I wasn't able to attend live, so I really appreciated having the recording to watch later. I found it especially clarifying and helpful when, in discussing newsletter platforms, you referred to Substack as the "major leagues" and recommended perhaps starting out on a more "minor league" platform. That really clicked for me! So, I just started my author newsletter on Buttondown with 100 subscribers. Thanks again!!
That's awesome Kristen! Congrats. I'm not aware of Buttondown-- are you enjoying it as a platform? Post the link to sign up here so people can subscribe ;)
The class was great and thanks to all the participants for bravely sharing your path to publication and reaching an audience. Courtney, you mentioned the idea of writing a column and that happens to be my magic wand wish. I'm looking for steps I might take to make this happen. The column would be about meditation— how to start a practice, how to maintain a practice, things one might expect to achieve by having a practice. I gotta work on this pitch I can see, but assuming I get that down, how do I proceed? Also, I have been writing a monthly newsletter (per your advice, Courtney) that goes out to about 500 subscribers via Constant Contact. I have been both shocked and delighted with the responses I receive from readers, but best of all this newsletter has encouraged me and given me confidence to write.
Hi Lori! When you first contacted me with this question, I originally misread your email and thought you said that having a "newsletter" was your magic wand wish. So I gave you advice on that, whoops! I'm grateful you reposted your question here so I could rejigger my answer. (for people who want the newsletter advice, hang tight.) What you would do to pitch a column is number one, you'd want to have some proof that you've published on this topic with some success and frequency before. You'd want to pitch them with a name (and possibly a subtitle) for the column, a word-count length for each article and an idea of how regularly they column would come out (which depends on their publishing schedule, not yours.) You'd also want to give them an idea of what the first year of the column would be like in terms of content. And what's the benefit for the outlet? Would you be bringing them new readers? Expanding their current reach? Bringing them readers in a different demographic? That's where you would start. I'm not sure how online it is but I had an advice column for the past year with a new magazine called "The B Mag" which is about life in the Berkshires-- my column, neighbor to neighbor, was a humor column geared toward helping transplants, um, not be an asshole, and how to be a good neighbor to the people who were already living here.
Now! To those of you who want the 101-how-to-get-a-newsletter started tips, here you go (my original advice to you which I now see was off topic because I need stronger glasses!):
What you would want to do is start writing on these topics outside of any newsletter-- social media, especially Facebook and IG, are great places to start. Test out the different messages and stories and angles you want to share on meditation-- see what resonates. Then start drafting ideas for say 3-6 months of content. You need a title and a subtitle and some idea of logo. You'll want an idea of the different sections/categories you'll have on your newsletter so you're not always writing about the same thing. Pick a hashtag or two that will get you posting something weekly. Basically, you want to devise a content calendar as to what you are publishing and when.
Personally, I think it's better to start a Newsletter on a platform like TinyLetter or Mailchimp or Constant Contact and then, if it takes off, to migrate with your followers to Substack (that's what I did) rather than to try and launch on Substack because it's such a crowded space.
You should be researching-- basically doing a competitive audit -- of the different platforms out there, and also do an audit of what people are writing about in your space so you can make sure you are offering something fresh that people will subscribe to.
Super helpful, Courtney. Thank you so much. The newsletter advice portion still seems pretty important because if the newsletter has some traction, an advice column would be more attractive.
By the way, in the class I felt a little left out not to be one of the cool kids on Substack. I don't really think I'm ready to migrate there yet, but hoping one day I'll have enough followers that it makes sense to make the jump.
Thanks for the very informative workshop last evening! Your distinctions helped me clarify the best platform for me as someone who prefers to be behind the scenes: blogging, newsletters, and writing. I started a blog on my editorial site a few years ago but wondered if this was the best venue since my blogging interests are more topical than advice oriented. I do the latter one-on-one as a developmental editor and mentor to other writers. I write literary-historical fiction and have earned some awards, no book deal yet, and have published translations of lit and poetry. Like others, I’m trying to streamline my interests under the umbrella. My topics are still broad, with no overarching category, but the topics are interrelated: history, multilingualism, landscape or place and consciousness, migration and generational trauma, visual arts, translation and interpretive processes in everyday communication, lost languages and dialects. Some or most of this is related to my formal studies in language, literature, and ecocriticism but also to my family and years as a traveler and expat in Italy and other countries. I’m also interested in uncovering the stories that emerge from interactions with place, particularly as a West-Coast transplant to Appalachia with its variety of history and craft traditions. Maybe Instagram for micro-tales of these explorations? Does anyone else care about this sort of thing? I’d appreciate any suggestions you might offer. Thanks. I look forward to your query workshop in April.
Thanks so much for taking the class! I think that blogging sounds like exactly the right avenue for you, and also book reviewing and writing profiles of people and/or authors working in the topics that interest you. Even if your blog isn't on Substack, I think you'd do well to use some branding techniques like having different thematic sections to your blog, using SEO in your headlines, and having a title and subtitle to your blog and a little logo to help people understand what they are going to get from being a subscriber.
If you write on vastly disparate topics and if the blogging platform allows for it, you can create "segments." That is, audiences can sign up for one, or a few, or all of the different sections that you write about, but if they are only interested in say, translation, and don't want to hear about Topic X, then they will only receive content about translation in their inboxes.
Thank you for this class Courtney! I'm 2/3rds in. I missed the live version, so I really appreciate the recording and the opportunity to ask questions. Mine is logistical. In trying to gather my existing platform/brand identity under an umbrella, I'm definitely feeling the chaos. The good news is that I see connection in most of it, and I have a few branded channels (including a youtube one) that do speak to who I am, but NOT as the writer I'm working to be in the future. I'm editing my memoir and I have an agent, but I don't feel ready to pitch publishers. As you say, sometimes it's right in front of us and we don't see it. After that meandering intro.... can you recommend anyone who does brand consulting, or who could work with me in sessions to grab the big picture of who I am, what I'm working on (writing and non) and help funnel it all into an actionable plan? Maybe it's a business coach? I don't even know. All suggestions welcome. Happy Weekend!
I do that actually! You can write me at thequerydoula@gmail.com We would basically do a brand audit of what you have going now versus what you hope to have/want/need to establish. Thanks for watching the class!
