About This Episode

On Building Your Author Audience with Substack

Having a website or blog is one thing. Getting people who don’t already know you to actually find your writing is another. For authors trying to build an audience before the next book comes out, Substack offers something particularly interesting: a place to publish your work and a built-in ecosystem for helping new readers discover it.

Substack coach Adrienne Clark joins Kathleen and Adanna to unpack how authors can make that ecosystem work for them. She compares publishing on your own website to being a fish in the Pacific Ocean hoping to be found, while Substack is more like being a fish in a lake—with discovery tools that give readers more ways to find you.

Along the way, you’ll discover:

• How Substack helps new readers find your writing
• Why the words you use in titles, subtitles, and Notes matter for discovery
• How restacks, recommendations, and collaborations can expand your audience
• What authors should consider before turning on paid subscriptions or putting content behind a paywall
• The four essentials Adrienne recommends setting up when you’re getting started
• Why building your Substack audience is a long game—and why that can work in an author’s favor

And then there’s the question every writer eventually asks: Can I make money from this? Adrienne gets into the realities of paid subscriptions and paywalls, including why monetization needs to make sense for the audience you have now and be sustainable if that audience grows.

Her biggest advice, though, is reassuringly simple: You don’t need to master everything at once. Start with the essentials, keep showing up, and give the right readers a chance to find you.

We’d like to hear from you. If you have topics or speakers you’d like us to interview, please email us at podcast@talkingbookpublishing.today and join the conversation in the comments on our Instagram @writerspubsnet.

About our guest