Part One of Two: Where I Started, What I've Done, What Worked Best & What Didn't Work (& tomorrow, the more philosophical "Eleven Urgent & Possibly Helpful Things I've Learned Along the Way")
This entire thing is immensely helpful and expansive. Thank you!! The part about responding to comments and emails with genuine care caught my eye, because I don’t think everyone realizes what a difference responsive engagement can make.
When I subscribe to a Substack, I feel called to comment, restack, share, etc. All the more so when I’m paying for a subscription. When I comment regularly and the writer never, ever responds, I end up feeling awkward and unwelcome. As a human with feelings, this absolutely influences whether I stay subscribed, become a paying subscriber, and stay a paying subscriber.
And, as a writer on Substack, I cannot imagine NOT responding to emails or comments that come from a kind place. I’m sincerely grateful for them! I want to connect! I mean, certain comments are best left alone (e.g., the ones offering holier-than-thou unsolicited advice). But those are the rare exception in my experience on Substack—thank all that is good. Congrats and thank you again, Jeannine!
Oh yeah, for sure! And I fully appreciate that writers with loads of comments may not want to respond to everything, since that could take tons of energy and time.
I had a professor in grad school who said "Remember to try to respond to your classmates (online, in our discussion threads)! People want to live in a responsive world." That was fifteen years ago and I've never forgotten it. It resonates so deeply. We all want to feel seen, particularly when we engage with enthusiasm and careful attention.
Absolutely. I am aware that my long experience as an elementary and middle school teacher informs the way I interact as a teacher of adults (in a good way).
Oh, I love that! I felt a bit bad about my comment in that I do understand that there are many valid and wise reasons why someone would choose to not engage in comments (e.g., large audience size, focusing on writing rather than the social aspect, personal and other reasons that are none of my business, and so forth). But it sure does make a difference when it comes to my experience as a reader.
This is so interesting! I signed up as a paid subscriber for the April challenge, which I loved but felt overwhelmed by after two weeks (plus our daughter was about to have a baby). The Essay Challenge with the weekly pace suited me very well. I got so much out of that process. Your writing and instruction here overall have helped me understand what literary writing is and invited me to experiment with it. Your warm presence in the comments adds so much. Your emphasis on writing as a way of living, also your statement that finishing a piece makes you a writer more than publishing does, encourage me so much. I'm not against publishing in any way, but the lack of focus on it here has freed something in me. There's a gentle, calm atmosphere. I look forward to the posts.
Really appreciate your candor here, Jeannine. It's interesting to see what has worked and not worked. There is definitely an aspect of trial and error with a newsletter. I think success often depends on knowing when to shift focus or try something new. Thank you!
WOW! What an amazingly generous and thoroughly helpful post, Jeannine. So clear, transparent, and genuine yet encouraging... I can’t thank you enough, AND I can’t wait to read part two. Congratulations on your well-earned success, which I frankly expect to absolutely skyrocket here on Substack!
Thanks for this, Jeannine! You provide such value to everyone, particularly for the newbies like myself. I love how open you are to change and trying new things. You are not afraid of failure, and as such, you're succeeding like crazy. Congratulations! And thank you again.
That's a big part of it. I am truly not afraid of failure! Thank you for making a point of that because I need to make sure to mention it in my philosophical post tomorrow!
Really appreciated this whole piece, especially your notation in the beginning about how we can also decide if these metrics matter to us.
It is extremely clear to me the astounding effort and work that you put into this substack, even the essay challenge alone! It was so rich that even going through it week by week I sometimes fell behind because there was so much in it. I have never in my life written fiction, but having had such a beautiful experience with the essay challenge I am excited to start the next seasonal intensive and give it a try! Writing for me is more about play than work, and what better way to explore that further than to try a new discipline and be experimental.
I am so glad to see this substack be such a success and hope that it continues to grow in the ways that feel right for you.
This really means a lot to me. And you know I do know this about myself--I have always as a teacher aimed a little high. Just ask my former middle school students, to whom I assigned the unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo in eighth grade!! Haha. Apparently I did say the abridged was an option, which all but two students went for. One of the two who read the unabridged version is now reading it in French. So anyway. I have a little glitch, but I do always try to temper it with constant reassurance that it is more than okay to work at our own pace, do less, explore, slow down, and play et cetera. It's a strange paradox, but I have come to kind of accept it about myself. Really glad you are here!!
