Generic advice

Critiquing good advice

One of the recent Substack emails I received was about a popular writer who “grew her paid list without a paywall.”

And frankly, it’s not really helpful. But first, my disclaimer: it’s understood people are different and what makes advice helpful almost always is its relevance, or specificity to the advisee. If you gave highly specific advice to a general audience, well, it obviously won’t work for a lot of them and you’d probably get a lot of hate mail.

To avoid the hate mail and perhaps try to help a wider audience, the specificity is discarded and the advice becomes more vague and general, and consequently, less helpful to any particular person. However, and given a wide enough audience, a few are likely helped by this vague advice, if not from actioning said advice, then from being inspired or motivated by it.

But still, is this really what we’re aiming for when we proffer advice: maybe helping a few people on the margins a little—and probably indirectly. Come on. We can do better than platitudes and more generic conventionalism for the masses on how to Substack better. /disclaimer

If you’re new here, this is the 5th entry for my experiment trying to write at least 4 times a week while taking advice from Substack’s emails. But I’ve succumbed to my nature and ended up critiquing it (following some of it too). But hey, writing regularly is the most important goal, whereas following advice is secondary. Plus, this feels more interesting and engaging than following vague, platitudinous advice without much direction.

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Anne Kadet recently answered questions from Substack on how to be better at this Substack thing, specifically, how to make money at it.

Anne writes CAFÉ ANNE, a “weekly mini-magazine with a focus on New York City that takes a fresh look at the everyday, delights in the absurd, and profiles remarkable people who do things their way.”

I’m sure it’s a fine newsletter and Anne is a great writer. I’ve only skimmed a few posts and the subject matter just isn’t for me (I’ll read more later and update my opinion as needed). [UPDATE: While Anne’s subject matter is not something I would usually read, I did read more and am pleasantly surprised. Her writing is very endearing and covers some interesting people and places. I had no idea the pairing of pickles and books could be such a fun and comforting read. I recommend you at least read a few of her articles!]

But I’m not critiquing Anne’s newsletter, only her response to Substack on growing paid subscribers.

First, I’m going to start with the most helpful advice, which is the hardest for me to follow (as always, as it must be, per the laws of the Universe). It’s not even offered as advice, it’s just Anne explaining how she started:

I had no real following or mailing list to start with—I just emailed a link to my first issue to about 200 people, mostly friends and family. That won me my first 61 subscribers—including 16 paid. Things grew from there. You don’t need an established following to do well on Substack!

I am deathly afraid of emailing my friends, family, and close acquaintances about my internet activities, particularly those which expose my thoughts. What kind of self-respecting introvert would I be if I did that? The guy they knew as the quiet person now is suddenly very outspoken on this obscure website? What if they disagree!? What if they think badly of me or my writing?!? What if they… leave comments?!!! The HORROR!

Nightmares with a side of cringe? No thank you. But I will probably have to force myself soon, because I don’t want to be perpetually underpaid working from 8-5 for corporate robots the rest of my life. That’s where I am and where I will remain if I stay in my comfort zone. Emailing everyone I dare and more (still a small list—much less than 200) about my Substack may not bring me financial success, but it’d be a huge jump from where I am now. So, thank you for your helpful, specific, and unsolicited advice on this point, Anne.

And then things get worse. When asked about the what insight she can offer other writers for growing their newsletter, Anne writes:

My observation is that the most successful newsletter writers combine an original and highly idiosyncratic point of view with a disciplined, consistent format and publishing schedule. The freedom expresses itself in the content, not the container.

Consistency and originality. This is standard advice for any blogger, syndicated writer, author, or just about any idea person. I guess if you didn’t know this, it would be helpful, but if you didn’t know this and you want to be a writer, you are either very young or have much bigger problems to overcome.

The article is rather short, so I’ll just summarize much of the rest.

I almost missed this, but she sticks to a simple schedule (Mondays at 11). Asked about her strategy, she said a big part of that is involving her readers; half of Anne’s ideas come from her readers. She maintains a free newsletter and is supported by voluntary payments. And the worst advice she got was adding in a lot of comment and subscribe buttons, “I get better results without annoying readers.” She did say the Substack community is nice and supportive.

That is essentially it. It’s about as long or perhaps a little longer than one of my usual offerings (i.e., pretty short). I’m not trying to be overly critical or petty here, rather trying to be constructive.

I think the interviewer could have spent a bit more time asking more incisive, probing questions. And asked more of them. Is this a fluff piece, or is this meant to be actually helpful to your writers, Substack?

None of what Anne said is bad advice. It’s perfectly fine advice for the young novice. I’m sort of a novice and I’ll pretend to be young. For these writers, it bears repeating: write and write consistently, promote it to friends and family, engage with readers and the community. Keep doing all of that and you will be a successful writer if you’re not completely terrible.

Honestly, Anne did great. If Substack asked me a handful of fluffy questions I would likewise answer fluffily. I have no idea what the majority of Substack’s writing or reader demographic is, but I get the impression this isn’t just some Tumblr alternative. I think they’re going for something a bit more sophisticated. So I tend to think most of Substack’s writers aren’t going to be particularly helped by this kind of fluffy, generic advice.

And that is the gist of my critique, Substack fumbled this opportunity to dig into what makes Anne successful. What are her methods? Every detail of her exact process is not necessary nor appropriate, but the gist of her dos and don’ts; tips on time management; what to do when you’re feeling like you are coming up short; an outline of her process; more insight, more into the writing and thought processes please!

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My house fire

Today is the anniversary of when my and my parents’ house burned down, way back in 1999. Everyone made it out ok, don’t worry. And insurance paid to build us a new house (it was still too small). The fire started because we had one of those outlets controlled by a wall switch. A tall standing lamp with a halogen bulb was plugged into that outlet.

It sort of looked like this

This lamp was next to some curtains, and for some reason the curtains were draped over the lamp. Sure enough, the switch was flipped and in mere seconds the curtains were aflame, then the ceiling, then the walls and it’s time to get the hell out. There was no time to get the fire extinguisher.

I remember standing across the street from my burning house, maybe 80 or so feet from the flames. The heat from that distance felt like I was standing dangerously close to a bonfire. We lost the house, two cars, a lot of irreplaceable items, the worst of which was photos and family records. It was kind of sad, but when you have decent insurance, they take pretty good care of you. I can’t complain too much.

I bring all of this up just to post some 90s nostalgia. Our house burned down shortly after my dad bought a new PC. I remember playing Starcraft with my brother and sister, a lot of old PC games, and first surfing the internet on dial up in that old house.

So here’s some random PC and internet nostalgia:

Dilbert from this day in 1999:

Click for full comic

Surfing in the 90s, you would’ve encountered a few of these images: