I am not a big fan of Substack for novelists. For fiction authors, Substack lacks effective reader-magnet support. Its newest-first layout does not work well for serialized fiction, and it can be difficult for novelists to build a following. Most novelists are better off using the free version of Kit and WordPress.
However, it is a completely different story for nonfiction authors.
If you are a subject-matter expert, you can attract readers, engage them with your expertise, and convert them into paying subscribers, all on Substack, and you can do it for free. Substack is the best kind of free because they want you to make money, so they can take a cut. They do not charge you until you start making money. They only make money when you do.
This is very different from Facebook, where you are the product being sold to advertisers.
Substack is a game-changer for nonfiction authors, but it is not all rainbows and butterflies. Substack is going through a radical and controversial transition from a blog-and-email platform into more of a social network.
So how can nonfiction authors use Substack to grow, engage, and monetize their expertise? And how do you know if Substack is a good fit for you?
I asked James Cary. He is a screenwriter, author, and host of The Stand-Up Theologian podcast, and he also runs three different Substack accounts.
What is Substack?
Thomas: Many people are vaguely familiar with Substack but do not really understand how the platform works. What is it?
James: Substack is essentially what everyone hoped blogging would be twenty years ago. It is an easy-to-use, low-tech, clean writing platform where you can acquire followers. You are building your mailing list, and you get to keep that list. If you show up and write regularly, everyone receives an email whenever you publish something.
If you think you can get away with it, you can start offering a membership and upgrade to their paid plan. If you have particular expertise, it is a good way to blog and monetize without worrying about anything else. It is a one-stop shop for a certain kind of person.
I have a YouTube channel or two and an online shop and an author website, but in general, Substack is easy to use. As Steve Jobs said, “It just works.” If you produce a lot of regular content, Substack is helpful. It is also easy to read, unlike Patreon, which is not a good interface for reading. Substack has an app as well, so readers can download it and read your posts there.
They have created a strong ecosystem that has remained mostly unchanged. You can upload video and audio too. The formatting is limited, especially with images, but overall it works.
Thomas: Wrapping text around images is a bad blogging practice. It is not a Substack bug; it is a feature. Wrapping text around images is a print-design mindset, and it does not work well on mobile or even on desktop. Giving readers a break from the text with a cleanly separated photo is the preferred format.
James: It is in their interest to keep people reading, and Substack feels like a platform that works with you if you regularly produce content. I use it as a newsletter, but my newsletter is also content. I want people to sign up because they get something from me every week. It works well for that.
How does Substack compare to other tools?
Learn more in our episode on Substack for Authors.
Thomas: The focus of Substack is simplicity and ease of use. From a blogging perspective, it is not nearly as powerful as WordPress. On AuthorMedia.com, I have categories, subcategories, tags, and advanced blog features. Substack cannot do all of that.
The same is true for email. With a real email-newsletter service like Kit, you can deliver reader magnets and more. With podcasting tools like Buzzsprout, you can insert dynamic content. With Patreon, you can have a dozen pricing tiers. Substack gives you one pricing tier.
But by being less powerful, Substack is able to combine all those services into one platform, make it free, and make it easy to use.
People hear me rattle off Kit, WordPress, Buzzsprout, and Patreon and think, “That is a lot of tools to connect.” Substack can replace many of those tools.
I still recommend having your own WordPress website in addition to Substack. I do not trust them enough to put all my content only on their platform, because you are not paying them. You are still sharecropping on their land, so to speak.
James: It should not replace your author website. I have one, although it is not very good. Every time you talk about your free website course, I wince and think I need to take a look at my author website. I do not have a book out right now, and I am touring a live show around the UK, so the site works as a landing page for that.
For most people, keeping it simple is helpful. They are not tech-savvy, and they do not want to blog on WordPress. It may be better to have a blog on your website, and that is fine, but Substack has built an ecosystem, too.
Before they launched their new feature called Notes, it was easy to recommend other Substack authors. When someone subscribed to you, they would be asked whether they also wanted to subscribe to two or three other Substacks you recommend. Suddenly, readers were joining multiple lists and engaging widely. That was a positive.
Thomas: It is easy to build an ecosystem if four or five thought leaders cover a shared topic, especially when they differ from the mainstream. Each one can pull readers into that bubble. I am a bigger user of Substack as a reader than a creator. I do have a Substack for the Christian Publishing Show, and we post episodes there, but it is mostly for my own learning. I enjoy reading Substacks, and the dynamics are interesting.
You get pulled in. Authors start debating each other, even while recommending each other. It creates a drama-and-education bubble that is fascinating.
I mentioned how it is hard for fiction authors because novelists need effective reader-magnet delivery, usually short stories delivered to a Kindle device. Substack does not work well with that ecosystem.
If you are good at exporting CSV files and enjoy fiddling with settings, you can sort of make it work, but then all the advantages of Substack disappear because it is no longer easy.
Who is Substack best for?
Thomas: I mentioned how it is hard for fiction authors because novelists need effective reader-magnet delivery, usually short stories delivered to a Kindle device. Substack does not work well with that ecosystem.
