Ann, mine was a podcast published on Apple and all the other podcast platforms. Many Substackers are now adding audio to their posts or even starting a “podcast” on Substack; it’s a little different.
How wonderful that you'll be presenting on this! Here are my quick thoughts on the following:
- why one might choose to write on Substack - I found Substack by default when I searched for "an online place to write other than Wordpress". I didn't research what Substack was, really, I just dove in and found it easy to use. And free. No strings.
- what the benefits (and costs) are: Benefits: easy to use, easy to customize behind the scenes on how to format one's "stack". Cost: zero cost except in time, and the best benefit is all of the wonderful people I've virtually met and even become friends with. I've learned SO much from what I call Substack Uni.
- how to set up a newsletter - the directions on Susbtack were easy to follow and I find the platform intuitive and friendly, allowing me to edit and swap out images quickly.
- some of the day-to-day practicalities - keeping up! I write daily and finding the time to do so has been pretty easy, as I write about the daily cycling my husband and I do. I've been posting for a bit over 2 years and am becoming more efficient with choosing art or photos and editing. There's not a ton of heavy mental lifting in writing, as I recount where we rode for that particular day. I throw in some art, photos, recipes, etc. now and then.
Thanks for your very thoughtful comments. And you are the first!
I agree with almost everything you say, except that my posts are more complicated to write as every single one is on a different topic (but I post only every fortnight, which suits me).
And as a reader of both of you, I appreciate you both. I always know that Mary’s little posts will be short but interesting. I’ll know they only take a couple of minutes to end up as ‘Read’ (and enjoyed). I’m thankful Ann that you only post fortnightly although I couldn’t have told you what your schedule was. There are some Substacks that post too often, so I will be dropping them off my list as I simply don’t have time to keep up, but fortnightly I can manage (and properly appreciate.) Thank you both for your contributions to my life!
I gave it considerable thought and decided that my readers might want to save my posts for later and if they did and I posted weekly, the posts would pile up and end up being ditched. So that's why I chose fortnightly. In fact, I think people tend to read them on the day or so, but I also realised that it is easier for me! I post every Wednesday at 8 pm London time. I agree that people tend to post too much and too often – all those get unsubscribed by me. TOO much!
Many of the writers who attend this Conference are wholly or partly self-published. I have no idea at all how many know about Substack, but I would guess a lot of them would welcome an introduction to what it's all about. I am a self-published writer (but once traditionally published my books, including with the Big ones) and I would have welcomed such a talk. If you have any thoughts, do pass them my way.
I've been blogging for years and am new to Substack. Things that have struck me as a newbie: Substack is much easier to learn compared with using a website to blog. It's also easy to find your tribe - at least if you're an older woman (kind of like LinkedIn in that way). I can't comment on the paid aspect as I haven't tried that yet; so far my earnings as a writer come from book sales and leading workshops; presumably others can address that. And one more thing: The free illustrations on Pixabay are terrific, quick graphics for use on Substack.
Thanks, that's very helpful. I'm collecting comments for the moment and will look for common themes in due course.
After reading this, I saw your comment on Debbie Weil's Substack and followed the link to your website. I share your interest in widening the expectations people have regarding older women. See, for instance, the last part of the interview I did with her https://debbieweil.substack.com/p/on-savoring-old-age-writing-and-sex. See, also, my post labelled Raunch: https://arichardson.substack.com/p/raunch. Not to mention the video of me doing a headstand.
I have a relatively small Substack , with a little under 100 regular readers. I'm one of those for whom the platform has been life-changing, in the sense that before starting the Substack I basically wasn't putting any writing out into the world at all, and now am producing a steady stream of essays that are reaching an amazing readership.
One of the things that I didn't know about when I started the Substack was the social media aspect of it all, or that there was a whole ecosystem on the platform itself. That is, I didn't realize that readers would find my writing via Substack itself, or that I would find things I wanted to read that way, or that I'd be making acquaintances (in a sense) among other writers via the comments sections and so forth. When I started it up I thought that it was just a spot to publish on, and assumed that the readership would build up very slowly (if it did at all) via word of mouth by the handful of people I mentioned it to face-to-face.
