Some authors who work with me need newsletters. Few of my clients want to commit to create these. A lot of advice from marketing and publishing experts says that newsletters entice book readers. These things also connect you to book buyers. An email becomes a newsletter simply when you have multiple topics to write about. And you write short, because people are busy.
There is a vehicle to ride in while you’re writing a newsletter. Substack is a service that includes all you need to make a newsletter. Delivery mechanism, a chance to find new readers via a network, a way to collect subscription money. You have to write about your writing, but the rest of it has been built for you. Somehow, you use this for free. There’s even a way to make a podcast with nothing more than your Zoom microphone.
So everything is different, like this. As I grew up in publishing we had none of this for free. The delivery mechanism was US Mail with postage needed. Subscribers only came through mailed forms at first. We needed a printing press and all of the ad sales people to pay for it, and even somebody to tidy up the place after an issue went out to readers.
We’re all luckier today. It is harder on us, though, because it’s so easy to try. We have fewer reasons to stop short of trying. There’s lots of competition, as always. We don’t have to put on pants, let alone leave the house. Ideas whiz by without us finding where we left that magazine or book or notes from that interview. Everybody can do a newsletter now, and it feels like everyone does the way our in-boxes are filling up.
But unsubscribing is easier than ever, and you don’t have to tote unread issues to the recycle bin. Reading one thing means Substack recommends something adjacent. There was nothing like that when Stephen King or Clive Cussler or Nora Ephron were getting famous and rich. It was harder, but one thing was not harder. It was not harder to believe in yourself, because the only way to know if you were crazy to believe in yourself was to try.
As it turns out, that trying thing is essential.
There’s a Substack edition of The Write Stuff. I like having multiple editions for people to discover in distinct places. There’s too many ways to try now for you to not try. Have a look at my Substack, and then get in touch for help getting yours going. It’s the most painless way to get a newsletter on its feet.