Jeannine - I am only six weeks into my Substack journey but truly loving the community here. I sincerely appreciate the willingness of writer's to share their experience. Posts like this make a huge difference for rookies and flatten the learning curve significantly. I am active-duty military so the time I have to commit to writing is limited. I want to make the most of it and hopefully build something I can do on a more full-time basis when I retire from the Navy next summer. Thank you again and looking forward to Part 2. All the best, Matthew
You're so welcome, Matthew. I work full time, too, so I wasn't really in a position to kick around; I needed to be focused and clear about what I was doing here so that I'd be able to do it as efficiently as possible, and also enjoy it (very important, otherwise burnout). Thank you for being here!
Amazing, Rebecca! Is Rainly online yet? I would love to check it out. And here is to a fantastic 2024. I want 2024 to be my breakout year, too, with regard to my novel (like, may I please finish it?!). Really glad you're here. I hope you do the story challenge! I am all about quirky! xoxo
Thank you so much, it was more than I expected!! Haha. The story of my life, I get these ideas and ... they take on a life of their own. Thank you for reading. xoxo
This is great and also really encouraging. I write letters to my infant son about being a first time dad. I joined Substack in July and it’s been going really well. While we are in different niches, I’m wondering if I should have put up a pay wall a long time ago. I’m using the funds to fund his college plan and people have become paid subscribers. I know keeping everything free is not the best idea but I know I don’t want to produce new content for just paid. Thank you for all the tips, I think I may need to reconsider and evaluate if I seriously want to grow my going paid list.
This was so incredibly helpful to me as a new Substacker. I mark my two months' anniversary of twice-weekly publishing today with 237 subscribers, which astonishes me with gratitude and the motivation to keep going since I had no email list to begin with. I appreciate how you described your journey for us in such thoughtful detail and as a paid subscriber to Story Club and Isolations Journals I absolutely concur that Writing in the Dark is their Substack baby. Perfect! Thanks again for the generosity we have come to expect from you. Sometimes I feel daunted when I think about doing this for a year or many years but the fact is, I love the writing I am doing here more than any writing I've done in my life. And that's worth something, for someone who has been a writer her entire career. I am very glad to be a paid subscriber to Writing in the Dark and to start the Story Challenge Wednesday!
Amy, thank you for all of this, and for getting my analogy of WITD being the baby of Story Club and Isolation Journals! I don't know that Sukeika and George would agree, but I really feel it, haha! Thank you again!
Great info. Knowing that you've changed up your Substack was a positive nod for me that I do this when needed. While I mostly write humor essays, I'm also serializing a work in progress novel and became a paid subscriber for the novel lessons and support. Looking forward!
I love that you are going to serialize your novel in progress! I really hope Substack becomes a thriving place for serialized fiction, that is SO EXCITING and if you can combine that with novel lessons, if I am undertanding correctly, well that's really cool. I think Courtney Maum is doing something similar with serializing the building of a book proposal (Book Building with Savanah:
Watch me build out a memoir proposal in real time with cowgirl and mental health activist Savanah McCarty (@thevelvetspur), whose plans to write her own memoir were halted by a traumatic brain injury in 2022. Support our journey here!). Anyway, these real-time projects with an instructional component are really cool and I hope that kind of thing , including your serialized novel, flourishes here on Substack!
Hi Jeannine. I'm a new subscriber (via this post and because I keep seeing your name here and there..) and this is such an open answer generous post. thank-you. It's so nuts and bolts and zero fluff. I love that! Excited to read more of your work. 🤍👋🏻
wow, yay yay yay (also, as a very nonfamous writer I get a nice little boost when someone tells me they keep seeing my name here and there haha). Thank you!
Hehe I understand that! 🥰 I felt like in 2 posts I already fundamentally understand something about you as a brilliant writing person and that's lovely. Thank you.
I really enjoy when successful stackers share their journey. It not only provides concrete "how to" information, but it gives us a peep hole into how different writers use different tactics to flourish.
I have known exactly what my goals are from the beginning as well. But only a few months in, I'm really just trying to grow a bit before launching bigger things. As someone with a job aside from writing, my biggest challenge is time and focus. I never seem to have more than a couple hours at a time to dedicate which means I use that time to write my weekly posts and engage with my awesome core group. Doesn’t leave much other time for development of future plans.
Also, I can't afford to pay people to take care of the time-suckers 😂
I hear you. Time (and sleep!) are big obstacles when you work full time, as I also do. It's true that I could not do this so much and so fast without help. And I could only afford to pay for the help due to Patreon, where people (a very small # but still) were supporting my work. I decided to invest that in building the Substack, and when the Substack grew, I re-invested with another helper in Billie. Had I not been able to hire some help, I would have still proceeded, but definitely more slowly. It takes time, these newsletters. Lots of little tasks besides the writing!
