Your Substack Isn’t For Everyone

Today’s post is by Elizabeth Held, who publishes the newsletter What To Read If on Substack.

One of the first tasks that querying authors undertake is researching their comps. Underlying this research is the question, “Who is your target reader?” And answering this question meaningfully requires acknowledging that your book is not for everyone.

The same is true for a newsletter. Over the past three years, I’ve built an audience of nearly 7,000 subscribers for my book recommendation newsletter on Substack. (I sent my first edition to one subscriber—myself.) I now hear regularly from other Substackers looking for advice on growing a subscriber base.

I can’t pinpoint a single reason for the growth I’ve seen. Luck, support of other Substackers and consistency have all played a part, but there is one piece of advice I almost always give. Make sure you know who your newsletter is for and what they get from it. It boils down to filling in the statement “where XX audience finds YY content.” This guiding principle ensures you’re giving value to your audience.

Deliver clear value

I love this formula so much that when potential subscribers read my newsletter’s About page, the first thing they see is “where book lovers find their next great read.” Immediately, people have a sense of whether my newsletter is something they’re interested in.

Other successful newsletters deliver on a similar formula, even if they’re not writing it out as directly as I am:

• Kathleen Schmidt’s Publishing Confidential: Where writers and publishing professionals find information on an opaque industry. 
• Dearest by Monica McLaughlin: Where antique enthusiasts find undiscovered gems.
• Sari Botton’s Oldster: Where Gen X finds camaraderie about aging. 
• Lit Mag News by Becky Tuch: Where creative writers find insights on the lit mag world.

Each of these newsletters has a clearly defined audience—they don’t pretend they’re writing for everyone—and deliver value to their subscribers.

Many Substackers seem conflicted about establishing a niche. Instead, they write personal essays or cover a wide variety of topics, without a clear throughline. Established writers, such as Emma Straub, can succeed with this method, but it’s harder for those not coming in with a built-in audience. Subscribers, for better or worse, need to see clear value to take a chance on an unknown author.

That’s not to say all newsletter writers need to be quite as formulaic as I am (three book recommendations each week) to attract an audience. Jolene Handy writes about history, family and life in Chicago, all through a lens of food for Time Travel Kitchen. It creates a sense of consistency for her readers, while allowing her to explore a range of topics. A similar approach would work with art, books, movies, music, etc.

Start with what your audience needs

Completing your “where XX audience finds YY content” starts with thinking about the subscribers you want to attract then determining what they want that no one else is giving them.

For example, if you’re working on a true crime book and want to use a newsletter to find readers for it, you’ll want to think about content true crime enthusiasts are looking for. Podcast reviews? New long reads to check out? Essays on the ethics of the genre? From there, examine what other newsletters are doing and find something different you can do.

This approach works for novelists, too. I am genuinely delighted when I receive romance writer Joanna Shupe’s newsletter in my inbox. Shupe writes love stories set in the Gilded Age, so she’s likely using it to sell those books. Her newsletter, Gilded Treats, includes a mix of historical nuggets about the era and romance recommendations. It’s for readers who pick up her books because of the time period as well as general romance fans.

The difficulty with an audience-centric approach is that it requires putting your subscribers before yourself, at least some of the time. It’s about giving your readers what they want, even if it’s not quite what you feel like writing.

I have found, though, once you’ve established yourself and built trust with your audience, you have some leeway to experiment and explore. I use my book recommendations to comment on the news and pop culture happenings, while also delivering what my audience has come to expect.

It’s tricky and requires some creativity, but rewarding once you nail it.

Elizabeth Held

Elizabeth Held is a writer living in Washington, D.C. She writes a weekly book recommendation newsletter, What To Read If.