This was a hot topic discussed in my Women in Publishing Zoom group. I wanted to provide some insight based on my experience with Substack. This is going to be a two-part newsletter.
Claire, thanks for posting this. I’ve always known that I would need to address the social media aspect of my most recent writing project. But, like you, it seems a bit overwhelming to think about the requisite time to do it justice, so I’ve done very little. And I’m fairly adept at social media! I’ll be reading your next installment to better understand how your using various platforms.
On a positive note, I’ve been contacted by someone who’s affiliated with The New Yorker about the possibility of my story being a podcast. It was interesting that you recently told me the you “can totally see it as a podcast.” We’ll see.
I hear you, it's all about motivation. But at least you've got Substack going for you! You're leaps and bounds ahead of my Women in Publishing group.
That's such great news about The New Yorker! You'll have to keep me updated about your story turning into a podcast. I would be all over that. The last one I binged was called "The coldest case in Laramie," from Serial productions I think. Did they find you through your Substack? Regardless of what happens with The New Yorker, I say you use the podcast feature on Substack and make your own!
The way The New Yorker got wind of my memoir was from one of my beta readers, a good friend of mine who happened to be an English major in college. After he read through my memoir he and I talked about it. I mentioned that I was interested in the podcast feature on Substack solely for the purpose of making it an audiobook. Since this friend of mine had a buddy from college (another English major) who was connected with The New Yorker, he reached out.
I see! Well keep me posted on what ends up happening. I think turning it into an audiobook on Substack is still a great idea.
I'm still reading through your chapters, but I really love your style of writing. I can totally picture what your dad is like and your childhood memories feel so vivid. I am also impressed by how much you can convey in such short chapters. That is not easy to do.
If you listen to podcasts, I highly recommend "My Funeral Home Stories." Even though the stories (yours and this podcast about a kid growing up/working at his dad's funeral parlor) are totally different, for some reason, I picture your podcast script to sound like it. His voice, style, etc. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-funeral-home-stories/id1462188362
Thank you for this Claire, it's really helpful. I'm writing memoir at the moment and I have also moved from Wordpress to Substack for much the same reasons. I am already getting far more engagement on here in three months than I did in 5 years of wordpress. My query though is about how much memoir should one put on a free substack? I started writing my memoir initially as a book, but no publisher was interested, and I didn't feel confident enough to self-publish. I started putting short chapters out onto substack (they're episodic and more essay-like than a chronological 'story') and people love them. I think ,maybe they could be collected into a book for selling - but....if most of them are already on substack....do you see?
That's awesome June! I've often grappled with just not publishing my book (it's nowhere near finished) and just releasing weekly content (short stories) on Substack and switching to a paid format. I've heard of many writers who do this with short essays, fiction, and fan fiction with great success.
It sounds like maybe your best bet is to try self-publishing? Maybe choose the pieces that are not published in Substack and put those into the book?
I appreciate you sharing this as I’m in a similar space. No one has time to do it all, which makes it all the more important to make our choices as writers from a place of consciousness rather than ‘what everyone else does.’
Thanks Beth! The feeling I got from the women at the conference was similar to how I feel about my mom and technology. Her extent of social media is watching YouTube videos. Even then, it took her a while to understand how to search. I think it would make her head explode if someone told her she had to now post videos of herself. 😧
Claire, thanks for posting this. I’ve always known that I would need to address the social media aspect of my most recent writing project. But, like you, it seems a bit overwhelming to think about the requisite time to do it justice, so I’ve done very little. And I’m fairly adept at social media! I’ll be reading your next installment to better understand how your using various platforms.
On a positive note, I’ve been contacted by someone who’s affiliated with The New Yorker about the possibility of my story being a podcast. It was interesting that you recently told me the you “can totally see it as a podcast.” We’ll see.
I hear you, it's all about motivation. But at least you've got Substack going for you! You're leaps and bounds ahead of my Women in Publishing group.
That's such great news about The New Yorker! You'll have to keep me updated about your story turning into a podcast. I would be all over that. The last one I binged was called "The coldest case in Laramie," from Serial productions I think. Did they find you through your Substack? Regardless of what happens with The New Yorker, I say you use the podcast feature on Substack and make your own!
The way The New Yorker got wind of my memoir was from one of my beta readers, a good friend of mine who happened to be an English major in college. After he read through my memoir he and I talked about it. I mentioned that I was interested in the podcast feature on Substack solely for the purpose of making it an audiobook. Since this friend of mine had a buddy from college (another English major) who was connected with The New Yorker, he reached out.
I see! Well keep me posted on what ends up happening. I think turning it into an audiobook on Substack is still a great idea.
I'm still reading through your chapters, but I really love your style of writing. I can totally picture what your dad is like and your childhood memories feel so vivid. I am also impressed by how much you can convey in such short chapters. That is not easy to do.
If you listen to podcasts, I highly recommend "My Funeral Home Stories." Even though the stories (yours and this podcast about a kid growing up/working at his dad's funeral parlor) are totally different, for some reason, I picture your podcast script to sound like it. His voice, style, etc. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-funeral-home-stories/id1462188362
Thank you for this Claire, it's really helpful. I'm writing memoir at the moment and I have also moved from Wordpress to Substack for much the same reasons. I am already getting far more engagement on here in three months than I did in 5 years of wordpress. My query though is about how much memoir should one put on a free substack? I started writing my memoir initially as a book, but no publisher was interested, and I didn't feel confident enough to self-publish. I started putting short chapters out onto substack (they're episodic and more essay-like than a chronological 'story') and people love them. I think ,maybe they could be collected into a book for selling - but....if most of them are already on substack....do you see?
That's awesome June! I've often grappled with just not publishing my book (it's nowhere near finished) and just releasing weekly content (short stories) on Substack and switching to a paid format. I've heard of many writers who do this with short essays, fiction, and fan fiction with great success.
It sounds like maybe your best bet is to try self-publishing? Maybe choose the pieces that are not published in Substack and put those into the book?
Thanks, it's good to have an opinion other than my own!
I appreciate you sharing this as I’m in a similar space. No one has time to do it all, which makes it all the more important to make our choices as writers from a place of consciousness rather than ‘what everyone else does.’
Thanks Beth! The feeling I got from the women at the conference was similar to how I feel about my mom and technology. Her extent of social media is watching YouTube videos. Even then, it took her a while to understand how to search. I think it would make her head explode if someone told her she had to now post videos of herself. 😧