading fiction on Substack, they’re just signing up from other places.
And I might not be very useful to anyone who’s doing most of their marketing within Substack as well, because my readers are coming primarily from Tumblr. I get some people coming in via recommendations from other Dracula Daily-adjacent serials, but I do all of my actual marketing elsewhere.
(The Substack team wouldn’t like me much because I use their platform to publish things but chose to go with Patreon for my payments anyway. Patreon takes a smaller cut of my money since I have one of those pre-update accounts I set up years ago in a fit of uncanny foresight.)
Hey! Thanks for your two cents. I appreciate your insight. Congratulations on your success both with Dracula Daily and your serialized romance. I think that's fantastic.
Promoting your work elsewhere is the thing. I think all of us need to do that more. It's fascinating to me that you are having so much success using Tumblr as your chosen vehicle for promotion. I haven't seen very many people who have been able to pull that off. If you don't mind me asking, what's the name of your Tumblr? How do you promote your work there? Are you posting snippets of the writing? Something else?
I read a post from the CEO of Tumblr where he spoke about how the entire network tends to skew to a younger demographic. If I'm not being too nosey, have you had difficulty converting readers to paid? I ask because when I was young, I didn't have a lot of discretionary income for things like subscriptions. Of course, free subscribers are still immensely valuable and can help anyone's writing career in different ways that paid subscribers do. I was just curious about your experience.
Thanks again for sharing your experiences. Great points.
Just to be clear, I wasn't directly involved in any way with Dracula Daily. My Tumblr is the same as my name here - https://stjohnstarling.tumblr.com
I ended up on Tumblr for two reasons, 1) it was the part of the internet I understood by far the best because I am myself a long-term Tumblr user, though I was initially trying to market my work on a couple other places as well, like Facebook (I cannot fathom how people make Facebook work for them) and 2) Dracula Daily happened just as I was finishing my first novel, so I was between projects. I'm a huge fan of Dracula and gothic literature in general so the sudden wave of attention was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. The thing is Tumblr is where all the people who want to read fiction on Substack came from, via Dracula Daily.
I do two things. One is make straightforward advertising posts promoting my work in language pitched towards my audience, which get a fairly good amount of traction (I have a couple that took off and are in the 1500-4000 note range.) The other thing I do is make posts that are related to my work in theme that I know will appeal to Tumblr users, and that attracts me followers, to whom I then promote my work.
My reader base is younger but not teenagers, they're mostly in their 20s and 30s. In terms of getting paid readers, the answer is a bit complicated, I haven't made a big push to convert my current readers to paid yet, but I had a surprisingly strong reception when I had to do a small fundraiser earlier this year.
I checked out your Tumblr and it's great. I enjoyed seeing the way you presented your Substack there and I can see how the images and other posts you've made are related to your story so that the entire experience is focused.
I've never had much luck on Tumblr, but I probably haven't really given it a fair chance either. I primarily go there to see posts about comic books or old computers. I love it as a reading site. I think my hangup is that I'm not part of a specific fandom. Well, I mean I am part of several fandoms, but if I post things online they tend to be things I've made myself and those aren't fandom related. Does that makes sense? For example, you were able to associate your story with Dracula and that connection tied into the vampire fandom. That's a really smart strategy and something I'd never considered doing. I don't know if any of my guesses about Tumblr are right or not. It's just me guessing about it and trying to figure things out without actually, ya know, doing the work to be active there.
Regardless, I remain impressed that you have figured out a way to hack the system and to use it for your advantage. Kudos to you!
Exactly. Making it easier to find content based around your interests. Such a novel thought! And, honestly, I do really believe that they are working on this. I'm just trying to prime the pump and get them to give it more priority.
I've only been here about 6 or 7 months, but this has been my main gripe. Thanks for this piece John and thanks for the advice. Like you, I feel Substack has a lot of potential, but in my first week I realized how difficult it was to search out fiction and poetry. I quickly realized it would be an uphill battle to grow my stack, given that I write mostly fiction and poetry. My personal essays are easily the most viewed pieces. I am hopeful that things improve, but as you allude to, how long will fiction authors wait? I've become a bit discouraged, but I mainly started this page to push me towards my writing goals, so I'm trying to focus on the writing and not the numbers.
Focusing on the writing and not the numbers is the best approach for your personal development. It allows you to honor the craft. At the same time, if you're trying to make a living as a writer, you do have to consider the numbers at some point and you have to ask what you need to do to improve those numbers.
Poetry is a tough sell in today's market. I don't know of any professional poets. People do that because they love it and have an abiding love affair with the use of language at its highest form.
Fiction though? That is actually a growing market. As I stated in the piece, last year subscription-based fiction saw a 20% increase over the previous year. That means there is opportunity there waiting to be seized.
Absolutely agree...The problem is I can't help but look at the numbers and I am actively trying to grow as a writer and make it a profession, rather than a hobby.
I'm not totally sold on Substack though...because of a lot of the things you mention. I really have only used it to share more experimental work. Why would I publish my best if I'm not going to be compensated? I still think the more traditional publishing route is a goal of mine. But who knows if I can even cut the mustard lol. I am hopeful, and although the UI isn't perfect...I do enjoy the simplicity and it felt familiar from the start. Good write up John.
