The indomitable Sarah Fay, PhD recently hosted a discussion about Substack Recommendations. I’d like to offer a counter-point to what is being recommended in terms of how we manage our list.

I agree ‘recommendations’ are inherently valuable…REALLY REALLY valuable. You will gain subscribers if people recommend you. No question. However, the suggestion to keep your recommendations down to five or 6 and rotate through them monthly didn’t sit well.

It was suggested that if you have a large list, somehow it wasn’t authentic. I disagree. Wholeheartedly.(No disrespect to the Queen of Substack, whom I love!)

I went to my list of recommendations. I have around 18 and they rotate on my page depending on the day (it’s automatic, there is no work on my part on what’s highlighted that day/week.) However, there would be work involved if I were to follow what was suggested here.

The people I’ve recommended I read. Consistently. And I still love them. There is nothing in-authentic about my list of recommends. It would feel more disingenuous of me to REMOVE them. I love these guys! That’s why I’m recommending them.

Should we review our list every now and again and make sure those writers are still resonating with us, still posting regularly and offering something we think our own audience will enjoy? Absolutely.

There is an unintended down side when you remove someone. Those beautiful quotes from people who’ve recommended you, the ones you can use as blurbs on your welcome page? Those go “poof” when someone removes the recommend. Their words are gone into the ether. Never to be seen again. I learned this the hard way the other day.

I had just figured out how to add them to the damn page and my favourite quote disappeared.

I’m totally OK with people rotating, to each his own, but I sure wish there was a way not to lose the kind words of past recommends. For those of us who don’t have thousands of subscribers, those words help sustain us!

If you’re going to un-recommend someone, perhaps grab your ‘blurb’ and send it to them, so they can remember why what they wrote was important for you for a time.

With all the advice and recommendations on how to ‘use’ Substack, just remember, they’re just that. If the advice doesn’t sit right with you, think twice about doing it.

There is no panacea to this platform. Just good writing, consistently.

If you do this one thing, the recommendations will follow. I promise. I have never asked anyone for a recommendation. I didn’t even know where or how to find the recommendation blurbs for the longest time. Which made their discovery all the more meaningful and authentic!

We have to learn to discern what works for us and our own values versus what someone else’s values or reasonings might be. I stand by my list of 18. I love you guys.