If you are good at exporting CSV files and enjoy fiddling with settings, you can sort of make it work, but then all the advantages of Substack disappear because it is no longer easy.
You have three different Substack platforms. Walk us through your three and tell us who you believe Substack works well for.
Cary’s Almanac Substack
James: My first Substack is called Cary’s Almanac. It focuses on my interest in church history and the liturgical calendar. It used to overlap with church culture and faith in general, but I realized it was not specific enough. Two years ago, I decided to simply follow the Christian calendar and highlight upcoming feast days.
Every week, I write something like, “It is St. Andrew’s Day next week. Who is St. Andrew?” Then I explore the history. Or I will say, “It is Michaelmas. What is Michaelmas?” It mattered a great deal in the fourteenth century, and so on.
I usually write 800 to 1,000 words. My dad really likes it. People at my church like it. And I have found a particular audience that looks forward to receiving it. It is a passion project more than a money-maker.
Thomas: It is super niche. It is not a Christian blog or a theology blog, or even exactly a church-calendar blog. It is an even more specific Substack. That specificity is the key to success. Ninety-nine percent of people would say, “Why would I subscribe to that?” But a tiny fraction will say, “I have always wanted to know who St. Andrew was. I have always been curious about feast days. Finally, someone will explore this with me.” Those readers feel like they have found exactly what they are looking for.
James: And because I am English and write from an English context, that adds another layer.
In the UK, there is tension among the English, Scots, Welsh, and Northern Irish. Writers from Wales often write about Wales, and Scottish writers about Scotland, but English writers sometimes feel awkward writing about England.
I do not feel awkward. I am English. I am a member of the Church of England, which exists only in England. If you are part of the Anglican Church in North America, for example, you might find value in learning about your Christian heritage. The specificity is intentional. It draws some people in and pushes others away, which is fine. I have other blogs for other audiences.
Thomas: You share the same unapologetic English pride as another author, J. R. R. Tolkien.
The English myths were lost to history. We no longer know the stories Anglo-Saxon parents told their children around the fire. But we still have their language. As a linguist, he built a language from Old Anglo-Saxon roots. Then he created a literary universe around that language, trying to reverse-engineer the lost Anglo-Saxon myths.
That is where we get The Return of the King, The Two Towers, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Children of Húrin, The Silmarillion, and the rest. Those stories feel ancient because Tolkien was trying to rediscover the kinds of stories Saxon mothers told their sons.
You should not be ashamed of being proud of being English.
James: Exactly. My family has been English for generations. They were farmers and dairy farmers.
This Substack will eventually become a book. I have been through the calendar twice now, so I have essentially already written the manuscript. I talked to a publisher, and although it did not work out for this year, I may try again or publish independently.
I already have 1,200 subscribers receiving the weekly emails. Some of them will absolutely buy the book because it is an easy present. I am building the platform with the same content that will become the book.
Thomas: If anyone wants to follow your strategy, I have a whole podcast episode called How to Turn Your Blog into a Book. Blogging your book in advance is incredibly effective.
You have a lot of content, and not all of it will make the final manuscript. Your analytics inform the structure. If a post performs exceptionally well, that chapter goes near the beginning. If a post falls flat, perhaps it gets cut. Using reader engagement to determine what resonates will give you a book that is almost guaranteed to succeed with your audience.
The Wycliffe Papers Substack
James: I have another Substack The Wycliffe Papers that overlaps with my Christian faith and my career as a BBC comedy writer for the last 25 years.
It is similar to The Babylon Bee, but more English and more focused on the Bible. I describe it as “jokes for people who are serious about the Bible and church history.” If you do not know your Bible, you will not find it funny. That is completely fine. I have plenty of comedy material for the people who do.
Thomas: This is not for someone who watches generic comedy. But if you are the kind of person who watches rap battles between ancient theologians, you will like it. And yes, that genre exists. You can find videos of Luther and Calvin having a rap battle about Calvinism versus Lutheranism. The overlap between those viewers and readers of The Wycliffe Papers is probably high.
James: Exactly. I launched it in May, and it plays to my strengths. I love this world. I know how to write jokes. Twenty years ago, The Onion was brilliant. Then The Babylon Bee came along, which is wonderful but very American. British readers do not necessarily want jokes about Democrats and gun ownership. I cannot and do not want to write that kind of humor, nor am I competing with it.
The Wycliffe Papers will eventually become a book, too. I will likely have enough material next year, and I can sell the book at live shows. After a performance, the easiest sale in the world is to say, “Would you like to buy a book?” People often buy both books I offer.
Thomas: It is easy because you earn every commission. If you indie publish, you earn the author cut, the publisher cut, and the retailer cut. You keep almost all the revenue. And people who enjoyed an hour of your comedy are not looking for discounts. They are happy to pay full price.
By far the best time to sell a book is immediately after a speech or comedy set. Standup is not for most people, but if you already do it, your books will sell.