Please don’t write Substack off. I’m saying that for you. Substack has a lot of potential. If they address a few basic issues they really could be a juggernaut in this space, but at the end of the day you aren’t contractually obligated to be exclusive here. Post stuff here and everywhere else that you feel is appropriate. For that matter, have a personal website where you call home and make sure your content is there as well.
I personally think if you’re going to try this place or any place that you really should give it your all. Share your best stuff here and see how people respond. Even if hey aren’t a paid subscriber you can still get value from that relationship. They can help you to understand what parts of your work are resonating with them and the parts that need more work. And just because someone isn’t willing or able to become a paid subscriber at the moment doesn’t preclude them from ever doing that.
Now, I say all of that, but you should know that I’m on the self-publishing side of the aisle. I don’t want to be at the mercy of some third party hoping that they will pick me or decide that my stuff is ‘good enough’. For that reason, me sharing my best stuff is different than you sharing your best stuff… which you probably want to save for an agent or a submission query. I get that. It’s just that I’m not sure you can fairly evaluate your success or failure anywhere if you’re holding your best content in reserve. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with saving that content, but do keep it in mind when you evaluate your results here or anywhere else.
Great points...my Stack's selling point is sort of a personal writing journey, that I'm inviting readers on. And just to be clear, I'm not sitting on anything at the moment that I feel is gonna send me into writing folklore ha. And I am putting in quite a lot of time and effort towards my stack. I love my subscribers and I do believe in this platform...but I'm still not sold completely. That's all.
I'm also fairly new, perhaps not to writing, but definitely sharing or "selling" my work. There is just sort of an inner battle going on between the self publishing side and the tradition publishing side. Thanks for taking the time to give me your advice. I mean, I'm also here on Substack...so in a way I'm also on the self publishing side of things at the moment. I do try my best to put out quality work.
I think I was just trying to convey the discouragement I've felt since being here. I have had to put far too much time into finding fiction and other new authors to read. Early on I realized that I would have a harder time finding my readers and community. I will continue to publish here and attempt to raise my profile, but there are some projects that I'm excited about...which I think could sell. However, is Substack the place to do it? I'm still not sure.
A lot of this has been said time and again for months, as you wrote yourself. People will grow tired of waiting for Substack to fix their shit, excuse my French. Of course, there are priorities, would be good, as a user of Substack to know these, and see a roadmap, Substack needs to manage expectations here. Right now I go into Fiction and there is NO Fiction, 99% of things I do not want to see and then these get promoted and chosen as Top of the Week in FICTION. Delirious. Fix the Categories, Fix the Leaderboard Algorithm, Curate User entered categories and reassign them accordingly. Or do nothing. Now, where's that Roadmap, also, where are those change logs?
I doubt we'll ever see a roadmap, but some type of message from the leadership that simply states they are aware of these issues and are actively working to solve them would really go a long way.
we don't need to see the internal roadmap but rolling out features without change logs etc or proper rollouts, partially testing features in the wild without clear communication is maybe not the best way.
The issue is rather blatant, too, when you consider there are over 2000 fiction authors on Substack, and yet look how often people ask if there's any fiction on the platform. That alone tells you there's a problem. We need more visibility. Fixing the categories would definitely be a step forward in that direction.
Well, I’m certainly willing to throw my hat into the ring, romance fiction wise, but it’s gonna get weird because I’ve never written that sort of thing before and if I tried I'd probably end up laughing and honestly it's probably better off if I don't, really, all things considered. ;)
I think you should do the exact opposite. Don't write dedicated romance. Write something that is romance adjacent. Stick with a genre you love, but include elements that will appeal to romance readers. That doesn't have to be explicit sex scenes. Romance comes in all flavors. Do what's comfortable for you, but keep your potential reader in mind as well.
I agree with most of what you've said, except I think the fiction genre Substack would most benefit from aggressively pursuing would be Mystery/Thriller. EVERYBODY wants a piece of the Romance pie. Romance readers, as you've pointed out, are voracious and flexible, and romance authors are savvy businesspeople. But there's already Wattpad, Kindle Vella, Ream, Radish... and probably a half dozen smaller apps and sites focused on the genre. As far as fantasy/sci-fi/litRPG goes, Royal Road owns that genre in terms of serialized fic. But where is the "Wattpad for Mystery" app? Mystery is a HUGE market of mature readers with disposable cash. The nature of mystery stories lends itself well to serialization (think about the commercial break cliffhangers in every mystery TV show, and the fact that every cozy series seems to go on FOREVER). And Mystery is a genre that covers nearly every demographic - from cozies to hard-boiled. It also, to be frank, fits in better on Substack. Mystery is the genre of the "airport novel." The same people who turn up their noses at Romance and spec fic don't have the same hang-ups about Mystery. But nobody (that I know of) is courting these authors. And there are so many mid-list mystery writers out there! Unless there's something I'm missing, I don't know why there isn't someone courting that audience and those writers.
