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.
I , myself, don't pay much attention to numbers and am not on any social media ( never have been), but in my opinion, the most important piece of advice you gave here, Ben, was this: "If you write good, quality, stories, or essays, or whatever it is you write, people will read you." It reminds me of the film Field of Dreams. "Write it well, and they will come." No matter what kind of great ideas you have, if they aren't written well, no one wants to read them. Conversely, no matter how proficient you are ( grammar, spelling, style, etc) if you have lifeless stories, no one wants them. You simply have to put in the time. So far, you have captured me with a couple of your long stories and I look forward to what comes next.
Ben, It's startling how I have followed the same path as you, and not coincidentally have the same experiences. Unless you have a well-known name and migrated to Substack from elsewhere, growing an audience is a tough road.
That said, re-stacking on Notes works. Commenting on others' work is effective, as a link to your Substack appears next to your name above your comment (like this one). I have participated in the Writers' Hours zoom meetings a couple of times, and probably should do it more. I've also started to recommend other Substackers at the tail end of my pieces (all non-fiction). That helps, too.
I was fortunate that one of my pieces was picked up by a national aggregate news site and read by thousands. That really helped.
I would like to see Substack Reads include people like you and me instead of the usual list of well-known writers week after week.
Anyway, thanks for submitting this. Our paralleled experience is uncanny.
Thank you for this insightful and honest reflection on your Substack experience. I've had my stack running for less than a year now and have 42 subscribers. Two are paid (comped, of course) and I'm only just starting to see new subscribers coming in from other avenues like FB, Substack recommendations, etc.
Like you, I write fiction. I write it because I love to write. I'm semi-retired because If I could make a living at it, I'd be quite happy and fully retired. I started my stack mainly just to start getting my work 'out there', somewhere, anywhere. I'm also on Medium, but don't post there much anymore.
I don't post as regularly as I'd like or probably should - mostly because I've been working on completing a manuscript. I will certainly try some of your suggestions and see what happens.
Your time in Substack has provided a 'Treasure Trove' of information for anybody considering the commitment towards creating and maintaining a stack of their own. Were I considering it, it would be invaluable in a practical way. It's a privilege to observe the 'Growth' in human beings as they experiment and risk all and everything in the name of their 'Passion' or 'Art'...And, are those different or the same?
Can be argued either way it. Great artists of all the mediums are passionate about their art and their art is their passion. It's a paradigm as old as 'Cave Drawing' without the absence of religious attachments of 'Cave Drawing' and then again; it can have religious conotations within its substance.
Took some time this last hour to read this and was touched with expressing what mandated 'Retirement.' Wanted you to know a very similar event happened in my Dad's life as a young man directly from the Army. He was a farm boy and had major amounts of time operating Heavy Equipment since childhood...My Grandmother reported he was 6 when placed on a tractor and forced into heavy labor by his Father. I write that to allow you to know he was very confident with machines and their functions because he was brought onto a construction sight through a cousin of my Mom's to operate a Crane.
One day in the middle of the sweaty, soybean season of summer of July so hot it's next to impossible to breath; there suddenly manifested a gusty down-pour out of nowhere. The cousin, who's name was Sylvester (Vessie), hadn't quite stablized the load when he inadvertinely gave the sign to raise the boom before he wanted it raised. My Dad raised the 'I-Beams' and they dropped on the cousin's lower back trapping him to the cement parkin lot disabling him for life.
They were very young men; in their 20 's and both were married with young families.
Though both men always continued to love one another; their relationship was never the same and both felt some kind of way about the other; a love tainted...The whole family never really recovered from the trauma. When the men were together at certain functions, there was always this heaviness. It was even a sacredness surrounding the moments when we saw one another when gathering as all knew what had happened and that it really was just an accident with nobody guilty. The truth was; one who had always been a healthy, viral athlete was disabled for life while the other man equally blessed by God was not.
Many times I wished there were some way to help both men...And, there was nothing anybody could do. This happened when I was less than a year old; but it's an event dealt with in life. It bothered my Dad until he died.
I pray for your soul as this is a matter having no answer in completely overcoming beyond forgiveness which is NOT a human capability. Only God within us can forgive and bless with the fact of purgation within the soul and spirit. I pray for you.
Good going, Ben, and yes, it's slow building. Like one step back, 2 steps forward on a good week, lol. I gained somebody today and lost another one... okay, it's life. I don't write fiction on the Stack, but I write about fiction. Been at it for a little over a year now and I stick to a post every two weeks, that's a good rhythm for me because I also write short stories and I'm working on a book draft. And promoting the short story collection... so yeah, busy. I also like the freedom on this and the ease of interaction. Of course, that freedom comes with its own issues. Nasty people taking advantage of it to propagate their poison, which leads other people to pack their bags and leave. It's an eternal dilemma.
