Insider #25 - What I Learned from being a Substack Fellow

and how I think about this publication.

👋🏼 Hello, Insiders*!

(*and free readers getting a sneak peek!)

Last week, we had the first SneakyArt giveaway of 2022 for the people that support this publication. Thank you to everyone that participated. For those who missed out, the next one is in 4 weeks!

Today, I want to share my best insights from being part of Substack’s Grow Fellowship. I will talk briefly about the interactive sessions, the tips and tricks shared by Substack experts, and my experience interacting with the mentor I was set up with.

At the end of this post, I share a FREE pdf with all my writings based on the thought-provoking prompts assigned every week by Substack. I think a lot of you will find that useful, and I’m happy to share it.

Enjoy!

🎯 How did I become a Substack Fellow?

The Grow Fellowship emerged from the Substack Grow program of September 2021, where I was one of nearly 200 participants. Later in the year Substack announced the Fellowship program and invited applications from all Grow participants. I was one of 11 writers chosen.

Read this post by Substack announcing the winners and the goals of the Fellowship program.

My advice to writers: Apply for everything. Statistically, you will be rejected more often than you are accepted. This is a good thing. Rejections can be useful. Writing an application makes us see our work from a neutral perspective and construct arguments in its favour. Rejection makes us re-evaluate those arguments and make amends. Repeated iterations make you a better writer, and also generate fresh ideas.

🗣 Weekly Sessions

Over December and January, we had five sessions with Substack experts about different aspects of making a successful publication -

🤜🏻 Session 1 - Community Building

Bailey (at Substack) defined a community as - “groups of people who keep coming together over what they care about.” She invited us to consider what community means to us, and how we engage with our readers. She described the process of building a community as building a fire and I love the analogy.

A fire may be built by one person, but gathering around a fire is a consensual decision made by different individuals. A fire is something you need - to be warm, to stave off the darkness, and to commune with like-minded others. A fire is enriched by the diversity of people who gather around it, bringing their conversations, ideas, and experiences, for the benefit of others. In this last sense, a thriving community is greater not only than its founder, it is also greater than the sum of its parts.

Dear Insiders, this idea of a community is important to me. It is the kind of space I want to build with you. If you have ideas for how we can do this together, let’s start the conversation.

📝 Session 2 - Writer Strategy

Speaking with a member of the Writer Development Team, we thought about growth trajectories, posting frequency, paid vs free content, and ideas for how to communicate the value of one’s work.

Growth is tricky. Some writers have sudden spikes of exponential growth followed by long periods of zero-growth. Some have steady growth over time, but no great spikes at all. The nature of our growth says a lot about how our work is perceived by its audience, and how it is shared on social media platforms.

I did a deep re-think also of what I was giving for free versus what I wrote exclusively for Insiders. I realized that I was writing paid content after expending a lot of energy on the week’s free posts, leading to it becoming a tired afterthought.

As a creator on the Internet, it is difficult to get over the implicit assumption that everything needs to be free. It is a pervasive mindset against which I fight every day. I remind myself of the amount of work I do for free - the art on Instagram, twice-weekly posts on Substack, and every episode of the SneakyArt Podcast.

Dear Insiders, you are now my first audience. You get prime portions of my ideas and my attention, first dibs on all printed work, and front row seats to every gig. What is the paid content that you most enjoy - art, writing, or podcast? What have you not tried and why? What do you want to see me do that I haven’t tried yet?

🎙 Session 3 - Press and PR Strategy

This session, with a member of Substack’s PR Department, had a lot of general advice for being an independent writer on the internet. We talked about our experiences being covered by media outlets and discussed ways to maximize the attention of a fresh audience offered by such opportunities.

I learned, for example, the importance of a press kit - a set of documents I can immediately share to succinctly describe my work, details of my personal background, and relevant links.

Note: I still have not put in the work to prep a press kit. But I recently updated the About page on my website with links to my most recent press interviews, including the time I was on the TV news last summer.

Dear Insiders, reaching out to media publications with relevant work is key to a successful press strategy. Someone recently recommended that I approach Pop-Up Magazine. Do you have ideas for whom I should speak with? Better still, do you know people who know people?

🎁 Session 4 - The Substack Product

This session invited us to share our product ideas for Substack to better support our work. Because we were 11 writers working in distinct fields with various forms of media, we had a lot of thoughts!

I am pleased to share that a number of great ideas have been incorporated, and some others are in the works.

Dear Insiders, do you prefer to read this newsletter in your email, or do you open it on the webpage? How do you like my use of the video post feature?

🕹 Session 5 - Speaking with a Founder

The final session of the Fellowship was an opportunity to interact with Hamish McKenzie, a Substack founder. Hamish shared his vision and ideas for the near future and generously answered our questions and concerns.

We were encouraged to ask our sharpest questions, so here’s what I asked -

What stops Substack from mutating into Facebook?

My question was prompted by the following concerns:

• Substack is a Silicon Valley start-up with big name investors, and that carries a mindset of endless growth and infinite profits. This may not always align with the needs of writers.

• Facebook and Instagram have screwed over countless independent creators, while profiting off their hard work. Facebook benefited artists, writers and musicians, up until the day more money could be made by peddling misinformation and promoting toxic interaction.

Because Hamish’s answer referred to topics that are still private, I cannot share it. But I can confirm that he allayed my worst fears, and gave me reasons to be optimistic about the near future with Substack.

Dear Insiders, have you been burned by social media platforms? What platforms do you visit now, and how do you use them while prioritizing your mental health and stress?

✍🏼 Share-outs

Prior to every session, we were given writing prompts that invited us to think more deeply about our work and audience. We shared our writing every week with the rest of the Fellowship community, giving each other feedback, positive reinforcement, and generating fresh ideas.

I have put all my writings into a free PDF, for anyone that is curious to read.

But Why Sneaky?

1.84MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Dear Insiders, once you read this doc, I would love to hear your thoughts!

👩‍🏫 Mentorship

Each Fellow was set up with a mentor from the Substack community. Mentors were fitted to specific needs that we expressed to Substack.

In my case, I was eager to speak with someone who was navigating the business of being an artist today, and straddling the line between digital and traditional content.

I have had three wonderful sessions with my mentor, and we intend to announce our interactions after the fourth and final session. While I cannot name them yet, I am happy to share that our sessions are full of laughter and warmth. We spend most of it nodding furiously in agreement with each other. I have imbibed many, many important lessons, the foremost being -

“Your job is drawing. All else is secondary.”

I needed to hear this.

Over the last few months drawing has become secondary to other pursuits, including the business and marketing aspects of my work. I need to re-evaluate how I spend my time, and re-centre the creative process.

To aid this process, we have worked out a fantastic, ambitious project that I will begin this time next month. Dear Insiders, I look forward to sharing it with you soon!

I entered the Substack Grow Fellowship with ideas for what I wanted from it. I had several known unknowns, but in the course of these sessions I learned also about many unknown unknowns. Perhaps the most significant is my compulsive need to do things alone. I avoid involving others in my work, and I refuse to ask for help. This leaves me unable to accomplish some things, and unnecessarily slow at others.

Dear Insiders, I intend to lean on you. I will ask you for advice, your opinions, your ideas, and (while I will not agree with all) consider them deeply. If there’s anything you want to share, just hit reply to this email. I am always happy to speak with you.

Thank you for your support, and your time and attention. I am glad to have a space in your inbox, and to make you part of my journey. See you next week!