What can I do to convince you to become a full subscriber? I publish new stories DAILY. Do you want Audio? Video? A Podcast? More Non-fiction? Tell me. Or just
I've been binge reading the free content and it's great. Unfortunately cleaning toilets does not afford me the paid content. It has nothing to do with your work. I'll gladly purchase the material when I can.
This was initially going to be a response to your reply to me in the “Criticism” post, but I thought it would be more appropriate to respond to you here.
You should definitely have more subscribers with the amount of work you've been doing. It really is unfortunate that you don’t. I have a suggestion though. You might not want to do this since it would require you to cut back on the amount of stories you post, but considering that Substack alone isn’t growing your subscriber count, you are going to need to funnel people from other websites.
1) Decrease the amount of stories you post on Substack to three times a week. Thursdays for free subscribers. Fridays and Saturdays for paid subscribers. You need to do this since you’ll be devoting your energy to other avenues.
2) You have over three thousand followers on your Twitter account, but most of your posts are links to Substack. Keep linking back to your Substack page, but also create posts that will directly engage with your followers. Create polls, ask them questions, talk about things outside of your writing. It’s good to do this throughout the week, but if you’re busy, use Mondays as your Twitter engagement days. Right now, many people following you on Twitter may not be following your Substack or feel compelled to subscribe in any capacity. But if you engage with them on a more personal level, even if it’s not directly one-on-one, then they may feel willing to do more for you in return.
3) Get your free stories narrated (ONLY the free ones!) and put them on Youtube. Either narrate the stories yourself, or hire someone to do the narrations for you if you don’t like the sound of your own voice or you don’t have the time to narrate them all. Get visuals from websites like Pexels to accompany your videos. Youtube favours creators that post frequently, so have a large sum of the stories recorded at once then slowly post them over time (ideally one video a day, but no less than once a week. If posting once a week, then you can release them on Tuesdays). At the end of each video, tell your audience they can get even more stories from your Substack and that they can sign up for a paid subscription plan to support your work.
4) Sundays and Wednesdays are your days to either rest, concentrate fully on writing, or do anything else that may help with your growth. Remember that rest IS important. You’re going to drive yourself crazy if you don’t take a break.
So to recap; Monday = engage with people on Twitter, Tuesday = Post story narration video on Youtube, Wednesday = free day, Thursday = Post story on Substack for free subscribers, Friday = Post story on Substack for paid subscribers, Saturday = Post story on Substack for paid subscribers, Sunday = free day.
Self-publishing is great because you get to be your own boss and have full creative control. Self-publishing also sucks because it means you have to be your own marketing team and public relations manager, and all of that takes away from your ability to just sit down and write. But if you’ve hit a wall when it comes to your growth, you might not have a choice but to do all of this and more. Trust me, I’d rather not do it too. But I’m going to start publishing my own work either this year or next year, and after doing all my research I realized that the most successful creators don’t just create things. They have to really engage with social media if they want to succeed.
I hate that you went to all this trouble, but you're telling me to fundamentally alter the nature of the fiction newsletter to play on Twitter. That's simply not something I'm going to do. There are over 1000 fiction blogs on Substack. I have no intention of blending in with them in terms of frequency of post.
The other inaccurate assumption is that posting less will free up time.
If given the time, I will edit, rewrite, second guess, decide I want to set one aside for a full length novel, etc, etc etc.
I made the commitment to post every day.
I have engaged ad nauseum on Facebook and to a lesser extent Instagram.
I tried on Twitter as well, going so far as to purchase multiple self published books to show my support for fellow writers.
Thanks for the advice, and for caring, but I'm not going to write less to shackle myself to social media.
The clouds just parted and a beam of light from the heavens has just shone down upon you.
That's the feeling I get after reading this reply.
No offense to Ackerman, I'm sure you could attract more "followers" with his methods.
I'm not a fan of social media, in fact the number one reason I don't have a paid subscription is because this is a form of social media, and substack "needs" all my info.
I wish I could just send you 8 bucks in the mail.
I'm so impressed that you refuse to let your work suffer or alter your commitment to your readers that I'm upgrading to paid (monthly) now!
Long stories.
Short stories.
You've WOWed us with both.
So, write long; write short.
Just keep up the WOW!
If you feel an urge to do something rare, go for it. It's all good.
Merry Christmas!