Hello there! Is your friend Kathleen from Publishing Confidential still offering this too? I subscribed tried reaching out to her as well, but I wonder if a friendly nudge might be in order? I feel like both of you must be inundated! I got inspired and cannot wait to get to work.
Hmm- I don't actually know her in person and this was something she offered via her Substack, not personally to me or anything. Have you tried direct messaging her? My understanding was that the brand audit was a perk offered to anyone who subscribed at the "founding" level to her Substack, it's not something she's offering outside of her Substack (I don't think?) I don't have any openings until June unfortunately!
Thanks for replying! I did subscribe and wrote to her twice. Seems like a great SS regardless, but that service is really what I was after. I'm happy to wait until June for you if you will be available. Let me know!
Oof, that's very frustrating, I'm sorry to hear that Annie! I hope it gets cleared up soon. My guess is that she got inundated with requests and overwhelmed? Let me know if it sorts itself-- I won't recommend that perk again until I hear that the ship is righted ;)
Hi Courtney, thank you for the class! Here's my question -
What (specifically) do you think people mean when they talk about forming relationships with booksellers as a writer? I've heard this for many years and in our class, but it's never felt appropriate to start chatting at the register. I've also read online that some people send letters to bookstores around the country re: their upcoming books in hopes that they'd be stocked, but I've also heard that this is unhelpful/annoying. What, to you, does it mean to have a relationship with a local independent bookstore (beyond attending events and purchasing books from them for years, as an anonymous customer)?
This is a great question. I'm going to answer in two different parts-- as a book buyer and an author. I'll tackle the author part first. When I first went on a book tour, my agent called me on day four and was like, "You're sending thank you notes to every store you visit, right?" I was like, um...I guess I am now? On every tour since then, I travel with stamps and postcards and send a thank you note for hosting me after each event I do. There are a handful of bookstores around the country where I've had really good events, and/or sales have been solid or I've struck up a nice relationship with a bookseller-- I might email those stores if I have a book coming out, let them know the book is coming-- but generally I don't need to do that because my publisher's sales rep lets them know, they get the publisher's catalogue. The bookstores that like me will ask my publishing house if I can come out for an event-- that's not something the author is supposed to take charge of, not at the Big Five level. I also just keep in touch with certain booksellers at certain shops, honestly, like friends. These are authentic, real relationships. Do they lead to the booksellers suggesting my books for Indie Next? Probably, sometimes. Does that keep me top of mind when they go to suggest a book to someone? Maybe! But mostly I'm just out there making nice relationships.
Now. As a book buyer. I live in the middle of nowhere-- my closest bookstore is 45 min. away. So the personal relationships I've built that are very close and solid are with the librarians at my local library. We talk books all the time, they order books I recommend, they have me in to moderate events. I've also developed a relationship with my closest local bookstore, Oblong. When I have a new book come out, they run a pre order campaign for me, and I make an effort to buy books from them at least every two months. I've also developed a good relationship with the people at Bookshop.org and a decent relationship with some of the people at Amazon. The online bookstores count, too!
Basically, the advice here is to not start cozying up to people when you need them and because you need them, but to form holistic meaningful relationships with librarians and booksellers long before you need anything. So when you do need something, you have good relationships to use!
Courtney, what an explosion of great ideas last night! (I'm also feeling relieved there are some to cull from my "should" list.) Thank you! I now have a list of concrete items to do in order to get the attention of an agent.
My main question is, after focusing all my writing energy and time into my novel -- spending ~10 years learning how to write a novel with a "sandwich" family -- I have zero else that I've published (except letters to the editor). My next steps are to get published in magazines, journals, even newspapers, but should I have a number of these types of publications before I submit my novel to agents? I don't want to waste my one chance to submit to some great agents (they say once a no, always a no, no?) Do the pieces have to be on-topic (please say no) to my coming-of-age sports story? (It's not about the sport, just like Rocky isn't about boxing.)
Thanks so much!
P.S. I loved seeing you brainstorming in action because my writing / ideas are scattered, except they're mostly sports related.
Hi Patty! So glad you could join us. I think you will really (really!) help your chances if you have some publications under your belt before you query. That way, when you get to your bio you can say, "In addition to being passionate about youths in sport, I also write about [topic x] and [topic Y] with recent bylines in Outlet 1, Outlet 2, and Outlet 3." And it wouldn't hurt if you started to pitch essays, op-eds, reviews, profiles, things of this ilk that have something to do-- even remotely-- with the themes of your book. You will probably enjoy our Pitching class next fall-- November 13th. https://www.courtneymaum.com/courses
Hi Courtney. When you pitch essays, op-eds, etc as you’ve suggested here, do you have them fully written? Ie are you sending them the complete piece as part of the pitch? Or a snippet? I’ve taken the domestika course on book proposals (not finished yet) and I get for the longer books you’re not sending the full manuscript, but what about these shorter pieces?
No, for the shorter pieces you just send a pitch, often in the style that the piece will be written in. I don't write the piece unless it gets accepted, personally! At least this is how it works for magazines and newspaper outlets. Literary magazines are different. I have a pitching class upcoming ...but not until autumn ;)
Even for an essay that's between 750 and 1000 words? Do you still pitch? I write some op/eds and the newspapers ask to send a completed essay often within the text of the email.
I do still pitch, personally, though some outlets, like Modern Love, want the pitch itself to read like the essay. For short pieces like that, it feels like you would write the essay first just to work it out and make sure you're excited about it, so pitching and also having the complete essay ready is a good move, especially if someone asks to see the essay.
Yes, I saw the pitching class. I'm planning on being on as many as I can. I really appreciate your teaching. I'm packing away all these great nuggets for when I'm ready. With the encouragement and knowledge I'm gaining through your teaching, I'm feeling more ready as I go. I'm one of those accumulate as much info before I leap kinda people. ;) But sometimes it's also ok to just get a good push.
Hi Courtney. I am still buzzing and and my brain is whirring from all the great tips and advice you provided to myself and others. I really appreciated the workshopping. I really enjoyed hearing your suggestions for all of the others who opened themselves up for the workshopping. I get so much from that type of guidance. Even in the answers to the people's questions below, it's really helpful.
