Today marks one year that I’ve been writing on Substack, and I thought I’d share a little conversation I had with myself around what I’m doing, with some stats and stuff at the end. Thanks to
for help with the visuals.
“Wow, that was a great sunrise. I think I’ll share a pic with my Substack friends.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake Tom, don’t be an idiot! It’s Substack, not Facebook. They’re readers, not friends.”
“Oh god, you’re right! It gets confusing! Sometimes it feels like the people I interact with on Substack are friends, but I DO NOT want to turn this into social media.”
“Then let’s agree: nobody subscribes to your Substack for sunrise pictures. Substack is for deeper stuff.”
“Oh c’mon, how deep was that little anecdote about that Mrs. Grundy at the library? That was one of our most popular posts.”
“I don’t mean deep like profound. Just thoughtful, considered, deliberate. That’s what we’re after.”
“Oh it is, is it? And who made that rule?”
“You did, fool, and you put the rules up on sticky notes in our office!”
DO
Write worthwhile stuff
Be real
Be positive
“Fine, fine, you’re right—sunrise photos don’t qualify. Unless, you know, it’s a sunrise picture in service of an experiment on using dialogue to express ideas?”
“Absolutely! Even better, it came out of a suggestion from one of your Substack buddies. Honestly, what if we add “Experiment freely” and “Be social” to our rules?”
“Ah, that’s just too many rules. I mean, look at our Don’t list: it’s getting a little out of hand!”
“We need more don’ts to keep Tommy Sunrise from posting pretty pictures!”
“I’m happy with our don’ts, it’s just the footnotes that get a little much.”
DON’T
Don’t write about how hard it is to write
Don’t write for writing’s sake1
Don’t write about users and payment (much)2
Don’t write things that everybody else is writing3
Don’t pat yourself on the back (much)4
Don’t complain5
“Well, we clearly need to be very specific to keep you in check!”
“Ha ha, very funny. I’m glad we nixed the ‘Don’t Swear’ rule.”
“No shit! As if we really need to worry about offending Mom’s friends!”
“Right! We aren’t writing to please other people. The whole point this year has been to figure out our ‘unique voice’ … whatever that means.”
“How do we define it?”
“Oh man, I don’t know! Every time I try to put a label on it I start to chafe and you know how I feel about chafing. All I know is, we’ve been reading SO MANY different Substacks, and I really dig the people who seem most comfortable in their own skin, who share their view of their world in a way that helps me make sense of my own.
wrote that he wanted to be a 'helpful visitor in other people's heads.' That about describes it for me.”“Yeah, I like that. Hey, let’s play the desert island game with our subscriptions—we’ve got to cut some anyway. You can only get 5 newsletters on your desert island. Who would they be?”
“5? That’s impossible. I need at least 20. It’s a desert island, there’s plenty of time for reading.”
“Nope, you only get 5, otherwise you’ll spend all your time reading and we need to make fire and find food.”
“What if we put a list of our top 20 at the end?”
“Fine, but for now, 5.”
“The first few are easy:
(he’s cerebral and penetrating); (iconoclastic and rebellious); and (endlessly inventive and just, well, surprising).”“What about
?”“Oh geez, when Kris lands one, it’s amazing—so brutally honest and refreshing! I wish he wrote more. I’ll take Kris Mole, but I want him weekly.”
“What about Olivier Burkeman?”
“It’s Oliver Burkeman and he’s not on Substack.”
“Who gives a shit if he’s on Substack or not? And I like calling him Olivier. It’s more fun.”
“Fine and I agree on Burkeman. Burkeman sees through the bullshit of modern life like few others.”
“We left
off.”“George Saunders doesn’t need us pumping his stuff. He’s a legend here on Substack.”
“No shit, that piece the other day, about what we’re trying to do as writers ... that blew me away. I wish I had written that.”
“No doubt, that one quote ...”
