I’ve been looking at the statistics for my Substack and thinking about the best way to connect with new readers. I’ve noticed a pattern. The more frequently I post and comment on Substack the more people subscribe to my newsletter. 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.
One of the things I learned during the Substack fellowship is that it’s better to post weekly at 1,000 words per essay, than it is to write a 2,000 word essay every two weeks, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. The more people hear from you, the more they have an opportunity to share or pay for your work, and that makes other people discover it. Because of this I changed my format from writing really long essays, to dicing them up into smaller parts! It’s the same research, but instead of one article I have three!
Also, thank you for sharing the things you learned during that program and through your personal experience. I think you've really inspired a lot of people to try different techniques and strategies because of how generous you've been with sharing your insights.
I'm reading a book right now called The Lords of Strategy. It's devoted to exploring the rise of business strategy which led to the birth of consultancy as a business. One of the early pioneers in this area became popular because he would write little 800 word pamphlets about some innovative practice or idea that people could apply to their businesses without ever hiring them. I mean, sure, if they hired him then he'd be able to explain things to them in greater depth and to provide more meaningful feedback, but the pamphlets were just enough to whet people's appetites.
Reading about his experience was one of the things that caused me to ask if the same isn't still true. Frequent short posts that not only accustom your readers to your way of thinking, but also provides them with an opportunity to talk to you via comments, but I don't want to overwhelm people either.
I do think that if you're writing shorter posts that there is a higher tolerance than longer posts. There are writers who can publish every day and I'll happily consume every word they put out there, but there are others who make me happy with a weekly post. I think the only way to figure it out is through trial and error at the individual level.
Hello Elle! John mentioned you as someone who has serialized her novel, something I'm thinking about doing, possibly, with the novel I'm working on now. Would you say it's def worth it? (I'm still fairly new here).
Agree it's best to do the 1k posts. Every time I write an essay I end up splitting it lol.
Well, I think it works better than traditional publishing or putting your book up on Kindle! For my first book, I earned about $20,000 from close to 300 paid subscribers, and had about 6,000 newsletter subscribers. For my second book, annual revenue is hovering around $15k, 250 paid subscribers, and 9,000 free subscribers. (The reason for the change in paid subscribers is that I put my list of agents behind the paywall last year and that was a big hit! I got 150 paid subscribers that month, and didn't repeat that this year.)
This time around, my novel chapters are getting 40% open rates which means people are still reading it. So I feel very optimistic. (Especially compared to traditional models.) It's "worth it" to me because I love writing fiction, I love writing novels, and I love having people along with me to comment, contribute, and even make it better. And I love writing the author's commentary too. That's been really fun for me, and I doubt I'd see any kind of engagement if I just put it on Kindle. If you're interested, I have a lot more information about what I've learned so far if you scroll to the "inside my process" section here: https://ellegriffin.substack.com/p/index
Good luck with the decision making!!!!! I know there is so much research that goes into choosing where to publish!
Man, Elle, you need to go post this comment on the Note I posted and show everyone how wrong I am about my perceptions on how well long-form content does on Substack. I’m serious.
If you don’t want to post it is it okay if I share it over there? Either way, someone needs to present this point of view.
I second that John! Great meeting both of you here—shame we can't do this in person at a nice little bookshop or cafe! Online will have to do for now :)
Hi John, great food for thought. I currently publish 4x per week, sometimes more for special events:
Mondays: interview with someone from my part of Canada (Atlantic Canada); occasionally I will write something about one aspect of the region
Tuesdays: interview with another Substack writer or other creative person; in a pinch I will link to someone else's interview that I've enjoyed and want to share
Wednesdays: this is always reserved for my original writing, no set length but pieces often exceed 1000 words
Fridays: I repost links of what I've published during the week, plus links to other posts that I found interesting
Four days/week is a lot but I only have to focus on one original essay or piece of writing per week this way (of course there's plenty of background work for the other publication days...)
And yes, I do try to read other newsletters and blogs (a few dozen) and comment where it makes sense to do so, including some paid subscriptions where I am able to interact with some folks that I might not otherwise be able to. So, yes, it can lead to a lot of time spent elsewhere but it has helped me win over a number of subscribers.
But the priority is the publication schedule, which I post in my About section. Which means that I'm trying to work at least 1 - 2 weeks ahead to stay on schedule.
I don't know if it's all sustainable long term or if I'll have to cut back a bit in the future but for now it seems to be working. My subscriber numbers are significantly higher than I expected to have at this point and I've certainly put the work into it.