I've been noodling and jotting down ideas for a sub-title for Life (un)Learned. I realized that I do have an unofficial tag line: "it's not you, it's what you learned along the way" but I'm not sure that's what you mean by a sub-title?
Here are a few options I'm thinking of. Open to any suggestions or thoughts you might have.
Life (un)Learned:
-Navigating Mid-Life with Mindfulness and Meaning
-Embracing Slow while Navigating Mid-Life Transitions
-A Recovering Workaholic Embracing Slow in Mid-Life
-Reflecting on Life Transitions from a Recovering CEO
-Embracing the Quiet Life from a Recovering Workaholic
-When Your Career is Your Life and it Ends (that feels rather dramatic! lol...)
-The myth of having it all, then losing what you have, only to find what you really needed all along.
I'm also going to reach out for some graphic design help to see about getting some branding bits and bobs to add to the newsletter. As a former PR and communications strategist, I love me some good branding! ;) Thanks again for everything. I'm looking forward to the next class in April.
So glad you could make it! Perhaps this is just me (having been in the corporate world myself) but I think having the "recovering CEO" thing somewhere is super selling and could lead to some engagement, new followers, and growth. Thusly, I like "Reflections on Life Transitions from a Recovering CEO" or "A Recovering CEO on life transitions" quite a lot. Or "A recovering CEO learns to embrace slowness in mid life." Not sure if you're a video person (I'm not!) but funny videos that show the pre you and the now you would do well on social media. Like, POV: How I used to do breakfast as a CEO (and there's no breakfast) versus the you today who sits down and eats eggs or what have you... so glad you are feeling inspired!
Most helpful. Thanks Courtney. And, oh my goodness, the video idea is bloody brilliant! Alas, I am not a video person. Although it's funny because in my welcome email that goes out to subscribers I do have an old me photo, versus new me photo. I was going to use that as my jumping off page (or hero page I believe they are calling it on Substack) as I re-vamp my Substack. Perhaps as I get braver or venture back to social media, I'll try the video thing. Although it scares me! How do people make those edits and put it all to music and then add words and text and and and???😅 🤪Thanks again!
Kim! LOVE your idea! I'm a recovering corporate type, also. I wonder if you couldn't stage yourself wearing the same CEO suit in the 'BK' Before Kim portion of the video and then your 'now' look for the 'AK' After Kim portion. Doing a split-screen grab of the before/after image (to use as your cover/thumbnail on your IG feed) that shows the same suit in every video will eventually be a shorthand to your viewers that they're about to see your super funny before/after videos. Also, I've seen strong author content creators like Hadley Vlahos (@nurse.hadley on IG) use filters really well to show themselves as other people/in other situations. Perhaps there's a suit filter you could find to recreate your BK persona. Good luck! Can't wait to see it come alive!
😂 oh man I wish I had tech skills. It would be super fun to play around with this. I will have to consult my daughter on all this. She is a pro, but she also runs her own business and has two toddlers so I may end up getting a huge eye roll. Like “mom, what are you doing??” 🙄 I’ll tell her I’m building my platform. 🙋♀️
I don't know how they do it because I tried but it took so long! You could simply use before and after pictures as a lead in to your posts, or funny captions. Nora McInerney is a nice model for people who use IG without using editing-- she just goes for it, doesn't make a huge fuss about what she looks like. She says what she wants to say with a lot of humor and heart. I love her social media.
I'll go check her out. IG is the only thing I do still have, but only post my latest newsletter photo/quote with a "link in bio", so it's sparse at best now. Plus I locked it so it's not public. I suppose I could venture to change that now that I'm starting to come out of my self-imposed isolation a bit more. Leave the video editing for the young'ens. (Or get my daughter to show me, she's 35 and she's a pro at it!)
I am scrolling and trolling her now. She has PINK hair!! I wish I could attach photos to comments. When I was first retreating from CEO life, the first thing I did was dye my hair pink. I was so miserable but that one act of defiance made me SO happy. I love her already and I don't even know her yet. Thanks for this recommendation.
Her books and podcast are also so so great. You should definitely write about dying your hair pink- pitch it to a national outlet like Cosmo or O the Oprah Mag or Real Simple or one of the lady mags!
Thank you, Courtney for packing so much into a 'mere' three hours! :-) Honestly, it's going to take some time for me to unpack and 'wear' all the important content. So I may have questions later that I'll try to sneak in and hope you get time to consider.
But for now, I just wanted to say how incredibly grateful I am that you made me - as a man - feel welcome. So many workshops I've attended seem eager to exclude any masculine input, so I've become attuned to the times when it feels as if I am welcome. And you certainly did that.
Hey there everyone! I too really loved the class last night, and the community energy was really lovely. I was very moved by the stories I heard from all of you. My question spins off something you said about hiring people to help make sure your Substack has good SEO, Courtney, and that all the tech pieces are working as well as they can. I understand that you might not want to make a specific recommendation of the person you worked with (but if you don't mind, I'd love to know who it was) but if you could give some advice about how to find these folks, and how to get a kind of tech "read" on how to improve a newsletter and make it more "findable" both on and off Substack, that would be very helpful.
Happy to recommend the amazing Miller at https://bellflowermedia.com Miller was recommended to me by a friend when I looked for some newsletter help. Generally if you have friends in tech or media or even advertising they can usually name people who can help. My gal pal Nora Geiss might also be able to help https://www.superpremium.com
Thank you for the class and for this Q&A, Courtney! I appreciated the bit of time we spent on titles and subtitles, which is something I struggle with (especially subtitles), and I am wondering if you have any tips on how you sharpen your titles, subtitles, or SEO. (And maybe how you choose hashtags, too.)
For context, I write a Substack called Wild Story where I share essays from the place where a life outdoors meets the creative journey. Some of the stories are wild in the sense that they revolve around wild places, rivers, mountains, and backcountry (mis)adventures. Some wrestle with the creative process. Some are about radically paying attention, following deep knowing, becoming more ourselves – in other words, staking a claim as a wild being in a society that would have us forget that’s who we are. (This last one is my umbrella!)
I'm still figuring out how to optimize my titles so they nail what the heart of the post is really about, and optimize my posts so that they are easily findable online and more likely to turn up in different forums/searches. Any tips or resources you have would be greatly appreciated!