I learned this much today looking at the numbers for the story I CROSS-POSTED...
This is to show you how CROSS-POSTING works as far as "I'm" concerned. I like to look at it differently. First of all, I don't look at the total recipients, or consider them as part of the equation. It could have gone out to 500 hundred people and it would be the same. The number I look at is "TOTAL VIEWS". This story garnered 149 TOTAL VIEWS. (Don't look at the number of emails sent out. My only concern is how many VIEWS it had.) That means, how many people opened it? There were 149 people who OPENED the email, 105 of them READ the email. That's 70% of the people that opened the email, read it.
Numbers don't lie. It's the reason I try to convince writers that they should CROSS-POST. I don't have 500 followers. I have 386. I've been hovering there for about 2-3 days. It fluctuates. I may have lost a couple subscribers BECAUSE I Cross-Posted. They may not have anticipated an email and simply deleted it without even looking at it. That's going to happen.
Here's why I don't let it bother me...
When you scroll down the list of Subscribers, you can see who's reading you, and who isn't. Some have one star beside their names, some have five stars; some are no-stars. I tell myself the person who left probably wasn't the kind I wanted. He was just taking up space and what I call "padding my numbers". You have to tell yourself this, or it will drive you bat-shit crazy. I don't have to worry about padding my numbers, I'm still below 500 and well below 1000. I have what looks like a lot of open space on my list in places.
I feel I may be able to explain...perhaps?
When I first arrived, I searched through the 'Stacks that attracted me and signed up for too many pages, too fast. "I" am one of those blank spaces on SOMEONE ELSE'S 'Stack. I have an eclectic collection of readers, which has long astounded me. (People like to read my stuff, man.) I followed them back because I thought it was what you were supposed to do. Support each other.
So when you have those empty spaces, they still count as far as total emails that are sent out by your 'Stack. They give you buttons sometimes. Rewards. I know, I know, you don't care about rewards. You're here to write. But I do. I come from that generation where you strive to be your best. Not THE best, YOUR best. Well, I don't know about you, but I want one of those. I want it for myself because it's validation. If ever you suffer from that feeling of "imposter Syndrome", do what I do and look at the graph on your subscriber page. Just look at your numbers and congratulate yourself for having hit forty in three months. Tell yourself it takes some people six months to get half of that. Believe it.
The one thing you have to do is believe in yourself as a writer, and don't give up. You're not going to make a lot of money here unless you come in with an email list in the 1000s. But if you love writing fiction (I write fiction by the way) you have to change your mindset. Do I want that big payday? Of course. I'm retired and living on a pension. But that big payday is not going to happen. That's why I set goals for myself. And because I'm retired, I have to be practical. I'm looking at 20 years, maybe 25 tops.
What can I do to stand out from the crowd?
Pay attention to your product. SELL YOURSELF. Work on your ABOUT page. I can not stress this one enough. As you write, you gather up quite the portfolio. Go to your ABOUT page when you finish a big project. Point out on your page what you are writing about. Keep it updated.
Ben, I'm still quite Klugy with Substack. I scheduled the first part of Chapter 1: Traveler for release just after midnight on January 6. I wrestled with the logo, which I had hoped to be able to post so readers could see pre-opening that this isn't about Global Challenges or about windmills, but eventually settled for adding my old deer logo at the top of the text. I'll look for ways to post parallel stacks, but I need to concentrate on getting stuff written and posted. Readers are clever enough to skip through or pass on reading posts in which their interest is lacking. (Substack seems to hint that I can post things privately, but I'll explore that another time.) Please let me know if any of my invented or adapted or ancient words aren't decipherable through context.
Thanks, Ben, from a fellow-traveler. Well, more of a beginner, but your experience encourages me. My main interest is in launching a vertical-axis wind turbine as the base for a hybrid power system, but my worldview isn't compatible with the CO2-as-cause-of-global-warming false narrative, and I haven't yet found the sweet spot for interesting a plethora of readers in reading about wind power since I don't consider bird-killing machines as ideal sources for electricity. So I'm adding a separate Stack series, Venison, to serialize my sixth-century novel and incentivize myself to finish writing it. I think the first installment is ready to launch today.