Oh also wanted to add, that is why I included that I pay for help, how many hours and at what rate. I think it's really important to be transparent, and I don't always see the level of transparency that would help me on these kinds of posts. It's not entirely fair to seemingly give advice, but .. hide some of the infrastructure that makes the advice work for the advisor. So, that's what I was trying to do here, really lay it all out.
Thanks for this. Your warmth really does come across, along with your writing skills obviously.
My main question at this stage is about whether social media beyond substack is part of your strategy? You say post share posts intermittently on twitter but I'm just wondering if either of you or your team use any other platforms to promote your work here.
Hi, Susan, and thank you. My team are not on social at all really and don't do any social for WITD. And I only occasionally share posts on my own social. I probably should have a better strategy!
Thank you Jeannie for your generous and honest post about your adventures on Substack. I am new to writing and Substack, having finally decided to follow my heart and write and learn more about writing and the creative life - my “desire” - as you so be beautifully described - longing for a star ⭐️.
Reading your post has highlighted five things that I will focus on here, writing on Substack: Passion, Curiosity, Beauty, Kindness, and Ease. 🚴♀️
This entire thing is immensely helpful and expansive. Thank you!! The part about responding to comments and emails with genuine care caught my eye, because I don’t think everyone realizes what a difference responsive engagement can make.
When I subscribe to a Substack, I feel called to comment, restack, share, etc. All the more so when I’m paying for a subscription. When I comment regularly and the writer never, ever responds, I end up feeling awkward and unwelcome. As a human with feelings, this absolutely influences whether I stay subscribed, become a paying subscriber, and stay a paying subscriber.
And, as a writer on Substack, I cannot imagine NOT responding to emails or comments that come from a kind place. I’m sincerely grateful for them! I want to connect! I mean, certain comments are best left alone (e.g., the ones offering holier-than-thou unsolicited advice). But those are the rare exception in my experience on Substack—thank all that is good. Congrats and thank you again, Jeannine!
I know I don't catch everything because my schedule is so intense, but I really try, because I really WANT to connect, so thank you for this!
Oh yeah, for sure! And I fully appreciate that writers with loads of comments may not want to respond to everything, since that could take tons of energy and time.
I had a professor in grad school who said "Remember to try to respond to your classmates (online, in our discussion threads)! People want to live in a responsive world." That was fifteen years ago and I've never forgotten it. It resonates so deeply. We all want to feel seen, particularly when we engage with enthusiasm and careful attention.
Absolutely. I am aware that my long experience as an elementary and middle school teacher informs the way I interact as a teacher of adults (in a good way).
I've only been here a short time, but that shows. It's a lovely, generous quality. Thank you!
<3 <3 <3 (i don't know how to do real emojis on my computer haha)
Oh, I love that! I felt a bit bad about my comment in that I do understand that there are many valid and wise reasons why someone would choose to not engage in comments (e.g., large audience size, focusing on writing rather than the social aspect, personal and other reasons that are none of my business, and so forth). But it sure does make a difference when it comes to my experience as a reader.
Ditto
This is so interesting! I signed up as a paid subscriber for the April challenge, which I loved but felt overwhelmed by after two weeks (plus our daughter was about to have a baby). The Essay Challenge with the weekly pace suited me very well. I got so much out of that process. Your writing and instruction here overall have helped me understand what literary writing is and invited me to experiment with it. Your warm presence in the comments adds so much. Your emphasis on writing as a way of living, also your statement that finishing a piece makes you a writer more than publishing does, encourage me so much. I'm not against publishing in any way, but the lack of focus on it here has freed something in me. There's a gentle, calm atmosphere. I look forward to the posts.
Yes, you were not the only reader who couldn’t keep up in April (also! Congrats on the baby!). And I so enjoy your presence and contributions here! ❤️
Sorry to interrupt your comment, do you have any relatives in Eden Iowa I was just asking out of curiosity, if so please I have a question for you….
Really appreciate your candor here, Jeannine. It's interesting to see what has worked and not worked. There is definitely an aspect of trial and error with a newsletter. I think success often depends on knowing when to shift focus or try something new. Thank you!
Oh my gosh yes to the idea of being open to shifting--right? There is a nimbleness required. You have a beautiful newsletter!!
Sorry to interrupt your comment, do you have any relatives in Eden Iowa I was just asking out of curiosity, if so please I have a question for you….
WOW! What an amazingly generous and thoroughly helpful post, Jeannine. So clear, transparent, and genuine yet encouraging... I can’t thank you enough, AND I can’t wait to read part two. Congratulations on your well-earned success, which I frankly expect to absolutely skyrocket here on Substack!
Wow, thank you thank you thank you, Lenora!!