My best advice is...this might not sound nice but-- is to make your titles less lyrical and poetic and more click baity. It can feel cheesy at first, but it really helps build engagement. So a title/sub title like you had "Some Thoughts on Fog: When you can't see the way out, you have to draw your own map." The word "thoughts" here makes it sound like the post might be a bit rambling-- that the piece won't be cohesive (which isn't the case!). A tweak like "How Fog Brings Clarity: 5 things you can learn about the artistic process from mist" or something similar will for sure get people clicking. Using numbers (10 top tips, 5 best ways to...) again, will feel cheesy, but it works, and after all, what you want is your perfect readers to find you. What I recommend is printing out the names of your titles and subtitles and experimenting on how to make them sound snazzier, more clickbaity. I know clickbait sounds like a negative word-- but we're aiming for engagement here. Make sense? And for your tagline "Wild Story: Where a life outdoors meets the creative journey." That could be tweaked also to better reflect what it is you are an expert in and what people can count on you to deliver/what they can get from you. Thanks for being in the class!
Thanks so much for an amazing class, Courtney (and thanks to all the other participants for your kind words)! I love the idea of categorizing my posts into sections, possibly their own illustrations. You also mentioned that you thought my substack could use a subtitle, and I totally agree - would that replace the description on the main page, or be part of the title, or something else?
I'd recommend putting the tagline under the logo you've already developed-- shoot, I can't include a picture here, I'll DM you. And this might be personal to me, but I bristle against "thoughts" in the description of a newsletter because it makes it sound (to me!) like it's going to be unorganized and kind of all over the place and not well thought out-- which isn't the case with your content!
Thank you for last night's workshop! I've been thinking of becoming a paid subscriber to your newsletter for awhile and I finally just subscribed so I can ask a question. :D Also excited for all the extra content to come!
I'm still not sure how to manage my "umbrella" -- I am currently querying a memoir about recovering from a major car accident and how that led to my recovery from an eating disorder and helped repair my relationship with my mom. It has surprisingly light and funny moments but still took a lot out of me to write. As a lighter pivot, I started writing a Substack about dance (themoves.substack.com) which I truly love writing every month, but has little to do with my book. Last night in pondering my umbrella I wrote "human body experiences???" HA but also started wondering: should I expand my silly fun Substack so it can also be relevant to my book? And how would I do that without disrupting my audience (which is tiny so maybe that's OK)?
Thanks for any thoughts you can share! I'm looking forward to going through the extensive notes I took last night.
Thanks so much for upgrading to paid-- I hope you find it beneficial! What a great question. I'm sorry to learn about your car accident but glad it put you on a recovery path. The writer Rebecca Makkai has a Substack where she often writes about craft, but frequently writes about her obsession with Zillow. What I think you can do is tweak the title and subtitle and description of your substack just a bit - maybe you call it "Dancing with Myself" and the subtitle makes it clear that yours is a newsletter about the body: the joy of the body, the challenges of bodies....then what I would do is build out sections, one section should be "dance critiques" or something because you seem to do a lot of that, and they seem super funny. And then build out other sections to cover other topics you might right about, including the serious ones to support your book. And finally, you want to come up with some kind of calendar, something like "Night Moves" (a category where you critique dance performances from cheesy 80 moves at night or something, this could be video) comes out X day of the week at X time, and 1-2 a month you have an essay publishing from a section that is related to your book...does this makes sense, feel doable?
Yes, this totally makes sense! I really love my title of The Moves, but I can see how an all-encompassing one might be clearer... I will need to mull that one over. I could definitely add sections to separate out different types of content (omg Night Moves!!). I only post monthly currently, but could see myself posting a more often if it's a slightly different topic. Thank you!
Sorry I have one more question—which is that I am worried I locked myself into a type of substack (eg offering writing prompts to folks dealing with challenging things like loss) before knowing if that’s what would resonate with people. I have about 7k subscribers and I’d love to know what they want more or less of. Any thoughts on how best to survey your readership?
Definitely! Substack offers polls! Simply poll your readers on the content they want (you can create your own categories and have them vote) OR create an AMA and open the comments to everyone and have people write about what they want more of, less of, and so forth! 7K subscribers is a lot so you should get great feedback.
The class was fantastically helpful Courtney! Thank you! My question is around paying vs not paying. Because I started my substack around my book release last March I didn’t offer a paid option bc I was hoping folks would buy a book and I felt weird asking too much of people. Also I’ve been using it more like an author newsletter and thus haven’t charged. I’m curious about your thoughts here. Is it worth using it that way? Or as you said last night, substack isn’t the place? I guess I’m just wondering if you’re not charging, can you do whatever you want within reason…
Well, if you have 7K subscribers whatever you are doing is certainly working! In addition to asking for preorders, I'd suggest you run giveaways, offer incentives for people posting 5 star reviews, calls to action of this sort. You can also do a preorder campaign where if people show you proof of a pre order you offer them something: a comped subscription for whatever amount of time, an editing session, naming a character in a next book after them...so many things to choose from. If your newsletter is more like an author newsletter, I'm not sure I would paywall content at this time. You can start paywalling once and if you have content that people would want to pay for-- most people don't want to pay for content that is in the self promotion sphere, you know?
Ahh this is so helpful. Thank you!! Yes, my instinct was not to commit myself to yet another “job” a.k.a. content creation schedule, which is how it would feel if I started charging for this, because I am already overwhelmed by what is currently on my plate. So I think perhaps through paperback launch I do not charge and I do what you say! Which is continue to offer free writing support to folks in grief, but also use my Substack as a way to connect with readers and hopefully get some more reviews, etc. Maybe down the line I can think about what I would be offering that no one else is offering, and also what I would be excited to be writing!
done!
Or I could just wait until June, if you feel comfortable taking on a new audit. :)
Email me what you feel you need at thequerydoula@gmail.com when you get a chance, thanks!
Did it come through? Just making sure. ;)
Thank you for nudging as it was in my spam! I am prepping for the query class tonight but I will try to respond by the week's end.
I wasn't able to attend live, so I really appreciated having the recording to watch later. I found it especially clarifying and helpful when, in discussing newsletter platforms, you referred to Substack as the "major leagues" and recommended perhaps starting out on a more "minor league" platform. That really clicked for me! So, I just started my author newsletter on Buttondown with 100 subscribers. Thanks again!!
