On April 1, I’m teaching a class on The Business of Newsletters That Pay.
Too many writers have no idea why they’re writing a newsletter or a Substack. They’re doing it because everyone else is doing it, or they feel it’s necessary—as in, this is the thing you do now to market, promote, or brand yourself. And a funny thing happens when people feel compelled to undertake tasks they’re not interested in: they find ways to express how the activity is a waste of time.
But for writers who approach a newsletter with intention, it’s one of the most powerful—and genuinely scalable—channels available today. Nate Silver, when he commented on hitting the New York Times bestseller list, put it bluntly: “Someone should probably write a trend story about what my partner and I have started to call the ‘Substack Effect’ for book authors. If you’re someone who’s working on a book, I’d strongly encourage you to start an email newsletter—just trust me on this one.”
He’s not wrong. But most people aren’t Nate Silver and we’ve now ended up with so many newsletters, people ask me what’s the point of starting one. It’s a good question to ask, because you do in fact need a point other than “everyone says to do it.”
The newsletter has to be about something
This remains a conundrum for the unknown writer, and a satisfying answer isn’t likely to come from me. It’s a bit like asking, “What should my book be about?”
If you’re a famous writer with an established audience, your newsletter can be for fans who want to know what you’re working on, where you’re appearing, and what you’re thinking. That can be a valuable newsletter.
But for the average author (especially an unpublished one), no one cares about the minutiae of your writing life—or your random musings—except maybe friends and family. Unfortunately, a great deal of Substacks are just that and eminently forgettable.
So what does work? Obsessing in public. What questions do you lie awake at night pondering? What issues underlie your work that you want to explore? What can’t you stop picking apart? That is what a successful newsletter will be about—not marketing yourself, but obsessing (in a good way).
Most newsletter efforts won’t become valuable until you’ve been producing work for some time and gradually built up a list of people who are invested in what you do. We’re talking months, probably years. But that’s also what makes a real list—one people have chosen to be on, over time—genuinely valuable and not easily replicable by someone else.
Your newsletter can’t be for everyone
This is where most newsletter writers, and frankly most writers in general, go wrong. They try to be for everyone and end up being for no one. The same problem plagues nonfiction book ideas, so if you’re a nonfiction author, you might already know what I’m going to say.
Think about the newsletters and writers you admire who have built real audiences. I’m willing to bet that each of them has a clear position: a specific obsession or perspective that expresses itself consistently. That position transcends format—it can take the shape of newsletters, books, videos, podcasts, events. Once you have a position you believe in, you have the foundation of a real business. You’ll know how to write your About page, which communities to show up in, and what content to create.
Examples I admire
- Isaac Saul at Tangle: unbiased political coverage, left and right views side by side, that attracts a specific and loyal audience
- Becky Tuch at Lit Mag News: because of her consistency and thoroughness, I consider her the go-to person for literary magazine news and community
- Dr. Stacy Wentworth at Cancer Culture: while I’m not a cancer patient, I find her focus on the behind-the-scenes of cancer treatment fascinating (she has a forthcoming book, so a good example in the Nate Silver mold)
The rule here is don’t be mushy. A wide-open “I write about everything” stance deters readers, because potential subscribers look for themselves in your description. They’re more likely to stick with someone who understands their challenges or shares their obsessions.
Should you charge readers for your newsletter?
I’ve already written at length about the inherent problem of Substack wanting writers to charge for their newsletter when the strongest reason for any writer to have a newsletter is to reach readers directly. People aren’t going to pay for you to essentially market to them, but they will pay for consistent value or valuable access—or they might pay if you frame it as patronage (a topic for another day).
If you do charge, one of the bigger strategic decisions for a newsletter is the structure of what’s free versus what’s paid. The old-school approach—a hard paywall where a bit of content is always free and most of it is always paid—can work, but it’s not very imaginative, and it comes with a significant downside: paywalled content doesn’t get shared. No one wants to share an article behind a paywall; no one clicks on links they know they can’t read.
So here are some models worth considering instead:
- Email delivery is free, but web-based access is not. You send to subscribers for free via email, but the archive is only searchable and browsable by paying subscribers. This can be surprisingly compelling—especially as your body of work accumulates over years.
- Paywall your content after a set amount of time. When it first publishes, make your content free, taking advantage of online sharing and discussion. Then after a set period of time, move it behind a paywall.
- Limit community interaction to paying subscribers. Comments, a Discord, or direct access to you might be reserved for those who pay.
- Free subscribers see ads or sponsor placements. This assumes you can attract advertisers—which requires knowing your audience well enough to describe them to potential advertisers.