I , myself, don't pay much attention to numbers and am not on any social media ( never have been), but in my opinion, the most important piece of advice you gave here, Ben, was this: "If you write good, quality, stories, or essays, or whatever it is you write, people will read you." It reminds me of the film Field of Dreams. "Write it well, and they will come." No matter what kind of great ideas you have, if they aren't written well, no one wants to read them. Conversely, no matter how proficient you are ( grammar, spelling, style, etc) if you have lifeless stories, no one wants them. You simply have to put in the time. So far, you have captured me with a couple of your long stories and I look forward to what comes next.
Ben, It's startling how I have followed the same path as you, and not coincidentally have the same experiences. Unless you have a well-known name and migrated to Substack from elsewhere, growing an audience is a tough road.
That said, re-stacking on Notes works. Commenting on others' work is effective, as a link to your Substack appears next to your name above your comment (like this one). I have participated in the Writers' Hours zoom meetings a couple of times, and probably should do it more. I've also started to recommend other Substackers at the tail end of my pieces (all non-fiction). That helps, too.
I was fortunate that one of my pieces was picked up by a national aggregate news site and read by thousands. That really helped.
I would like to see Substack Reads include people like you and me instead of the usual list of well-known writers week after week.
Anyway, thanks for submitting this. Our paralleled experience is uncanny.
Looks like you and I are in the same boat.
Thank you for this insightful and honest reflection on your Substack experience. I've had my stack running for less than a year now and have 42 subscribers. Two are paid (comped, of course) and I'm only just starting to see new subscribers coming in from other avenues like FB, Substack recommendations, etc.
Like you, I write fiction. I write it because I love to write. I'm semi-retired because If I could make a living at it, I'd be quite happy and fully retired. I started my stack mainly just to start getting my work 'out there', somewhere, anywhere. I'm also on Medium, but don't post there much anymore.
I don't post as regularly as I'd like or probably should - mostly because I've been working on completing a manuscript. I will certainly try some of your suggestions and see what happens.
This article was so helpful, it was exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so, so much!
Your time in Substack has provided a 'Treasure Trove' of information for anybody considering the commitment towards creating and maintaining a stack of their own. Were I considering it, it would be invaluable in a practical way. It's a privilege to observe the 'Growth' in human beings as they experiment and risk all and everything in the name of their 'Passion' or 'Art'...And, are those different or the same?
Can be argued either way it. Great artists of all the mediums are passionate about their art and their art is their passion. It's a paradigm as old as 'Cave Drawing' without the absence of religious attachments of 'Cave Drawing' and then again; it can have religious conotations within its substance.
Took some time this last hour to read this and was touched with expressing what mandated 'Retirement.' Wanted you to know a very similar event happened in my Dad's life as a young man directly from the Army. He was a farm boy and had major amounts of time operating Heavy Equipment since childhood...My Grandmother reported he was 6 when placed on a tractor and forced into heavy labor by his Father. I write that to allow you to know he was very confident with machines and their functions because he was brought onto a construction sight through a cousin of my Mom's to operate a Crane.
One day in the middle of the sweaty, soybean season of summer of July so hot it's next to impossible to breath; there suddenly manifested a gusty down-pour out of nowhere. The cousin, who's name was Sylvester (Vessie), hadn't quite stablized the load when he inadvertinely gave the sign to raise the boom before he wanted it raised. My Dad raised the 'I-Beams' and they dropped on the cousin's lower back trapping him to the cement parkin lot disabling him for life.
They were very young men; in their 20 's and both were married with young families.
Though both men always continued to love one another; their relationship was never the same and both felt some kind of way about the other; a love tainted...The whole family never really recovered from the trauma. When the men were together at certain functions, there was always this heaviness. It was even a sacredness surrounding the moments when we saw one another when gathering as all knew what had happened and that it really was just an accident with nobody guilty. The truth was; one who had always been a healthy, viral athlete was disabled for life while the other man equally blessed by God was not.
Many times I wished there were some way to help both men...And, there was nothing anybody could do. This happened when I was less than a year old; but it's an event dealt with in life. It bothered my Dad until he died.
I pray for your soul as this is a matter having no answer in completely overcoming beyond forgiveness which is NOT a human capability. Only God within us can forgive and bless with the fact of purgation within the soul and spirit. I pray for you.
Thanks for being here, Ben. Happy 2024!