That's awesome Kristen! Congrats. I'm not aware of Buttondown-- are you enjoying it as a platform? Post the link to sign up here so people can subscribe ;)
https://buttondown.email/Kristen :)
So far so good! It is a VERY simple and straightforward platform, which is precisely what I wanted.
I like it! It looks great.
The class was great and thanks to all the participants for bravely sharing your path to publication and reaching an audience. Courtney, you mentioned the idea of writing a column and that happens to be my magic wand wish. I'm looking for steps I might take to make this happen. The column would be about meditation— how to start a practice, how to maintain a practice, things one might expect to achieve by having a practice. I gotta work on this pitch I can see, but assuming I get that down, how do I proceed? Also, I have been writing a monthly newsletter (per your advice, Courtney) that goes out to about 500 subscribers via Constant Contact. I have been both shocked and delighted with the responses I receive from readers, but best of all this newsletter has encouraged me and given me confidence to write.
Hi Lori! When you first contacted me with this question, I originally misread your email and thought you said that having a "newsletter" was your magic wand wish. So I gave you advice on that, whoops! I'm grateful you reposted your question here so I could rejigger my answer. (for people who want the newsletter advice, hang tight.) What you would do to pitch a column is number one, you'd want to have some proof that you've published on this topic with some success and frequency before. You'd want to pitch them with a name (and possibly a subtitle) for the column, a word-count length for each article and an idea of how regularly they column would come out (which depends on their publishing schedule, not yours.) You'd also want to give them an idea of what the first year of the column would be like in terms of content. And what's the benefit for the outlet? Would you be bringing them new readers? Expanding their current reach? Bringing them readers in a different demographic? That's where you would start. I'm not sure how online it is but I had an advice column for the past year with a new magazine called "The B Mag" which is about life in the Berkshires-- my column, neighbor to neighbor, was a humor column geared toward helping transplants, um, not be an asshole, and how to be a good neighbor to the people who were already living here.
Now! To those of you who want the 101-how-to-get-a-newsletter started tips, here you go (my original advice to you which I now see was off topic because I need stronger glasses!):
What you would want to do is start writing on these topics outside of any newsletter-- social media, especially Facebook and IG, are great places to start. Test out the different messages and stories and angles you want to share on meditation-- see what resonates. Then start drafting ideas for say 3-6 months of content. You need a title and a subtitle and some idea of logo. You'll want an idea of the different sections/categories you'll have on your newsletter so you're not always writing about the same thing. Pick a hashtag or two that will get you posting something weekly. Basically, you want to devise a content calendar as to what you are publishing and when.
Personally, I think it's better to start a Newsletter on a platform like TinyLetter or Mailchimp or Constant Contact and then, if it takes off, to migrate with your followers to Substack (that's what I did) rather than to try and launch on Substack because it's such a crowded space.
You should be researching-- basically doing a competitive audit -- of the different platforms out there, and also do an audit of what people are writing about in your space so you can make sure you are offering something fresh that people will subscribe to.
Super helpful, Courtney. Thank you so much. The newsletter advice portion still seems pretty important because if the newsletter has some traction, an advice column would be more attractive.
By the way, in the class I felt a little left out not to be one of the cool kids on Substack. I don't really think I'm ready to migrate there yet, but hoping one day I'll have enough followers that it makes sense to make the jump.
Courtney,
Thanks for the very informative workshop last evening! Your distinctions helped me clarify the best platform for me as someone who prefers to be behind the scenes: blogging, newsletters, and writing. I started a blog on my editorial site a few years ago but wondered if this was the best venue since my blogging interests are more topical than advice oriented. I do the latter one-on-one as a developmental editor and mentor to other writers. I write literary-historical fiction and have earned some awards, no book deal yet, and have published translations of lit and poetry. Like others, I’m trying to streamline my interests under the umbrella. My topics are still broad, with no overarching category, but the topics are interrelated: history, multilingualism, landscape or place and consciousness, migration and generational trauma, visual arts, translation and interpretive processes in everyday communication, lost languages and dialects. Some or most of this is related to my formal studies in language, literature, and ecocriticism but also to my family and years as a traveler and expat in Italy and other countries. I’m also interested in uncovering the stories that emerge from interactions with place, particularly as a West-Coast transplant to Appalachia with its variety of history and craft traditions. Maybe Instagram for micro-tales of these explorations? Does anyone else care about this sort of thing? I’d appreciate any suggestions you might offer. Thanks. I look forward to your query workshop in April.
Best,
Greta
Thanks so much for taking the class! I think that blogging sounds like exactly the right avenue for you, and also book reviewing and writing profiles of people and/or authors working in the topics that interest you. Even if your blog isn't on Substack, I think you'd do well to use some branding techniques like having different thematic sections to your blog, using SEO in your headlines, and having a title and subtitle to your blog and a little logo to help people understand what they are going to get from being a subscriber.
If you write on vastly disparate topics and if the blogging platform allows for it, you can create "segments." That is, audiences can sign up for one, or a few, or all of the different sections that you write about, but if they are only interested in say, translation, and don't want to hear about Topic X, then they will only receive content about translation in their inboxes.
Make sense?
Good luck-- have fun with it!
Very helpful advice. and insights. Thank you so much, Courtney!
I'm definitely interested in all of the topics you mention and want to read your work!!
Thank you, Molly! I'd love to share, soon hopefully.
Thank you for this class Courtney! I'm 2/3rds in. I missed the live version, so I really appreciate the recording and the opportunity to ask questions. Mine is logistical. In trying to gather my existing platform/brand identity under an umbrella, I'm definitely feeling the chaos. The good news is that I see connection in most of it, and I have a few branded channels (including a youtube one) that do speak to who I am, but NOT as the writer I'm working to be in the future. I'm editing my memoir and I have an agent, but I don't feel ready to pitch publishers. As you say, sometimes it's right in front of us and we don't see it. After that meandering intro.... can you recommend anyone who does brand consulting, or who could work with me in sessions to grab the big picture of who I am, what I'm working on (writing and non) and help funnel it all into an actionable plan? Maybe it's a business coach? I don't even know. All suggestions welcome. Happy Weekend!
I do that actually! You can write me at thequerydoula@gmail.com We would basically do a brand audit of what you have going now versus what you hope to have/want/need to establish. Thanks for watching the class!