Funny you should mention mystery/thriller. I am looking to dive head first so to speak into the genre as I release my mystery serial. I also hope to introduce a new Substack that will be dedicated to writer of mystery/thriller on Substack as well as some other things. It is a genre that could appeal to any age and has so many different ways of writing it from short form to beach reads to long form. The possibilities are just as endless, if not more so, than romance or scifi/fantasy.
Kat, that is a *BRILLIANT* observation. I love the way you think. The only possible downside I see is that, as you’ve pointed out, mystery readers tend to be mature readers. Now, the great thing about that is more disposable income, but the downside is that they may be more hide-bound to how they’ve been reading for the past several decades.
I’m Gen X and my generation is just passing into the ‘mature’ side of things. I hate installing apps on my phone, always really think about if it’s worth setting up a new account on a new platform, etc. I’m also somewhat technical savvy so I understand that new apps come with new permissions and data sharing, new accounts open you up to data breaches, etc. Yet there are other Gen X’ers who refuse to do those same things simply because they don’t like new stuff.
Is that true for mystery readers?
The reason everyone chases romance is because we have seen romance readers jump from one platform to the next time and time again. It remains unseen whether mystery writers would do this, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth trying.
You’ve made several really great points. I appreciate you taking the time to write them out and share your thoughts. These really are some good insights.
As an author new to Substack, your take is valuable and insightful. I hope your words take root here and fiction gets its due. Thank you for highlighting Ream. I will definitely check it out today.
Welcome to Substack! Don't let my griping discourage you. This is a great place. I have faith that Substack will address the issues I brought up. Software development can be a slow process. I'm hoping that maybe they'll choose to give these issues a higher priority.
If you decide to try Ream, I hope you'll let us know how it goes.
I'm doing an experiment this year with a free serialized romance advent calendar -- I'm sending subscribers a new installment every day from December 1st to December 25th. I'm five days in and getting good feedback from readership, but it has been a challenge attracting people from outside Substack, because if you've never been on the platform before, it's all a bit daunting. I'm using a section to separate my romance from my regular newsletter, but even that has taken a lot of tinkering and I'm not sure I've nailed it yet...
Thanks for sharing Ream, John. We are new, and love how easy it is to publish and design here on Substack. I think your observations make it clear the audience is primarily readers of nonfiction, where Ream has the fiction readers. If the audiences do not crossover it might make sense to diversify and publish on both - to your point there is no exclusivity clause. So it’s really just a matter of the marginal extra effort to post two places. Just thinking out loud...
Poked around on Ream last night. Quick observations: more friction, Ream forces you to setup payment info before you can poke around as a creator. Feels clunkier. Not as intuitive interface, less polished. Based on some of what we learned based on your post - We are going to shift our strategy somewhat. If Substack is less designed to internally promote fiction, then we will give more focus more to external drivers of traffic to our writing here.
First off your point about continuing to focus on external drivers of traffic is perfect. Everyone should be doing that. Most of the really big names on Substack got that way because of their ability to mobilize their Twitter followings or followers from some other platform. You are absolutely correct with this approach.
Yes, Ream isn't as polished as Substack. Apparently they have only been out of beta since May. They only have one developer working on the entire platform and I believe he does it in addition to his day job. So there are parts that are going to be rough. That's part of why I was telling people to explore places like Ream in addition to Substack.
Is it possible to post free chapters/posts etc on Ream, to aid in getting readers interested, or is everything gated behind an initial paywall? (Not saying that's a bad thing, just curious how it works.)
Excellent post, John. I’ve been holding out hope for evolution of the platform around fiction. I think Substack would be well served to tip their hand a little for what authors can expect to help them build and grow an audience in the coming year.
I completely agree. Some type of communication or reassurance that these issues are being addressed would do wonders for the fiction ecosystem's morale on Substack.
This was an interesting read.. as a newer fiction author I came to Substack because of the functionality and I’m now learning about this for the first time.
Karl, I think you made the right choice in coming to Substack. I wrote my post to highlight specific pain points that I feel need to be addressed. As part of that, I wanted to showcase a company who seems to be handling many aspects of being a fiction platform well.
I do believe Substack is actively working to fix the issues I mentioned. I just want them to prioritize work in a few specific areas because I believe the platform will be made stronger if they do.
Like John, I believe you made the right choice. Every author needs a mailing list and if you look at the competition when it comes to only that aspect, Substack is definitely well above the others. The issues Substack has have more to do with visibility and discoverability, and you'd have none of those either with other mailing platforms.
I guess another way to look at it is that authors need a platform that will make their lives easier. At the moment, you have to be posting on multiple platforms and marketing all over the place to expect any sort of growth. We'd like this to change and I don't think it's asking too much.
I think these are all really good points, and there are also many in the comments too.
I might look into Ream as a way of diversifying where I post, as currently I'm purely using Substack. (Mostly as it was an experiment, but I think the subscription model will work for poetry, its just hard (as it has always been!) to get people to pay for it). I've been toying with the idea of Patreon (everyone knows about it, it's familiar), but I may try Ream for now.
I hope Substack is working on features to help support fiction writers. I like Substack, I'd like to see more come from it in this area.
It will also help trickle it down to Poetry, which is always a lovely bonus!
Poetry is such a hard sell. Even accomplished poets struggle with the best ways to market their work. It just seems like a labor of love for people who are fascinated with language and try to use it in its highest form.
