34 Comments

How much time are you spending organizing all the business part of your stack? How much writing time do you lose? And how much reading time which we all continually need to improve our writing? what if some of us dont want to teach on line writing gigs because we spent ten or fifteen or t wenty or twenty plus year working for various "Departments of Corrections',, like when i first taught middle school in New York City and early in the semester, asked " What is a sentence?" and this kid seriously rumored to be in a gang, vigorously and surprisingly raised his hand, and I said, "Go for it, Mike" and he proudly said, "That' what my brudder got last month- two years probation."

Expand full comment
Feb 8, 2023Liked by Summer Brennan

Heheh, the boulder reference. It's always joyful when Twitter isn't used to fight, bully, and belittle, but simply for communal giggling, for creating versatile memes, or for good-natured rickrolling. Or for this, of course: https://twitter.com/talkwordy/status/1623089723362140164?s=20&t=njbswKyh0ZQNcZS9ahJQ5g

Expand full comment
Feb 8, 2023Liked by Summer Brennan

Summer, you are so generous with your words and time. Thank you for all the great advice and Substack insights you've provided here. My subscription to your newsletter just renewed today ... yay!

One thing I'm curious about is how Substack compares to other newsletter/blogging platforms like WordPress and Medium. I've had a blog on WordPress since late 2007. While I enjoy a very nice community of readers and writers over there, I don't enjoy writing on the WordPress platform. It used to be fairly simple and straightforward but now they want you to use a "Block Editor." Ugh. I have a workaround but that just makes it even more of a pain in the ass. I have a paying account with WordPress to keep ads off my blog (way too many toe fungus ads), but, given how frustrated I get with the platform, I'm looking around for a new venue.

I write on Medium, but that platform also has issues. Medium is great for readers. For $5/month, you can read anything. You're not limited to a specific writer like with Substack. And yet. As a reader, I'm finding little that I want to read on Medium which, in turn, makes me wary of continuing to write on it.

I've found more people that I enjoy reading here on Substack. I just wonder what it's like for a writer. I know you went over that a bit in your responses to some of the comments here. I guess my question (such as it is) is whether you've used other platforms to share your writing and how do they compare to Substack for you?

Meanwhile ... looking forward to another year with you :-)

Expand full comment

I’m very glad to have subscribed, and tbh it’s possibly for the best that your sbstck status reverts to whatever the opposite if pro is. I hope your paid subscribers base grows to make this more simply remunerative, without extra demand from the platform. Speaking utterly in ignorance about what you’re losing in strict financial terms, but clearing those extra requirement from your to-do list can’t be bad for your other projects.

TikTok seems the complete antithesis of the business and art of writing, I doubt it can be made into a promotional tool unless one is prepared to promote being glib and yes, creative too, but in the direction of the vanishing attention span it seems to encourage.

Since departing twigtgter I feel less pulled in by my phone, but I miss the good parts, especially “meeting” people whose work I admire. You and yours for one. I hope you manage to get that increase in subscription.

Expand full comment
Feb 8, 2023Liked by Summer Brennan

I think I "discovered" you via a recommendation from Substack. You're one of my favorite Substacks now and I'm looking forward to the year ahead.

Expand full comment
Feb 11, 2023Liked by Summer Brennan

I adore your Substack. A lot of what I read is very academic/policy based, and your newsletter often feels like that first breath of air you take outside on a cold day. I am very glad you are sticking around!

Expand full comment
Feb 9, 2023Liked by Summer Brennan

This is my favorite Substack. Just wanted you to know. It lifts my heart when I see there’s a new notebook entry from you. 💖

Expand full comment
Feb 8, 2023Liked by Summer Brennan

I joined as a free sub right as I was jumping off the sinking twitter ship, and happy to say I upgraded to paid today. One down, just a few more to go ;).

Expand full comment

Hi Summer! I'm so curious if you think publishing 100 emails in a year is what generated your growth. Obviously, you're a talented writer, not suggesting otherwise, but I'm curious if you believe volume is what contributed to getting 10,000 subscribers. Good luck with going paid!! xoxo

Expand full comment

This is inspiring :) I’m new to Substack and trying to find my way with little engagement as it’s early days. Would you have any advice on how to successfully promote a Substack when it seems that Twitter and Insta aren’t keen on allowing reach for posts with ‘Substack’ in the URL? Thanks :)

Expand full comment

Hi Summer, glad I finally subscribed and joined your substack as a real reader. More than happy to support you in any way that I can. Congrats on the success of your Substack journey so far (and I'm sure it's even better in the months since this post). I'd like to write my own substack one day however I fear that I'm not very interesting, my life is pretty bland--although I used to be somebody.

Expand full comment

I’m happy to be a paid subscriber and I love your writing. I did the Essay Camp with you before Substack and I managed to write my first essay since high school, those oh so many decades ago! Looking forward to the next Essay Camp! I was an early adopter of Substack and have been pretty discriminate of who I’ve subscribed to--a lot of them from newsletters I was already following before Substack like yours. There does seem to be a shift in some of the free newsletters I follow--more of the “to read more subscribe” header which I get! Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Expand full comment

Thanks for your email. I'm glad to upgrade my subscription to a paid one.

I'm interested in learning about your Substack experience and trajectory. It's on my horizon to start a newsletter here.

Best to you!

Expand full comment
Feb 8, 2023Liked by Summer Brennan

Je cherche plus.👀

Expand full comment