It sounds as though some of the audience might be as new to the whole structure as I was, so thought I'd mention all of that in case of interest.
The other thing is that if people are new to social media altogether, as I was, it can be tough to be thrown into a world where everyone is talking about how many subscribers or followers one ”has” or how to ”get” more of them. If I were discussing it with a writer friend who was thinking of starting up a Substack, I'd warn them about that, and also strongly recommend excising that language and grammar altogether. One doesn't ”have” or ”get” people, but rather people get one's writing. (When we subscribe to someone else's Substack, it would be bizarre to think that that person “has” us - we think instead that we're the ones who are getting something, the writing, whether we pay for it or not. I've said this elsewhere in comments as well….).
Finally: I don't know if it's true that Substacks that pass a certain threshold number of subscribers have a different role in the Substack social media ecosystem. What I started up, something I read said that the algorithm essentially swallowed one's notes until the first 100 subscribers. I seem to be happily communicating already, and have been for a long time, so I'm not sure that it's true, but I guess that I might try to research it if I were giving a talk like this. That is, if it seemed like people were planning to find their readers or community vis the platform itself.
Hope any of this is relevant, and all best tor what sounds like a lovely event.
Ann, love that you are doing this! Coincidentally, my podcast finale is *today,* ending after five years and 120 episodes. I’ve been writing on Substack for almost a year and that is now where I’ll put all my energy. Too much work to do both. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b-old-age-with-debbie-weil/id1449776332?i=1000657374972
Would value any ideas – although i can think of plenty to say, it makes sense to me to get the views of others.
I will listen to your podcast. I think it makes sense to concentrate, although plenty of people are moving in the opposite direction.
Ann, mine was a podcast published on Apple and all the other podcast platforms. Many Substackers are now adding audio to their posts or even starting a “podcast” on Substack; it’s a little different.
Perhaps I am obtuse, but how is it different?
How wonderful that you'll be presenting on this! Here are my quick thoughts on the following:
- why one might choose to write on Substack - I found Substack by default when I searched for "an online place to write other than Wordpress". I didn't research what Substack was, really, I just dove in and found it easy to use. And free. No strings.
- what the benefits (and costs) are: Benefits: easy to use, easy to customize behind the scenes on how to format one's "stack". Cost: zero cost except in time, and the best benefit is all of the wonderful people I've virtually met and even become friends with. I've learned SO much from what I call Substack Uni.
- how to set up a newsletter - the directions on Susbtack were easy to follow and I find the platform intuitive and friendly, allowing me to edit and swap out images quickly.
- some of the day-to-day practicalities - keeping up! I write daily and finding the time to do so has been pretty easy, as I write about the daily cycling my husband and I do. I've been posting for a bit over 2 years and am becoming more efficient with choosing art or photos and editing. There's not a ton of heavy mental lifting in writing, as I recount where we rode for that particular day. I throw in some art, photos, recipes, etc. now and then.
Thanks for your very thoughtful comments. And you are the first!
I agree with almost everything you say, except that my posts are more complicated to write as every single one is on a different topic (but I post only every fortnight, which suits me).
And as a reader of both of you, I appreciate you both. I always know that Mary’s little posts will be short but interesting. I’ll know they only take a couple of minutes to end up as ‘Read’ (and enjoyed). I’m thankful Ann that you only post fortnightly although I couldn’t have told you what your schedule was. There are some Substacks that post too often, so I will be dropping them off my list as I simply don’t have time to keep up, but fortnightly I can manage (and properly appreciate.) Thank you both for your contributions to my life!