I do believe Substack is working on addressing these issues... or at least, that's my hope. This place has so much going for it, it would be a shame for them to fumble the basics.
Doesn't poetry need the ability to control text alignment? I was messing with a pull quote in this article last night when I realized that there are no controls for how the text is aligned. That seems like a big deal for poetry.
It is a hard sell, and even when performing, it seems to mainly be to other poets or bored school kids. Education does seem to kill off interest in poetry, which makes it hard to rekindle afterwards, as that seems to be a block people struggle to get past.
Alignment would be AMAZING. The format is a huge part of poetry, and some of my poems definitely lose something in the lack of choice of that.
The Poetry block is a definite help (much clearer stanza definitions), and I hope the AI promotion images will be able to read that at some point too. (Some of my best work is in there!)
One of the best things that happened to me as a child was my dad gave me a battered copy of a book from like 1926 or so. It was called Best Loved Poems of the American People. It introduced me to so many great poems. Poems and wisdom that still stick with me to this day.
I have a poetry book gifted to me as a child that I continue to return to as well, two in fact, one actually needs replacing as it's in binding has gone. I think there is something in those who discover the joy of poetry as a child and who return to after education. (Probably also related to close family members appreciation of poetry too...)
Adding my comment and expanding it as per your request lol.
As I said in an earlier note, Substack's UI is not set up to favour fiction writers, so they will have a harder time sharing their work or for them to be found.
Here are my recommendations from a content design and UI standpoint:
- Enable chapter and series posts
- Under categories, fiction should be subcategorised to genres
- Have an ongoing and completed option as well as readers look for that
- Enable an authors page, like what Amazon has for authors, where their works/novels are listed. Each work should have its own page with chapters listed. This enables casual browsers to take a chance on the story as it's well organized. Currently they have to dive into the archives and it's not efficient.
- Have a just updated timeline rather than an algorithmic one to ensure everyone, small, big, famous can have a fair chance of being seen.
Personally I find Wattpad’s UI to be great for fiction. So you can have a look there to get what I mean by "good UI for fiction".
That said, Substack was built with the email newsletter in mind. We may not be able to implement any of my suggestions.
Also, from a tech company's standpoint all this takes huge resources to implement, something they may not want to do. It takes a lot of work to even add ONE feature let alone a slew of them. So, they may not think it's a priority right now. However, one can dream.
So what can authors do in the meantime? Wait for Substack to take action?
No, I urge you to be mercenary, selfish and platform agnostic. I do like some asepcts of Substack, for one I appreciate that they enable me to have an email list without burning my bank account. So, stay on Substack if you like, but don't forget other platforms.
It is more work, for sure, to be at more than one place at a same time. But be mercenary about discoverability - don't think Substack only.
Unfortunately, a platform will always have its "preferred genre". It is usually hard to change. Therefore, go where your readers dwell and be there.
PS: I have a background in content design, journalism and tech writing. So I'm very nerdy in that aspect.
The only downside of being more fiction friendly like Wattpad is that you have a lot more amateur authors drawn to it. Substack currently has a fairly high average level of quality. I'd hate to see that change too much.
Yes I understand. I hinestly doubt it will change as it takes a lot of resources to build this.
Or at least not for some time. Nonfiction is where it's at on Substack.
Understood. Except that, algorithmically, the end result will be to help congregate those who engage the most, regardless of quality of content.
This means the result can (theoretically, I'm talking, of course) be pockets of mediocre-to-low quality authors who crowd out all those who engage less—both better and lesser authors. Engagement becomes the lever, not true popularity (for example, think about the almost *ravenous* engagement of Fanfic sites geared towards things like "What if Naruto and Barbie were dating?" to see what I mean).
For non-fiction, this algorithmic dynamic is a boon. For fiction, no so much.
Thanks, Elizabeth. I also appreciate the insight of how big of an ask I am making from the technical side. I suspect that is why we haven’t seen results in a more timely manner. Here’s hoping it’s in the works.
I work in tech so I see how it works so I have more insight. Just adding an extra feature or two to an app could take weeks of Jira tickets. 🤪😂
Plus design and strategy time. 😬
But, I’ve already done all the hard work for them. I laid out the entire plan and listed the specific areas that need to be fixed. I’m joking. I know I’m not a designer. Just couldn’t resist the joke.
True! A couple of hand wavy napkin sketches and they’ll be off and running. 😃
You get me.
How can I forget those guys lol. Yes strategy, design and engineering and not to mention marketing and it all adds up.
A lot of the component pieces are already there, just in a different form, or implemented for a different purpose. Sure, some features require intensive development, but there's a lot of low hanging fruit quick wins that could be quite transformative, I reckon.
That's how it seems to me as well. Low-hanging fruit that would really improve the quality of life on this platform for everyone.
Thanks for the advice on branching out to other platforms...but also for the suggestions from a, as you call it, tech nerd perspective :) Always good stuff from you Elizabeth.
Thanks Peter 😊
Great suggestions. Two problems I have are 1) the ability of potential readers to read chapters in story order rather than the lastest post order, and 2) being seen on Notes. Hashtags could help with the latter.