Learn more about selling directly in the following episodes:
- How to Sell Your Book In Person (and make way more money per copy)
- How To Sell A Ton More Books With Public Speaking
- What Authors Must Know About Homeschoolers Before Trying to Sell Them Books
- How to Get Better at Public Speaking with Jane Jenkins Herlong
The Situation Room Substack
James: My third Substack is called The Situation Room. I paused it for a while but recently returned to it. It is similar to a podcast I used to host called Sitcom Geeks.
This Substack helps people write half-hour situation-comedy scripts. It is a very specific niche with very little competition. I have not spent as much time on it as I would like because I do not have a TARDIS to go back and create more hours in the day. But I love writing about comedy and how it works. I cover the half-hour format, the craft of sitcom writing, and a bit about navigating the industry.
I have also gotten more personal, reflecting on my own career and thinking, “I used to be more successful than I am now. What happened?”
I am planning more posts and have a YouTube channel called The Situation Room, where I direct people to the Substack for more content. One of my videos has reached 18,000 views, while most have 4,000-6,000 and some only a few hundred. But the traffic helps funnel people to the Substack.
How are journalists using Substack?
Thomas: There is a technique I have seen among people who cover sensitive topics, particularly war journalists. They will post shorter, edited versions of their videos on YouTube and then post longer, uncensored versions on Substack. Substack does not have rules against portraying war violence.
If you want on-the-ground footage of what is happening in Ukraine, for example, you cannot really get that through mainstream media. You will receive censored, filtered, and propagandized videos from American and British outlets. But you can find independent journalists on Substack who share cell-phone footage from the front lines and explain what is happening.
If you are curious about drone warfare and how warfare has changed, you can get that kind of coverage on Substack. Many journalists are covering it very well there.
One thing I have noticed is that Substack leans long-form, at least in its earlier incarnation. These are not the 400-word blog posts that were popular in the 2000s. These are articles of several thousand words.
The Substack I read most carefully is called Tree of Woe by Alexander Macris, who has been a guest on several of our most controversial episodes. Our episode How to Write for Men featured Alexander Macris. His Substack is essentially a philosophy newsletter. He covers politics and AI, but from a philosophical background, and it attracts incredibly smart commenters.
I have written guest articles for Tree of Woe, and I have never been more intimidated by commenters. If you get a single fact wrong, you will be fact-checked relentlessly. These are examples of very different kinds of people for whom Substack works well.
Who is Substack not a good fit for?
James: I think Substack is a poor fit if you are trying to use it as a mailing list but do not actually have anything to say. If you only want to “stay in touch” with readers and you are putting up empty posts with no real content, it will not work in your best interests.
In one sense, no one will read those posts, and that is fine. Half of your audience who receive your regular emails may not even know what Substack is or that there is an ecosystem there. But using Substack that way is a missed opportunity, and it does not do that job as well as other tools. Kit (affiliate link), for example, would be much better, as would the other services you recommend.
Thomas: It also does not work well for pure promotional emails. You are not really supposed to send straightforward promotional content on Substack. You can include a promotion within a content-rich email, but a pure promo is frowned upon.
Every time I have checked, the terms of service say you are not supposed to send marketing emails. I have never seen that rule enforced against authors, and I have heard employees at Substack celebrate authors who sold a lot of books through the platform, even though direct sales emails technically violate the rules. You can include promotion in a normal Substack post, but a “Black Friday deals” style email would be out of bounds.
Suppose you have written two dozen books, and every month you put one different book on sale, so that over two years each book is discounted once. That is a popular email strategy. It keeps you in touch with readers and makes a lot of money. But that kind of purely promotional newsletter is not appropriate for Substack.
Substack is more suited to essays where you review other books, discuss philosophy, or write about ideas. The email itself needs to function as a blog post in email form. It cannot be only a promo email. So there is a cultural difference between an email newsletter and a Substack, even though both arrive in the inbox.
James: I imagine they are protecting themselves from people who set up accounts solely to send junk mail. Even though I have three different Substack newsletters, I did not know about that specific restriction.
It would not occur to me to use Substack purely for sales because I feel I have a kind of contract with my readers. If I had a backlist of twelve books and wrote once a month, I would write about the book, what I learned while writing it, and what was happening in my life or in the world at the time. That is not salesy.
You also cannot embed something like a Shopify store on a Substack page. I use a tool called SamCart that provides embeddable codes, and those simply will not work with Substack. That is the way they like it. That might change someday, but for now it has not.
How long should a Substack post be?
Thomas: At the moment, you can link to Amazon, your store, or your Kickstarter, but you cannot embed them. If you cannot write 2,000 words on a topic, it is probably not right for Substack.
James: I would then urge you to reduce those two thousand words to fourteen hundred, because the article will usually be better.
You are right that Substack is geared toward longer reads, but most articles are too long and not focused enough. They could be shorter and sharper. Because there are no gatekeepers, it can feel like journalists or writers are unleashing everything at once.
Still, you are right that a Substack piece needs to be substantial. It has to carry a real idea. For Cary’s Almanac, I tend to land around 1,200 words, and that feels about right.
Thomas: Different audiences have different tolerances for length. When I read a philosophy Substack article, I expect it to be long because just introducing the topic takes a lot of words. Other topics can be shorter.