I don't necessarily recommend following my publishing strategy but I do enjoy it.
Mark, that’s very helpful. I really appreciate you chiming in and sharing your experiences here.
One thing I’m trying to figure out right now is the best way to present fiction. I want to move it into a sub publication to make it easier to follow and I feel like each piece needs to represent a complete story.
I know that Elle and several other people are serializing actual novels. Many of them are seeing great success with that approach, but the prospect of building something that big in public is still a little daunting to me. So, I’m thinking about something in the range of a 10k novella. Whether it’s better to break that up into smaller chunks to make it easier to digest or present it all in one go is the sticking point. I know that I have a much easier time diving into something that’s 1-2k words than I do a 10k article, but there is a contingent of readers who want to be able to experience the full story in one go. I guess this is another area that will require trial and error.
Thanks again for speaking up. We Gen-Xers have to stick together.
I know several Substack writers trying their hand at fiction like Brian Reindel (part of Fictionistas), Vanya and a few others, are you familiar with their work?
It’s an option in that set of prompts the system leads you through right before you publish. I can’t remember the exact verbiage, but it says something like, Publish to e-mail and App? And underneath that it says Publish Only to App or Publish Only to e-mail. Look for something along those lines and you’ll find it.
Also just discovered that if someone replies to my comment while I'm editing it, I lose my comment edits. 😁 I was about to add that one reason I decided to subscribe to your newsletter is because so many of your posts are so thoughtful, well-written, and packed with useful info. Looking forward to reading your newsletters, John!
Great timing to see your essay and Mike Elgan’s today, both mentioning using Substack for RSS! Am going to share both your essays with friends who will be highly interested. I read from a Substack emailed tip this week about cross- posting and links to subscriptions and now I have my first idea for a good essay on my own Substack! Btw I totally agree with your suggestions.
I unsubscribed to a newsletter recently because they started posting more frequently and increasing the call to actions. It got to be too much. Also, I tried the “more, more, more” strategy with my newsletter and burned out. I scaled back to once per week and my subscriber numbers have grown faster than ever before. I think people are getting newsletter overload. Better to send fewer quality newsletters than many mediocre ones. I think once per week is the sweet spot. At least, for me. You can always use the new chat feature to post more if you think it is necessary. And commenting on other’s newsletters is a great way to get new followers without posting more often.
Of course, it all depends on what you write and your audience.
Mark, I've been thinking about your comment. I wonder if there is a different threshold between fiction and non-fiction? For fiction, I do prefer to receive fewer posts per week. For non-fiction though, I'm happy to read as much as the writer puts out. Of course, that's assuming that I enjoy that specific writer.
There is definitely a difference. News, or timely topics, most people want frequently. But I don’t want too many fiction stories per week. I simply won’t read them all. I get too many newsletters.
It is obviously going to vary for each writer and reader.
I think that's a good point, John. I always have more reading to do than time (eg today I had to read and review three books), but I love seeing new posts from the non-fiction people I follow, and there a couple where I'm disappointed on days they don't post. But I'm sure there's a lot of truth in what Mark said too.
I ... didn't even know you can send out posts that don't go out via email. How do you even do that? (Not that I want to lol).
"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." Oof that's me lol. I'm not the most consistent soul as sometimes I just burn out and have to take a rest. I don't have as much mental bandwidth as the most productive writers.
I think keeping to a weekly-ish cadence is the best I can do.
Hey Elizabeth, there's a checkmark when you publish the post. I can't remember if it's checked by default, but I think it is. The box is labeled Also Send to E-mail? If you uncheck it, then it will only post to the web.
As far as the cadence stuff, I'm the same way right now. I don't think it's because we aren't consistent or are less productive than other writers. I think both of us are still finding our focus. We're very much testing the waters and trying to figure out what works. I believe that once I hit on the right focal point for my newsletter that everything will become much easier because it basically eliminates the 'what do I write about today?' type issues.
For that reason, I think Elle is very smart with the idea of sharing her novel-related research each week. It makes sense and it gives her something to talk about. It's a good tactical choice for her. Personally, I'm still looking for that with my newsletter.
Also, regarding the two of us writing letters using that new feature that was shared on one of OnSubstack's posts. I am open to the idea. I left a jokey type comment there, but I wasn't trying to be dismissive of your offer in any way. I just have a lot of questions about letters and the best way to deploy them that I haven't answered yet.
