Hi Sarah. Can you tell me something about what you write? Because if short stories are the ONLY thing you're writing and trying to sell, that's an extremely difficult way to make any money or even views. I honestly don't know of anyone doing it or trying to do it that way.
I can write more about it but to be of the most help to you I'd like to hear how you pitch it, first.
Thanks for answering Alexandra. I've been following for a long time, and I really appreciate it.
I have a long form that I'm serialising here: https://authenticwriting.substack.com and I have short stories there as well. I've set it up similar to SE Reid's Talebones.substack.com where that long form story - The Witch's Daughter is front and centre to the site.
As well as Substack I put some on Gumroad as ebooks. I did that because some people complain they don't want to commit to a subscription, and say they'd rather just pay for what they read. But that hasn't proved true - no-one has clicked through to those.
I write long form and short stories. I have an unpublished 100k word novel I'm trying to trad pub, and have pitched for about 18 months now. I've had a few invites to submit the manuscript. I'm currently waiting for one publisher to come back to me. But so far no deal on that.
I have two paid subs on Substack, but they're both my wonderful supportive friends, and it's not translating into any growth.
I have a tech publication which has generated some views on YouTube (not many) and I used to work in tech, so that seemed like a no brainer to take article ideas I already had worked up, but in fact its really my creative writing that I want to do.
I'm kind of at this huge watershed right now. I quit my job in January to write full time, researched Substack a lot, but the things I've tried so far have not worked.
I'm sure it's the same story for a lot of people. I'm willing to put the yards in but it seems like maybe I'm just not doing the right things.
Excellent that you have a full manuscript and are querying it! Congratulations and all the luck.
Now, on the Substack site and short stories/serial - first let me ask you: Are you doing this because you know of writers who are doing this successfully? And yes, success can mean many things. But I don’t personally know of any Substack writers who are —making a living— from serializing their novels on Substack.
This may have changed in the two or three years since I first investigated it — which is one of the reasons I’m asking! I’d really like to know if this has become more viable for authors. But as far as I know, Substack is a good platform to make money on if you’re a journalist or political activist, or with a newsletter.
And I encourage people here to try it as one of your Multiple Income Streams, which I’ll write more about as a marketing strategy.
But these days I never hear about Substack as having a real potential as an alternate platform for selling your novels as serials. (That doesn't mean it's not - but I haven't heard about it.)
I looked briefly at the site you mentioned and it’s definitely a vibrant author site, with lots of content for her community – a really good example of keeping your readers happy and engaged. But from my quick look it’s not driving sales for her on Amazon, and her main business seems to be editing/proofreading.
Again, it was a quick look and I could be totally wrong!
So here are some questions for you:
• Are there other authors you know of who are getting real money from serializing novels on Substack?
• Are there articles you read that say it’s possible to get money from serializing a novel on Substack? (And how long ago were they circulating?)
• Are YOU trying to develop an income from your Substack site or are you building it more as a platform for your future novels (like when you sell the one you have on submission?)
Let me know and we’ll continue this discussion, which I think is really valuable. Thanks for starting it!
Thanks for the kind words. But ugh, Alexandra: you ask all the brilliant tough questions I should have asked myself. 🤣
Substack and my publishing plan is that plan that I wound up with, not so much the plan that I planned.
My original thought was that publishers would want me to have a social media presence, and I had just left Twitter as it became a trash fire. I knew Substack had notes now, and it felt familiar so I thought I might be able to use it.
I also around the same time thought maybe I should look at publishing something on Wattpad, or Kindle Vella - but both of those are more romance based. My historical stuff is not your Diana Gabaldon steamy Scot type fiction. My short stories are also more cerebral I think than most folks want on those platforms.
I had been following a few Substacks for a while in the medieval/historical space including Holly Brown, a PhD student at Oxford - https://tellingtheirtales.substack.com/p/how-to-serialise-on-substack - and she started talking a lot about serials around the time I joined, and went full time writing.
So since I have been trying to write the story of The Witch's Daughter for a long time, and just thought this sounds great.
My unpublished novel that I'm querying is lighter weight NA/YA fantasy sort of in the Leigh Bardugo space.
Probably what I should do is write more novels in the series. But I figured if I get good feedback from querying it might tell me if I'm on the right track or not with that novel.
They are tough questions, sorry! But you’re taking them in stride, which bodes well for your career as an author.
You are 100% right that publishers want you to have a social media presence. Publishers expect authors to be out there doing their own (hopefully organic) marketing. And so many of us have fled the former Twitter and are extremely wary of where Meta is going. Substack is growing, it has Notes, as you say – which is more potential than actual at the moment, but also growing. And on Substack you OWN your mailing list, hugely important!
But you’ve basically admitted that serializing your book on Substack was more of an impulse than a plan.
I see that list you linked to of writers who are doing it (mostly in your genre, too) and I understand how that could make you think it was viable. And maybe some of those people are making a living at it – I don’t know.
