To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

I will save you from spending years flailing around on Substack, trying to figure out the platform, and not getting any traction.

Book a single meeting:

Or a discounted 3-meeting package to get $25 off:

Substack is the best platform for writers—financially, professionally, and artistically—and the hardest to succeed on. Don’t do it alone.

This will be the best money you’ve ever spent. I don’t say that lightly. Just ask the writers who’ve met with me. Their Substacks have

* doubled and tripled in subscribers,

* seen a sharp increase in revenue,

* gotten real engagement, and

* been chosen as Featured Substacks–the pinnacle of quality on the platform.

“More than worth the money.” —Joyce Wycoff, Gratitude Mojo

You can’t find this level of mentoring, attention, and expertise anywhere else. No one else has the relationship with Substack that I do and specializes in the unique nature of the platform, how it can be used to earn an income, and how it complements traditional publishing and all aspects of a writer’s career.

To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

On the go? Listen to the audio.

If you aren’t a subscriber, become one (!) to master the art and business of being on Substack.

On to the reason why so many writers feel bad about promoting their work and why they shouldn’t…

For many creative writers, publicity is something to be avoided lest someone accuse them of “self-promotion.” (By “creative,” I mean anyone who’s not a journalist—not that journalism isn’t creative.) The tacit belief is that “real” writers shouldn’t need to promote their work. “Good” writing magically publicizes itself or is promoted by others, i.e., gatekeepers—agents, publishers, critics, the media, celebrity authors, Substack writers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, etc.

I can’t overstate how damaging this has been to writers. It’s brainwashed us into believing 1) all promotion is self-promotion and 2) publicizing our work means slumming and a lack of literary or artistic credibility. More than that, it’s created a culture of dependency and entitlement and a whole lot of professional writers who can’t make a living from their profession.

Writers—especially creative writers—seem to think publicity isn’t or shouldn’t be part of our job. Guess what? It is. It’s not the reader’s responsibility to find us. And not just on Substack. You can get the best agent and a big book deal and you’re still expected to sell your own books. (Sorry to pop that fantasy bubble, but it’s true.)

Yes, there’s the whole art-versus-commerce angst, which I’ve never understood. The idea that commerce taints art is one that I’d love for us all to question. Maybe it has more to do with reaching people. Art that sells speaks to the buying public; art that doesn’t, well, doesn’t.

To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

A bonus for you for the weekend! If you’re serializing or thinking about serializing your book (or possible book), I go through the entire process and what to consider on the Become a Writer Today podcast with Bryan Collins. Bryan is great.

We talk about all things serialization and “becoming an author,” including my trajectory from

* interviewer at The Paris Review to

* MFA-in-creative-writing grad to

* PhD-in-English grad to

* HarperCollins author to

* devoted Substacker serializing my new memoir Cured and helping creative writers everywhere come into their own and make a living as a writer.

I hope it inspires you and gets you thinking about serialization on Substack. Listen and enjoy!

Substack is its own world, unlike any other platform. What works on Medium or wherever doesn’t work on here.

This session is how you begin the process of growing your Substack. Understand the platform and your purpose—your why.

Too often people get on Substack and just start writing and publishing. You have to know your purpose and your goals to set up or remodel your Substack the right way.

In this session, you’re going to understand what Substack really is.

You’ll get an overview of Substack and we’ll touch on key features and tools

I’m going to give you examples of successful Substacks and approaches.

You’ll also set or decide your goal for being on Substack.

Finally, you're going to define your newsletter’s purpose and audience.

I bring you all my insider information and everything I’ve learned working with hundreds of writers, being behind their dashboards, and seeing what you need to do to set up your Substack to grow.

In this video:

01:12 Understanding the Nature of Substack

01:54 The Trust Factor in Substack

02:16 Substack's Business Model

03:17 Substack's Versatility

04:03 Substack as a Personal Media Platform

04:18 Navigating Key Features and Tools

05:18 Substack's Backend and Subscription Management

05:52 Customizing Your Substack

06:29 Substack's Analytics and Email Delivery

07:02 Promoting Your Substack

07:17 The Authenticity of Substack

07:28 Monetizing Your Substack

07:38 Mobile Optimization on Substack

07:47 Exploring Successful Substack Approaches

Substack’s design features are limited, which is a beautiful thing. You don't have to spend time branding and can get to building your Substack and achieving your goals instead. 

