How To Use Substack, for Readers
How To Use Substack, for Readers
For those new to Substack: a brief primer on what it even is, why you might really like it, and how the heck to use it.
This post goes out to those asking, “What is this Substack thing and do I care about it?” The answers to these questions are, “Let me tell you what I know about it,” and, “I suspect you will.”
I’m not new to writing—I’ve written 125+ articles on my main site and a book with another—Dear Fellow Dreamer—underway. I’m not new to Substack in general—I’ve been happily reading multiple newsletters for years now. But I am new to writing on Substack.
It is actually my positive experience as a reader that convinced me to move my writing to Substack. That same experience motivates me to share what it is and what’s wonderful about it—for readers.
Why I’m writing this for you:
This article is not a plug for my own Substack, although I’d be happy to have you subscribe if you feel so inclined.
It’s also not a plug for Substack in general. Substack is simply a digital platform made real by the people who write and read there.
I’m writing this piece for my own readers and friends who have celebrated my move here…and then asked, “But what is Substack?” It’s even for those of you who don’t know if you care. You might be surprised by how much potential benefit there is to you knowing and participating a little bit.
This is not the definitive piece on Substack. There may be a Part Two as I explore more features, but for now, let’s start with Part One of the Emily Burnett Primer on Substack.
How you got here:
If you’re reading this piece in your email inbox, it means you are subscribed to my list. One of two things brought that about.
You joined me here on Substack on your own accord—it’s been so fun to see some new people finding me and subscribing. Or,
I added you when I migrated my newsletters from ConvertKit to Substack. You didn’t have to do anything and don’t have to do anything to continue to receive everything I write for public consumption.
If you are reading this on the Web, then it might mean you are brand-new to Substack, or just want to understand it better. You perhaps Googled something about Substack, or found this article promoted through a social media site or another writer.
My experiences as a reader:
The first Substack I followed was The Free Press. Bari Weiss gained notoriety when she resigned with sadness from The New York Times. I knew nothing about Substack but found her writing and journalistic exploration insightful. Joining her email list, I quickly valued it enough to pay $5/month to support her writing, something I’ve done for the past 3+ years.
The Substack part of this relationship was quickly forgotten, though. Bari’s newsletters came to my email inbox which is where I read them. I never visited her website on Substack, don’t know or care too much what my paid subscription got me besides certain gated content. Mostly, I just appreciate receiving her and her team’s journalism in my inbox.
Several months ago, I found myself subscribed to newsletters from Satya Robyn, a Buddhist teacher and therapist writing about self-compassion, and Frederik Gieschen, writing about “money, meaning, and the mystery of life.” Not just subscribed, but actively reading and appreciating a thoughtfulness of writing in my inbox different from social media soundbites and marketing messages.
In a busy inbox, I found myself opening their Substack newsletter emails with almost a sigh of relief. It was refreshing to read visually clean emails containing new ideas from interesting people who weren’t ramping up to sell something with each post.
It was like walking into a well-lit, cozy, tidy room after being at an overstimulating carnival.
This was especially true when contrasted with the many AI-written or AI-influenced marketing messages in my inbox. You know the ones. Their subject lines might read something like: “BUY THIS AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE!” or “X IS RUINING YOUR BUSINESS!” or “DOUBLE YOUR INCOME WITH THIS SIMPLE HACK.”
In contrast, every touchpoint with Substack and the newsletters I received was…simple. Clean. Thoughtful. Personal. It was like walking into a well-lit, tidy, and calm room after being at an overstimulating carnival.
But why does it feel different?
Here are my reasons for why the Substack experience feels so different than other email newsletters:
Substack newsletters (“Substacks”) are, by and large, written by writers who deeply care about the written word and who invest a lot of time into their craft.
The platform limits stylistic choices. This keeps the reader experience simple, clean, and consistent across Substack newsletters and sites.
Substack is ad-free. They occasionally promote other newsletters to us readers but they do it so unobtrusively that I don’t mind.
It facilitates a direct relationship between writer and reader with delivery to your inbox, versus prioritizing a reader’s engagement on the platform itself.
What is Substack?
Feel free to Google this question if you’re into that sort of thing, but here’s my brief description for your reading pleasure:
Substack is a digital platform for writers to reach readers interested in their ideas. They do this primarily via email delivery of newsletters, but there is an app as well (I’ve only just downloaded it). It’s a forum where we readers can get plugged into interesting and helpful writers who share about things we care about.
As a platform, it also helps writers monetize their work to their readers who are most interested or appreciative, or who want more access to the writer.
Here’s a more sentimental picture of what Substack has been for me: You know that feeling you get when you read something that just speaks truth? That cuts through noise? That makes you feel hopeful, or seen, or inspired? Where time slows down a little bit while you read a writer’s thoughts on life, the world, the human experience? That’s what certain Substacks have done for me.
I’m interested, tell me more.
Here are three things to know about interacting with Substack + Substack newsletters:
1. Substack:
Yes, this is the name of the platform. But it is also how writers and readers refer to specific newsletters. Examples: “Are you on my Substack?” or “Do you have a Substack?” or “My Substack is called More to Your Life.”
