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3 Things to Avoid When Starting on Substack
And something that annoys me
I know a lot of you have been thinking about trying Substack out. That’s a great idea. I was an early Substack user (2019), and it’s been a breath-of-fresh-air place to write. With all the new features — video, notes, chat — it’s only getting better.
But first I want to discuss a trend that annoys me.
I don’t get annoyed easily — I’m a fairly “you do you” kind of person — but I hate seeing writers being misled.
I’ve been coming across several people lately who ‘write about writing’ while pushing their courses, products, paid newsletters. That’s fine. Obviously, I do that, too. One of my newsletters is called “Because You Write”, after all.
It’s a certain type that annoys me. The ones who make big claims: “I’ve built a $50K writing business in 3 months!” Blah blah. And they insist you can too… but there’s a catch.
When you look at their body of work, it’s all the same. They’ve never pitched an editor, published a book, written copy for clients. All of their “writing” is a sales page. They make bank from sales and marketing, not writing. They sell writers a promise: ”Buy my product and you too can make thousands!”
