This is my 14th year of working full-time with writers, but well more than 20 years of working with writers day-to-day in various roles. Each morning, I sit in this studio and help writers launch their books, find growth in their platforms, create compelling marketing plans, learn the ins-and-outs of Substack, and find a sense of fulfillment in the process. Of course, this is all about readers — those wonderful people who are moved by what you write, and realize the potential inherent within it.
While there is so much value in the creative act itself — creating just to create — I often think that something magical happens when your writing connects with a reader. The equation works something like this:
Half of the magic is what you create — the craft, worldview, and vision that goes into your writing.
The other half of the magic is what the reader brings to it — how their unique perspective mixes with what you wrote. Their inner voice changes and morphs what you wrote in a way unique to that person.
These two halves equal more than 100%, and what is created is exponential. This is where your writing can save someone’s life, be a respite during an overwhelming time, inform and inspire, and impact how someone looks at themselves, the world, and the actions they take. This happens through all kinds of creative work, including fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, and so much else.
Yet, the reality for so many writers — including those here on Substack — can be a sense of frustration that they aren’t finding growth or connection with readers. I talk with writers about this all the time. They share a sense that they are writing and publishing, but it feels like they are spinning their wheels, stuck in the mud, and not connecting with anyone.
Substack is a powerful way that writers can share their writing. Today I am so excited to announce my next workshop: Find the Readers Who Will Love Your Substack! It will take place on Friday, January 19, 2024, at 12:30pm ET. A full recording will be sent to all who register, so if you can’t make it live, please consider registering anyway. You can find full information and register here. In this workshop, I will be covering how to:
- Clearly define your ideal readers.
- Understand what engages these readers.
- Develop strategies and tactics to convert these readers to subscribers.
- Ensure these readers feel a part of something, and stay subscribed.
This workshop is the third part of a series I have been running about Substack:
Workshop #1: Launch & Grow Your Email Newsletter on Substack
Explore the step-by-step process to launch or grow your email newsletter.
Now available for instant access viewing here.
Workshop #2: Find Your Voice and Get Into Your Groove on Substack (and Beyond)
Know exactly what to share on Substack (and beyond), how to never run out of ideas that your readers will love, and how to create a simple system to do it all consistently, and in less time. Now available for instant access viewing here.
Workshop #3: Reach Your Ideal Readers and Grow Your Subscribers on Substack
Join me for a workshop that will help you understand who your ideal readers are, where to find them, and how to convert them into subscribers on your Substack. Friday, January 19, 2024, at 12:30pm ET, register here!
I hope you can join me for the upcoming workshop.
Embark on a Discovery Process
I encourage you to embark on a discovery process to find your ideal readers.
For the writers I work with, this looks different each day. Here are some examples from the past week of work I have been doing with writers to help them find their readers:
- Brainstorming book marketing ideas (and the plan to implement them) for a bestselling nonfiction author whose new book comes out later this year.
- Creating a detailed launch timeline for a novelist who has a new book coming out this year.
- Developing an editorial calendar for a writer on Substack, focusing on ways to get more engagement, and build upon their past success on the platform.
- Helping an author find more readers for their children’s book, a year after publication, and set the stage for the next book in the series.
Sometimes it can feel easy to look back on success, and reverse engineer that it was all part of a concise foolproof plan. And even though my days are spent in this work, the truth is that no one can promise you results.
I recently organized my studio and found my advance reader copies of books that I helped the authors launch. Both became New York Times bestsellers: Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, and The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell’Antonia.
When these advanced copies were printed, did we have any idea that the books would sell enough to become bestsellers? Nope. Each author wrote amazing books, had incredible partners with their agents and publishers, had a team of people assisting in one way or another, and did so much work to get the book in front of readers. And… something worked. I’ve written case studies about these and other book launches, but I often feel they just showcase the tip of the iceberg of how these books found their readers.
This work of understanding one’s readers and engaging them matters. It is a process that can feel both delicate, and full of potential.
(You can find more about my work with writers here.)
Systems and Habits Give You a Process to Follow
I work from a methodology I created called The Creative Success Pyramid:
Is this plan a promise for success? No, it is a process to begin from, and to customize for your unique goals and challenges. Every step can be personalized for your preferences, your writing, and your ideal readers. What you create is unique, and how you find your readers will be as well.
I love helping writers with this because every day is different than the next. We are fulfilling the creative vision unique to each writer.
What Substack Teaches Us About Our Readers
For many writers, social media has been seen as the only way to engage their readers. Yet, I find there is a profound shift in going from “sharing with anyone” on social media, to “sharing with someone,” like you find on Substack and through email newsletters. On social media, it is common for writers to feel their follower are distant, faceless masses. But on Substack and with an email newsletter, these same writers are finally feeling a meaningful connection with real readers — those who choose to embrace what you create.
I have written a weekly email newsletter for 18 years. In some ways, the reasons writers are coming to Substack and loving it feel very familiar to me. They are the same reasons I loved having an email newsletter back in 2006, 2011, and 2016. You write something that you care deeply about, send it to readers who have given you permission to email them, and it actually is delivered to them, instead of getting lost in an algorithm on social media.
If you have been developing your own Substack publication and wondering how you can better connect with your ideal readers and find growth in the process, I encourage you to sign up for my new workshop, Find the Readers Who Will Love Your Substack! You can register here.
I’m curious: can you tell me about one time that you felt truly connected with your readers? It could be a specific conversation you had, email you received, place you went, action you took, or thing you shared. Let me know in the comments, I love hearing about moments when writers connect with readers!
Thank you for being here with me.
-Dan