How I Became a Substack Bestseller
Three goals I've met this past year, how it changed my experience with writing this weekly newsletter, and how I decided to offer paid subscriptions
Greetings from me and Piper. He’s just three and he loves to sit with me when I write. I love this picture because it shows how happy I am to be a dog mom again.
Right now, Piper is curled up on the cool clay tiles of our friends’ floor, in a little guest house on the property down south. We are still visiting in our camper van for a few more weeks, soaking up the sun. Even though more daylight is coming through every day, it’s still deep winter at home.
Today, I’m sending a special thank you to all of you, because a wonderful surprise gift came to me this week.
Woo-hoo!
My three goals
I first moved this newsletter to Substack to create a community I missed online since I stopped teaching writing full-time. I longed for a place to talk about writing practice, that most basic element of the writer’s life. I wanted to explore the more gnarly questions of writing and publishing I was facing. I wanted to start a dialogue with you, hear your questions and share some answers. I dreamed of a safe space (without trolling) where we could be vulnerable, creatively, and learn from each other.
That was my first goal. It was met almost immediately after I moved to Substack in April. The community here is tangible. Even though I’m a newcomer, relatively speaking, I still feel it. I’m not alone.
I already had a lot of years writing Your Weekly Writing Exercise each Friday. Since 2008! Never missed one. But I did miss the interactive online community I sometimes found in social media platforms and my online classes.
I came to Substack to expand my experience of writing community and help grow one.
My second goal was to continue to offer these newsletters for free as long as I could. I love sharing writing thoughts, inspiration, ideas, and exercises with you, but the cost of an email client (I used Constant Contact) to manage subscriptions was getting to be substantial. Substack is free. I knew I could continue to write more and longer if I moved here.
My third goal was to expand my readership. I got a lot of sign-ups for this newsletter at each class I taught. But when I retired from active teaching a few years ago, I didn’t know how to let people know about this newsletter. I think it’s very fun, valuable, a great way to keep a writing practice going.
Substack offers a lot of networking. Right now, quite a few other Substacks are recommending Your Weekly Writing Exercise. I get new sign-ups each week. I love that!
By November of last year, my three goals were met. We’d reached 3000 free subscribers, about 500 more than in April—which is marked growth. I loved most everything about this community. I worked harder on these posts than ever before. Often I spent 10-12 hours a week writing, researching, and revising these weekly posts. I felt they enhanced my own writing practice.
A natural next step
By November, I had been hearing for a while about opening up paid subscriptions. I wanted to consider it for two reasons. Quite a few of you free subscribers were asking how you could support me to continue writing these weekly posts. You said you felt the value strongly, in your own writing lives, and wanted to show your thanks. I loved that too!
I also wanted to branch out into an even more in-depth conversation for readers aiming to publish, who want some help navigating the rather crazy world publishing has become. I had just launched my fourteenth book (!) and I learned so much about marketing from a more authentic place.
I would’ve LOVED to hear war stories about self-promotion when I was starting out with my first book in the late 80s. I was relatively clueless back then, and it’s been a hard road. An online community, where I could ask questions and get full-bodied answers, would’ve been priceless. So I decided to open up paid subscriptions to answer this need, see how you would respond.
Maybe there would be a certain number of you who’d be interested in supporting this new idea.
Truthfully, I didn’t expect such an outpouring!
What I’ve learned and how I decided
Making the leap to paid subscriptions isn’t something to take lightly. When someone pays for what you offer, you have a different kind of commitment to them. With my free newsletter, I felt I could write it on my own timing, I could stop anytime, it was my way of paying back the writing community of students, clients, and colleagues who’d supported me with my own work by taking classes or asking me to edit their manuscripts.
So I waited. I wrote down the pros and cons of this new commitment. I thought about my 16 years of writing this once-a-week newsletter, before I moved Your Weekly Writing Exercise to Substack last April, and the loyal readership I’d grown.
I was already working harder on these Substack newsletters than I ever had before, because the quality of what’s offered here has raised the bar. I’m thrilled about this, by the way, because my writing has gotten stronger and my practice more solid. I ask bolder questions, take more risks. I guess it’s being received fairly well too, because I have the confirmation of those 500 new subscribers in six months.
But I waited til I felt I’d gotten the hang of it—both the raised quality demanded by my readers and the expanded topics. Then I began to think about what extras I could give to paid subscribers. Beyond those who’d subscribe out of gratitude (and I’m grateful for this!), those new to what offer would need something more.
I decided to start with a monthly Q&A, once a month on the first Sunday. This would be a longer post, using questions asked by my more advanced students (those aiming for publishing or already published). I’d focus in turn on the more challenging lessons I’d learned these past few years about where we are in publishing today. I’d also talk about revision, which I consider a task further down the road, showing a stronger commitment to a writing project. But the topics would be generated by your questions—and so far, they’ve been good ones, keeping me on my toes.
So in early November, I announced my new idea. I talked about why I was doing it, what paid subscribers could expect. I didn’t expect such a flood of subscriptions, though.
It means a lot to me
It took only four months for Your Weekly Writing Exercise to become a Substack bestseller, growing from 0 to over 100 paid members between November and the beginning of March. That total is increasing each week, and I’m beyond happy that my idea is being received.
When someone signs up for a paid subscription, they often send me a little note (there’s a place in the subscription form to do this). I read and reread these. “I look forward to it every Friday.” “It’s the only newsletter I read every week.” “You kept my writing alive during the pandemic.” This made me feel great about keeping going. This is astonishing confirmation. So much competes for our attention.
My free newsletter is how I give back to the writing community. I couldn’t have gotten here without you, my students, clients, colleagues, writing friends.
My paid newsletter is a way to dive deeper, share more intimately what I’ve learned in my writing journey, and give you a place to ask your gnarly questions and get honest, in-depth answers. It’s become an integral part of my writing practice.
I hope it enhances yours, if you decide to join us as a paid subscriber.
I’m hoping to offer more benefits to paid subscribers in months and years to come. Thank you again to those of you who value the newsletter enough to say so.
This is the ONLY thing I am subscribed to that I actually read every week. Your knowledge and support for writers is one of the things that keeps me going - albeit much slower than I'd like. Thanks for all the inspiration.
Wonderful, congratulations Mary 🥳