Sorry to interrupt your comment, do you have any relatives in Eden Iowa I was just asking out of curiosity, if so please I have a question for you….
No, not that I know of.
Thanks for this, Jeannine! You provide such value to everyone, particularly for the newbies like myself. I love how open you are to change and trying new things. You are not afraid of failure, and as such, you're succeeding like crazy. Congratulations! And thank you again.
That's a big part of it. I am truly not afraid of failure! Thank you for making a point of that because I need to make sure to mention it in my philosophical post tomorrow!
Of course! Really looking forward to that post. Thank you!
Really appreciated this whole piece, especially your notation in the beginning about how we can also decide if these metrics matter to us.
It is extremely clear to me the astounding effort and work that you put into this substack, even the essay challenge alone! It was so rich that even going through it week by week I sometimes fell behind because there was so much in it. I have never in my life written fiction, but having had such a beautiful experience with the essay challenge I am excited to start the next seasonal intensive and give it a try! Writing for me is more about play than work, and what better way to explore that further than to try a new discipline and be experimental.
I am so glad to see this substack be such a success and hope that it continues to grow in the ways that feel right for you.
This really means a lot to me. And you know I do know this about myself--I have always as a teacher aimed a little high. Just ask my former middle school students, to whom I assigned the unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo in eighth grade!! Haha. Apparently I did say the abridged was an option, which all but two students went for. One of the two who read the unabridged version is now reading it in French. So anyway. I have a little glitch, but I do always try to temper it with constant reassurance that it is more than okay to work at our own pace, do less, explore, slow down, and play et cetera. It's a strange paradox, but I have come to kind of accept it about myself. Really glad you are here!!
Sorry to interrupt your comment, do you have any relatives in Eden Iowa I was just asking out of curiosity, if so please I have a question for you….
Jeannine - I am only six weeks into my Substack journey but truly loving the community here. I sincerely appreciate the willingness of writer's to share their experience. Posts like this make a huge difference for rookies and flatten the learning curve significantly. I am active-duty military so the time I have to commit to writing is limited. I want to make the most of it and hopefully build something I can do on a more full-time basis when I retire from the Navy next summer. Thank you again and looking forward to Part 2. All the best, Matthew
You're so welcome, Matthew. I work full time, too, so I wasn't really in a position to kick around; I needed to be focused and clear about what I was doing here so that I'd be able to do it as efficiently as possible, and also enjoy it (very important, otherwise burnout). Thank you for being here!
Thank you.
I have a fresh Substack, Rainly, but don’t feel it is launched.
I’m rebooting my personal write practice, above and beyond my daily journal. I want 2024 to be my breakout year.
I got an MFA at age 58, in 2011 and am still wrassling the life and stories my advisor called ‘quirky.’
Onward!
And thank you.
Amazing, Rebecca! Is Rainly online yet? I would love to check it out. And here is to a fantastic 2024. I want 2024 to be my breakout year, too, with regard to my novel (like, may I please finish it?!). Really glad you're here. I hope you do the story challenge! I am all about quirky! xoxo
I got sidelined the first of October and was in float mode, recovering from a health thing, so I have some catching up to do.
A friend gave me a me a challenge, and my goal is 2400 words a week, on living with six dogs and how that came to be . (Not overnight.)
This is a brain worm I feel I can tame.
Thank you. I have some Substacks I’ll be taking to paid status as I clean up my reading commitments.
XX
Wow, that's a super fascinating premise, the six dogs! I would read that. xoxoxo
So in twelve years I have another Chinese Zodiac of stories!!
This is so generous. Thank you
Thank you so much, it was more than I expected!! Haha. The story of my life, I get these ideas and ... they take on a life of their own. Thank you for reading. xoxo
This is great and also really encouraging. I write letters to my infant son about being a first time dad. I joined Substack in July and it’s been going really well. While we are in different niches, I’m wondering if I should have put up a pay wall a long time ago. I’m using the funds to fund his college plan and people have become paid subscribers. I know keeping everything free is not the best idea but I know I don’t want to produce new content for just paid. Thank you for all the tips, I think I may need to reconsider and evaluate if I seriously want to grow my going paid list.
I actually address that (a little) in today's post, Marc, under the "value" section. Also, I think letters to your infant son is just a wonderful premise! https://writinginthedark.substack.com/p/how-i-grew-my-substack-from-almost
This was so incredibly helpful to me as a new Substacker. I mark my two months' anniversary of twice-weekly publishing today with 237 subscribers, which astonishes me with gratitude and the motivation to keep going since I had no email list to begin with. I appreciate how you described your journey for us in such thoughtful detail and as a paid subscriber to Story Club and Isolations Journals I absolutely concur that Writing in the Dark is their Substack baby. Perfect! Thanks again for the generosity we have come to expect from you. Sometimes I feel daunted when I think about doing this for a year or many years but the fact is, I love the writing I am doing here more than any writing I've done in my life. And that's worth something, for someone who has been a writer her entire career. I am very glad to be a paid subscriber to Writing in the Dark and to start the Story Challenge Wednesday!
