Is Substack any good for authors? 🤔

(Spoiler: it has really strong pros and cons)  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Hey, Today we are going to look at a very different email platform, one which is completely free. ​Substack. I'm covering Substack by popular demand from you guys. After sharing MailerLite's price hike last week, I got lots of responses asking why I didn't mention Substack – especially given that it is free. As in, free-free. No subscriber-limit free. No features hidden behind a paywall free. Today, I'll answer that question in detail, explaining the very strong pros and cons of Substack, which is definitely bringing something new to the space, but also comes with clear limitations that might make it a good fit for some, but quite restrictive for many. Before we get into all that, here's a message from this week's sponsor. Which is... moi. Sponsor Message From… Me? I blocked off this week from sponsors on purpose. I have my own thoughts on the sponsorship program – some positive, some negative – but I want to hear your feedback. I think the sponsors overall have been a reasonably good fit, and the money it generates is welcome, of course, and will help deliver some cool resources for you guys this year. But it is new and some of the kinks are still being ironed out. I want to assess certain aspects – like the impact on deliverability – which I can hopefully get a read on by taking this one-week break. And that also makes it the perfect time to hear your opinions on the whole sponsorship thing. So please feel free to Reply to this email – and be as frank as you want! Honesty is always appreciated. What's Up With Substack? Substack is the email platform du jour in certain circles, especially journalistic ones where it's having a similar impact with some as KDP had with authors. While it wasn't quite designed for how authors typically use newsletters, many of them have happily joined Substack – not just because of the cool factor/favorable press but more because of one great, huge perk. It's free. You don't pay Substack anything to use the platform, there's no limit on how many subscribers you can have, no feature restrictions. It's just… free. Any legit platform offering that kind of deal deserves serious consideration so let's take an indepth look today. Questions I will examine include: Is it really free? (Spoiler: yes.) Are there limitations vs. companies like MailerLite or ConvertKit? (Spoiler: very much so.) But are there other cool features Substack has which the competition doesn't? (Spoiler: actually, yes.) Does this mean we all should be on Substack? (Spoiler: hmmm, maybe not.) What about authors starting out or those on a limited budget? (Spoiler: depends – you will need to study its limitations and compare them vs. the drawbacks of alternative free plans.) Before we get into it in more depth, let me just say that I think Substack is cool. I'm not a user of the platform personally, but I'm glad that it exists and I think it all works great from the reader side of the fence. On top of that, the media buzz around it is teaching the importance of building a true platform to all sorts of journalists and freelance writers and content creators and that's a good thing. Plus, it is genuinely driving innovation in the email space – which is also very welcome as it can get a little stale sometimes. There are many pros to the platform – even aside from the stellar free offer. Substack definitely brings something fresh and interesting to the sector. However, Substack has clear limitations specifically as an email marketing service. That seems like an unfair charge as Substack was not quite designed as an email marketing service (EMS). Substack is… something else. Like the lovechild of an EMS and a blogging platform like Wordpress, and maybe dressed in some of Patreon's clothes – which is why it suits journalists and freelance writers so well. It's easy to use, and there's a clear path to monetizing your content without having to get technical or even build a website. But authors are using Substack as an EMS and asking me why I don't recommend it as an EMS – so that's how we will judge it here. In other words, can an author do the things she needs to do with Substack? In a word… no. Substack could conceivably address some or all of the following limitations and become a very interesting option for authors of all stripes, but at the moment there are critical things you simply can't do with Substack. And that goes back to who Substack was really built for – how you are supposed to use it. How Substack Makes Money Substack only charges you if you run a paid newsletter – which is the big USP of Substack as a platform. It was basically designed as a Patreon-for-journalists and users will often have a free tier for readers, and a paid tier. A typical Substack user might be a freelance food writer or a political journalist or a comedian perhaps. They often have a weekly free newsletter so that readers can get a taste of the content. And then they might have a paid tier where they send out a few more emails per week – typically charging about $5-$10 a month for this extra content. Some Substack writers get very creative within that system, but that's the standard approach. In other words, Substack created such a generous free tier to encourage users to build their followings on Substack – making it frictionless for readers and writers to gather there… but all with the ultimate goal of monetizing that audience with paid subscriptions. Substack then takes a pretty hefty cut from those subscriptions, which bankrolls the whole operation. It's hard to know how Substack feels about authors using its platform when they have no intention of ever using the paid subscription feature, or whether that will become an issue at some point in the future – I could see it going either way, honestly. Because authors generally use newsletters a little differently. For most of us at least, we use our newsletters to promote our books – and to keep readers engaged between releases. We don't usually want to monetize the newsletter itself – we usually want to keep that door wide open to attract as many