But I hate to see people go down unviable tracks when there are so many viable ones out there. And I think you started asking these questions because you’re feeling it’s not working for you.
Look, I am NOT knocking writing and publishing online to finish a book. I wrote a large percentage of the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors book as blogs on the Murderati group blog. After a year of blogging on these topics, I realized I had enough to collate and finish it as a book, and I had a built-in audience of followers as my first buyers. It worked for me.
But the way I sold that book was through what has become a traditional route: indie publishing on Amazon through KDP. (And my agent recommended that to me because he knew I could make more money off a non-fiction book by indie publishing it than with a trad deal. Fiction is a totally different story.)
The point is, readers for that Screenwriting Tricks book wanted a BOOK— not a serialized set of chapters.
You’ve gotten that feedback yourself, from your own followers: most readers want a complete, physical book.
So writing the book online might be getting it written for you – yay! but I worry that when you’ve FINISHED the book and submit it, it’s going to be a drawback that it’s already out there online. I will ask some editor friends and see what they think.
For what it’s worth - what I see over and over from writers trying to “break in” to book publishing is that they have such a fear of rejection that they decide to reject traditional publishing before it rejects them. And that is truly shooting yourself in the foot.
We ALL fear rejection – it never goes away. Part of this job is being tough enough to take it, because it’s going to happen throughout your whole career.
So what SHOULD you be doing?
• Keep building your social media presence, for sure. Post content relevant to your book (who doesn’t want to read about witches?) on your Substack site to keep attracting followers. Use Substack’s great Social Media Assets generator (“Shareable Images”) to create SMAs for your posts and post them on your IG account and whatever other social media you use, so you’re building followers there.
• I don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s a good bet you haven’t submitted your ms to anywhere near enough people. Some people make over a hundred submissions before they get their agent or hook an editor.
• Do you have any publishing pitchfests lined up? Could you get yourself to Pitchfest at Thrillerfest, for example? If not, is there another writing con with publishing professionals coming up near you?
Again, this is a really important topic for A LOT of people who read this newsletter and it’s turning into more of a post than a comment!
So I’ll leave you with those first questions and I will work on a post that goes further.
Awesome post! I really like the concept of "Marketing Mondays." I'm going to give it a try.
Fantastic, K.J.! Love that it resonates with you. Have fun!
I’m marketing 7 days a week and getting nowhere. 🥹
It’s very disheartening. I think my writing is fine. It’s not award winning but it’s better than some.
But I’m on Substack notes, Threads, Facebook and BlueSky. I get views but none of them come to read my stories. And no one subscribes.
Hi Sarah. Can you tell me something about what you write? Because if short stories are the ONLY thing you're writing and trying to sell, that's an extremely difficult way to make any money or even views. I honestly don't know of anyone doing it or trying to do it that way.
I can write more about it but to be of the most help to you I'd like to hear how you pitch it, first.
Thanks for answering Alexandra. I've been following for a long time, and I really appreciate it.
I have a long form that I'm serialising here: https://authenticwriting.substack.com and I have short stories there as well. I've set it up similar to SE Reid's Talebones.substack.com where that long form story - The Witch's Daughter is front and centre to the site.
As well as Substack I put some on Gumroad as ebooks. I did that because some people complain they don't want to commit to a subscription, and say they'd rather just pay for what they read. But that hasn't proved true - no-one has clicked through to those.
I write long form and short stories. I have an unpublished 100k word novel I'm trying to trad pub, and have pitched for about 18 months now. I've had a few invites to submit the manuscript. I'm currently waiting for one publisher to come back to me. But so far no deal on that.
I have two paid subs on Substack, but they're both my wonderful supportive friends, and it's not translating into any growth.
I have a tech publication which has generated some views on YouTube (not many) and I used to work in tech, so that seemed like a no brainer to take article ideas I already had worked up, but in fact its really my creative writing that I want to do.
I'm kind of at this huge watershed right now. I quit my job in January to write full time, researched Substack a lot, but the things I've tried so far have not worked.
I'm sure it's the same story for a lot of people. I'm willing to put the yards in but it seems like maybe I'm just not doing the right things.
Thanks again for reading.
Excellent that you have a full manuscript and are querying it! Congratulations and all the luck.
Now, on the Substack site and short stories/serial - first let me ask you: Are you doing this because you know of writers who are doing this successfully? And yes, success can mean many things. But I don’t personally know of any Substack writers who are —making a living— from serializing their novels on Substack.
This may have changed in the two or three years since I first investigated it — which is one of the reasons I’m asking! I’d really like to know if this has become more viable for authors. But as far as I know, Substack is a good platform to make money on if you’re a journalist or political activist, or with a newsletter.
And I encourage people here to try it as one of your Multiple Income Streams, which I’ll write more about as a marketing strategy.
But these days I never hear about Substack as having a real potential as an alternate platform for selling your novels as serials. (That doesn't mean it's not - but I haven't heard about it.)
