When Substack was riding high and everyone was getting on board the email newsletter train, Facebook decided it would try its hand at newsletters as well and launched Bulletin. To the surprise of approximately no one, Facebook has announced it will close Bulletin less than two years in.
Meanwhile, Substack has been trumpeting the success of its recommendations feature, where Substack writers can recommend each other’s newsletters. During a recent panel hosted by the Authors Guild, Sophia Efthimiatou, head of writer recruiting at Substack, said the feature is driving on average 45 percent of free subscribers and 11 percent of paid subscribers for each newsletter. “You are part of a network. You are part of an ecosystem of writers who are helping other writers grow,” she said. Substack has also launched a referral program so that subscribers can more easily share paid newsletters to others who aren’t yet subscribers.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
