Thoughts on Substack and every other god damn social media/email/blog thing I seem to be on.

I'm the problem, it's me

The last time I wrote a Substack email was in September 2019. Imagine that.

2019, remember life back then? No, me neither.

What I do remember is that I thought Substack was a very cool idea - a newsletter without the hassle of an email management system, a blog that was automatically sent to people who wanted it and a way to easily charge for content. And obviously a way to build an audience.

I am not at all surprised that many authors have jumped on board or indeed that Substack courted some big authors to give them credibility and publicity.

It has been interesting to see how different authors are using the platform - a few of my favourites, if you’re interested:

Hanif Kureishi

musings from his hospital bed are beautiful, evocative and funny

Laline Paull

who has just been shortlisted for her book, POD, a dangerous ocean journey told from the perspective of a pod of dolphins. Laline has become an expert on how storytelling can communicate the climate crisis.

S J WATSON : COMPENDIA runs a program for writers in need of support, inspiration, advice and tasks to stay on track.

The SneakyArt Post Nishant is an incredibly talented artist/illustrator who draws people as they go about their lives. He has created a brilliant community and seems to have found his niche here.

Suw Charman-Anderson

founder of Ada Lovelace Day, tech journalist, and writer always has something interesting to share.

Do let me know which authors you enjoy here.

Substack seems to have evolved since 2019 and in the last 6 months, I’ve seen a much more rapid adoption by content creators. They seem to be developing the platform in interesting ways that mostly keep content creators happy. And personally, I like that their business model is dependent (or certainly partly dependent) on its content creators making money.

This is where I move seemlessly onto the absolute dog’s dinner Elon Musk is making of Twitter. I’m sure that you’ve seen that he has managed to launch paid-for verification that has no value to most normal users and then given it to high value users who are embarrassed to have it. Yowser.

Now, I have been active (some would say too active) there for over 14 years and I have a lot of followers, predominantly people from across the book world. I get a lot of engagement and on the upside I have met a lot of fantastic, generous and kind people. On the downside, what comes with my posts being shared far and wide are the inevitable trolls, haters and even occasional people in publishing who think it’s ok to describe me as a nobody (or similar).

Sadly, Twitter seems to be the best platform for amplifying our content whilst offering a home to aggressive, vitriolic and negative engagement. However, I think Elon Musk is busily putting energy boosting the latter whilst making users pay for the former.

I have decided that short to mid term, I’d like to scale back on my use of Twitter, so I have been experimenting on TikTok (I know, I know). Now, I am very far from using TikTok to its full potential, but I am starting to get to grips with it. I had a bit of an AHA moment realising that a lot of the power of TikTok is making and editing interesting short-form video - something I’ve never really worked out how to do.

I also love how BookTokers share their love of books. If we are moving from an influencer economy to a creator economy, bring it on. I have never been a fan of the influencer culture - so contrived and inauthentic, in my opinion. And I realise being authentic whilst speaking into a camera isn’t exactly easy, I am finding TikTok to have a much more artisan creator energy, which I’m really enjoying.

Like everyone, I’m mostly bumbling through social media working out what to post where, how to use each platform and make sure I am sharing content that has value whilst engaging authentically.

That was a very long way of saying that I am going to start finding my way on Substack too. I’m particularly interested in seeing how Notes works. I certainly haven’t worked out what to share here that is different and that takes advantage of the features of Substack. I’ll learn as I go, I guess.

I’m not sure how you have found me, but thank you for subscribing. I’d love to know who you are, can I subscribe to your Substack too?

Happy Days

Sam x