I looked briefly at the site you mentioned and it’s definitely a vibrant author site, with lots of content for her community – a really good example of keeping your readers happy and engaged. But from my quick look it’s not driving sales for her on Amazon, and her main business seems to be editing/proofreading.
Again, it was a quick look and I could be totally wrong!
So here are some questions for you:
• Are there other authors you know of who are getting real money from serializing novels on Substack?
• Are there articles you read that say it’s possible to get money from serializing a novel on Substack? (And how long ago were they circulating?)
• Are YOU trying to develop an income from your Substack site or are you building it more as a platform for your future novels (like when you sell the one you have on submission?)
Let me know and we’ll continue this discussion, which I think is really valuable. Thanks for starting it!
TL;DR - https://tellingtheirtales.substack.com/p/how-to-serialise-on-substack
Thanks for the kind words. But ugh, Alexandra: you ask all the brilliant tough questions I should have asked myself. 🤣
Substack and my publishing plan is that plan that I wound up with, not so much the plan that I planned.
My original thought was that publishers would want me to have a social media presence, and I had just left Twitter as it became a trash fire. I knew Substack had notes now, and it felt familiar so I thought I might be able to use it.
I also around the same time thought maybe I should look at publishing something on Wattpad, or Kindle Vella - but both of those are more romance based. My historical stuff is not your Diana Gabaldon steamy Scot type fiction. My short stories are also more cerebral I think than most folks want on those platforms.
I had been following a few Substacks for a while in the medieval/historical space including Holly Brown, a PhD student at Oxford - https://tellingtheirtales.substack.com/p/how-to-serialise-on-substack - and she started talking a lot about serials around the time I joined, and went full time writing.
So since I have been trying to write the story of The Witch's Daughter for a long time, and just thought this sounds great.
My unpublished novel that I'm querying is lighter weight NA/YA fantasy sort of in the Leigh Bardugo space.
Probably what I should do is write more novels in the series. But I figured if I get good feedback from querying it might tell me if I'm on the right track or not with that novel.
They are tough questions, sorry! But you’re taking them in stride, which bodes well for your career as an author.
You are 100% right that publishers want you to have a social media presence. Publishers expect authors to be out there doing their own (hopefully organic) marketing. And so many of us have fled the former Twitter and are extremely wary of where Meta is going. Substack is growing, it has Notes, as you say – which is more potential than actual at the moment, but also growing. And on Substack you OWN your mailing list, hugely important!
(More on using Substack here: https://alexandrasokoloff.substack.com/p/marketing-101-mailing-lists-and-newsletters?utm_source=publication-search)
But you’ve basically admitted that serializing your book on Substack was more of an impulse than a plan.
I see that list you linked to of writers who are doing it (mostly in your genre, too) and I understand how that could make you think it was viable. And maybe some of those people are making a living at it – I don’t know.
But I hate to see people go down unviable tracks when there are so many viable ones out there. And I think you started asking these questions because you’re feeling it’s not working for you.
Look, I am NOT knocking writing and publishing online to finish a book. I wrote a large percentage of the first Screenwriting Tricks for Authors book as blogs on the Murderati group blog. After a year of blogging on these topics, I realized I had enough to collate and finish it as a book, and I had a built-in audience of followers as my first buyers. It worked for me.
But the way I sold that book was through what has become a traditional route: indie publishing on Amazon through KDP. (And my agent recommended that to me because he knew I could make more money off a non-fiction book by indie publishing it than with a trad deal. Fiction is a totally different story.)
The point is, readers for that Screenwriting Tricks book wanted a BOOK— not a serialized set of chapters.
You’ve gotten that feedback yourself, from your own followers: most readers want a complete, physical book.
So writing the book online might be getting it written for you – yay! but I worry that when you’ve FINISHED the book and submit it, it’s going to be a drawback that it’s already out there online. I will ask some editor friends and see what they think.
For what it’s worth - what I see over and over from writers trying to “break in” to book publishing is that they have such a fear of rejection that they decide to reject traditional publishing before it rejects them. And that is truly shooting yourself in the foot.
We ALL fear rejection – it never goes away. Part of this job is being tough enough to take it, because it’s going to happen throughout your whole career.
So what SHOULD you be doing?
• Keep building your social media presence, for sure. Post content relevant to your book (who doesn’t want to read about witches?) on your Substack site to keep attracting followers. Use Substack’s great Social Media Assets generator (“Shareable Images”) to create SMAs for your posts and post them on your IG account and whatever other social media you use, so you’re building followers there.
• I don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s a good bet you haven’t submitted your ms to anywhere near enough people. Some people make over a hundred submissions before they get their agent or hook an editor.
• Do you have any publishing pitchfests lined up? Could you get yourself to Pitchfest at Thrillerfest, for example? If not, is there another writing con with publishing professionals coming up near you?
Again, this is a really important topic for A LOT of people who read this newsletter and it’s turning into more of a post than a comment!
So I’ll leave you with those first questions and I will work on a post that goes further.