Julie, those are really good points and they apply to more than just fiction. I think Substack could be a great platform for webcomics, but artists really need to be able to organize their strips to be certain they are available in the right order. I think there are very manual ways to achieve this with the existing system, but it's a lot of work.
Yes, I've received some good advice from others here (such as provide a link to the next chapter at the bottom of the previous one, etc.). Just the ability to toggle post listings in ascending or descending order would be a game changer for many.
I really appreciate this piece, John. You did a fantastic job and I'm really excited you found Ream. We actually only launched out of Beta in May, so about 7 months ago. We went into Beta in Mid-January last year. We are a small bootstrapped team, but that allows us to focus on our fiction authors. A lot of other players in the space have raised lots and lots of money from VCs and have very high expectations and thus have to chase bigger and bigger markets to just keep the lights on for their next fundraising round. Thus, it is not a surprise that fiction is overlooked. We wanted to change that. And by fiction authors for fiction authors, means that. The authors you see on the home page all joined Ream before we launched to the public and many of which were Emilia's friends. We've grown beyond that to nearly 4,000 authors on the platform now. And we are excited to highlight the depth and diversity of the authors in our community with discovery coming very soon. Excited for what's to come. Storytellers Rule the World!
Hear hear! As co-organizer of Fictionistas (fictionistas.substack.com), a community of fiction writers on Substack, I am astounded at how little attention the platform pays to fiction. We have well over 2000 subscribers, and we created our community specifically as a response to this issue. A couple of years ago, there wasn’t even a fiction category on Substack, but with our numbers, we were able to change that. We truly believe that fiction is a viable category of writing on Substack, and in fact, lots of fiction authors are having a lot of success. Getting paid subscribers is a harder sell than with some types of writing on the platform, to be fair, but that shouldn’t be the only measure of success. Fiction writers have found that it is a great platform to get more exposure for your writing, and meet fellow fiction writers to collaborate with and be inspired by. And despite what some people say, it is a great way to build an author platform.
Those are all great points and beautifully stated. Thank you for your activism that led to the creation of a fiction category. I think all fiction authors are indebted to the work that you and the other fictionists have done.
I was sent this and I figure it’s worth offering my two cents as someone who is actually already serializing romance fiction on Substack and doing modestly well at it (currently hovering around 4K subs).
I got on Substack on the back of Dracula Daily, which I think made an oddly small splash within Substack despite being massively popular. Maybe because its readership is largely not people coming from within the site? But it has somewhere over 250 000 subscribers - people are reading fiction on Substack, they’re just signing up from other places.
And I might not be very useful to anyone who’s doing most of their marketing within Substack as well, because my readers are coming primarily from Tumblr. I get some people coming in via recommendations from other Dracula Daily-adjacent serials, but I do all of my actual marketing elsewhere.
(The Substack team wouldn’t like me much because I use their platform to publish things but chose to go with Patreon for my payments anyway. Patreon takes a smaller cut of my money since I have one of those pre-update accounts I set up years ago in a fit of uncanny foresight.)
Hey! Thanks for your two cents. I appreciate your insight. Congratulations on your success both with Dracula Daily and your serialized romance. I think that's fantastic.
Promoting your work elsewhere is the thing. I think all of us need to do that more. It's fascinating to me that you are having so much success using Tumblr as your chosen vehicle for promotion. I haven't seen very many people who have been able to pull that off. If you don't mind me asking, what's the name of your Tumblr? How do you promote your work there? Are you posting snippets of the writing? Something else?
I read a post from the CEO of Tumblr where he spoke about how the entire network tends to skew to a younger demographic. If I'm not being too nosey, have you had difficulty converting readers to paid? I ask because when I was young, I didn't have a lot of discretionary income for things like subscriptions. Of course, free subscribers are still immensely valuable and can help anyone's writing career in different ways that paid subscribers do. I was just curious about your experience.
Thanks again for sharing your experiences. Great points.
Just to be clear, I wasn't directly involved in any way with Dracula Daily. My Tumblr is the same as my name here - https://stjohnstarling.tumblr.com
I ended up on Tumblr for two reasons, 1) it was the part of the internet I understood by far the best because I am myself a long-term Tumblr user, though I was initially trying to market my work on a couple other places as well, like Facebook (I cannot fathom how people make Facebook work for them) and 2) Dracula Daily happened just as I was finishing my first novel, so I was between projects. I'm a huge fan of Dracula and gothic literature in general so the sudden wave of attention was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. The thing is Tumblr is where all the people who want to read fiction on Substack came from, via Dracula Daily.
I do two things. One is make straightforward advertising posts promoting my work in language pitched towards my audience, which get a fairly good amount of traction (I have a couple that took off and are in the 1500-4000 note range.) The other thing I do is make posts that are related to my work in theme that I know will appeal to Tumblr users, and that attracts me followers, to whom I then promote my work.
My reader base is younger but not teenagers, they're mostly in their 20s and 30s. In terms of getting paid readers, the answer is a bit complicated, I haven't made a big push to convert my current readers to paid yet, but I had a surprisingly strong reception when I had to do a small fundraiser earlier this year.
Sorry about the mistake regarding Dracula Daily.
