The 5 Lessons I Learned from Substack's Reigning Queens of Writing Strategy
The 5 Lessons I Learned from Substack's Reigning Queens of Writing Strategy
How Sarah Fay and Kristina God rescued me from the fiery abyss of Mordor
For the last few months, I’ve been writing at Medium.com, where I’ve met with what I call ‘beginner’s success.’
That’s when you earn enough monthly money to buy a coffee for yourself and a few friends, but that’s about it.
When I stopped writing on ZENish here on Substack, I thought my presence on the platform might be over. I’d begun to think it was an either/or situation, so I started a personal Substack about my Labradoodle Kona just for fun and to stay engaged with writers I still wished to read.
But was it true? I had to either write on Substack or Medium, but not both? I pondered many such questions over the last 13 months.
However, two of Substack’s reigning Queens of Strategy changed my mind about writing on Substack and rescued me from other hazards as if I were an itinerant Hobbit lost in the depths of Mordor.
Too dramatic?
Too literary? 🤷🏼♂️
Meet the Strategy Queens 🫅
is an author, Northwestern University PhD, and Substack coach who writes the Substack Writers at Work. I joined her latest paid program to improve the lives and writing careers of others with her Substack Cohort, a year-long commitment.
And then there’s Kristina…
Kristina God (that last name, hard to forget, right?) of Kristina God’s Online Writing Club on Substack is a more recent influence, and I’m also her paid subscriber (after ignoring her for months… don’t make that mistake).
These women are more than blips on my online entrepreneur’s radar. They’re rapidly becoming significant influences on my digital writing journey.
Both have, individually, taught me several lessons that I’ll share below in case you see the qualities I possess within you. If so, take my advice and take action to eliminate them.
Here are the five lessons.
The 5 Lessons I Learned from Substack’s Reigning Queens of Writing Strategy
Lesson 1: Be a Marathoner, not a Sprinter 🏃🏽♀️➡️
I was never much of a runner. When assigned laps to run in High School PE, I was one of the guys at the end. I had dysfunctional knees even then, and from my perspective, long-distance running was cruel and unusual punishment.
However, I was a speedy sprinter. Some people are genetically wired to excel at running longer distances like marathons, and some are better suited for sprints. I won’t bore you with the physiology of rapid-firing musculoskeletal neuronal synapses, action potentials, blah-blah-blah…
Writers are like this, too. We’re either marathoners or sprinters.
Substack and Medium both require a marathon mindset, but with a sprinter’s energetic performance.
Play the long-game when it comes to goals (like a marathoner),but pour every ounce of yourself into every post (like a sprinter).
Lesson 2: Mad Scientists Are Cool👩🔬
My undergraduate degree was a Bachelor of Science. I majored in Biology and earned minors in Chemistry, Behavioral Science, and American Literature.
Total nerd.
My professor in organic chemistry (my least favorite class) was a mad scientist. His name was “Dr. Bond,” as in ionic or covalent bonds. (Was he destined to become a chemistry professor or what?)
When it comes to writing, we’re all mad scientists. We don’t know what will happen when we click the Submit or Publish buttons, do we?
We don’t know if the post will land gracefully for our readers or whether it will land with an embarrasing belly flop.
The point is we should be experimenting. Trying something new is how great discoveries are made.
So, tell your readers you’re going to try something. Then, try it and see what they think.
Remember, there is no such thing as failure. Only results.
After all, where would Marty McFly be if Doc Brown hadn’t tested his time travel theory by harnessing 1.21 Gigawatts into the Delorean’s nuclear reactor?
Lesson 3: Don’t Interrupt the Reader 👓
There I was, happily reading a chapter of a new serialized novel by a famous and well-respected best-selling author.
I was totally absorbed, and then I became really annoyed when I encountered the dreaded SUBSCRIBE BUTTON WITH A LONG-ASS CAPTION, interrupting my reading pleasure.😬
Sure, it was easy to scroll past it, but it broke my engagement with the author’s writing.
A fatal flaw. 😵
I even brought it up in a comment. (I know, lowly me… who was I to question the gods?)
To the author’s credit, a brief, polite interaction followed, and I noticed he experimented with it a few times but remained unconverted. I tried.
You wouldn’t place an ad in the middle of a novel’s page, yet that’s exactly what Substack writers do when allowing the Substack application’s software to insert subscription buttons into their posts automatically.
Save it for the end.
Like a normal person.😠
Lesson 4: Editorial Calendars are Your Friends 📅
Guilty as charged! 🙋🏼♂️
I bristle at constraints. I don’t like them at all, so I’ve shied away from using an editorial calendar in favor of writing what I feel my Substack needs.
BIG MISTAKE!
I needed a way to view an editorial calendar in a way that didn’t make me feel constrained or hindered.
I was listening to the other day, and she mentioned how the editorial calendar is like the overview of the story you want to tell your readers.
That makes perfect sense to me. My Substack needs a three-month story arc. Totally manageable. Boom.
So now, I’m planning LGPTW’s next three months in an editorial calendar that I’ll share in the Writing In Public section. To view that section, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid subscription (… it’s only $30/year).
and finally…
Lesson 5: Substack Notes Is an Underrated Growth Tool 📈
The Notes social-media-like application within Substack is fascinating.
Right now, Notes is only for fellow Substack writers. That’s who the audience is. Your readers who don’t have a newsletter on Substack never see the Notes tab.
That means that the promotion-oriented hype is lost on the Notes crowd. Just be yourself.
Support other writers. Restack their Notes with a comment and be kind.
That’s how you will attract attention from fellow Substack writers.
Sarah also says that Substack plans to invite non-Substack writers to Notes. That will be interesting, too.
Here’s a post by Kristina about how David McIlvy grew his Substack on Notes. It’s fascinating!
Incidentally, David has been on the platform for only a year. Since December 2023, he has grown his audience there to around 7,000 subscribers across three publications (with thousands more followers).
I Want To Extend My Gratitude to Sarah and Kristina for Rescuing Me from the Fiery Depths of Modor and Illuminating the Path Back to the Peaceful Shire of Writing on Substack
Seriously, and all literary metaphors aside, thank you both for being such vibrant teachers and mentors to those of us who are finding our way through the brambles and hoping to come through the other side with only a few thorny scratches. 🙏🏼
Baz is a retired doctor who is now a full-time writer. He writes on Medium and Substack and publishes a Micro-Newsletter with helpful links that can be read in less than 30 seconds.
Editorial calendars sound like a nightmare. But a necessary one?
Love the back to the future reference! I'm excited to learn more as you keep growing!