Resources for Writers

Getting started

New to Substack? Learn how to set up your Substack, publish a post, and get your first subscribers.

Tutorials

• How to create a publication (video)

• How to publish a post (video)

• How to create a discussion thread (video)

• How to use the Substack editor

• A guide to your Substack metrics

• A guide to your subscriber dashboard

• A guide to publication sections

Guides

• Setting up your Substack

• Writing your one-line description and About page

• Getting your first 100 signups

• Switching to Substack from Patreon

Got questions about how to use Substack? Check out our Help Center.

Stories

• Delia Cai, Deez Links: How I grew Deez Links from zero to 2,000+ signups

• Scott Hines, Action Cookbook: How I got my first 1,000 signups in less than five months

• Sarah Noeckel, Femstreet: How I went from zero to 5,000 subscribers

• Casey Newton, Platformer: What writers can do for their readers

• Abigail Koffler, This Needs Hot Sauce: How I grew my email list from scratch

• Lenny Rachitsky, Lenny’s Newsletter: How to create a consistent writing habit

• Petition: How I grew my financial newsletter – anonymously

• Thao Nguyen, For The Record: Writing as a musician

Office Hours

Each week on Thursdays, we’ll gather the writer community and members of our Community, Product, and Writer Development teams together in a thread like this one to answer writer questions for an hour.

Time may vary so we can accommodate writers across time zones. Subscribe to www.library.substack.com and receive the thread in your inbox each week one hour before we go live.

Going paid

If you’re writing and growing your email list and are ready to take the next step, check out our guide and stories from other writers about going paid.

Guides

• Your guide to going paid

Stories

• Emily Atkin, Heated: How I turned my climate change newsletter into a six-figure income

• Lenny Rachitsky, Lenny’s Newsletter: How I earned $65,000 in my first year of writing

• Going Paid: Courtney Martin, The Examined Family

• Going Paid: Christopher Curtis, The Rover

• Going Paid: Craig Morgan, AZ Coyotes Insider

• Going Paid: Camila Russo, The Defiant

• Illyanna Maisonet, Eat Gorda Eat: Advice on going paid

• Gino Sorcinelli, Micro-Chop: How my newsletter helped me bounce back from a broken car

• Judd Legum, Popular Information: A growth masterclass

Starting an LLC? You can use Stripe Atlas to easily set one up – they’ll take care of your legal paperwork. Substack writers can use this link to get a discount.

Growing your community

As your email list grows, you might start to wonder who your readers are and how you can get to know them. Learn how other writers build communities around their newsletters.

Guides

• Building community around your publication

• Dear ____: Advice on writing an advice column

Stories

• Terrell Johnson, The Half Marathoner: How to use discussion threads to get closer to your readers

• Erin Moon, The Swipe Up: How I built a thriving community around my newsletter

• Jarrett Carter, HBCU Digest: How I built my audience around a niche topic

• Walt Hickey, Numlock News: How I expanded to multiple newsletters

Audio & podcasting

Did you know you can use Substack to send audio posts, not just written ones? Start a podcast, read your posts out loud, or record your off-the-cuff thoughts with our ideas below.

Guides

• How to use Substack for podcasts

• Bringing more audio into your posts

Miscellaneous

Everything else you wanted to know about Substack but were afraid to ask.

Guides

• Group publishing tools on Substack

• Stripe’s Patrick McKenzie on how to think like a business for writers

• Your tax & finance questions, answered

• Your legal questions, answered