“This one?:
We [writers] view ourselves as practitioners of a difficult art form that no one ever has, or ever will, fully understand. So, we approach things with a feeling of reverence and humility and self-effacement and even bafflement like, “Jeez, this very important thing is also really difficult. It will always confound me and anyone who tries it.”
“Man, that pretty much nails it, doesn’t it? So we’re humble visitors in other people’s heads, trying to share how we apprehend the world, hoping it will resonate with others and somehow help them understand their own world.”
“Oh, that’s deep. You’re really profound.”
“Very funny. But you agree, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“So let’s keep writing.”
“Yeah, I’m in.”
“Do you want to hug it out?”
“Oh for fuck’s sake.”
The Year In Numbers
In my first year of writing on Substack, I wrote 75 pieces (including two that I wrote for other newsletters but linked to). Of these, 26 were fiction and 49 were nonfiction. I suspect next year there will be more nonfiction than fiction (since I’m not going to serialize again right away).
As of January 17, I have 190 subscribers, and the growth went like this:
Because I haven’t really focused on growth, I haven’t written much about these numbers and I don’t intend to (see my rules above). But if any of my fellow Substack writers are interested, I have combined Substack’s stats with some of my own “analytics” to be able to assess the data behind my work this year and I’m happy to share that with you. Here’s a link to a view of my Google Sheet. Holler if you have any questions or ideas about this.
Goals for 2023
When I started this Substack a year ago, my goal was to write regularly and develop a “voice” that I felt like I could inhabit fully and happily. Mission accomplished.
I knew I didn’t want to “chase” subscriber growth or attempt to get paid. I still don’t; not yet. I just want to lean in on the quality of my writing and let the chips fall where they may.6
Basically that’s what I want to continue to focus on this year: I want to write more and write better. I don’t expect to serialize another novel this year—that one took me by surprise! But until I finish my revision on it, I will likely slow by pace to bi-weekly.
But those rules that Tom and I talked about above? They’re what I learned this past year, and I’ll try to apply it to my writing next year. Wish me luck!
Favorite Newsletter Writers/Substack Newsletters of 2022 (unranked)
Write when you have something interesting to write. Not to a schedule.
We all want more readers and we all wish we got paid for doing this. ‘Nuff said.
Unless you have a really cool new way of doing it. See J.E. Peterson’s “welcome to 2023” post: https://thedispatches.substack.com/p/the-new-ten-commandments.
Good content is its own best advertisement.
If you’re reading these footnotes, you’re going to call bullshit on me because these are all complaints ... but hold on! I’m not saying don’t find fault with the world. I do it all the time. What I’m saying is don’t waste people’s time complaining, fill it with observations and insights they can use to make the world better or understand why they may find themselves at odds with the world.
I’m so bloody lucky to be in this position and I don’t mean to denigrate the efforts of those who need to figure out a way to get paid for their writing. I’m just late enough in my life and spent enough years in the bullshit machine that I don’t need scrap for money. Believe me, I know how fortunate I am.
Hey Tom, first of all thanks for the praise, I'll take it!
This post took me back twenty years. I was working the nightshift on reception in a youth hostel in Rome. I'd already mopped the floors and balanced the books, completed all my tasks, the place was in silence, now it was just a case of trying to stay awake until my shift ended. I noticed a guest had left a book on one of the tables, so I picked it up and started reading Conversations with God, by Neale Donald Walsch.
This post reminded me of that book! (Obviously your post is less silly and didn't cause me to make mocking judgements about its author... but other than that it's very similar in style!)
By the way, that's a good set of Don'ts. Especially the first one. I can't be doing with all those posts where people just write about writing or not being able to write. Titles like "What Does Your Writing Space Look Like?" "My Daily Writing Routine Starts With a Bowl of Oatmeal" etc... Who gives a fuck?
Anyway... Cheers mate! (And keep the sunrises and nature photos coming, just find a way to integrate them into your content).
Well said Tom. And Tom.
Of course, I hope to never fall out of my cushy spot on that top 20 list of yours. But at this point, I'll consider it a win if you're still talking to me a year from now. 😂