I checked out your Tumblr and it's great. I enjoyed seeing the way you presented your Substack there and I can see how the images and other posts you've made are related to your story so that the entire experience is focused.
I've never had much luck on Tumblr, but I probably haven't really given it a fair chance either. I primarily go there to see posts about comic books or old computers. I love it as a reading site. I think my hangup is that I'm not part of a specific fandom. Well, I mean I am part of several fandoms, but if I post things online they tend to be things I've made myself and those aren't fandom related. Does that makes sense? For example, you were able to associate your story with Dracula and that connection tied into the vampire fandom. That's a really smart strategy and something I'd never considered doing. I don't know if any of my guesses about Tumblr are right or not. It's just me guessing about it and trying to figure things out without actually, ya know, doing the work to be active there.
Regardless, I remain impressed that you have figured out a way to hack the system and to use it for your advantage. Kudos to you!
This is a great comment. I have more thoughts but I need a keyboard. I shall return!
I hope Substack does something to court fiction writers more. Just having more categories to choose from would be nice if that's all they did.
Exactly. Making it easier to find content based around your interests. Such a novel thought! And, honestly, I do really believe that they are working on this. I'm just trying to prime the pump and get them to give it more priority.
I've only been here about 6 or 7 months, but this has been my main gripe. Thanks for this piece John and thanks for the advice. Like you, I feel Substack has a lot of potential, but in my first week I realized how difficult it was to search out fiction and poetry. I quickly realized it would be an uphill battle to grow my stack, given that I write mostly fiction and poetry. My personal essays are easily the most viewed pieces. I am hopeful that things improve, but as you allude to, how long will fiction authors wait? I've become a bit discouraged, but I mainly started this page to push me towards my writing goals, so I'm trying to focus on the writing and not the numbers.
Focusing on the writing and not the numbers is the best approach for your personal development. It allows you to honor the craft. At the same time, if you're trying to make a living as a writer, you do have to consider the numbers at some point and you have to ask what you need to do to improve those numbers.
Poetry is a tough sell in today's market. I don't know of any professional poets. People do that because they love it and have an abiding love affair with the use of language at its highest form.
Fiction though? That is actually a growing market. As I stated in the piece, last year subscription-based fiction saw a 20% increase over the previous year. That means there is opportunity there waiting to be seized.
Absolutely agree...The problem is I can't help but look at the numbers and I am actively trying to grow as a writer and make it a profession, rather than a hobby.
I'm not totally sold on Substack though...because of a lot of the things you mention. I really have only used it to share more experimental work. Why would I publish my best if I'm not going to be compensated? I still think the more traditional publishing route is a goal of mine. But who knows if I can even cut the mustard lol. I am hopeful, and although the UI isn't perfect...I do enjoy the simplicity and it felt familiar from the start. Good write up John.
Please don’t write Substack off. I’m saying that for you. Substack has a lot of potential. If they address a few basic issues they really could be a juggernaut in this space, but at the end of the day you aren’t contractually obligated to be exclusive here. Post stuff here and everywhere else that you feel is appropriate. For that matter, have a personal website where you call home and make sure your content is there as well.
I personally think if you’re going to try this place or any place that you really should give it your all. Share your best stuff here and see how people respond. Even if hey aren’t a paid subscriber you can still get value from that relationship. They can help you to understand what parts of your work are resonating with them and the parts that need more work. And just because someone isn’t willing or able to become a paid subscriber at the moment doesn’t preclude them from ever doing that.
Now, I say all of that, but you should know that I’m on the self-publishing side of the aisle. I don’t want to be at the mercy of some third party hoping that they will pick me or decide that my stuff is ‘good enough’. For that reason, me sharing my best stuff is different than you sharing your best stuff… which you probably want to save for an agent or a submission query. I get that. It’s just that I’m not sure you can fairly evaluate your success or failure anywhere if you’re holding your best content in reserve. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with saving that content, but do keep it in mind when you evaluate your results here or anywhere else.
Great points...my Stack's selling point is sort of a personal writing journey, that I'm inviting readers on. And just to be clear, I'm not sitting on anything at the moment that I feel is gonna send me into writing folklore ha. And I am putting in quite a lot of time and effort towards my stack. I love my subscribers and I do believe in this platform...but I'm still not sold completely. That's all.
I'm also fairly new, perhaps not to writing, but definitely sharing or "selling" my work. There is just sort of an inner battle going on between the self publishing side and the tradition publishing side. Thanks for taking the time to give me your advice. I mean, I'm also here on Substack...so in a way I'm also on the self publishing side of things at the moment. I do try my best to put out quality work.
I think I was just trying to convey the discouragement I've felt since being here. I have had to put far too much time into finding fiction and other new authors to read. Early on I realized that I would have a harder time finding my readers and community. I will continue to publish here and attempt to raise my profile, but there are some projects that I'm excited about...which I think could sell. However, is Substack the place to do it? I'm still not sure.