Even 1,400 words is long for a traditional promotional email. Substack is a different category.
How can you get more Substack subscribers?
Thomas: If someone just created a Substack and has zero subscribers, what advice do you have to help them reach their first one hundred?
James: First, follow the normal principles you would use to grow any mailing list. In that sense, it is no different from a regular email list. Send an email to say, “I have started a Substack” or “I have started a blog, and you might be interested.”
Make sure the first thing you write is genuinely interesting. Think hard about it and perhaps plan a little series so you do not fade away after a few posts. Just as podcasters often “podfade” after six or seven episodes, you do not want to “blog fade.” Have a clear plan for how you will sustain the newsletter and how often you will write.
Another important principle is not to disappoint people by failing to post when you say you will. You could publish every two weeks, for instance.
The usual rules apply when launching a Substack, much as they do when launching a podcast: frequency, delivering on your promise, and having a strong title. I use AI and say, “Give me ten titles for this 1000-word article I have written.” Five are usually okay, two are good, and one is close. Then I tweak that one until it feels right.
Remember that the purpose of the title is to get readers to open the article, and the purpose of the article is to keep them reading to the end. Keep those goals in mind.
How can their new Notes feature help you grow?
James: Substack’s other superpower is that it is a platform full of other blogs. In that sense, it is like a less angry version of Twitter with a much longer attention span.
Within the app, there is a feature called Notes, which functions like a social-media feed for people on Substack. You can post short thoughts without a strict word limit. People engage, exchange ideas, and, as on other platforms, there is a fair amount of self-promotion and humble-bragging. That can be annoying, but if you post daily, share what you are thinking about, and engage with people writing on similar topics, you will build relationships.
I do not use Notes heavily, but I have used it a little for one or two of my newsletters. If you are starting from nothing and have time, it is another way to grow.
Substack recently had an injection of famous people and investment money. Some users complain it is not like “the old days,” which in this case means about eighteen months ago, when it felt like a small, friendly, free platform where everyone got along. It is similar to how some people imagined BlueSky would be.
There is still a fair amount of good-faith engagement on Substack, and it is a relatively happy place, but the more humans show up, the less good faith you get, because humans are, unfortunately, the problem.
Thomas: Notes are basically a microblogging platform, to use the old social-media terminology. Twitter was originally pitched as a microblogging platform.
If you do not have 1,400 words of content on a topic and you do not want to trigger an email, Notes are useful. A Note does not trigger an email; it just posts inside the Substack ecosystem. There is a digest email you can receive, but it is not the same as blasting out a full post.
Microblog posts can be shown to strangers on Substack. I am not sure how effective Notes are as a growth strategy. I have heard of a few people who gained followers that way.
But if your goal is to reach your first one hundred subscribers, I recommend direct email recommendations. Email specific friends: “Hey, James, I wrote this article I think you would be interested in,” not “Hey, everyone, here is my first post.”
If you and I have been talking about ancient Rome, and I wrote an article about the testudo formation and how it connects to the shield of faith in the Bible, then I might email you and say, “I think you would like this.” You might read it or you might not, but that one-on-one email is powerful.
It also forces you to think about your Timothy for that post. If you cannot think of anyone who would care about what you wrote, maybe that is not the post you should be writing. You get your first 100 subscribers one at a time. The algorithm will not help you. Notes will not magically fix it.
If you already have a couple dozen readers, write posts they want to share. When they share a piece, their friends will click through. Anyone visiting a Substack page is immediately prompted to subscribe, and they get repeated reminders while they are on the site. Creating shareable content has a huge impact on your growth.
How does Substack handle SEO?
Thomas: My Patron Toolbox tool called the Blog Optimizer can help with SEO. I tested it on Substack today, and it works great. It gives you suggested titles. Just as you can get ideas from AI, the Blog Optimizer will give you around 30 in different categories. Some categories may not fit a particular post, but you will have plenty to work with.
It also gives you search engine optimization suggestions. SEO is a weakness for Substack. It does not have strong SEO features built in, and it even has some structural SEO flaws. I was shocked when I did a quick SEO audit of Substack. It misses some very basic things.
It is not geared toward ranking on Google and bringing in strangers through search. When I Google topics, I do not often see Substack posts recommended in search results. I am curious what your experience has been.
How well is Substack optimized for SEO and virality?
James: Substack is not well optimized, in my opinion, and that is definitely a black mark against it. You are right about the steady growth, though. My growth has been very steady, but it keeps going. It is more like podcasting, where you see slow, consistent growth rather than something suddenly going viral.
Occasionally, someone writes something that really strikes a nerve, and a lot of people start talking about it. That can “blow up,” as people say on the internet, but overall, Substack is not a particularly explosive platform.
Thomas: Substack does not have virality built into it the way some platforms do, but I will still send Substack articles to my wife or to a group of friends and say, “Oh my goodness, I just read this.”
For example, with Alexander Macris and his philosophy-of-AI Substack, I will send links and say, “Alexander said another wild thing about AI. He thinks it hates us. Here is his evidence.”
