What the heck is “Substack”?
de-mystifying this wonderful but sometimes confusing online space
Regular readers of MTLH will quickly recognize that this topic is a departure for me, but I’ve fielded several questions about Substack recently and learned that some of the information isn’t as easy to track down as you might expect, so I hope this post will be useful—if not for you, maybe for someone you know.
Since you are reading this post, you’ve probably at least heard the name Substack and may even subscribe to a few Substack newsletters (such as this one!) that come to your email inbox periodically, even if you are not 100% clear on what Substack is and isn’t. Please don’t feel bad. I subscribed to
on Substack for years before I had a clue.Or maybe you’ve been publishing on Substack for a while and you’d like to be able to point friends or potential subscribers to an article that explains the basics and why they might want to give it a try. I hope this post will help meet those needs. I may even be able to clear up a question or two for you.
At its heart, Substack is a community of writers and other artists—creative people of various kinds, professionals and amateurs—who want to communicate regularly with an online audience, whether that’s a few people or a few hundred thousand. Mostly, those audiences are made up of readers, although there are now ways to use podcasts or to embed video on Substack, so there are more and more creative ways to use the platform.
As far as what the platform does? It’s a cross between a simple blogging website and an email newsletter service (with a few recently added social media features). But it’s easy to get bogged down in terminology that can mean different things to different people…
Let’s start with the word Substack. It’s obviously the name of the platform, but it’s also the way many of us refer to our own little corner of that platform—our blog or newsletter. So you’ll hear things like:
I have a new Substack!
Did you year thatis on Substack now?
I’ve subscribed to ’s Substack for years!
My Substack is called
I signed up for the 2024 Slow Read of War & Peace on 's Substack.
I’ll explain some of the things that distinguish Substack from most other blog or email subscription services, but let’s clarify a few more terms first:
Subscribing to someone’s Substack (whether you think of it as a blog, newsletter, or something else) means signing up to have new posts from a particular Substack publication come directly to your email inbox. Many Substack subscriptions are free. Others are offered for a monthly or annual fee. It is common—but not universal—for the same Substack author to offer both free and paid subscription options.
Technically, you don’t need a Substack account to read free content on the website, but you will find it easier to navigate and keep track of things you are interested in with an account (and it’s completely free), so I recommend creating one upfront with your email address. Then you can use either the app or Substack.com to explore all you like.
You’ll also be able to easily subscribe to free or paid Substack publications when you come across ones you like, which will send any new posts from your chosen author to your email inbox as well as queuing them up in your Substack inbox.
Should you ever wish to, your free account will also allow you to create your own Substack blog or newsletter. And it will give you access to Substack Notes, which I explain below.
Following vs Subscribing — You follow authors (or occasionally, readers) and subscribe to newsletters on Substack. When you subscribe to a newsletter (so it comes to you via email), you will automatically start following its author, as well. The reverse is NOT true. You can follow a writer without subscribing to his or her newsletter. This is a good option if you are curious about them or interested in their work but not ready to have it come to your email every week. You can also follow Substack readers with no blogs (yet) to subscribe to.
When you follow a writer on Substack but don’t subscribe to his blog, you will see his Notes in your feed but won’t receive any newsletters from him in your inbox:
Subscribe—> emailed newsletters
Follow only—> no emails (just author notes in your feed, if they write any)
Substack Notes is a fairly new community feature that was introduced last year. It’s only available on the app or website. Substack Notes is like Twitter for Substack users, but, unlike most social media, it does NOT contain ads! You can (@) mention users or “restack” Notes you’d like to amplify. Notes are short-form content rather than full newsletters, although writers often post a Note with a link to announce when their most recent newsletter is live. You access Substack Notes by clicking your Home icon on the website or in the app.
Currently, the default setting for the Notes feed is Explore which means you will see notes from additional Substack users whom you might enjoy as well as those you have specifically chosen to follow. If you want to see only Notes from those you already follow, simply use the dropdown at the top of your feed to toggle from Explore to Followers.
So far, Substack Notes is mostly used by Substack writers, so it’s largely Substack writers talking amongst themselves. Not all writers use Notes at all, but I think it has contributed considerably to the feeling of community on the platform. Writers ask each other questions, announce new posts or other offerings, and often share and discuss great articles, essays, interviews, or workshops they have enjoyed on Substack.
Substack Chat is a way for writers to have conversations specifically with their subscribers (or to encourage their subscribers to have discussions amongst themselves). Substack writers who have both free and paid subscribers can specify when opening a chat thread whether it is for all subscribers or specifically for paid subscribers (in which case free subscribers won’t be able to read it or participate).
makes great daily use of the Substack Chat feature for both of the slow reads he offers on , if you’d like to see an example.NEWSLETTER — This one sometimes trips people up. Newsletter is the word Substack most often uses for the posts its writers send to their subscribers’ inboxes—whether they look like traditional newsletters or not. What writers put in their newsletters is largely up to them. It need not contain “news” at all, but it can. It need not contain multiple stories or sections, but it can. There’s no required newsletter format.