Hello there! Is your friend Kathleen from Publishing Confidential still offering this too? I subscribed tried reaching out to her as well, but I wonder if a friendly nudge might be in order? I feel like both of you must be inundated! I got inspired and cannot wait to get to work.
Hmm- I don't actually know her in person and this was something she offered via her Substack, not personally to me or anything. Have you tried direct messaging her? My understanding was that the brand audit was a perk offered to anyone who subscribed at the "founding" level to her Substack, it's not something she's offering outside of her Substack (I don't think?) I don't have any openings until June unfortunately!
Thanks for replying! I did subscribe and wrote to her twice. Seems like a great SS regardless, but that service is really what I was after. I'm happy to wait until June for you if you will be available. Let me know!
Oof, that's very frustrating, I'm sorry to hear that Annie! I hope it gets cleared up soon. My guess is that she got inundated with requests and overwhelmed? Let me know if it sorts itself-- I won't recommend that perk again until I hear that the ship is righted ;)
I know you do! That was a big waste of words asking if you were free, or have a clone/associate. Emailing now. Thank you!
Hi Courtney, thank you for the class! Here's my question -
What (specifically) do you think people mean when they talk about forming relationships with booksellers as a writer? I've heard this for many years and in our class, but it's never felt appropriate to start chatting at the register. I've also read online that some people send letters to bookstores around the country re: their upcoming books in hopes that they'd be stocked, but I've also heard that this is unhelpful/annoying. What, to you, does it mean to have a relationship with a local independent bookstore (beyond attending events and purchasing books from them for years, as an anonymous customer)?
This is a great question. I'm going to answer in two different parts-- as a book buyer and an author. I'll tackle the author part first. When I first went on a book tour, my agent called me on day four and was like, "You're sending thank you notes to every store you visit, right?" I was like, um...I guess I am now? On every tour since then, I travel with stamps and postcards and send a thank you note for hosting me after each event I do. There are a handful of bookstores around the country where I've had really good events, and/or sales have been solid or I've struck up a nice relationship with a bookseller-- I might email those stores if I have a book coming out, let them know the book is coming-- but generally I don't need to do that because my publisher's sales rep lets them know, they get the publisher's catalogue. The bookstores that like me will ask my publishing house if I can come out for an event-- that's not something the author is supposed to take charge of, not at the Big Five level. I also just keep in touch with certain booksellers at certain shops, honestly, like friends. These are authentic, real relationships. Do they lead to the booksellers suggesting my books for Indie Next? Probably, sometimes. Does that keep me top of mind when they go to suggest a book to someone? Maybe! But mostly I'm just out there making nice relationships.
Now. As a book buyer. I live in the middle of nowhere-- my closest bookstore is 45 min. away. So the personal relationships I've built that are very close and solid are with the librarians at my local library. We talk books all the time, they order books I recommend, they have me in to moderate events. I've also developed a relationship with my closest local bookstore, Oblong. When I have a new book come out, they run a pre order campaign for me, and I make an effort to buy books from them at least every two months. I've also developed a good relationship with the people at Bookshop.org and a decent relationship with some of the people at Amazon. The online bookstores count, too!
Basically, the advice here is to not start cozying up to people when you need them and because you need them, but to form holistic meaningful relationships with librarians and booksellers long before you need anything. So when you do need something, you have good relationships to use!
Wow! Thank you so much!! This makes sense and is exactly what I was hoping to understand :)
Courtney, what an explosion of great ideas last night! (I'm also feeling relieved there are some to cull from my "should" list.) Thank you! I now have a list of concrete items to do in order to get the attention of an agent.
My main question is, after focusing all my writing energy and time into my novel -- spending ~10 years learning how to write a novel with a "sandwich" family -- I have zero else that I've published (except letters to the editor). My next steps are to get published in magazines, journals, even newspapers, but should I have a number of these types of publications before I submit my novel to agents? I don't want to waste my one chance to submit to some great agents (they say once a no, always a no, no?) Do the pieces have to be on-topic (please say no) to my coming-of-age sports story? (It's not about the sport, just like Rocky isn't about boxing.)
Thanks so much!
P.S. I loved seeing you brainstorming in action because my writing / ideas are scattered, except they're mostly sports related.
Hi Patty! So glad you could join us. I think you will really (really!) help your chances if you have some publications under your belt before you query. That way, when you get to your bio you can say, "In addition to being passionate about youths in sport, I also write about [topic x] and [topic Y] with recent bylines in Outlet 1, Outlet 2, and Outlet 3." And it wouldn't hurt if you started to pitch essays, op-eds, reviews, profiles, things of this ilk that have something to do-- even remotely-- with the themes of your book. You will probably enjoy our Pitching class next fall-- November 13th. https://www.courtneymaum.com/courses
Hi Courtney. When you pitch essays, op-eds, etc as you’ve suggested here, do you have them fully written? Ie are you sending them the complete piece as part of the pitch? Or a snippet? I’ve taken the domestika course on book proposals (not finished yet) and I get for the longer books you’re not sending the full manuscript, but what about these shorter pieces?
No, for the shorter pieces you just send a pitch, often in the style that the piece will be written in. I don't write the piece unless it gets accepted, personally! At least this is how it works for magazines and newspaper outlets. Literary magazines are different. I have a pitching class upcoming ...but not until autumn ;)
Even for an essay that's between 750 and 1000 words? Do you still pitch? I write some op/eds and the newspapers ask to send a completed essay often within the text of the email.
I do still pitch, personally, though some outlets, like Modern Love, want the pitch itself to read like the essay. For short pieces like that, it feels like you would write the essay first just to work it out and make sure you're excited about it, so pitching and also having the complete essay ready is a good move, especially if someone asks to see the essay.
Yes, I saw the pitching class. I'm planning on being on as many as I can. I really appreciate your teaching. I'm packing away all these great nuggets for when I'm ready. With the encouragement and knowledge I'm gaining through your teaching, I'm feeling more ready as I go. I'm one of those accumulate as much info before I leap kinda people. ;) But sometimes it's also ok to just get a good push.
Love this! It's so important to take time and to be patient. Few people do that anymore!
