One Substack or two?

When does it make sense to create a brand new Substack vs. a new category? Here's my take.

I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for a long time.

It wasn’t until this question came up in the last workshop I led on how to get started with Substack that I decided to finally write about it.

The workshop was designed for writers and book authors who wanted to expand their audience and promote their books. A question I got early on was when it made sense to have a separate Substack vs. creating another category on the homepage.

This question came up for authors who write in various genres. Does it make sense to keep my fantasy books, characters, and stories on one Substack while my memoir is on another?

Clarify your goals

Before making any decisions, revisit your goals for being on Substack in the first place. Growth and discoverability are important—but they’re not the only metrics that matter.

Ask yourself: What am I really trying to build here?

• Is it a community of readers who follow your voice across genres?

• Is it a platform to test out early ideas, share vulnerable personal stories, or document a creative process?

• Are you trying to sell more books, position yourself as an expert, build trust with future readers, or simply create a space where you can write freely and consistently?

Clarifying your purpose can help guide you. If your goal is to grow a single, loyal audience over time, it might make sense to keep everything under one well-organized Substack, even if the topics vary. But if your writing serves distinct goals—say, one publication is about personal storytelling while another is about professional development or advocacy—then separating them could bring clarity, not confusion.

Substack is a publishing tool, but it’s also a container for the relationships you're building with readers. So consider what kind of relationship you want to have.

Do you want subscribers to feel like they’re walking alongside you in your creative journey—book drafts, thoughts, side projects, and all? Or do you want to offer a focused experience that delivers a specific kind of value each time someone opens your email?

When you're clear on the why, the how—whether it's one Substack or two—gets a lot easier to figure out.

What do you think?

One theme

If you don’t envision expanding too much on a particular category, and if your writing all kind of fits within an umbrella theme (for example, mine is about writing), then creating a separate category would probably suffice.

For me, I could’ve started my other Substack, Stories About My Brother, as a category on Memoir Junkie Someday Author. (BTW, you’re not seeing things… I quietly swapped out the word “Wannabe” to “Someday.” Someday felt more aspirational. 🤓)

If you think your Substack has legs to evolve…

When I started Stories About My Brother, I had no idea what I was doing, other than I wanted to share his stories. I figured I could post chapters and sections from my memoir where he had a main role, but as I kept writing, the Substack evolved. It became bigger than just his stories.

I became involved in prison advocacy, volunteering, and writing for The Prison Journalism Project. Most importantly, it connected me with other Substack writers covering prison injustice and readers navigating life with an incarcerated loved one.

In hindsight, I’m glad I created Stories About My Brother as a separate site. I initially felt it made sense because I knew the audiences for Memoir Junkie and Stories About My Brother wouldn’t necessarily overlap.

In other words, if someone landed on Memoir Junkie and subscribed to get more insights about writing a memoir or content marketing, they might not necessarily be interested in reading about my brother. Not to say that your reader has to be interested in everything you post about, but for me, I thought a separate Substack for my brother would provide the room to grow and evolve.

The energy needed to manage multiple Substacks

Managing two Substacks can feel like a lot… creatively, emotionally, and logistically. You’re not just writing more; you’re also switching between voices, rhythms, and different audiences. If your energy is limited, it might make more sense to grow one publication rather than juggle two that feel undernourished.

I can’t tell you how many times I felt unmotivated to write anything on Stories About My Brother. Every time I thought about my brother and came up with topics to write about, I felt the heaviness return. But I realized that writing about his situation and how I felt was my way of slowly healing.

Also, in the first year of having two Substacks to write for and manage, I realized I had unknowingly put pressure on myself to write and produce content because I had two audiences. I learned to recognize this because each time I saw down to write, I felt this resistance I hadn’t felt before. Since then, I realized it’s okay.

Everyone is busy with life, kids, a job, relationships, pets… and if I’m not writing for this week or month, so be it.

And the crazy part of it was that my Substack still grew even though I wasn’t putting out content every week (or even every month. 😬)

A quick note on growth

A part of Substack’s engine to help you get discovered is based on how readers engage with your work. When I tried to find something definitive, Substack keeps tight wraps on how their internal SEO-type system works, but from what I understand, getting discovered comes down to a mix of recommendations, social Notes, and algorithmic exposure. These tools help you reach readers who wouldn’t otherwise find your writing.

A potential downside to having two audiences split across two newsletters is that your growth might be slower than if you’d kept all that engagement flowing into one place. (Or maybe it could grow faster too, who knows??)

But if the tone, topic, or audience are too different, it might make more sense to create a new Substack. Or maybe you're experimenting with something new and don’t want it to confuse or water down your main project, a second Substack can give you more creative freedom.

Here’s the bottom line:

Use just one Substack when the topics, tone, and readers mostly overlap—your categories and tags can carry the load and let readers go through topics that interest them.

Create a second Substack if when the new material checks three boxes:

1. Distinct audience: the people who love it aren’t the same folks already reading you.

2. Different voice or mission: it needs its own vibe or purpose that would feel forced on the main feed.

3. Energy to grow it: you’re ready to feed another schedule, nurture a new community, and accept a potentially slower overall growth while the secret algorithm does its thing.

What’s your take? Leave a comment, would love to hear from you.