One SEO tip that also helps with sharing is to use the meta description, which you can control in Substack. It is buried in the advanced settings, but it is there. I have another tool called the SEO/GEO Optimizer, which is similar to the Blog Optimizer but focused on SEO. It will write an SEO description for you.
That description becomes the preview paragraph when someone texts your article to a friend. It is what shows up in iMessage or Google Messages as the little preview block. If that summary is tight, well-written, and intriguing, it will motivate more people to click through and read, which accelerates growth.
If you are already a patron using the toolbox and you are on Substack, you can run your posts through the SEO optimizer and simply copy and paste the description it generates. You can tweak it if you like, but even using it as-is is far better than leaving the field blank.
As far as I can tell, Substack does not have a built-in meta description generator that uses AI, so if you do not write one, you are leaving it up to Google.
James: I think the preview area also pulls from the subtitle. Each post has a title and a subtitle, and I believe Substack uses that subtitle for some of the metadata. I am still a bit hazy on metadata. That is not my natural strength. I just turned fifty, so I am not exactly a digital native.
Thomas: Optimizing metadata is not the typical Substack mindset. Substack is designed for people who want to write and do not want to worry about SEO.
However, caring about SEO, even a little, will help, especially if you have tools that do almost all the work for you. Many successful Substack writers started with a small group of readers who occasionally shared posts with friends. Those friends became readers, and growth was very organic and word-of-mouth.
Another big growth lever is building relationships with other Substack writers and recommending each other. Substack really emphasizes mutual recommendations.
How does monetization work on Substack?
James: Once you reach a significant number of readers, you can introduce a paid membership. That is what I have done on The Wycliffe Papers. Readers can become “loyal Lollards,” referencing the followers of Wycliffe. Even the membership tier is a niche joke that is not for everyone.
That paid area also serves as the members-only space for my Standup Theologian podcast. It is a small corner where supporters can go.
I have heard that Substack’s internal algorithm slightly favors blogs that are monetized and have memberships, because that is how Substack makes money.
One remarkable aspect of Substack is that you could have a blog with 30,000 followers and, if you are not monetized and do not have a members area, it is still free to you. With many email tools, once you pass a certain subscriber limit, you start paying.
Thomas: Kit (affiliate link), for instance, is free up to 10,000 subscribers.
One of the things I really like about Substack is that it has changed the broader ecosystem. It has forced competitors to improve. Patreon, for example, had terrible email tools, but they are much better now because Patreon had to improve its email engine to compete with Kit and Substack.
Kit has also responded by adding payment features and expanding its free plan. Substack has pushed other platforms to innovate.
Kit is the tool most directly trying to compete with Substack. It now has a recommendation engine similar to Substack’s. I recommend Kit because it has many Substack-like features plus e-commerce. You can sell products, it has a built-in store, and it makes reader magnets easy. It is more geared toward e-commerce and fiction authors.
However, Kit doesn’t really have a place for blog posts to live natively. You can use RSS-to-email so that your WordPress blog automatically pushes posts through Kit, but that takes some setup. Once it is set, it runs automatically. Substack, though, is far easier to use out of the box.
How do you know what kind of content will engage your audience?
Thomas: When you sign up for Substack, you face a blank page. You might wonder, “Should this be long or short? Should it include video? Should it be a podcast? Should I host my podcast through Substack?”
How do you figure out the best kind of content to engage your audience on your specific topic?
James: You need to think carefully about what you want to do because you are about to run a marathon, not a sprint. Consider what is sustainable and what genuinely interests you.
Come up with 20-40 ideas. Then decide where to start. Ask, “What is a good way in?” It is often better not to make the posts heavily sequential. If every post requires you to recap previous posts, the barrier to entry gets high.
Think of this the way you would think about writing a book. You are essentially asking, “What is my introduction? Where am I starting? What journey am I inviting readers to take with me?” You are laying out your stall, not just chasing a hot take on a hot topic.
This is part of your larger ecosystem that likely leads toward a book. If you are listening to this show, you probably either have a book or are writing one. Substack is one way to move people toward buying that book. You may even be writing the book week by week as you go, as we discussed earlier.
Instead of panicking about the blank page and firing off something random, think about where you are in the process and what the most strategic starting point is.
How useful are Substack’s analytics?
Thomas: Let’s talk about analytics as a way of listening to our collective audience.
In the WordPress world, we used to have excellent Google Analytics, but then it became terrible. Google Analytics is now very bad at answering the one question bloggers care about: “Which of my posts are the most popular?”
James: Substack has some analytics. I suspect they would not fully satisfy you because you really like data.
Open Rates, Likes, Comments
You get open rates, but they are not tracking eye movements down the page. It is nothing like YouTube analytics, where you can see the minute mark at which people leave the video. Substack is not that granular.
However, you do see open rates, likes, and comments. Sometimes I am surprised by which posts people respond to. I will think, “People really liked that one. What did they like about it?”
You can also ask for engagement. I do not ask for comments as often as I probably should, but inviting comments at the end of a post can tell you whether people are reading to the bottom. When they respond, you know you are getting engagement. Those are like breadcrumbs. When the breadcrumbs disappear, you know something is off.
