I've had this very question you speak of on my mind!
Right now, I'm watching a friend who has a much-more-followed newsletter compared to me--and I think every up and down is agony for him! I ask myself if I envy him, and I don't. (Now that I think about it, he's the first one suggested I "go paid"!)
I'm putting out my content, getting "a feel for how things go," like a bird testing its wings. I want it to be excellent. It will probably not be excellent until I have several more years of writing under my belt; therefore, I need the practice. If I "went paid," the pressure on me to "produce" would be crazy-intense.
This way, though, I can do it as an amateur--and that's a word derived from words for "love." Right now, I can tell myself I do it for love, not money.
The friend I described sometimes challenges me that I'm too timid--since I once told him I can't imagine posting my substack to my Facebook. And I can take some of his feedback (he's darn right that I'm too timid--he can tell, and he's totally accurate to grab hold of me and try to shake some courage into me!!) but I maybe will do things in my own way. (For me, pursuing my goals may never sharing a Substack post I make on Facebook--but I emailed 4 friends I respect highly and invited them to my Substack I haven't yet written one post for--so I will have an audience. Three are interested!!)
(Apologies for the unsolicited advice, but) from one Substack writer to another: Stop seeing the graph. At least until you start getting serious about monetization. Until then (and also after that) nothing will make your graph rise better than just putting in the work to show up every week. Regularity breeds creativity, monetization, expertise, and all their fancy cousins.
Looking forward to many more of your awesome posts!
THANK you for writing this, Vishisht!!
I've had this very question you speak of on my mind!
Right now, I'm watching a friend who has a much-more-followed newsletter compared to me--and I think every up and down is agony for him! I ask myself if I envy him, and I don't. (Now that I think about it, he's the first one suggested I "go paid"!)
I'm putting out my content, getting "a feel for how things go," like a bird testing its wings. I want it to be excellent. It will probably not be excellent until I have several more years of writing under my belt; therefore, I need the practice. If I "went paid," the pressure on me to "produce" would be crazy-intense.
This way, though, I can do it as an amateur--and that's a word derived from words for "love." Right now, I can tell myself I do it for love, not money.
The friend I described sometimes challenges me that I'm too timid--since I once told him I can't imagine posting my substack to my Facebook. And I can take some of his feedback (he's darn right that I'm too timid--he can tell, and he's totally accurate to grab hold of me and try to shake some courage into me!!) but I maybe will do things in my own way. (For me, pursuing my goals may never sharing a Substack post I make on Facebook--but I emailed 4 friends I respect highly and invited them to my Substack I haven't yet written one post for--so I will have an audience. Three are interested!!)
(Apologies for the unsolicited advice, but) from one Substack writer to another: Stop seeing the graph. At least until you start getting serious about monetization. Until then (and also after that) nothing will make your graph rise better than just putting in the work to show up every week. Regularity breeds creativity, monetization, expertise, and all their fancy cousins.
Looking forward to many more of your awesome posts!
Watching the graphs can be brutal. It's something I've struggled with too. Keep on trucking, you've got this!