Six unexpected things I learnt from my first month on Substack

Thoughts, stats, and a question for you.

Just a few weeks ago ‘Substack’ was a word I had heard a few times, but didn’t hadn’t really given much attention. Then someone in a writers’ group I belong to posted a short story here, and something about the experience of reading it made me curious. I followed the thread and found myself in a masterclass by the lovely folks at Substack HQ which lit up my brain with possibility. Right away - a month ago this week - I poured myself a glass of rwine, set up an account and posted a question about whether I should start writing here. I asked people to vote by subscribing and they did - YOU did - and so it began.

I have posted six essays since then and have been absolutely blown away by the experience of publishing here, both in terms of the generosity of the community - that’s YOU again! - and of my own capacity to write so much in the middle of a relentless season of work.

I don’t pay much attention to follower numbers, but I have been wowed by these statistics from my first month here:

It is so motivating to know that what I am writing is interesting and helpful or inspiring to you. It’s so different from writing books, where they go out into the world and only a tiny percentage of people ever let you know about their experience of your book through reviews or getting in touch directly. Here there is stacking and quoting and commenting and sharing in your own posts and so on. Substack is built for generosity, which is refreshing in a world of adverts and algorithms.

If you are interested, these have been the most popular posts so far (although of course some have been up longer than others):

#1 My book needs you published Nov 12 (4.24k views)

#2 Fifteen guideposts for a flourishing writing life published Nov 24 (3.77k views)

#3 With apologies for all the un-done things published Nov 21 (3.7k views)

#4 Confessions of a self-help author (Part One) published Oct 28 (3.68k views)

#5 The life-changing magic of writing haiku published Nov 27 (3.52k views)

#6 When living the dream looks like a tracksuit and a warmed up fish pie from Tesco published Nov 9 (2.76k views)

Anyway, I thought I’d share a few things I have learnt in this first month. It’s not intended as advice - I am still a newbie here after all - but rather it is a list of a few observations which may be interesting for you to consider in the context of your own Substack. Perhaps they are true for you, perhaps not. Perhaps you have never thought about them before. Let’s see.

(1) Effort matters but perfectly imperfect is fine

I am spending time on my pieces, but not so much that I don’t publish them. I always read them back when they are live and find a typo, or a sentence to tweak, and that’s fine. I just go ahead and change it. Writing books is so final - but essays here feel more fluid. I get a burst of inspiration and just go for it, writing most essays in one go and then tinkering for a while.

(2) It’s all about the essays for me. I am obsessed.

Even though this has been a very full month of work I have somehow found the time to publish more than once a week and start about twenty essays which are sitting in draft to be worked on in the weeks ahead. There is a new freedom here that I can’t explain and I am loving investigating it. I just want to write inspiring, helpful essays which force me to look closely at things in order to write them. If there is anything in particular you’d like me to write about, please let me know in the comments!

I think that Notes are useful for sharing what we discover and love, and for connecting with others, but at least 80% of my Substack attention goes into my essays and I think I’m going to try to keep it that way. I have Instagram and other such things for chit chat and I suspect there is an opportunity cost to too much time in Notes, in the form of essays left languishing in draft.

(3) The community here is a very particular shade of generous, and thoughtful

Thank you. It’s like the old days of blogging, which inspired me to ditch my career and start my own business twelve years ago, and here I am doing what I love. I thought that particular energy and ecosystem had died with the loss of Google Reader many years ago, so it is a joy to find it again here. And so many people on Substack are beauty seekers which I LOVE. Hello kindreds! 

(4) The analytics have been surprising

While I don’t spend too much energy worrying about follower numbers, I am interested in data, especially on a platform that is new to me. I had presumed most of my lovely subscribers here had just followed me over from Instagram but the analytics show that only about 25% of you have arrived here via that route, less than 5% from Facebook, and only a small amount from my existing email list (which is no surprise because I haven’t done a proper announcement there yet, or moved it over here).

It seems that the vast majority of my subscribers are coming quite organically from within the community here on Substack thanks to generous sharing etc. Thank you! And hello new friends! It is one of my plans for January to spend a decent amount of time reading other people’s work and sharing things I love in return (November has just been too full for me to dive in to reading as thoroughly as I would have liked.)

(5) I like who I am on this platform

That might seem a really odd thing to say, but here on Substack I am finding that I want to be very open and compassionate, helpful and kind and I have no interest in selling anything. That’s a bit strange, because I have a small business and lots of what I offer serves writers. But my priority here is to inspire, not to sell. I have other platforms for that, and I like that I have sensed that distinction so quickly.

I believe that words are medicine - for the writers and the readers - and as far as possible I want to offer my own medicine here for free, and inspire others to get their words onto the page so that can be medicine for themselves and others.

(6) It feels like the beginning of a beautiful friendship

Substack is going to be a big part of my writing future. I can feel it. It is lighting up other parts of my life and filling my head with ideas. What an unexpected joy.

With gratitude…

As a token of my thanks, and as part of my intention to build a lovely, supportive community of fellow writers and beauty seekers, I am getting ready to launch a Subscriber referral programme. As all my essays are free, instead of the usual access to paid subscriptions in return for referrals, I have crafted some beautiful rewards and I’d love to know which one you’d like me to release first - this would be for the first level of referrals. At higher tiers I am going to offer a meditation album and free access to one of my short writing courses (more on that soon).

For now, I would be so grateful if you could please take a second to tell me which reward you would rather receive for referring just five new people to my Substack. These are the options - please click on the poll beneath them to let me know what reward you would be most interested in.

1. A beautiful, short guide to going on a personal retreat (downloadable PDF)

2. The jam jar - a year of writing prompts (downloadable PDF to cut up and pop into a jam jar to pull at random for inspiration any time you like - with enough prompts for one a day for an entire year)

3. Entry into a quarterly (giveaway to win a writing class with me worth over £500. (Everyone who has referred their first five subscribers in any given quarter would be entered into the giveway and the winner announced on my Substack at the end of each quarter).

Let me know and I’ll launch the referral programme shortly. Thank you!

Tell me, how long have you been on Substack and how have you found it? What’s your favourite thing about it? Please do share in the comments. I’d love to know!

Beth Xx 

Photos: Holly Bobbins Photographer