Polls
Substack also has polls, though they are fairly basic. I think they could improve that feature. I have used external polling tools like OpinionX to ask readers what they think.
For me, the analytics are adequate because I am not inclined to pore over detailed reports. I tend to trust that if I find something interesting, my audience probably will too. Other people are more data-driven.
Audience Overlap
Thomas: I am looking at Substack analytics right now, and I am actually impressed. Under “Stats → Audience,” it shows audience overlap with other Substacks. You can see how much your readership overlaps with other newsletters. Those are the writers you should consider collaborating with or inviting to guest post.
Many of the old blogging techniques, like guest posting and thoughtful commenting, work very well on Substack. They have always worked, but on Substack, they are particularly effective. Since comments are tied strongly to your identity, if you leave a smart, in-depth comment on someone’s post, it is easy for readers to click your name, discover your work, and realize you have similar interests.
You can also see how much your audience overlaps with those of other writers.
Followers/Subscribers Chart
Substack also shows a chart of your total followers and how that number has grown over time. You can see a retention chart and where new readers are coming from, whether that is Facebook, X, your email newsletter, or somewhere else.
James: You can integrate an existing mailing list by uploading it into Substack. For Cary’s Almanac, I previously had a MailChimp newsletter. I exported that list and uploaded it, so I started with about 170 subscribers I had gathered over a few years.
Substack also lets you see how long individual readers have been with you. You can look at specific subscribers, how long they have been on your list, and how engaged they are. I believe it even rates readers out of five stars based on how many of your posts they open.
Unsubscribe Feedback
Thomas: You can also get unsubscribe feedback. When a paid subscriber cancels, they have the opportunity to tell you why they are leaving, which can be very helpful.
How do you decide what to make free vs. paid?
Thomas: We should probably talk about money, because for many people, the most appealing thing about Substack is that it allows them to receive money directly from their readers.
How do you decide what content is free and what goes behind the paywall?
James: I think the freemium model works well. There are two main approaches. One is when you have highly specialized knowledge that is extremely valuable to people. You can share a free layer of content, and then offer an extra level of depth or insight to paying members.
If you understand certain financial markets or some very niche area, you can charge for that extra knowledge. Substack lets you charge monthly or annually, but, unlike Patreon, you do not have multiple membership tiers. There is very little wiggle room.
That model is not ideal for everyone, but it works for The Wycliffe Papers.
I have a members area where paid supporters receive an extra Saturday piece called The Wycliffe Weekender, and we have a monthly Zoom chat. I email members privately with the Zoom link so those messages do not appear on the public blog. Substack does have a way to do that inside the platform, but I am not confident everyone has the app installed, and I do not want to give paying supporters extra “homework.”
Because The Wycliffe Papers is humorous, I also tell members they can see all the jokes in advance and tell me which ones they like or do not like. If a joke does not land with them, I know not to publish it. Members also get extra content and occasional extended podcast episodes.
How can you customize memberships for your audience?
Thomas: One feature The Babylon Bee offers is that higher-level supporters can submit joke headlines for possible publication. I have a friend who gets headlines accepted regularly. He can submit a certain number each day and always maxes it out.
What tends to work well is customizing your membership for your specific audience. Giving your members a fun in-group name is a strong strategy. Calling them simply “members” or “subscribers” is not very compelling.
James: It also helps clarify what people are signing up for. On Substack, people often do not know whether they are followers, subscribers, or members, or which of those is paid. Some readers are afraid to click “subscribe” because they assume it will charge their card. I like having a distinct name for the paid group so I can say, “This is the extra thing.”
Thomas: It appears Substack does not remit sales tax, which Patreon does handle. That means you are responsible for remitting sales tax if what you are offering is taxable. That is a real downside of Substack in the United States.
James: Yes, because you have state-level tax complications. In the UK, I report the income and pay VAT or other taxes as required.
Thomas: Some platforms will handle VAT for UK creators but not US state sales tax. That is something worth researching and planning for. You may want to spend some quality time with a tax professional to create a good sales-tax strategy.
How much money should writers realistically expect to make on Substack?
James: As you have mentioned on a recent podcast, a few successful people make a lot of money and create the impression that everyone is earning more than they really are.
In reality, if you have a newsletter with 1,000 subscribers, you might see 25-50 of them become paid members. That is a pretty good conversion rate. If you grow to 10,000 followers, the number of paid members will increase.
But creators who suddenly “blew up” on Substack give the illusion that this will easily become your full-time job.
For most people, it will not replace their day job. What it does provide is a deeper level of connection with people who like your work and want you to keep writing books or producing podcasts. They are happy to pay you more because they believe in what you do.
How much is too much content?
James: I think it was Stu McLaren who taught that some creators overload their members with too many bonuses. They give people so much content that members cannot keep up and eventually cancel because they feel guilty for not using it, even though they never joined for the bonuses.
That is why I promise something simple: if you become a loyal Lollard, you get one extra email on Saturday with everything collected there, plus a replay of the monthly Zoom chat. I am not going to bombard you with more material. I do not have time to create it, and you do not have time to read it.
