WHAT I'VE LEARNED SO FAR

After a year and a half of being on my 'Stack, I've discovered that being laid back and chill is probably the best thing you can do for your own sanity.

All I can say is that what I’ve learned so far…

Probably isn’t very much.

As of this moment, I’m sitting at 387. I was at 389 this morning, but I lost two somewhere in the shuffle. These things happen. I don’t begrudge anyone who jumps ship — or is it ‘Stack? Everyone has their own reasons for signing up, and their own reasons for leaving. Some just don’t have the time to read what you offer up; some find out they don’t like your style of writing, or your choice of subject matter. Some people say they don’t want to read anything sexual; some say they wish they could go PAID because they like the sex.

So there’s no real happy medium, is there?

I came here under dark circumstances. I’d gone through a traumatic accident at work in which one of my best friends died under the wheels of the machine I was driving. He’d slipped on a patch of ice. We’re not going to get into that right now; it’s just how I found my way here. I was on a different page before coming here, but it was too restrictive. The censorship was mind-numbingly frustrating. I’d started writing my SERIAL novel JACK OF DIAMONDS on that site, only to have them block my attempts and say that I was glorifying rape. WTF? I told them it was a married couple doing a fantasy rôle-play. They weren’t buying it.

I left and came here.

The first thing I noticed is there is FREEDOM here!

I came here because someone sent me a link in an email. It took me three days before I decided to open and follow the link. I opened the door, and stepped inside a completely different world. I haven’t looked back since. I came here with nothing. The following I had on the other platform was zip; nada: Nil. I sent an email to everyone on my list of 27 family and friends, and to my surprise, within the first week I had 17 subscribers. Four of them were paid; they were all friends who said they wanted to support me. I told them I didn’t have anything to offer them. They said it didn’t matter.

Not having a large email list, I had to figure out how I was going to gather up more followers. When I got here, there was no NOTES, and no CHAT. I was putting my stuff up on Facebook, and LinkedIn, and Twitter, just to get myself noticed. I didn’t know how to use Instagram, and for the most part, still don’t. But I was sending emails out every time I put a story out.

I was putting too much out there.

I wasn’t working, so I had all day to work on my stuff; I was putting too much out there...I just didn’t see it. I was putting stuff out three or four times a week — sometimes even twice a day. I wasn’t writing much of anything, though. I was looking through old stories and putting them up in sections. They were all long stories of 15-19,000 words. I’d put up 2,000 word blurbs. I figured I had a year’s worth of stories I could put up before I actually had to write something. It was the wrong way to do it.

What I needed was to figure out a way to get myself noticed. I began subscribing to everyone, hoping they would subscribe to me. Some did. My page grew. Not by much, but it was growing. I was still putting everything up on LinkedIn, putting things up on writing pages I found on Facebook. And then I got on Reddit. It tried to make it work. I don’t bother with it much anymore. I quit Twitter two weeks after Musk bought it.

And then Substack brought out Recommendations.

A few of the readers I had were writers, and they recommended me. I got more subscribers. And then Substack brought out Cross-Posting, and I tried it out. I liked it, but other writers seemed reluctant to try it. They still are. They’re afraid their readers will drop them if they send too much to their readers’ inboxes.

Who knows, maybe some readers do feel that way? I say: Don’t sweat it. You’re always going to have readers who will be leaving. I’ve gained and lost ten people since Christmas. I was at 377; now, I’m at 387. But I’d picked up 16 new Subscribers since Christmas, and lost 6. I don’t worry about it, and neither should you (if you’re a writer, I mean.)

I hit 100 subscribers in 9 months.

I felt pretty good about it. I mean, I’d started with nothing. But then Substack brought in “Chat”. I was never too into that. I tried it, but gave up on it, never really understanding what it was. I thought I didn’t have a big enough following to garner enough interest. It was after that when they brought in Notes.

NOTES is something you can use to grow your ‘Stack.

After my first 100, it took me six months to hit 200, and just a few days short of four months to hit 300. It’ll probably be another two weeks to break the 400 mark. That will bring it up to four months as well.

Now, that is a slow, steady climb. It’s not great, but it’s nothing to scoff at either. And it is fiction. When you’re on the “home” page and you look to the left of the screen (I’m on a PC, not the phone App) you see a section where it says Home, Inbox, Chat, Activity, EXPLORE. That’s the one you want to look at: Explore. There’s a navigation bar on the top of the page. “Writing” only has two spaces: Literary and Fiction. Of the 29 categories, only 2 are for fiction writers. If you write fiction, you should know this going in: it’s a tough sell. Unless you come in with a large email list, it’s going to be a tough slog.

So how do you grow your ‘Stack?

You go on Notes and make yourself known. You respond to questions. You leave likes and comments. You go out of your way to interact with other writers. Sign up and subscribe, or else follow those who interest you. Go on Substack’s OFFICE HOURS. Be consistent. Put your own work out at a set time. People like to follow ‘Stacks where the writer shows that he’s willing to put the time in. If you write good, quality, stories, or essays, or whatever it is you write, people will read you. They may even offer to go PAID. And that’s another thing you have to do.

Put up a PAYWALL.

It doesn’t have to be right away. I put mine up and took it down a couple of times. Now it’s up for good. With me, the PAID stuff is secondary. They’re just Serial novels I write for the PAID subscribers. The one that matters to me are the short stories I write. Well, they’re novellas and novelettes. A short story is pretty well any story up to 7,000 words; novelettes go from 7,000, up to about 14,000 words; novellas go up to 50,000 words.

The PAID section just goes by the name of the story. The FREE stuff goes up once a week. I’ve started using the Video App on the writing page. I suggest trying out different formats. You can read and narrate your stories. You can have podcasts. You can make videos and upload them, or just make them from your computer. Try them on and see what fits. I like to use the videos because I want my readers to see me. I tell my readers that my stories will ALWAYS be free.

They’re the ones that mean the most to me: SHORT STORIES AFTER 8.

There are a lot of writers here that will tell you how to gain readers, or how to grow your Substack, or how they went PAID and made a shit-ton of money. And it is possible…just not with fiction. At least, not yet. If you’re writing financials, people will give to you willingly.

When you come to Substack, you are making a commitment to write. Myself, I’m here for the long game. I’m retired, so I have time to work on this. I’ve dropped my paywall down to as low as it can go. $30/year. People still aren’t buying it. That works out to $22 US, and people still aren’t buying.  That’s a little over a dime a day, and people still aren’t buying. But I don’t care. I give an update on my SERIALS, so those who aren’t PAID subscribers, can follow the plot and, well, who knows, maybe they’ll want to buy a year’s worth and check it out?

I have 14 PAID Subscribers —well, 12 really, because 2 are comped. My plan is to get enough PAID Subscribers so that I can take my stories to a printer. I want to make them into a book I can mail out to my PAID subscribers. I had it worked out at 50 PAID subscribers when it was $50/year. Now that it’s $30/year, I’ll need closer to 75 PAID subscribers. I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon, but maybe, eventually…

And now the concluding part of our program:

Use NOTES to get your name out there;

Try the video, or make a podcast;

Go to OFFICE HOURS and join the conversation.

(It’s part of a Substack Forum where you can pick up followers. I always pick up at least two or three new subscribers, minimum.)

I told you, I don’t know much. But I know just enough to get me by, which is enough. The thing is to become a CREATOR. Substack is growing. Right now, it’s going through growing pains.