A lot of this has been said time and again for months, as you wrote yourself. People will grow tired of waiting for Substack to fix their shit, excuse my French. Of course, there are priorities, would be good, as a user of Substack to know these, and see a roadmap, Substack needs to manage expectations here. Right now I go into Fiction and there is NO Fiction, 99% of things I do not want to see and then these get promoted and chosen as Top of the Week in FICTION. Delirious. Fix the Categories, Fix the Leaderboard Algorithm, Curate User entered categories and reassign them accordingly. Or do nothing. Now, where's that Roadmap, also, where are those change logs?
I doubt we'll ever see a roadmap, but some type of message from the leadership that simply states they are aware of these issues and are actively working to solve them would really go a long way.
we don't need to see the internal roadmap but rolling out features without change logs etc or proper rollouts, partially testing features in the wild without clear communication is maybe not the best way.
The issue is rather blatant, too, when you consider there are over 2000 fiction authors on Substack, and yet look how often people ask if there's any fiction on the platform. That alone tells you there's a problem. We need more visibility. Fixing the categories would definitely be a step forward in that direction.
What’s the source for there being over 2k fiction authors here? I’m not disputing it. Just curious where the information came from.
Sorry! I got a little excited and misremembered. It's more like over 300 LOL. Still a decent number though. And that figure comes from Erica's census of Substack authors: https://kindly-henley-67a.notion.site/SUBSTACK-FICTION-WRITERS-eb83a0358a754c549cce9ed6c1ccff6c
Well, I’m certainly willing to throw my hat into the ring, romance fiction wise, but it’s gonna get weird because I’ve never written that sort of thing before and if I tried I'd probably end up laughing and honestly it's probably better off if I don't, really, all things considered. ;)
I think you should do the exact opposite. Don't write dedicated romance. Write something that is romance adjacent. Stick with a genre you love, but include elements that will appeal to romance readers. That doesn't have to be explicit sex scenes. Romance comes in all flavors. Do what's comfortable for you, but keep your potential reader in mind as well.
I agree with most of what you've said, except I think the fiction genre Substack would most benefit from aggressively pursuing would be Mystery/Thriller. EVERYBODY wants a piece of the Romance pie. Romance readers, as you've pointed out, are voracious and flexible, and romance authors are savvy businesspeople. But there's already Wattpad, Kindle Vella, Ream, Radish... and probably a half dozen smaller apps and sites focused on the genre. As far as fantasy/sci-fi/litRPG goes, Royal Road owns that genre in terms of serialized fic. But where is the "Wattpad for Mystery" app? Mystery is a HUGE market of mature readers with disposable cash. The nature of mystery stories lends itself well to serialization (think about the commercial break cliffhangers in every mystery TV show, and the fact that every cozy series seems to go on FOREVER). And Mystery is a genre that covers nearly every demographic - from cozies to hard-boiled. It also, to be frank, fits in better on Substack. Mystery is the genre of the "airport novel." The same people who turn up their noses at Romance and spec fic don't have the same hang-ups about Mystery. But nobody (that I know of) is courting these authors. And there are so many mid-list mystery writers out there! Unless there's something I'm missing, I don't know why there isn't someone courting that audience and those writers.
Funny you should mention mystery/thriller. I am looking to dive head first so to speak into the genre as I release my mystery serial. I also hope to introduce a new Substack that will be dedicated to writer of mystery/thriller on Substack as well as some other things. It is a genre that could appeal to any age and has so many different ways of writing it from short form to beach reads to long form. The possibilities are just as endless, if not more so, than romance or scifi/fantasy.
Kat, that is a *BRILLIANT* observation. I love the way you think. The only possible downside I see is that, as you’ve pointed out, mystery readers tend to be mature readers. Now, the great thing about that is more disposable income, but the downside is that they may be more hide-bound to how they’ve been reading for the past several decades.
I’m Gen X and my generation is just passing into the ‘mature’ side of things. I hate installing apps on my phone, always really think about if it’s worth setting up a new account on a new platform, etc. I’m also somewhat technical savvy so I understand that new apps come with new permissions and data sharing, new accounts open you up to data breaches, etc. Yet there are other Gen X’ers who refuse to do those same things simply because they don’t like new stuff.
Is that true for mystery readers?
The reason everyone chases romance is because we have seen romance readers jump from one platform to the next time and time again. It remains unseen whether mystery writers would do this, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth trying.
You’ve made several really great points. I appreciate you taking the time to write them out and share your thoughts. These really are some good insights.
As an author new to Substack, your take is valuable and insightful. I hope your words take root here and fiction gets its due. Thank you for highlighting Ream. I will definitely check it out today.
Welcome to Substack! Don't let my griping discourage you. This is a great place. I have faith that Substack will address the issues I brought up. Software development can be a slow process. I'm hoping that maybe they'll choose to give these issues a higher priority.
If you decide to try Ream, I hope you'll let us know how it goes.
I'm doing an experiment this year with a free serialized romance advent calendar -- I'm sending subscribers a new installment every day from December 1st to December 25th. I'm five days in and getting good feedback from readership, but it has been a challenge attracting people from outside Substack, because if you've never been on the platform before, it's all a bit daunting. I'm using a section to separate my romance from my regular newsletter, but even that has taken a lot of tinkering and I'm not sure I've nailed it yet...
It does sound like you are making progress and that you are figuring things out.