For many of us who write on Substack, our newsletters are essentially blog posts that we send out, so our Substacks function as ad-free blogs. These Substack newsletters are often single articles or personal essays that come to subscribers’ email inboxes whenever a new post is published. But your “newsletter” could instead be a podcast or poems or a gallery of photos or drawings or recipes or suggested seasonal crafts or activities. It might be serialized fiction, single chapters of a non-fiction book, or online class assignments. Substack Newsletters can be either free or paid, depending on the subscription you have chosen.
I most often write articles or personal essays at
(my Substack blog, which you are reading at the moment—thank you!), but on the last Tuesday of each month, my blog post is a roundup of recommendations based on things I came across that month which others may find of interest. So even newsletters from the same author can differ in format, length, and content from post to post.
What’s so special about Substack?
It’s a fair question. It seems there are zillions of different social media sites and tech services all vying for our attention with an assortment of gimmicks.
I’ve already touched on one particularly refreshing thing about Substack: It doesn’t contain ads and is far less algorithm-driven than most social media. There’s also a pretty good balance between ease of use and flexibility for writers, which in turn translates to more variety for readers. I have found it SO much easier—and less expensive—to use than WordPress.
No platform is perfect, but I’ve been publishing here since August, and although Substack is still evolving, it has been an excellent experience for me so far. I appreciate that Substack is completely free for me to use since all my content is free. (Substack does take a 10% cut from paid subscriptions, and I think the credit company takes another 3%.)
The option to offer paid subscriptions is important for many writers, and while there are guidelines, writers do have considerable flexibility about that as well, regarding how much they charge, the ability to offer discounts, 7-day trials, and even complimentary subscriptions.
Paid subscriptions indirectly offer benefits even to free subscribers because the revenue Substack brings in from subscription fees allows them to offer an ad-free experience for all of us.
Another important thing about your Substack is that it’s yours, and if you decide to leave the platform, you can take your content and email list with you. If you’ve ever had to start from scratch with a new platform, you know this is no small thing.
Substack is also quite powerful. Historian
, the professor at Boston College who started in 2019, now has more than 1.3 million daily readers. She initially chose Substack because it was the only platform the professor could find at the time that could reliably send out as many email newsletters as she needed to at no charge to her or her readers.While not every Substack author is a seasoned professional, there is plenty of fine writing, research, reporting, and other artistry to be found on the platform. I find hidden gems here frequently. I love that there are people just getting started at their craft as well as experienced artists they can learn from and work they can aspire to. A few Substack authors you might recognize:
, , , , , , , , , , and .Even beyond the ease of setting up a blog or sending out a newsletter on Substack, I appreciate being part of a growing and supportive community that loves to create as well as encourage others. I also like that you can find a variety of people from different countries and cultures here. And it seems to me there’s something special about Substack readers. I like being on a platform where reading the comments doesn’t have to be something to avoid.
I especially love some of the innovative ways people are using the platform. Just last week, I started participating in a year-long guided “slow read” of Tolstoy’s War and Peace on
's Substack, . Simon has done an amazing job of putting this project together with cross-linked character lists and a variety of other resources, including helpful weekly notes and fun daily chats. His Substack has readers from every state in the US and nearly 100 countries.Last month,
did a terrific Advent series in December that you didn’t need to be a “church person” to love. Liz Gilbert is guiding a really interesting writing practice called on Substack. is doing Candlelight Chats, often with a special guest. And ushered in January by offering a wonderful free Winter Writing Sanctuary.Is Substack Nirvana? Of course not. It has growing pains like any other platform. No single service can meet everyone’s expectations, since people have different abilities, needs, and preferences. As the numbers grow, the initial coziness of a new online space is bound to change, for better or worse. And let’s face it, if Substack is easy for you and me to use, it’s probably also easy for that creepy neighbor you’d rather not run into. But Substack is a special place. As online spaces go, there’s a lot to recommend it.
Will it be as good or better 10 years from now? I have no idea. It could still be going strong or long gone by then. But for now, I think it’s promising enough to spend a little time with and see what you think.
I’m not a Substack expert, so I plan to return to my regular content next Tuesday, and I hope you’ll join me! But if you have specific questions about Substack or what I’ve written here I’ll do my best to answer them in the comments or point you to someone or someplace you can find the answers.
My best advice, however, is to click around Substack.com on your own and start to get a feel for the platform if you haven’t already. Download the app and play with it. Do some searches, read a few Notes and Newsletters, and if you think you might want to share some of your own writing or art or thoughts here, at some point, go ahead and set up a Substack publication and maybe even start a couple of drafts, so whenever inspiration strikes, you’ll be ready to go!
One final tip: The Substack app is focused on the reader experience, so if you decide to write and publish on Substack, you will need to do that from the website rather than the app. If you are on your phone or a tablet, use a browser window to open the website. The mobile version of the website is workable, although it’s easier to use a computer—especially when getting set up. You will need to access your DASHBOARD, which isn’t an option on the Substack app.
If you know someone who might be interested in this information about the platform, please share this article with them! I want to spread the word about Substack because I’ve had such a good experience here. Lots of Substack readers eventually also become writers, and virtually all Substack writers are also Substack readers. It might just be the perfect way for them—or you—to start the new year.
Great info. Thanks for sharing.