Amy, thank you for all of this, and for getting my analogy of WITD being the baby of Story Club and Isolation Journals! I don't know that Sukeika and George would agree, but I really feel it, haha! Thank you again!
Sorry to interrupt your comment, do you have any relatives in Eden Iowa I was just asking out of curiosity, if so please I have a question for you….
Great info. Knowing that you've changed up your Substack was a positive nod for me that I do this when needed. While I mostly write humor essays, I'm also serializing a work in progress novel and became a paid subscriber for the novel lessons and support. Looking forward!
I love that you are going to serialize your novel in progress! I really hope Substack becomes a thriving place for serialized fiction, that is SO EXCITING and if you can combine that with novel lessons, if I am undertanding correctly, well that's really cool. I think Courtney Maum is doing something similar with serializing the building of a book proposal (Book Building with Savanah:
Watch me build out a memoir proposal in real time with cowgirl and mental health activist Savanah McCarty (@thevelvetspur), whose plans to write her own memoir were halted by a traumatic brain injury in 2022. Support our journey here!). Anyway, these real-time projects with an instructional component are really cool and I hope that kind of thing , including your serialized novel, flourishes here on Substack!
Thank you, Jeannine. Savanah’s project sounds fascinating. Writers can truly think outside the box on Substack and the support is tremendous.
Hi Jeannine. I'm a new subscriber (via this post and because I keep seeing your name here and there..) and this is such an open answer generous post. thank-you. It's so nuts and bolts and zero fluff. I love that! Excited to read more of your work. 🤍👋🏻
wow, yay yay yay (also, as a very nonfamous writer I get a nice little boost when someone tells me they keep seeing my name here and there haha). Thank you!
Hehe I understand that! 🥰 I felt like in 2 posts I already fundamentally understand something about you as a brilliant writing person and that's lovely. Thank you.
I really enjoy when successful stackers share their journey. It not only provides concrete "how to" information, but it gives us a peep hole into how different writers use different tactics to flourish.
I have known exactly what my goals are from the beginning as well. But only a few months in, I'm really just trying to grow a bit before launching bigger things. As someone with a job aside from writing, my biggest challenge is time and focus. I never seem to have more than a couple hours at a time to dedicate which means I use that time to write my weekly posts and engage with my awesome core group. Doesn’t leave much other time for development of future plans.
Also, I can't afford to pay people to take care of the time-suckers 😂
Thanks for sharing all this food for thought!
I hear you. Time (and sleep!) are big obstacles when you work full time, as I also do. It's true that I could not do this so much and so fast without help. And I could only afford to pay for the help due to Patreon, where people (a very small # but still) were supporting my work. I decided to invest that in building the Substack, and when the Substack grew, I re-invested with another helper in Billie. Had I not been able to hire some help, I would have still proceeded, but definitely more slowly. It takes time, these newsletters. Lots of little tasks besides the writing!
Amen sister. Here's to the little tasks 🍻🍺 😂
Oh also wanted to add, that is why I included that I pay for help, how many hours and at what rate. I think it's really important to be transparent, and I don't always see the level of transparency that would help me on these kinds of posts. It's not entirely fair to seemingly give advice, but .. hide some of the infrastructure that makes the advice work for the advisor. So, that's what I was trying to do here, really lay it all out.
Very much appreciated (as I run off to write the post that needs to go out on schedule tomorrow morning lol)
Thanks for this. Your warmth really does come across, along with your writing skills obviously.
My main question at this stage is about whether social media beyond substack is part of your strategy? You say post share posts intermittently on twitter but I'm just wondering if either of you or your team use any other platforms to promote your work here.
Hi, Susan, and thank you. My team are not on social at all really and don't do any social for WITD. And I only occasionally share posts on my own social. I probably should have a better strategy!
No, it's encouraging tbh. Shows what can happen with 💯 focus.
Thank you Jeannie for your generous and honest post about your adventures on Substack. I am new to writing and Substack, having finally decided to follow my heart and write and learn more about writing and the creative life - my “desire” - as you so be beautifully described - longing for a star ⭐️.
Reading your post has highlighted five things that I will focus on here, writing on Substack: Passion, Curiosity, Beauty, Kindness, and Ease. 🚴♀️
Yay. Happy for you!