One model to be cautious of: paid subscribers get more of the same content. Most people don’t want merely more content—they probably already lack the time to read what you send. But they might want something different, like access or community that free subscribers don’t receive.
Advertising and sponsorships: an underexplored option
Writers consistently overlook advertising as an income source probably because book publishing has never depended on it. But it shouldn’t be overlooked. Advertising dollars have been shifting away from traditional channels toward creators who reach a desirable, specific audience.
The key phrase is desirable, specific audience. There isn’t some magical number of people you have to reach before you can accept advertising or sponsorship money. What matters more is engagement and who they are—their demographics, interests, and purchasing behavior. The easiest way to test the waters is to simply let your subscribers know that you’re accepting classified ads or sponsor placements, and see what response you get. Your first advertisers are likely to be subscribers first.
The bottom line
If you want to earn money from your newsletter, don’t start with the technology or the publishing frequency. Start with the question: What’s my focus, and who is it for? The rest follows from that.
If you’d like to earn money from your newsletter, no matter where it lives, join me for The Business of Newsletters That Pay on April 1.
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.
A few footnotes from a Substack veteran. I’ve experimented with nearly all of the paywall options over the past four years, and none of them work for me, even though I’m still stubbornly trying. Readers pay for access when the topic is incendiary (a grievance that mobilizes one tribe while trolling another tribe) or when there’s a clear ROI (growth hacks, investment advice). Or they’ll pay just because they want to support you, personally. The latter seems to be the case for my following. When I started on Substack, the hype was sky-high, and we all thought we’d be earning a primary income if we kept grinding away. But the algorithm and in-house promotion methods keep changing, often to amplify the biggest fish, so I’ve come to accept that Substack is more of a lead magnet for me. The $2-3K I make from subscribers every year is a nice bonus, better than the zilch that most lit mags pay but unlikely to ever be a primary gig. I’ve also scaled to the point where my distribution exceeds that of even top-drawer literary journals. Very few journals exceed 1,000 subscribers. But you can eclipse that with your subscribers and followers on Substack. I keep hoping they’ll develop an in-house ebook tool and store, but until then reach is the reward.
Appreciate you sharing your experience, Joshua. Who is your target or ideal reader for your Substack?
This is a good question. Short answer: it’s evolving.
I launched “The Recovering Academic” in 2022 during a major life transition. I’d just left a tenured faculty position for a family move and had planned to pivot to independent writing after publishing in lit mags for years. But lit mags were changing, and the pathways to traditional publishing were closing (in nonfiction at least), even for folks like me with a long publication list, so I came to Substack out of desperation.
Years 1-2 were really about leaving higher ed. I wrote several longform pieces for “The Chronicle” on that topic and riffed on it twice a week in my Substack series. But that was a narrow audience, and kind of an angsty one. I didn’t want to be writing about leaving something forever.
Year 3 shifted to memoir craft and a fatherhood WIP as proof of concept. That was an attempt to center my book coaching and editing. But there’s a lot of that on Substack.
Year 4 is now squarely focused on the medical humanities (my original research emphasis).
Most of my paying subscribers have stuck with me because they’re interested in me. But I’m accepting that most of the things that fascinate me endlessly, that I won’t tire of writing about, are not ideal for making money. The real value is modeling the craft that I teach and attracting clients who admire my taste.
“I’m accepting that most of the things that fascinate me endlessly, that I won’t tire of writing about, are not ideal for making money.” So true.
Thanks for sharing this greater insight into where you’ve been – and where you are now – with the Substack. When I was blogging in my very early days (which is a practice that wasn’t that different from writing a Substack today), I was shifting priorities, unsure of what I really wanted to say, unclear on why I was doing it, other than my own creative impulses. Eventually, I found that people responded most avidly when I delved into industry change and business change, and fortunately that is what I enjoyed the most as well. And so that’s been my focus ever since. That focus has really delivered compound interest for me.
If your Substack is called “The Recovering Academic,” that implies to me as a reader (that is: a stranger stumbling on your Substack) that it’s for other recovering academics, assuming I’m taking a quick glance to decide if I want to subscribe. I don’t typically associate recovering academics with publishing in lit mags. Or with memoir or with fatherhood. Maybe year 5 and year 6 you will shift your focus again. Sometimes there can be a very long period of discovery, assuming you stick with it. For me the discovery process was about 3-4 years (I started off in 2007).