2. Subscribe:
We’ve all signed up for email newsletters, usually when downloading a freebie on someone’s website. You do the same thing when you subscribe to someone’s Substack, and sometimes receive a free bonus included in your initial email to thank you for subscribing. Pretty self-explanatory so far.
You can subscribe on the Substack platform or through an author’s website if they have a separate one from their Substack website. For example, someone can subscribe to my newsletter at my main website (emilyburnett.me) or at my Substack writing website (moretoyour.life).
In both cases, the subscribe box looks like this:
A few notes about subscribing:
When you subscribe, you are subscribing to a particular author’s particular newsletter and not to all of Substack. Subscribing means you’ll get any new post or article from that author emailed to you in your email inbox.
When you enter your email address, you’ll get taken to a screen where you can choose to become a Paid subscriber or Founding member or to make a pledge for when they start offering paid subscriptions. You can easily choose Free and decide later.
Depending on the author’s settings, you may need to confirm your email address in an email in your inbox before you can start receiving the author’s actual newsletter. Pretty obvious, but I just had to call that out. (You don’t for mine, at least for now).
You may see prompts to “Follow __ people” (you will see their activity in your home feed in the app or on the Web, but not receive their emails) or “Subscribe for free to _ publications.” These are readers and writers the writer of this particular Substack has recommended. Maybe you want to do this, remembering that you can always unsubscribe from people who aren’t a fit. But you can also uncheck or “Skip for now” your way through all the prompts. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to here :-)
3. Paid subscriber:
You do not need to pay for most Substacks. There are some authors on Substack who do not publish any free articles, in which case you’d need to pay in order to receive their newsletters. But most authors send at least a couple newsletters each month to all subscribers (free and paid).
So why would you ever want to pay?
For each of the Substacks I pay for, I do it to show my support for their writing. Some I’ve waited months to start paying for, some I’ve paid for straight-away. In both cases, I want them to keep writing and I want them to know I appreciate their writing
Some people become paid subscribers to access the benefits available only to this invested tier. These benefits might include being able to comment on posts, receiving specific or more robust newsletters, monthly calls with the author, etc.
***One thing to note, when you become a paid subscriber, you are becoming a paid subscriber of that particular newsletter, not all of Substack. The platform takes 10% and the rest goes directly to the author.
In these early days of writing here on Substack, I am sharing everything (1-2 posts/week) with both free and paid subscribers. Everyone can “like” posts—I’d be grateful if you would—but only paid subscribers can comment.
In the near future, I will start making some of my pieces available only to paid supporters and offering them additional cool perks, like monthly office hours around money, work, and living intentionally.
How do I find people on Substack?
Great question! Explore the possibilities for yourself at Substack.com. It is a search engine just like Google, but obviously it searches only the content on its site. You can search by topics or persons you’re interested in, and you can choose for it to search Posts, Publications or People.
I find their search results to be very skimmable, so you can review quickly which Substacks and writers seem like a fit for you. When you click on their name, you’ll be invited to subscribe, but can click “No thanks” (or some version of this) beneath the subscription box to read more about the author first or see what types of things they write. I’ve subscribed prematurely to many Substacks, only to find that I liked one article but not their newsletter in general. It’s easy to unsubscribe when you find it’s not for you.
One final note about looking for Substacks to follow and why you even would: It can feel like you’ve found a new kindred-spirit friend when you find a writer you really like. One who writes about things you really care about, in a way that resonates with you. And who honestly wants to hear from you, to get to know you and mutually appreciate each other.
As a reader and as a writer, I experience both sides of this relationship—corresponding with writers via comments or email, and doing the same with my readers. And my life is richer for both.
Conclusion:
The great news is that you don’t have to know a thing about Substack to easily receive newsletters from any author via Substack. You’ve read this article because there was some curiosity about the platform, and hopefully this helps you feel more at home exploring and engaging with it.
You may not have the time or energy—I almost said “bandwidth” but that corporatized word makes me shudder—to seek out many new writers or their Substacks. But if you’ve felt stuck and reactive for a while, it might be time to sign-up for a couple interesting, non-marketing newsletters in your inbox to give you more intentional inputs. If you, like me, appreciate things that buck the trends and hustle of our time, I think you’ll enjoy the wonderful world of writers and readers on Substack.
And if you’d like to be part of my corner of Substack and receive my newsletter for dreamers about work, money and living with purpose and adventure, I’d love to have you.
Time for your thoughts!
What did I miss? I’m certainly not a Substack ambassador and I’m not building a business about how to start writing on Substack, I’m just genuinely curious if there are still questions you would like answered.
Also, if there are things you as a reader love about it that I missed, please share in comments or via email.
And if you’d like more “Introductions to Tools/Platforms” like this, I’d also love to know. For example, would you be interested in an article on Notion for us dreamers—what’s the craze about, what Notion is, how it’s easy to go overboard trying to use it, how I and other dreamers use it, or how you might want to use it? Just let me know.
Until next time…