Forums / Interviews

Communicating our experiences as newsletter creators

For information and guidance to newsletter creators, Substack provides an FAQ, resources, videos, and more. Many creators can benefit from these materials.

But there's something missing.

Substack is trying to anticipate and respond to issues that creators encounter. However, every day, newsletter creators face new issues.

My impression (from personal experience and anecdotes from other newsletter creators) is that Substack support isn't responding quickly to creator questions. Support staff are few; creators are many. And we are growing constantly. Substack would need an ever-larger support staff to handle our queries.

Substack creators have questions and concerns. And fellow creators could give helpful replies. All of us have experiences to share.

Substack creators need a forum.

We have groups on Facebook and Reddit. And we can start discussion threads on our newsletters. But we don't have a full discussion forum.

Substack could host a forum. Some creators might feel more free to speak in an independent forum. Perhaps we could have both official and unofficial forums, and both public and private sections of these forums.

In the absence of (or eventually in addition to) a forum, creators can support each other in the current groups and by other means of reaching out.

I'm just one creator. But I'd like to help, especially since my newsletter's subject is Substack and its creators and communities.

While I have things to say, increasingly I prefer to see what other people have to say. I want to contribute to a conversation – not to be the main voice in the conservation.

So, in that spirit…

I'd like to interview creators and publish interviews.

I'd send about 10 questions, which you could answer when you have time. The questions would ask about you and your newsletter, your good and bad experiences with the newsletter, and basically whatever you'd like to say and advice you'd like to give.

I can't promise that I'll publish every part of every interview.¹ But even if I don't include it in my newsletter, you can feel free to publish the interview in your newsletter. In any event, I'm hoping that answering the interview questions will be helpful for you.

If you're interested in an interview, please email me or leave a comment.

Alternatively, we could collectively create a work of art – “The First 5000 Substacks” – and split the $69 million in proceeds. (Could an issue of a Substack newsletter be turned into an NFT? 🤔) That would solve most of our problems. 😉

Reuters @Reuters

'Everydays - The First 5000 Days' by @beeple has sold for nearly $70 million at Christie’s. The artwork is in the form of a new type of digital asset - a #NFT - meaning it is authenticated by blockchain, which certifies its originality and ownership reut.rs/3ckqfMM

1. For interviews or excerpts that I intend to publish, I might lightly edit replies to make minor (mostly technical) corrections. If you’d like, you can review the edited version before I publish it.