Substack’s downside is that it does not offer a built-in tip jar separate from subscriptions. It is either a monthly or annual membership, or nothing. You can set up a tip jar elsewhere or sell products through an external shop, but on Substack itself, there is not a simple one-click tip feature.
Overall, people imagine that having a members area is a massive commitment, but really it is about letting supporters in a bit closer and giving them a little more access, which is what they actually want.
What are examples of different monetization strategies?
Thomas: On Tree of Woe, Alexander Macris gives away the first 1,000-1,500 words of his long essays. To read the rest, you have to pay. Some essays are completely free, and some are partially gated.
When he launched Cosmarch, his AI project, he initially gave it only to his paying Substack followers by posting the link in a paid-only post. The only way to get the link was to be a paying subscriber. It was a great way to give a meaningful gift to his patrons. You can link to anything from a Substack post, so that approach works well. Someone could share the link with a friend, but that is not a major concern. The primary value is for people who have journeyed with him through his research on AI bias and trust his custom-tuned model.
My approach with the Christian Publishing Show Substack is different. I use Substack almost like a tip jar. I do not give paying supporters anything extra. It is more like the offering plate at church. You do not get a special sermon if you give more. Everyone gets the same message and the same access to childcare. People simply give what they feel led to give.
I did a major pledge drive for Patreon when we launched, but I have not done any pledge drives for Substack. I just quietly allow people to support if they want to. I do not even have a special name yet for those supporters.
If any Christian Publishing Show listeners are hearing this, I would love ideas for what our supporters should be called.
Within Substack’s constraints of having only one membership level, you can still be creative.
You also control the price. Many Substacks set the price at $5 because that is the platform’s minimum, but you can charge $10 or $20 as long as you realize that is the price for everyone. People may be able to contribute more, but that is not a core part of the system.
James: There is also a founder-member option where someone can give a larger amount, like $150, at the start. So there is a little flexibility.
The main thing that holds people back is the fear that they will have to work extremely hard to “justify” the membership and provide massive value. I do not think people are joining primarily for the extras, but they do want something. Whatever you promise, make sure you deliver it.
Some writers started paid Substacks early, collected money, and then disappeared for three months because life got busy. That is a problem. If you are going to build a tower, make sure you have the resources to finish it.
Thomas: That is true. However, if something serious happens, like a medical crisis, most supporters are very understanding, as long as you do not make a habit of disappearing. Do not let this create unnecessary anxiety, but you must still have a plan and fulfill your commitments.
Another way Substack lets you reward paying subscribers is by limiting comments to paid members. If your comment section is out of control, or there are more comments than you can reasonably read, you can say, “To comment, you must be a paying subscriber.” That cleans up trolls and generates revenue. Trolls will not pay you for the privilege of leaving angry comments.
James: If you have too many comments, that is a very nice problem to have. You are doing something right if that is your concern.
Thomas: Alexander is close to that point. It is not unusual for him to get 50-100 comments. That might not sound like much, but these are long, five-hundred-word comments. The comments become a robust debate. Readers argue with each other in-depth.
If you enjoy philosophy, Tree of Woe is a great place to interact with smart people who care about ideas. There are not many places online that foster truly good-faith philosophical discussion. Social media generally is not good for that.
Recently, I saw a good-faith theological conversation on X between two people who disagreed but remained respectful. I showed my wife because it felt like spotting a rare animal. No name-calling, just careful argument. It was refreshing.
HEADING?
Keep in mind that even on Substack, algorithm hacks change constantly, and none of them can fix the core issue of whether you delight your audience.
If you thrill your core readers, a well-tuned algorithm will reward you. If you do not, no algorithm trick will save you. Start with a core group of readers and give them content that excites them. That may mean leaning into something very specific and nerdy.
For example, maybe you are obsessed with British cathedrals. You decide to visit a new cathedral every week, take photos, and write three thousand words about each one. Most people will not care, but the ones who do might care so much that they are happy to send you five dollars a month as a way of saying, “Thank you for visiting this cathedral I have always wanted to see.”
How can YouTube and Substack work together to grow your audience?
James: The way to get discovered for something like that cathedral project is through YouTube. It lends itself to video. The downside is that you do not own your YouTube subscribers. But you can still use YouTube and say, “If you want more, I have written a whole piece on this over on my Substack.”
On my Substack, for example, I wrote about Simon Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was beheaded during the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. I had just been to Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday and could connect that visit to what I wrote.
[INSERT YOUTUBE]
You can point people from YouTube to Substack and build a community there in a way that YouTube will not. YouTube is amazing for discoverability, but Substack is better for deeper connection. You can also create extra videos that are embedded only on Substack and not available anywhere else.
Substack lets you upload video directly, similar to the way journalists might post material that is too graphic or troubling for mainstream platforms.
Thomas: It can also work as a bonus structure. You might show the outside of the cathedral for free on YouTube, and then say, “For the full tour of the inside, go to my Substack.” That approach works very well.
Does Substack insulate you from cancel culture?