Yeah totally wanted to reply to your comment about the writing letters thing, but recently went through our version of the US 2016 elections x2 and was literally paralysed by it. Slowly returning to my creative self again. Totally happy to do it! If we can decide on a topic, lol. But yeah, we can discuss this in chat if you like, would love to experiment too.
Deciding on a focus topic has ALWAYS been my problem, mostly because I just can't imagine talking about one thing all the time. That's a sure fire way for me to lose interest. I *think* mine will be about writing, and I do also think that I'll be posting my experience on trying to find a balance and a hustle-free life as a creative with a full-time job, but that remains to be seen lol.
This was a really helpful post, I've been writing on Substack for just a couple months (always to email) and still trying to get a sense of how everything works. When people say they post "once a month," or "once ever two weeks" or "multiple times a week" - does that include things like threads or polls? Or just the posts?
I'm glad you think the post was helpful, but be careful following my advice here. I'm very much still poking around and trying to figure things out myself. If you try something new and it works, please let me know or share your results somewhere. I do think that this is something that all of us can figure out together.
I love the style of your illustrations by the way. Very playful and full of personality... at least the ones I've seen have been that way. I'm looking forward to reading more of your articles.
Very interesting and much food for thought. I was publishing quite frequently, like every day almost, but cut down on case people for fed up with my appearing in their inbox. I've toyed with the idea of not having all my posts emailed out, and then publishing a sort of round-up post with links to all the others. But that seems a bit clunky. I write about different things, so maybe the frequency isn't a big deal. Dunno: am still finding my way here!
Round-up posts are interesting. I follow a newsletter that does that, but since I read the newsletters as they come out it's always felt like a repeat.
I've done it with other newsletters, and I always try to include extra things, or commentary that might not have been in the original, for that reason.
One of the things I learned during the Substack fellowship is that it’s better to post weekly at 1,000 words per essay, than it is to write a 2,000 word essay every two weeks, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. The more people hear from you, the more they have an opportunity to share or pay for your work, and that makes other people discover it. Because of this I changed my format from writing really long essays, to dicing them up into smaller parts! It’s the same research, but instead of one article I have three!
Also, thank you for sharing the things you learned during that program and through your personal experience. I think you've really inspired a lot of people to try different techniques and strategies because of how generous you've been with sharing your insights.
I mean we’re exploring new territory so we might as well share what we learn along the way, hopefully that means everyone else can get there faster!
I'm reading a book right now called The Lords of Strategy. It's devoted to exploring the rise of business strategy which led to the birth of consultancy as a business. One of the early pioneers in this area became popular because he would write little 800 word pamphlets about some innovative practice or idea that people could apply to their businesses without ever hiring them. I mean, sure, if they hired him then he'd be able to explain things to them in greater depth and to provide more meaningful feedback, but the pamphlets were just enough to whet people's appetites.
Reading about his experience was one of the things that caused me to ask if the same isn't still true. Frequent short posts that not only accustom your readers to your way of thinking, but also provides them with an opportunity to talk to you via comments, but I don't want to overwhelm people either.
I do think that if you're writing shorter posts that there is a higher tolerance than longer posts. There are writers who can publish every day and I'll happily consume every word they put out there, but there are others who make me happy with a weekly post. I think the only way to figure it out is through trial and error at the individual level.
Oh totally. It’s trial and error for sure.
Hello Elle! John mentioned you as someone who has serialized her novel, something I'm thinking about doing, possibly, with the novel I'm working on now. Would you say it's def worth it? (I'm still fairly new here).
Agree it's best to do the 1k posts. Every time I write an essay I end up splitting it lol.
Also... oooh what's a Substack fellowship? :)
Well, I think it works better than traditional publishing or putting your book up on Kindle! For my first book, I earned about $20,000 from close to 300 paid subscribers, and had about 6,000 newsletter subscribers. For my second book, annual revenue is hovering around $15k, 250 paid subscribers, and 9,000 free subscribers. (The reason for the change in paid subscribers is that I put my list of agents behind the paywall last year and that was a big hit! I got 150 paid subscribers that month, and didn't repeat that this year.)
This time around, my novel chapters are getting 40% open rates which means people are still reading it. So I feel very optimistic. (Especially compared to traditional models.) It's "worth it" to me because I love writing fiction, I love writing novels, and I love having people along with me to comment, contribute, and even make it better. And I love writing the author's commentary too. That's been really fun for me, and I doubt I'd see any kind of engagement if I just put it on Kindle. If you're interested, I have a lot more information about what I've learned so far if you scroll to the "inside my process" section here: https://ellegriffin.substack.com/p/index
Good luck with the decision making!!!!! I know there is so much research that goes into choosing where to publish!