Hi Courtney. I am still buzzing and and my brain is whirring from all the great tips and advice you provided to myself and others. I really appreciated the workshopping. I really enjoyed hearing your suggestions for all of the others who opened themselves up for the workshopping. I get so much from that type of guidance. Even in the answers to the people's questions below, it's really helpful.
I've been noodling and jotting down ideas for a sub-title for Life (un)Learned. I realized that I do have an unofficial tag line: "it's not you, it's what you learned along the way" but I'm not sure that's what you mean by a sub-title?
Here are a few options I'm thinking of. Open to any suggestions or thoughts you might have.
Life (un)Learned:
-Navigating Mid-Life with Mindfulness and Meaning
-Embracing Slow while Navigating Mid-Life Transitions
-A Recovering Workaholic Embracing Slow in Mid-Life
-Reflecting on Life Transitions from a Recovering CEO
-Embracing the Quiet Life from a Recovering Workaholic
-When Your Career is Your Life and it Ends (that feels rather dramatic! lol...)
-The myth of having it all, then losing what you have, only to find what you really needed all along.
I'm also going to reach out for some graphic design help to see about getting some branding bits and bobs to add to the newsletter. As a former PR and communications strategist, I love me some good branding! ;) Thanks again for everything. I'm looking forward to the next class in April.
So glad you could make it! Perhaps this is just me (having been in the corporate world myself) but I think having the "recovering CEO" thing somewhere is super selling and could lead to some engagement, new followers, and growth. Thusly, I like "Reflections on Life Transitions from a Recovering CEO" or "A Recovering CEO on life transitions" quite a lot. Or "A recovering CEO learns to embrace slowness in mid life." Not sure if you're a video person (I'm not!) but funny videos that show the pre you and the now you would do well on social media. Like, POV: How I used to do breakfast as a CEO (and there's no breakfast) versus the you today who sits down and eats eggs or what have you... so glad you are feeling inspired!
Most helpful. Thanks Courtney. And, oh my goodness, the video idea is bloody brilliant! Alas, I am not a video person. Although it's funny because in my welcome email that goes out to subscribers I do have an old me photo, versus new me photo. I was going to use that as my jumping off page (or hero page I believe they are calling it on Substack) as I re-vamp my Substack. Perhaps as I get braver or venture back to social media, I'll try the video thing. Although it scares me! How do people make those edits and put it all to music and then add words and text and and and???😅 🤪Thanks again!
Kim! LOVE your idea! I'm a recovering corporate type, also. I wonder if you couldn't stage yourself wearing the same CEO suit in the 'BK' Before Kim portion of the video and then your 'now' look for the 'AK' After Kim portion. Doing a split-screen grab of the before/after image (to use as your cover/thumbnail on your IG feed) that shows the same suit in every video will eventually be a shorthand to your viewers that they're about to see your super funny before/after videos. Also, I've seen strong author content creators like Hadley Vlahos (@nurse.hadley on IG) use filters really well to show themselves as other people/in other situations. Perhaps there's a suit filter you could find to recreate your BK persona. Good luck! Can't wait to see it come alive!
😂 oh man I wish I had tech skills. It would be super fun to play around with this. I will have to consult my daughter on all this. She is a pro, but she also runs her own business and has two toddlers so I may end up getting a huge eye roll. Like “mom, what are you doing??” 🙄 I’ll tell her I’m building my platform. 🙋♀️
I don't know how they do it because I tried but it took so long! You could simply use before and after pictures as a lead in to your posts, or funny captions. Nora McInerney is a nice model for people who use IG without using editing-- she just goes for it, doesn't make a huge fuss about what she looks like. She says what she wants to say with a lot of humor and heart. I love her social media.
I'll go check her out. IG is the only thing I do still have, but only post my latest newsletter photo/quote with a "link in bio", so it's sparse at best now. Plus I locked it so it's not public. I suppose I could venture to change that now that I'm starting to come out of my self-imposed isolation a bit more. Leave the video editing for the young'ens. (Or get my daughter to show me, she's 35 and she's a pro at it!)
Rope that daughter of yours in, for sure!
I am scrolling and trolling her now. She has PINK hair!! I wish I could attach photos to comments. When I was first retreating from CEO life, the first thing I did was dye my hair pink. I was so miserable but that one act of defiance made me SO happy. I love her already and I don't even know her yet. Thanks for this recommendation.
Her books and podcast are also so so great. You should definitely write about dying your hair pink- pitch it to a national outlet like Cosmo or O the Oprah Mag or Real Simple or one of the lady mags!
Thank you, Courtney for packing so much into a 'mere' three hours! :-) Honestly, it's going to take some time for me to unpack and 'wear' all the important content. So I may have questions later that I'll try to sneak in and hope you get time to consider.
But for now, I just wanted to say how incredibly grateful I am that you made me - as a man - feel welcome. So many workshops I've attended seem eager to exclude any masculine input, so I've become attuned to the times when it feels as if I am welcome. And you certainly did that.
What a nice thing to say, thank you so much! I'm glad that you enjoyed yourself.
Hey there everyone! I too really loved the class last night, and the community energy was really lovely. I was very moved by the stories I heard from all of you. My question spins off something you said about hiring people to help make sure your Substack has good SEO, Courtney, and that all the tech pieces are working as well as they can. I understand that you might not want to make a specific recommendation of the person you worked with (but if you don't mind, I'd love to know who it was) but if you could give some advice about how to find these folks, and how to get a kind of tech "read" on how to improve a newsletter and make it more "findable" both on and off Substack, that would be very helpful.
Happy to recommend the amazing Miller at https://bellflowermedia.com Miller was recommended to me by a friend when I looked for some newsletter help. Generally if you have friends in tech or media or even advertising they can usually name people who can help. My gal pal Nora Geiss might also be able to help https://www.superpremium.com
Excellent, thank you so much!
Thank you for the class and for this Q&A, Courtney! I appreciated the bit of time we spent on titles and subtitles, which is something I struggle with (especially subtitles), and I am wondering if you have any tips on how you sharpen your titles, subtitles, or SEO. (And maybe how you choose hashtags, too.)