Thanks for sharing Ream, John. We are new, and love how easy it is to publish and design here on Substack. I think your observations make it clear the audience is primarily readers of nonfiction, where Ream has the fiction readers. If the audiences do not crossover it might make sense to diversify and publish on both - to your point there is no exclusivity clause. So it’s really just a matter of the marginal extra effort to post two places. Just thinking out loud...
If you do, I hope you’ll share your results on Notes. I’d love to hear about your experiences there.
Poked around on Ream last night. Quick observations: more friction, Ream forces you to setup payment info before you can poke around as a creator. Feels clunkier. Not as intuitive interface, less polished. Based on some of what we learned based on your post - We are going to shift our strategy somewhat. If Substack is less designed to internally promote fiction, then we will give more focus more to external drivers of traffic to our writing here.
First off your point about continuing to focus on external drivers of traffic is perfect. Everyone should be doing that. Most of the really big names on Substack got that way because of their ability to mobilize their Twitter followings or followers from some other platform. You are absolutely correct with this approach.
Yes, Ream isn't as polished as Substack. Apparently they have only been out of beta since May. They only have one developer working on the entire platform and I believe he does it in addition to his day job. So there are parts that are going to be rough. That's part of why I was telling people to explore places like Ream in addition to Substack.
That's good to know.
Is it possible to post free chapters/posts etc on Ream, to aid in getting readers interested, or is everything gated behind an initial paywall? (Not saying that's a bad thing, just curious how it works.)
Yes, there is :). You can learn more about how following works on Ream here: https://authors.reamstories.com/following
👍 great breakdown, thanks.
Nathan, just to make sure you know, Michael Evans is the CEO of Ream.
Excellent post, John. I’ve been holding out hope for evolution of the platform around fiction. I think Substack would be well served to tip their hand a little for what authors can expect to help them build and grow an audience in the coming year.
I completely agree. Some type of communication or reassurance that these issues are being addressed would do wonders for the fiction ecosystem's morale on Substack.
I love Substack, but I have to admit I am growing increasingly more frustrated with the platform. This article sums it up nicely. Well done, John.
I'd heard of Ream though I've never looked into it. Might be time I did. Sounds intriguing, in any case.
It is my hope that Substack will address these issues soon.
This was an interesting read.. as a newer fiction author I came to Substack because of the functionality and I’m now learning about this for the first time.
Karl, I think you made the right choice in coming to Substack. I wrote my post to highlight specific pain points that I feel need to be addressed. As part of that, I wanted to showcase a company who seems to be handling many aspects of being a fiction platform well.
I do believe Substack is actively working to fix the issues I mentioned. I just want them to prioritize work in a few specific areas because I believe the platform will be made stronger if they do.
Welcome to Substack!
Like John, I believe you made the right choice. Every author needs a mailing list and if you look at the competition when it comes to only that aspect, Substack is definitely well above the others. The issues Substack has have more to do with visibility and discoverability, and you'd have none of those either with other mailing platforms.
I guess another way to look at it is that authors need a platform that will make their lives easier. At the moment, you have to be posting on multiple platforms and marketing all over the place to expect any sort of growth. We'd like this to change and I don't think it's asking too much.
Karl, I wrote a post on Notes that may more accurately describe my feelings about the situation with fiction. It's here: https://substack.com/@jlward/note/c-44900979?utm_source=activity_item
I think these are all really good points, and there are also many in the comments too.
I might look into Ream as a way of diversifying where I post, as currently I'm purely using Substack. (Mostly as it was an experiment, but I think the subscription model will work for poetry, its just hard (as it has always been!) to get people to pay for it). I've been toying with the idea of Patreon (everyone knows about it, it's familiar), but I may try Ream for now.
I hope Substack is working on features to help support fiction writers. I like Substack, I'd like to see more come from it in this area.
It will also help trickle it down to Poetry, which is always a lovely bonus!
Poetry is such a hard sell. Even accomplished poets struggle with the best ways to market their work. It just seems like a labor of love for people who are fascinated with language and try to use it in its highest form.
I do believe Substack is working on addressing these issues... or at least, that's my hope. This place has so much going for it, it would be a shame for them to fumble the basics.
Doesn't poetry need the ability to control text alignment? I was messing with a pull quote in this article last night when I realized that there are no controls for how the text is aligned. That seems like a big deal for poetry.
It is a hard sell, and even when performing, it seems to mainly be to other poets or bored school kids. Education does seem to kill off interest in poetry, which makes it hard to rekindle afterwards, as that seems to be a block people struggle to get past.
Alignment would be AMAZING. The format is a huge part of poetry, and some of my poems definitely lose something in the lack of choice of that.
The Poetry block is a definite help (much clearer stanza definitions), and I hope the AI promotion images will be able to read that at some point too. (Some of my best work is in there!)
One of the best things that happened to me as a child was my dad gave me a battered copy of a book from like 1926 or so. It was called Best Loved Poems of the American People. It introduced me to so many great poems. Poems and wisdom that still stick with me to this day.
I have a poetry book gifted to me as a child that I continue to return to as well, two in fact, one actually needs replacing as it's in binding has gone. I think there is something in those who discover the joy of poetry as a child and who return to after education. (Probably also related to close family members appreciation of poetry too...)