Man, Elle, you need to go post this comment on the Note I posted and show everyone how wrong I am about my perceptions on how well long-form content does on Substack. I’m serious.
If you don’t want to post it is it okay if I share it over there? Either way, someone needs to present this point of view.
I second that John! Great meeting both of you here—shame we can't do this in person at a nice little bookshop or cafe! Online will have to do for now :)
Elle, will reply to you in more detail later!
Oh sure! I can post it. Let me find the note....
https://substack.com/profile/3648250-john-ward/note/c-15094436
Hi John, great food for thought. I currently publish 4x per week, sometimes more for special events:
Mondays: interview with someone from my part of Canada (Atlantic Canada); occasionally I will write something about one aspect of the region
Tuesdays: interview with another Substack writer or other creative person; in a pinch I will link to someone else's interview that I've enjoyed and want to share
Wednesdays: this is always reserved for my original writing, no set length but pieces often exceed 1000 words
Fridays: I repost links of what I've published during the week, plus links to other posts that I found interesting
Four days/week is a lot but I only have to focus on one original essay or piece of writing per week this way (of course there's plenty of background work for the other publication days...)
And yes, I do try to read other newsletters and blogs (a few dozen) and comment where it makes sense to do so, including some paid subscriptions where I am able to interact with some folks that I might not otherwise be able to. So, yes, it can lead to a lot of time spent elsewhere but it has helped me win over a number of subscribers.
But the priority is the publication schedule, which I post in my About section. Which means that I'm trying to work at least 1 - 2 weeks ahead to stay on schedule.
I don't know if it's all sustainable long term or if I'll have to cut back a bit in the future but for now it seems to be working. My subscriber numbers are significantly higher than I expected to have at this point and I've certainly put the work into it.
I don't necessarily recommend following my publishing strategy but I do enjoy it.
Hope this is helpful!
Mark, that’s very helpful. I really appreciate you chiming in and sharing your experiences here.
One thing I’m trying to figure out right now is the best way to present fiction. I want to move it into a sub publication to make it easier to follow and I feel like each piece needs to represent a complete story.
I know that Elle and several other people are serializing actual novels. Many of them are seeing great success with that approach, but the prospect of building something that big in public is still a little daunting to me. So, I’m thinking about something in the range of a 10k novella. Whether it’s better to break that up into smaller chunks to make it easier to digest or present it all in one go is the sticking point. I know that I have a much easier time diving into something that’s 1-2k words than I do a 10k article, but there is a contingent of readers who want to be able to experience the full story in one go. I guess this is another area that will require trial and error.
Thanks again for speaking up. We Gen-Xers have to stick together.
I know several Substack writers trying their hand at fiction like Brian Reindel (part of Fictionistas), Vanya and a few others, are you familiar with their work?
I think I may have seen some of their names, but no, I'm not familiar with them. I'll have to look them up.
Interesting! I'm only just learning how to use Substack, and didn't realize that we had the option of NOT sending out the newsletter by email.
It’s an option in that set of prompts the system leads you through right before you publish. I can’t remember the exact verbiage, but it says something like, Publish to e-mail and App? And underneath that it says Publish Only to App or Publish Only to e-mail. Look for something along those lines and you’ll find it.
Also just discovered that if someone replies to my comment while I'm editing it, I lose my comment edits. 😁 I was about to add that one reason I decided to subscribe to your newsletter is because so many of your posts are so thoughtful, well-written, and packed with useful info. Looking forward to reading your newsletters, John!
Thanks. That’s very generous of you. It means a lot.
That's basically the roadmap I've imagined in my head too, although you've put it in very clear, succinct terms. Interesting to think about!
Thanks for the kind words, Sarah! I appreciate it.
PS: I don't really feel like I should post more than a week either, because I wonder if people will get overwhelmed!
Great timing to see your essay and Mike Elgan’s today, both mentioning using Substack for RSS! Am going to share both your essays with friends who will be highly interested. I read from a Substack emailed tip this week about cross- posting and links to subscriptions and now I have my first idea for a good essay on my own Substack! Btw I totally agree with your suggestions.
You're getting close to setting me off on a rant about the demise of Google Reader. I'm joking. It is nice to have a viable RSS reader again though.