Thomas: On YouTube, the algorithm can flip a switch, and you disappear. Everything you built is gone, and there is nothing you can do.
Substack is different. You actually own your subscribers, or at least you own their email addresses. They chose to give you those addresses. You can export your follower list from Substack and import it into Kit or any other email service provider.
If you are worried about being canceled or you live near the edge of the Overton window, a good practice is to export your subscriber list regularly, perhaps right after you send an email or before you publish a controversial post, just as a backup.
Usually, if a platform does cancel someone, they give thirty days or so to download subscriber data. But even if they did not, the key point is that you can move. Banning you on Substack does not cut you off from your audience, because you still have their email addresses.
Since canceling a Substack writer does not really sever the connection between writer and readers, there is less incentive for organized campaigns. On YouTube or social media, if you get banned, you vanish. On Substack, if you were emailing people last week and then move to another provider this week, your readers still get your emails. It does not feel like a “win” to the mob.
For that reason, you are much safer from cancel campaigns on Substack than you are on most social networks.
James: I think the Overton window on Substack is fairly wide right now. You do not see many people saying, “I am leaving this platform unless they ban this other person.” That sort of pressure does not seem common at the moment.
As the platform becomes more popular and more famous people show up, some may try to throw their weight around, so we will have to see what happens.
Thomas: I also think cancel culture has cooled down somewhat now that the federal government is no longer pushing behind the scenes. There have been significant revelations that much of the deplatforming on Meta, YouTube, and Twitter was done under pressure from the Biden administration.
There are famous letters now in the Justice Department’s files where the administration asked or pressured social networks to ban specific conservative commentators. That is clearly a First Amendment problem. In the United States, the government is not allowed to tell people what kind of political speech they can have.
There will be more hearings about this in the future. The people who did that are no longer in office, and the current officials are not taking that same approach. Things could change again, but I hope we will build better safeguards, both legal and technological, to prevent the government from silencing people.
Elon Musk’s ownership of X and his very different political philosophy have also allowed for more visible fact-checking and counterpoints.
The important thing is that Substack is part of this conversation, but as far as I know, it has not sent letters to the Justice Department about people it canceled at the government’s request. I do not think they could write such a letter, because I am not aware of them deplatforming people for their views.
Substack has a good reputation, in my opinion. I have not heard complaints about them censoring creators for what they post, other than cracking down on spam and adult content. That is a reasonable place to draw the line.
James: Yes, that is hardly an extreme position.
James, we will link to all three of your Substacks in the show notes. You also mentioned your home website. Where can people find out more about you?
Thomas: Before we go, do you have any final tips or encouragement for someone who is thinking about trying Substack?
What final advice would you give to someone starting on Substack?
James: I would say that no platform is perfect for anyone. Do not waste energy being frustrated that Substack does not do lead magnets well or does not have a certain feature. It is a very good platform overall, so make the most of what it does offer.
Every platform will be an imperfect fit in some way. Give Substack a try, but if you do, commit to it for a year. Have a plan to keep going for a full year rather than fading away after a few posts. Life happens, of course, but set your intention to make it a success. Just keep in mind that success will probably not come quickly.
Thomas: No social network is designed to make you instantly famous anymore, and even if one did, you probably would not want that. Going from obscurity to fame overnight can be psychologically damaging. It has ruined many lives.
Healthy growth takes time. Give yourself runway and permission to experiment early on. You might not know immediately what will resonate with your audience. There is a back-and-forth process as you receive feedback and study your analytics.
You may discover that a certain kind of post consistently performs better than others, and your content will evolve. That is exactly what happened with this podcast. Before Novel Marketing existed, I ran a site called Author Tech Tips, which focused on social media: how to sign up for Facebook, how to use social networks to sell books. Back in 2008 and 2009, those strategies actually worked.
In a way, this episode returns to my roots of helping authors evaluate a new social platform and decide whether it fits them, and then discussing pros, cons, and best practices. Over the years, the show has evolved.
It is okay to iterate, and it is okay to go back to basics.
Can Substack work for fiction writers?
James: If you are a fiction writer, especially one who writes historical fiction, you could absolutely use Substack. You might create a newsletter set in the Georgian period where you talk about the era you write in. That would be interesting.
I am fascinated by the English Civil War, for instance. A Substack that explores that period in depth could serve readers well. If you write in a particular genre, it is a great platform to discuss other books in your genre and the world around your stories.
There are many writers on Substack who write about writing, and that can work for some fiction authors. But Substack will not serve you well if you use it as the place where you publish your actual fiction. It is not designed for that.
Thomas: Do not write about writing, unless your books are about writing. Even if you do make some sales that way, it will poison your “also boughts” on Amazon.
You do not want your medical thriller to have an “also bought” section that includes The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. That kind of cross-linking does not help Amazon figure out who is likely to buy your novel.
Unless your primary products are craft books for writers, do not build a Substack about the craft of writing. Your readers do not care about writing.
James: Talk about the subject matter your book is about. Write about the world you are creating, not your writing process, unless you are writing craft books. I have done a bit of that too, but that is a different category entirely.
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