Happy New Year!
I just re upped
Not the way i used to
I'm looking for full frontal
I've been binge reading the free content and it's great. Unfortunately cleaning toilets does not afford me the paid content. It has nothing to do with your work. I'll gladly purchase the material when I can.
This was initially going to be a response to your reply to me in the “Criticism” post, but I thought it would be more appropriate to respond to you here.
You should definitely have more subscribers with the amount of work you've been doing. It really is unfortunate that you don’t. I have a suggestion though. You might not want to do this since it would require you to cut back on the amount of stories you post, but considering that Substack alone isn’t growing your subscriber count, you are going to need to funnel people from other websites.
1) Decrease the amount of stories you post on Substack to three times a week. Thursdays for free subscribers. Fridays and Saturdays for paid subscribers. You need to do this since you’ll be devoting your energy to other avenues.
2) You have over three thousand followers on your Twitter account, but most of your posts are links to Substack. Keep linking back to your Substack page, but also create posts that will directly engage with your followers. Create polls, ask them questions, talk about things outside of your writing. It’s good to do this throughout the week, but if you’re busy, use Mondays as your Twitter engagement days. Right now, many people following you on Twitter may not be following your Substack or feel compelled to subscribe in any capacity. But if you engage with them on a more personal level, even if it’s not directly one-on-one, then they may feel willing to do more for you in return.
3) Get your free stories narrated (ONLY the free ones!) and put them on Youtube. Either narrate the stories yourself, or hire someone to do the narrations for you if you don’t like the sound of your own voice or you don’t have the time to narrate them all. Get visuals from websites like Pexels to accompany your videos. Youtube favours creators that post frequently, so have a large sum of the stories recorded at once then slowly post them over time (ideally one video a day, but no less than once a week. If posting once a week, then you can release them on Tuesdays). At the end of each video, tell your audience they can get even more stories from your Substack and that they can sign up for a paid subscription plan to support your work.
4) Sundays and Wednesdays are your days to either rest, concentrate fully on writing, or do anything else that may help with your growth. Remember that rest IS important. You’re going to drive yourself crazy if you don’t take a break.
So to recap; Monday = engage with people on Twitter, Tuesday = Post story narration video on Youtube, Wednesday = free day, Thursday = Post story on Substack for free subscribers, Friday = Post story on Substack for paid subscribers, Saturday = Post story on Substack for paid subscribers, Sunday = free day.
Self-publishing is great because you get to be your own boss and have full creative control. Self-publishing also sucks because it means you have to be your own marketing team and public relations manager, and all of that takes away from your ability to just sit down and write. But if you’ve hit a wall when it comes to your growth, you might not have a choice but to do all of this and more. Trust me, I’d rather not do it too. But I’m going to start publishing my own work either this year or next year, and after doing all my research I realized that the most successful creators don’t just create things. They have to really engage with social media if they want to succeed.
I hate that you went to all this trouble, but you're telling me to fundamentally alter the nature of the fiction newsletter to play on Twitter. That's simply not something I'm going to do. There are over 1000 fiction blogs on Substack. I have no intention of blending in with them in terms of frequency of post.
The other inaccurate assumption is that posting less will free up time.
If given the time, I will edit, rewrite, second guess, decide I want to set one aside for a full length novel, etc, etc etc.
I made the commitment to post every day.
I have engaged ad nauseum on Facebook and to a lesser extent Instagram.
I tried on Twitter as well, going so far as to purchase multiple self published books to show my support for fellow writers.
Thanks for the advice, and for caring, but I'm not going to write less to shackle myself to social media.
I understand. Social media is an evil beast that will suck you dry if you let it.
Good luck. I really hope things improve for you. God knows you’ve worked hard enough for it.
The clouds just parted and a beam of light from the heavens has just shone down upon you.
That's the feeling I get after reading this reply.
No offense to Ackerman, I'm sure you could attract more "followers" with his methods.
I'm not a fan of social media, in fact the number one reason I don't have a paid subscription is because this is a form of social media, and substack "needs" all my info.
I wish I could just send you 8 bucks in the mail.
I'm so impressed that you refuse to let your work suffer or alter your commitment to your readers that I'm upgrading to paid (monthly) now!
Thank you.
Dig into that archive. I know there will be tons of stuff you love.
Today's story will be up shortly. Just dealing with the image now.