I unsubscribed to a newsletter recently because they started posting more frequently and increasing the call to actions. It got to be too much. Also, I tried the “more, more, more” strategy with my newsletter and burned out. I scaled back to once per week and my subscriber numbers have grown faster than ever before. I think people are getting newsletter overload. Better to send fewer quality newsletters than many mediocre ones. I think once per week is the sweet spot. At least, for me. You can always use the new chat feature to post more if you think it is necessary. And commenting on other’s newsletters is a great way to get new followers without posting more often.
Of course, it all depends on what you write and your audience.
Mark, I've been thinking about your comment. I wonder if there is a different threshold between fiction and non-fiction? For fiction, I do prefer to receive fewer posts per week. For non-fiction though, I'm happy to read as much as the writer puts out. Of course, that's assuming that I enjoy that specific writer.
There is definitely a difference. News, or timely topics, most people want frequently. But I don’t want too many fiction stories per week. I simply won’t read them all. I get too many newsletters.
It is obviously going to vary for each writer and reader.
I think that's a good point, John. I always have more reading to do than time (eg today I had to read and review three books), but I love seeing new posts from the non-fiction people I follow, and there a couple where I'm disappointed on days they don't post. But I'm sure there's a lot of truth in what Mark said too.
I ... didn't even know you can send out posts that don't go out via email. How do you even do that? (Not that I want to lol).
"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." Oof that's me lol. I'm not the most consistent soul as sometimes I just burn out and have to take a rest. I don't have as much mental bandwidth as the most productive writers.
I think keeping to a weekly-ish cadence is the best I can do.
Hey Elizabeth, there's a checkmark when you publish the post. I can't remember if it's checked by default, but I think it is. The box is labeled Also Send to E-mail? If you uncheck it, then it will only post to the web.
As far as the cadence stuff, I'm the same way right now. I don't think it's because we aren't consistent or are less productive than other writers. I think both of us are still finding our focus. We're very much testing the waters and trying to figure out what works. I believe that once I hit on the right focal point for my newsletter that everything will become much easier because it basically eliminates the 'what do I write about today?' type issues.
For that reason, I think Elle is very smart with the idea of sharing her novel-related research each week. It makes sense and it gives her something to talk about. It's a good tactical choice for her. Personally, I'm still looking for that with my newsletter.
Also, regarding the two of us writing letters using that new feature that was shared on one of OnSubstack's posts. I am open to the idea. I left a jokey type comment there, but I wasn't trying to be dismissive of your offer in any way. I just have a lot of questions about letters and the best way to deploy them that I haven't answered yet.
Hey there,
Yeah totally wanted to reply to your comment about the writing letters thing, but recently went through our version of the US 2016 elections x2 and was literally paralysed by it. Slowly returning to my creative self again. Totally happy to do it! If we can decide on a topic, lol. But yeah, we can discuss this in chat if you like, would love to experiment too.
Deciding on a focus topic has ALWAYS been my problem, mostly because I just can't imagine talking about one thing all the time. That's a sure fire way for me to lose interest. I *think* mine will be about writing, and I do also think that I'll be posting my experience on trying to find a balance and a hustle-free life as a creative with a full-time job, but that remains to be seen lol.
This was a really helpful post, I've been writing on Substack for just a couple months (always to email) and still trying to get a sense of how everything works. When people say they post "once a month," or "once ever two weeks" or "multiple times a week" - does that include things like threads or polls? Or just the posts?
I think it normally means they are writing posts.
I'm glad you think the post was helpful, but be careful following my advice here. I'm very much still poking around and trying to figure things out myself. If you try something new and it works, please let me know or share your results somewhere. I do think that this is something that all of us can figure out together.
I love the style of your illustrations by the way. Very playful and full of personality... at least the ones I've seen have been that way. I'm looking forward to reading more of your articles.
Thanks so much, same to you!
Very interesting and much food for thought. I was publishing quite frequently, like every day almost, but cut down on case people for fed up with my appearing in their inbox. I've toyed with the idea of not having all my posts emailed out, and then publishing a sort of round-up post with links to all the others. But that seems a bit clunky. I write about different things, so maybe the frequency isn't a big deal. Dunno: am still finding my way here!
Round-up posts are interesting. I follow a newsletter that does that, but since I read the newsletters as they come out it's always felt like a repeat.
I've done it with other newsletters, and I always try to include extra things, or commentary that might not have been in the original, for that reason.