Regardless, it sounds like you’ve gathered a community interested in you and your perspective on the world, no matter what topic you tackle. That can be creatively fulfilling and very productive for marketing and promotion as well, only it does have a ceiling to it unless you become more well-known or your perspective becomes in demand for some work you publish out in the world (e.g., a book in many cases). If the Substack brings in clients, and you’re happy with the number or type of clients you’re getting, I’d say it’s doing it’s job very well assuming you want a client-driven business. I notice your “About” page says more about you and your writing, and that you’re seeking clients, than about who the Substack is for reader-wise. That’s not a problem per se, but it is what I would expect given what you’ve described about your work there.
Thanks Jane, there’s good food for thought here, and one big question that will help me decide whether advertising and sponsorship is a strategy worth the effort: Do I have a desirable, specific audience? I started my Substack in Jan 2023 with the goal of building audience for my unknown authorial brand. I began by publishing my debut novel in weekly chapters which built a subscriber base of around 200+ in the first year. Once the last chapter was published, I pivoted to my newsletter (From the Source) which synthesizes timely evidence-based, peer-reviewed (where possible) scholarly articles that align with the themes in my novel, and support my value proposition: the wellbeing of women and girls. Although I bring in a small annual income (I have an active buy link in my newsletter), my ultimate (and longterm) goal is book sales. As of today, I have 413 subscribers and 7,812 followers, my growth curve is incremental and steady as I also benefit from recommendations and share my posts on LinkedIn, Instagram and Threads. While readers of my post now average 260-300 views per article, few people like or comment on them; some share their thoughts with me direct in email (!?). When I started my newsletter, my target audience was women. Interestingly, I have acquired a lot of male followers and subscribers (I see this trend on LinkedIn as well). I’d love to be able to recover my costs and get out of the red, but beating the competition feels like it will demand a time commitment that will take me away from the writing of my second novel. Or will it?
Hi D.L.: This is an easy one, unfortunately. I think Substack is the wrong platform for publishing/delivering fiction or building an audience for fiction. I don’t think it is good for serializing books of any kind. I’ve commented more here on this vexing problem: https://janefriedman.com/i-like-substack-but-the-pr-is-getting-ridiculous/
There are some fiction writers who make good use of Substack, but it’s rarely connected to publishing fiction. Usually they’re being community leaders in some fashion, or offering writing and publishing advice (for better or worse). See people like Courtney Maum, Lincoln Michel, Andi Bartz.
That’s a sobering and pointed article… interestingly, Salman Rushdie’s arrival on Substack was what piqued my interest in the platform. It may be that this is a good time to devote all my time to my next book while rethinking my strategy. Of one thing I feel certain: given how long literary projects take, there’s every chance that by the time I come up for air, Substack will have raised an IPO and disappeared into Meta. Thanks Jane, as always!
That is very possible! (re: acquisition by someone)
I mostly came to Substack to get beta readers for my novels as I release them this year. I haven’t asked for expressions of interest in the beta reading thus far, so I’m not sure if it’s a strategy that will work. For me personally time will tell but I’d be interested in your thoughts regarding a strategy like this, Jane.
It can’t hurt to try? But if I were looking for beta readers, I’d probably be seeking people in a more focused and intentional way rather than waiting for people to find me. I typically suggest writers look closer to home (local/regional writing groups, writers organizations in your region/state, bookstore/library events, book clubs, etc). In other words, see if you can make your search for beta readers part of your community involvement, and you’ll be investing in relationships that could be more lasting and meaningful.
Jane, I read D.L. Lee’s comment and your reply. May I ask an opinion? I am admittedly frustrated with my attempts to break into the industry. (As stated in a comment above)I am working on a newsletter. I asked two successful authors who’ve given me a lot of advice and support regarding serializing one of my manuscripts on the newsletter. I got two opinions: “it can’t hurt” and “ABSOLUTELY do not do that!”
Any thoughts from you?
Serialization of an existing book through a newsletter doesn’t hurt, but it’s also unlikely to help. It’s rarely going to attract you readers, nor will it help you attract an agent or editor. So that raises the question of its purpose—what is the serialization meant to achieve? Some people do it “to get the work out there.” But the effort is typically met with silence unless you are an incredible marketer (and serialization writer) and then what? You return to whatever path you were on before, whether that’s querying, or pursuing self-publishing, or writing another manuscript.
Serializations, when they work, are almost always published on sites that deal primarily in serializations and attract millions of readers who love the form. The two biggest sites like that are Wattpad and Royal Road, and most writers who frequent my site (or read my advice) are not in a position to be successful on either of those sites if they don’t already know them and understand them. There are also successful audio serializations distributed as podcasts or on YouTube. Again, though, this isn’t a directive to do that. Serializations that succeed tend to be the writer’s first choice, not a back-up plan.