What’s here…

* 00:00 Introduction to Substack's Ever-Changing Design Features

* 00:14 Design Philosophy: Prioritizing Writing Over Aesthetics

* 00:25 Personal Experience: Transforming Substack into a Website

* 01:02 Exploring Substack's Design Options

* 01:36 Homepage Layouts: Customizing Your Look

* 02:17 Advanced Layouts and Grouping Content

* 03:03 Setting Up Tags and Groups

* 03:46 Conclusion: Basic Design Features Recap

A quick overview of your Substack dashboard. You don't need to know everything about Substack's tech. This is expert guidance in all you need to know and nothing you don't. 

In this session:

* Home (00:03)

* Posts (01:04)

* Podcasts (01:59)

* Subscriber Insights (02:38)

* Stats (03:29)

* Network Benefits (04:02)

* Subscribers (04:52)

In this session, you're going to learn all about Notes or if you've been on Substack for a while, get greater insights into Notes and how to make it work for you.

We're going to take a Notes tour. I'm going to talk to you about how to think about Notes, and how to be on there. It's so different from other social media platforms and it should be fun. It should be enjoyable. And then Notes fundamentals. We'll go over the basics.

00:00 Understanding Notes

00:10 The Power of Discoverability

01:06 Rethinking Social Media

02:48 Engaging with Notes

04:28 The Algorithm and Engagement

05:02 Types of Notes

05:43 Navigating Notes

Substack and SEO. On Substack, your SEO title and SEO description talk directly to search engines and suggest how they might display your post in search results.

There's internal versus external discoverability.

Substack has internal discoverability. That's Notes. I've mentioned this, but this is like the early days of YouTube and podcasting. You can get discovered on here. You can grow. Most of our growth is happening internally. It's not true for everybody, but your focus doesn't need to be fully on SEO and Google.

In this session:

* Understand Internal vs External Discoverability on Substack (00:27)

* SEO Best Practices for Substack Posts (01:50)

* The Keyword Conundrum in SEO (03:04)

* Should You Change Your Substack URL? (03:34)

* Recap of Growth Strategies on Substack (03:46)

* Understanding the Purpose of Each Post (05:05)

To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

* 2-minute overview of Substack audio and how to navigate it

* 2-minute recap of my quick-and-easy method for recording and editing audio like a pro (for those who don’t have time to watch the deep-dive audio workshop)

00:00 Introduction to Substack Audio

00:25 Setting Up Your Podcast

00:49 Creating and Uploading Audio Posts

01:09 Using Audio Embeds and Voiceovers

02:06 Recording Tips and Techniques

02:44 Editing with Descript

03:30 Creating Free Previews

Audio is one of the best ways to connect with subscribers and expand our reach on Substack and beyond.

To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

I love Wikipedia’s definition of writer’s block:

“Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.”

So melodramatic: The author is unable to produce new work. Practically an illness: a condition.

I also love the image Wikipedia chose to accompany the entry: 19th- and 20th-century impressionist painter Leonid Pasternak’s “The Passion of Creation.” High drama. Total despair. (Google the phrase writer’s block, and that image will come up a lot.)

You have to understand that Leonid was friends with Leo Tolstoy, perhaps the most melodramatic author to set foot on this earth. (That’s not a dig at Tolsoy’s writing—come on, War and Peace, Anna Karenina—but Tolstoy had a way of creating drama in his life. He was a serious philanderer, made his wife Sophia a slave to him and then left her at the age of 82, and started what was basically a cult that got him excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church.) (Yes, Leonid was also the father of Boris, author of Dr. Zhivago, and about a gazillion poems. No writer’s block there.)

Writer’s block can be applied to visual artists, but usually, it’s just us. Surgeons don’t get surgeon’s block. Electricians don’t get electrician’s block.

Writers like drama. That’s our bread and butter. And sometimes, our love of drama seeps into our lives in ways that aren’t productive.