Good going, Ben, and yes, it's slow building. Like one step back, 2 steps forward on a good week, lol. I gained somebody today and lost another one... okay, it's life. I don't write fiction on the Stack, but I write about fiction. Been at it for a little over a year now and I stick to a post every two weeks, that's a good rhythm for me because I also write short stories and I'm working on a book draft. And promoting the short story collection... so yeah, busy. I also like the freedom on this and the ease of interaction. Of course, that freedom comes with its own issues. Nasty people taking advantage of it to propagate their poison, which leads other people to pack their bags and leave. It's an eternal dilemma.
I learned this much today looking at the numbers for the story I CROSS-POSTED...
This is to show you how CROSS-POSTING works as far as "I'm" concerned. I like to look at it differently. First of all, I don't look at the total recipients, or consider them as part of the equation. It could have gone out to 500 hundred people and it would be the same. The number I look at is "TOTAL VIEWS". This story garnered 149 TOTAL VIEWS. (Don't look at the number of emails sent out. My only concern is how many VIEWS it had.) That means, how many people opened it? There were 149 people who OPENED the email, 105 of them READ the email. That's 70% of the people that opened the email, read it.
Numbers don't lie. It's the reason I try to convince writers that they should CROSS-POST. I don't have 500 followers. I have 386. I've been hovering there for about 2-3 days. It fluctuates. I may have lost a couple subscribers BECAUSE I Cross-Posted. They may not have anticipated an email and simply deleted it without even looking at it. That's going to happen.
Here's why I don't let it bother me...
When you scroll down the list of Subscribers, you can see who's reading you, and who isn't. Some have one star beside their names, some have five stars; some are no-stars. I tell myself the person who left probably wasn't the kind I wanted. He was just taking up space and what I call "padding my numbers". You have to tell yourself this, or it will drive you bat-shit crazy. I don't have to worry about padding my numbers, I'm still below 500 and well below 1000. I have what looks like a lot of open space on my list in places.
I feel I may be able to explain...perhaps?
When I first arrived, I searched through the 'Stacks that attracted me and signed up for too many pages, too fast. "I" am one of those blank spaces on SOMEONE ELSE'S 'Stack. I have an eclectic collection of readers, which has long astounded me. (People like to read my stuff, man.) I followed them back because I thought it was what you were supposed to do. Support each other.
So when you have those empty spaces, they still count as far as total emails that are sent out by your 'Stack. They give you buttons sometimes. Rewards. I know, I know, you don't care about rewards. You're here to write. But I do. I come from that generation where you strive to be your best. Not THE best, YOUR best. Well, I don't know about you, but I want one of those. I want it for myself because it's validation. If ever you suffer from that feeling of "imposter Syndrome", do what I do and look at the graph on your subscriber page. Just look at your numbers and congratulate yourself for having hit forty in three months. Tell yourself it takes some people six months to get half of that. Believe it.
The one thing you have to do is believe in yourself as a writer, and don't give up. You're not going to make a lot of money here unless you come in with an email list in the 1000s. But if you love writing fiction (I write fiction by the way) you have to change your mindset. Do I want that big payday? Of course. I'm retired and living on a pension. But that big payday is not going to happen. That's why I set goals for myself. And because I'm retired, I have to be practical. I'm looking at 20 years, maybe 25 tops.
What can I do to stand out from the crowd?
Pay attention to your product. SELL YOURSELF. Work on your ABOUT page. I can not stress this one enough. As you write, you gather up quite the portfolio. Go to your ABOUT page when you finish a big project. Point out on your page what you are writing about. Keep it updated.
I might try that, but it doesn't seem all that literary. Thanks for the idea.
Ben, I'm still quite Klugy with Substack. I scheduled the first part of Chapter 1: Traveler for release just after midnight on January 6. I wrestled with the logo, which I had hoped to be able to post so readers could see pre-opening that this isn't about Global Challenges or about windmills, but eventually settled for adding my old deer logo at the top of the text. I'll look for ways to post parallel stacks, but I need to concentrate on getting stuff written and posted. Readers are clever enough to skip through or pass on reading posts in which their interest is lacking. (Substack seems to hint that I can post things privately, but I'll explore that another time.) Please let me know if any of my invented or adapted or ancient words aren't decipherable through context.
Thanks, Ben, from a fellow-traveler. Well, more of a beginner, but your experience encourages me. My main interest is in launching a vertical-axis wind turbine as the base for a hybrid power system, but my worldview isn't compatible with the CO2-as-cause-of-global-warming false narrative, and I haven't yet found the sweet spot for interesting a plethora of readers in reading about wind power since I don't consider bird-killing machines as ideal sources for electricity. So I'm adding a separate Stack series, Venison, to serialize my sixth-century novel and incentivize myself to finish writing it. I think the first installment is ready to launch today.