I have seen “Wattpad” but didn’t know what it is, as I have mentioned, I have been self-learning writing and publishing.
Perhaps this is incorrect, but I had read that when querying, agents will do an internet search to discover more about the author. Without social media accounts (I have none) I read the very basic is a webpage. I thought by serializing one of my manuscripts, an agent might read some of it and not think I am a loser and waste of their time! Your reply has convinced me this is not the best use of my precious prose.
Thank you for your kind advice. If I’m never successful in becoming published, at least I’ve been fortunate to engage with so many in the business and have been astounded how helpful everyone is! In these trying times, it is wonderful to feel goodness in others.
Agents do look for information about the author online, mainly to get a better understanding of whether they’re someone they want to work with, just as you would research any potential business partner. In the case of nonfiction, they’re seeking evidence of a platform. For fiction, if you’re querying them, they’re not particularly looking for platform and they’re not looking for your novel to be serialized online. They’re simply applying their own personal test. Do you say toxic things online? Are you supporting dubious causes? Do you say nasty things about agents? Etc. If you have little or no online presence for fiction, that’s not likely to deter them if they’re already interested in your work.
Whatever the case: I would not serialize your novel for the purposes of making a good impression on an agent or publisher.
Thank you.
Great title!
My newsletter starts with my social critique, then some crafting technology, then current work I have created from the last edition to the current. Should I split those up?
I rarely suggest starting multiple newsletters (that’s a lot of work!) but deciding which area is most important to you for career growth or platform development or whatever your primary goal is right now. What do you want to become known for over years? Focus on that for your newsletter.
You can completely ignore my advice if your newsletter is mainly based on “I’m serving the people who already know me and I don’t care about attracting strangers.”
What do you want to become known for over years?
In each news letter most of what I highlight are literatures or illustrations, which I want to be known most. So I need to restructure my newsletter and place the literature + illustrations on top?
That’s probably getting too granular with the advice. It’s more about what you consistently highlight over time, put your energy into producing, and how you describe your work. It sounds like you’re being consistent with that. Whether this material is at the very top of your newsletter or not is your call—you have to decide what makes sense in terms of presentation and structure.
ah thank you:)
Thanks for this smart article! I’m grateful I started my weekly Substack 4.5 years go, and it has grown to ~4700 subscribers. It’s very niche; it’s called Mountain Running & Living (sarahrunning.substack.com) with the tagline “personal essays with practical advice about trail running, mountain life & midlife grit.” I mostly write about the sport of mountain running with themes central to my memoir in progress (such as evolving and adventuring in midlife). I’m writing to share how I solved the question of whether to charge for content. Most of my posts are free, as are most of my subscribers. But paid subscribers get (1) an occasional bonus post (usually two/month) and (2) an invitation to a monthly Zoom meetup, which has built a thriving community. My paid subscribers number only ~130, but that’s not nothing, and I love the monthly Zoom with those who attend! One tip: Don’t send out paid posts to free subscribers with a “teaser” of content followed by a paywall. This is annoying for the recipient and leads to many unsubscribes, as I discovered when I did that. I only send paid bonus posts to paid subscribers.
Wonderful tips, Sarah. Really appreciate you sharing this and you demonstrate the power of a focused approach!
I want to write a spoof called ‘please don’t make me read your substack!”
This was very interesting to me, as I am in the process of creating a website. I haven’t seen any specific advice, with the exception regarding whether or not to be “political” if the focus on your newsletter isn’t politics.
Personally, I like the idea of pay-if-you-want-to-post-a-comment. I know someone who does this and claims it limits the trolls.
Thank you, Jane. I am grateful people have pointed me in your direction as I am learning so much here.
This was a great piece, Jane, and true in every way. Thanks for writing. I too have found that subscribers pay for subscriptions because they want to support me, and that trying to separate the content for “paid subscribers” versus content for “free subscribers” doesn’t pay off. I admire people like Nate Silver, Heather Cox Richardson and Becky Tuch for (presumably) making real money off their Substacks, but that also (I suspect) requires a staff and is a full-time commitment. I view Substack as a way to reach fellow readers and writers, and hopefully future students and clients. It’s an easy-to-use, effective and rewarding marketing tool.
Thank you for the s/o, Jane. And thank you for reading!
Another super interesting post! As a reader, I mostly use Substack to follow a few favorites for free. I prefer spending my free time on a good physical books rather than reading anything online. As a writer, I’m not sure how I’d balance a newsletter alongside a full-time job and my own fiction…it really does all boil down to time. Thanks for the free posts, Jane. I always appreciate your perspective.