For context, I write a Substack called Wild Story where I share essays from the place where a life outdoors meets the creative journey. Some of the stories are wild in the sense that they revolve around wild places, rivers, mountains, and backcountry (mis)adventures. Some wrestle with the creative process. Some are about radically paying attention, following deep knowing, becoming more ourselves – in other words, staking a claim as a wild being in a society that would have us forget that’s who we are. (This last one is my umbrella!)
I'm still figuring out how to optimize my titles so they nail what the heart of the post is really about, and optimize my posts so that they are easily findable online and more likely to turn up in different forums/searches. Any tips or resources you have would be greatly appreciated!
Your content appeals to me, Jenny!
My best advice is...this might not sound nice but-- is to make your titles less lyrical and poetic and more click baity. It can feel cheesy at first, but it really helps build engagement. So a title/sub title like you had "Some Thoughts on Fog: When you can't see the way out, you have to draw your own map." The word "thoughts" here makes it sound like the post might be a bit rambling-- that the piece won't be cohesive (which isn't the case!). A tweak like "How Fog Brings Clarity: 5 things you can learn about the artistic process from mist" or something similar will for sure get people clicking. Using numbers (10 top tips, 5 best ways to...) again, will feel cheesy, but it works, and after all, what you want is your perfect readers to find you. What I recommend is printing out the names of your titles and subtitles and experimenting on how to make them sound snazzier, more clickbaity. I know clickbait sounds like a negative word-- but we're aiming for engagement here. Make sense? And for your tagline "Wild Story: Where a life outdoors meets the creative journey." That could be tweaked also to better reflect what it is you are an expert in and what people can count on you to deliver/what they can get from you. Thanks for being in the class!
This is great feedback. Thank you!
Thanks so much for an amazing class, Courtney (and thanks to all the other participants for your kind words)! I love the idea of categorizing my posts into sections, possibly their own illustrations. You also mentioned that you thought my substack could use a subtitle, and I totally agree - would that replace the description on the main page, or be part of the title, or something else?
I'd recommend putting the tagline under the logo you've already developed-- shoot, I can't include a picture here, I'll DM you. And this might be personal to me, but I bristle against "thoughts" in the description of a newsletter because it makes it sound (to me!) like it's going to be unorganized and kind of all over the place and not well thought out-- which isn't the case with your content!
Thank you for last night's workshop! I've been thinking of becoming a paid subscriber to your newsletter for awhile and I finally just subscribed so I can ask a question. :D Also excited for all the extra content to come!
I'm still not sure how to manage my "umbrella" -- I am currently querying a memoir about recovering from a major car accident and how that led to my recovery from an eating disorder and helped repair my relationship with my mom. It has surprisingly light and funny moments but still took a lot out of me to write. As a lighter pivot, I started writing a Substack about dance (themoves.substack.com) which I truly love writing every month, but has little to do with my book. Last night in pondering my umbrella I wrote "human body experiences???" HA but also started wondering: should I expand my silly fun Substack so it can also be relevant to my book? And how would I do that without disrupting my audience (which is tiny so maybe that's OK)?
Thanks for any thoughts you can share! I'm looking forward to going through the extensive notes I took last night.
Thanks so much for upgrading to paid-- I hope you find it beneficial! What a great question. I'm sorry to learn about your car accident but glad it put you on a recovery path. The writer Rebecca Makkai has a Substack where she often writes about craft, but frequently writes about her obsession with Zillow. What I think you can do is tweak the title and subtitle and description of your substack just a bit - maybe you call it "Dancing with Myself" and the subtitle makes it clear that yours is a newsletter about the body: the joy of the body, the challenges of bodies....then what I would do is build out sections, one section should be "dance critiques" or something because you seem to do a lot of that, and they seem super funny. And then build out other sections to cover other topics you might right about, including the serious ones to support your book. And finally, you want to come up with some kind of calendar, something like "Night Moves" (a category where you critique dance performances from cheesy 80 moves at night or something, this could be video) comes out X day of the week at X time, and 1-2 a month you have an essay publishing from a section that is related to your book...does this makes sense, feel doable?
Yes, this totally makes sense! I really love my title of The Moves, but I can see how an all-encompassing one might be clearer... I will need to mull that one over. I could definitely add sections to separate out different types of content (omg Night Moves!!). I only post monthly currently, but could see myself posting a more often if it's a slightly different topic. Thank you!
I love "Night Moves" for a dance section.
Sorry I have one more question—which is that I am worried I locked myself into a type of substack (eg offering writing prompts to folks dealing with challenging things like loss) before knowing if that’s what would resonate with people. I have about 7k subscribers and I’d love to know what they want more or less of. Any thoughts on how best to survey your readership?
Definitely! Substack offers polls! Simply poll your readers on the content they want (you can create your own categories and have them vote) OR create an AMA and open the comments to everyone and have people write about what they want more of, less of, and so forth! 7K subscribers is a lot so you should get great feedback.
The class was fantastically helpful Courtney! Thank you! My question is around paying vs not paying. Because I started my substack around my book release last March I didn’t offer a paid option bc I was hoping folks would buy a book and I felt weird asking too much of people. Also I’ve been using it more like an author newsletter and thus haven’t charged. I’m curious about your thoughts here. Is it worth using it that way? Or as you said last night, substack isn’t the place? I guess I’m just wondering if you’re not charging, can you do whatever you want within reason…
Well, if you have 7K subscribers whatever you are doing is certainly working! In addition to asking for preorders, I'd suggest you run giveaways, offer incentives for people posting 5 star reviews, calls to action of this sort. You can also do a preorder campaign where if people show you proof of a pre order you offer them something: a comped subscription for whatever amount of time, an editing session, naming a character in a next book after them...so many things to choose from. If your newsletter is more like an author newsletter, I'm not sure I would paywall content at this time. You can start paywalling once and if you have content that people would want to pay for-- most people don't want to pay for content that is in the self promotion sphere, you know?
Ahh this is so helpful. Thank you!! Yes, my instinct was not to commit myself to yet another “job” a.k.a. content creation schedule, which is how it would feel if I started charging for this, because I am already overwhelmed by what is currently on my plate. So I think perhaps through paperback launch I do not charge and I do what you say! Which is continue to offer free writing support to folks in grief, but also use my Substack as a way to connect with readers and hopefully get some more reviews, etc. Maybe down the line I can think about what I would be offering that no one else is offering, and also what I would be excited to be writing!