So you have a Substack... what next?

Things you should do after you create your Substack newsletter

Congratulations, you have a newsletter on Substack. Well done, you!

Sean Gladwell/Moment via Getty Images

What to do next

1. Check out the Substack Resources page.In addition to some basic how-tos, they also explore how to grow your mailing list, go paid, and build community.

2. Submit your Substack to the newsletters listed on GrowGetters. You will need a square logo and a rectangular one for some of them, as well as a short and a longer description of your newsletter (word counts vary), so be prepared. I’d recommend putting it all together, along with your newsletter link and your archives link, in a doc that you can copy and paste from.

3. Follow the official Substack Office Hours and Shout Out threads (they will email you each week). Be sure to comment in each week’s thread, especially when you are starting out. That will help people get to know you and your newsletter. It will also allow you to find other Substacks you might want to subscribe to, do promotions with, or ask about guest posting (on your Substack or theirs).

4. Check out the tips on using Substack for Fiction Writers if that applies to you.

5. Join the Substack for Writers Discord. We talk a lot about everything Substack-related, including growing our lists and going paid, and we have places where you can share your Substacks and ones you’ve discovered. (And we especially want to hear from you if you’re writing fiction on Substack!)

6. Set up Google Analytics to track your Substack performance. Maybe you don’t have any subscribers… yet. But you will, and you want to start capturing the data right away, so when you need it, you have it.

7. Make sure you have backups for anything you publish on Substack (or anywhere else). This article explaining how to make your newsletters undeplatformable is a great start.
   

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If you found this helpful, let me know. And I’d love it if you’d take a moment to check out Story Cauldron—and subscribe f you like what you see.