readers as possible. Indeed, we often do the opposite, paying to get readers onto our list – whether that's indirectly through giving them free stuff like books, or slightly more directly buy spending money on Facebook ads or list builders or competitions or whatever. We tend to monetize our newsletter audience with book sales. Non-fiction authors, especially, might go further and add products, courses, sponsorships, ads, affiliate links, branding deals etc. into the monetizing mix. But that doesn't usually change the fundamental equation. We still want as many (quality) subscribers as possible. Our newsletter content is designed to sell things, rather than being the thing for sale. "Screw the philosophy," you might be thinking – with some justification – "it's free!" Fair point. Let's zoom in further on those limitations. Substack Limitations The free plan has no specific restrictions but Substack as a platform has many serious limitations if you try to use it for email marketing. These include: No automation. New subscribers get a welcome email which you can repurpose to deliver a free book or say whatever you like, but that's it. It's a one-shot deal. You can't do a proper welcome sequence – or indeed any other kind of automation at all. No segmentation. You can't split up your list and tag different kinds of subscribers, or send specific content to a certain group. No personalization. I don't do a lot of personalization myself but if you do, be aware you can't do it at Substack. It doesn't seem to have custom fields so the data you can have on subscribers will probably be very limited indeed. Limited newsletter design. It's quite bare bones, if that's important to you. Those are the most obvious limitations, but I would also have a question mark around deliverability, especially as it seems like you can't do things like authentication to improve things at your end – again, purely because it's not a proper email marketing service (EMS). A full-on EMS does a lot of technical stuff in the background to make sure your emails get delivered, and the best ones also help with getting them into Inbox too, rather than Promotions or Spam – and give you the tools to improve those rates further yourself. Substack seems to lag behind a bit there. Deliverability is the opposite of fun and sexy, but if people don't get your emails, everything else is kind of irrelevant. For me – and you might be different and that's fine! – those limitations, particularly around automation, segmentation. and deliverability, count it out a serious option. That might change though, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye on Substack. It's also worth noting that for the minority of authors who do actually want a paid subscription tier – whether that's to serialize fiction, or have more indepth non-fiction advice, or as a kind of Patreon replacement perhaps – then I should point out that Substack charges considerably higher fees than some competitors. (You really have to run the numbers yourself there because if you want to run a paid newsletter, ConvertKit charges about a quarter what Substack does in fees… but then you are also paying for a plan based on your subscriber count.) There is one other limitation perhaps worth mentioning for users with more... particular needs. Substack has no API – it's more of a walled garden than your standard EMS and integrations are virtually non-existent. You can embed a sign-up page on your website, thankfully, because you don't really want to point someone to your Substack page (always try and have your sign-up page at a place you truly own). This also limits it for more advanced users – you know, the ones who might actually have the audience to make money from paid subscriptions. For example, you can't connect it directly to Facebook to create Custom Audiences. Or connect it to something like Sparkloop to create a referral scheme. Granted, those are niche or higher-level features normally only found at premium services or in premium plans, but at the moment they don't even look to be possible future features at Substack, the way it's currently structured. And that's the paradox of Substack for me – as much as I really want to like it. Amazingly generous free plan for those starting out… with some killer limitations that will hamper your growth. Some genuinely fresh thinking… wedded to some way out of date ideas. And then super attractive cutting-edge features which are really attractive to larger operators… with some aspects they will struggle to live with. To be clear, this isn't because Substack is run by Mr. Random O'Reilly. It's because it wasn't quite built for what we specifically need to do. It's very good at what it was designed for – and if they take that philosophy into new areas and widen the user base, it could be amazing. But right now I think most authors are better off starting their lists elsewhere – i.e. at MailerLite, even with the new pricing. And some authors, non-fiction types especially, might be far better off going with ConvertKit if they want a more premium service with extra wotsits. I looked at MailerLite last week, Substack this week (by popular request!), and we'll do a deeper dive on those ConvertKit wotsits next week – as it is also bringing some innovation to the market. Let me end by saying that if you are a fan of Substack and it's working for you – that's the most important thing. Don't let me rain on your parade. Perhaps as you grow, and start bumping into some of those limitations, then consider the above. I can understand the attraction of an easy-to-use, genuinely free platform. Just remember to use a domain name email address when signing up, and use your own website to gather emails – so you can easily move to a dedicated email marketing service later on. (You will want to that eventually). And if you really want my advice, check out the free plans at a dedicated email marketing service instead. Those missing features aren't just nice-to-have – they really do help you grow. Everything's a trade-off, remember? Dave P.S. Writing music this week is Joan Armatrading with Love and Affection. Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​