I gave it considerable thought and decided that my readers might want to save my posts for later and if they did and I posted weekly, the posts would pile up and end up being ditched. So that's why I chose fortnightly. In fact, I think people tend to read them on the day or so, but I also realised that it is easier for me! I post every Wednesday at 8 pm London time. I agree that people tend to post too much and too often – all those get unsubscribed by me. TOO much!
So glad you are doing this! Let's raise up all our voices, including those traditionally ignored by the publishing industry.
Many of the writers who attend this Conference are wholly or partly self-published. I have no idea at all how many know about Substack, but I would guess a lot of them would welcome an introduction to what it's all about. I am a self-published writer (but once traditionally published my books, including with the Big ones) and I would have welcomed such a talk. If you have any thoughts, do pass them my way.
I've been blogging for years and am new to Substack. Things that have struck me as a newbie: Substack is much easier to learn compared with using a website to blog. It's also easy to find your tribe - at least if you're an older woman (kind of like LinkedIn in that way). I can't comment on the paid aspect as I haven't tried that yet; so far my earnings as a writer come from book sales and leading workshops; presumably others can address that. And one more thing: The free illustrations on Pixabay are terrific, quick graphics for use on Substack.
Thanks, that's very helpful. I'm collecting comments for the moment and will look for common themes in due course.
After reading this, I saw your comment on Debbie Weil's Substack and followed the link to your website. I share your interest in widening the expectations people have regarding older women. See, for instance, the last part of the interview I did with her https://debbieweil.substack.com/p/on-savoring-old-age-writing-and-sex. See, also, my post labelled Raunch: https://arichardson.substack.com/p/raunch. Not to mention the video of me doing a headstand.
Great posts! And I'm listening to Will Todd's Mass right now... very cool!
Pushing back on gendered ageist stereotypes is a terrific goal, and thanks for your writing, which helps to move that needle. Cheers!
You might also like https://arichardson.substack.com/p/researching-the-female-orgasm and/or https://arichardson.substack.com/p/thinking-about-the-vulva but neither has anything to do with my age. The Mass is fabulous - hope you like it.
What a great thing to be doing.
I have a relatively small Substack , with a little under 100 regular readers. I'm one of those for whom the platform has been life-changing, in the sense that before starting the Substack I basically wasn't putting any writing out into the world at all, and now am producing a steady stream of essays that are reaching an amazing readership.
One of the things that I didn't know about when I started the Substack was the social media aspect of it all, or that there was a whole ecosystem on the platform itself. That is, I didn't realize that readers would find my writing via Substack itself, or that I would find things I wanted to read that way, or that I'd be making acquaintances (in a sense) among other writers via the comments sections and so forth. When I started it up I thought that it was just a spot to publish on, and assumed that the readership would build up very slowly (if it did at all) via word of mouth by the handful of people I mentioned it to face-to-face.
It sounds as though some of the audience might be as new to the whole structure as I was, so thought I'd mention all of that in case of interest.
The other thing is that if people are new to social media altogether, as I was, it can be tough to be thrown into a world where everyone is talking about how many subscribers or followers one ”has” or how to ”get” more of them. If I were discussing it with a writer friend who was thinking of starting up a Substack, I'd warn them about that, and also strongly recommend excising that language and grammar altogether. One doesn't ”have” or ”get” people, but rather people get one's writing. (When we subscribe to someone else's Substack, it would be bizarre to think that that person “has” us - we think instead that we're the ones who are getting something, the writing, whether we pay for it or not. I've said this elsewhere in comments as well….).
Finally: I don't know if it's true that Substacks that pass a certain threshold number of subscribers have a different role in the Substack social media ecosystem. What I started up, something I read said that the algorithm essentially swallowed one's notes until the first 100 subscribers. I seem to be happily communicating already, and have been for a long time, so I'm not sure that it's true, but I guess that I might try to research it if I were giving a talk like this. That is, if it seemed like people were planning to find their readers or community vis the platform itself.
Hope any of this is relevant, and all best tor what sounds like a lovely event.
Thanks so much for a lot of food for thought. Really helpful.