PRESENT DAY SNIPPET: EARLY JUNE REFLECTIONS
PRESENT DAY SNIPPET: EARLY JUNE REFLECTIONS
Psychic mediums, shameless plugs, 100+ subscribers to celebrate
The other day, I received a DM on my Substack from
. He started the message by saying that reaching out was a ‘bit of a shameless plug’ but that I was following him and he thought I might be interested in his Substack. I replied that he had followed me and I followed him back but I’d take a look at his Subsctack.I said that it seemed like many posts were paid (beside the point really) but there were definitely some posts of interest and now he had a new subscriber. He kindly subscribed to me in return.
I then asked that it was a random question but how did he segment his audience and reach out to them and I acknowledged that actually DMing followers was a good marketing strategy. He kindly shared that he had sent a few DMs to people who followed him but didn’t subscribe to him yesterday – he didn’t send out a whole lot of messages, but what he could do in about ten minutes – and he got a ton of new subscribers. A definite win!
He said there was a Reddit thread where this other guy is trying to message 200 people per day (he thought that was OTT for him personally) but he took the concept and tried the DM strategy and it worked.
Outreach campaign?
I’d gotten all 98 of my subscribers organically and my posts get anywhere from 1-4k views per month (yay!) but I felt I wanted to hit that magic 100 number of subscribers, so I thought what do I have to lose by DMing a few people, taking a leaf from FWN’s book and saying it’s a ‘shameless plug’ but would they pretty please subscribe to me too?
I chose a few people whose Substacks I had subscribed to and had followed me but who did not subscribe back. These were people whose Substacks I enjoyed – they made me laugh, they made me think, etc.
The outreach process itself also made me think of how I write sort of personal narratives about people I dated (or married), lessons I learned, and all of which led me to where I am in life now – happier, in therapy, an editor, living in West Yorkshire. Of course, I haven’t written all the main posts yet so I’m in the middle of the journey. But what exactly was I offering to subscribers? Why would they care?
I often Subscribe to substacks that give something back, even if that’s just something to think about. With The Freelance Writing Network, as an example, he was offering posts that are useful for writers who want to be paid for their work. Why would people care about my Substack and what I have to say? But then I thought, yes, although I have to have something of value to make my subscribers want to read, I also have to be true to myself and find ‘my audience,’ however small.
That seems to be what this new Small Stack philosophy is about, which I am very excited about!
There are some very popular and talented writers on Substack, which I like to call ‘celebrity Substackers.’ They had amazing careers and followings before they came to Substack and sometimes it can seem like us smaller fish are writing into the void – or, conversely, what we write isn’t valuable because we don’t have x amount of revenue and hundreds of paid subscribers. But what I have found is that all of the Substacks I’ve subscribed to or seen are penned by talented writers – and there is an audience out there for everyone, however small.
Some of the ‘celeb Substackers’ I love – as do many of you – are
, , , , , , , and (Zeta actually recommended I start my own Substack). I’m sure I’m missing out on some people but I love seeing those newsletters/issues/whatever people are calling their bits (I like to think of mine as ‘chapters’) hit my inbox.There are others like
, , and that have big and much-deserved audiences, too, albeit slightly smaller.
When I DMed a few people – celebrating my centennial (of sorts)
I reached out to Sam at
, , , , Charlotte at , , and – and a couple of others who didn’t respond. I wrote personal messages to each of them because I do read their Substacks and I chose people who followed me but whose Substacks I liked (or people like who followed me because I commented on one of the ‘celeb Substacker’s’ posts). I hope those I reached out to don’t mind my naming you in this post.I had a few DM conversations with the above and it was lovely to connect to a writer’s community. I went from hovering between 95-98 subscribers to a whopping (to me) 106 subscribers, which feels lovely! (And now I’ll get that little badge that says 100 people subscribe! Yay!)
I’ll tag the posts from some writers that I’ve enjoyed recently.
- – if you were ever a fan of Cracked.com and hilarious and very embarrassing stories, Sam is for you! There are many, many gems, but I happened to love this one on why men are friends with cunts. (I may have found a few in my dating life).
- – Barbs subscribed to me early on (I appreciate it) but (understandably) didn’t love a bunch of paid posts but when I reached out she resubscribed (thanks). She has had some similar dating trajectory as i Have but now has a wonderful boyfriend and she lives with him in Australia. She is Italian and I (probably rudely) asked if ‘Barbara’ was a common Italian name – and actually it is! She has this funny post I read recently that involves koala bears (who doesn't love them?)
- was someone who followed me because I commented on a workshop that Farrah Storr ran and I watched the replay. It was a class about memoir writing and Krissy wrote and read a beautiful piece about female friendship that resonated with me.
- shares her own words alongside beautiful classic poetry. She recently wrote this piece about going against societal expectations, a lesson anyone in a capitalistic world might want to know.
- – he’s another very popular channel (with 8k subs so maybe he’s more ‘celeb substacker’ level) but he writes posts about how to write for a living, useful for many of us on Substack who want to do just that. He has this interesting piece on How I became a 5-figure writer online.
- – Charlotte writes a Substack about parenting. I’m not a parent but I’m a child-free thirtysomething who absolutely adores the children in my life: niece, nephews, my cousin’s children, my friend’s children. She recently wrote this piece on the difficulties of bringing a new baby into the world during the pandemic and it made me think of the mummy and me classes I went to with my sister Jae and my niece, Caroline, when she was young and how we are still friends with the beautiful ladies she met in those classes. Those classes were something for my sister to schedule in each day, an activity to do, and a saving grace for her. I think how isolating her experience may have been without that. But equally, I feel for mothers who are feeling the ‘mum guilt’ for all the ways they feel they don’t measure up to an invisible yardstick. I think part of the reason I’m not a parent is that it’s so difficult. I see mothers and whilst their children bring them joy, it’s hard work! I’ve never been sure if I wanted to add that to my life (plus, my gorgeous husband is firmly team ‘no children’).
Founding memberships
I recently became a founding member (first ever purchase of a founding membership) of
. I found Katherine because of a post that did asking where we all were in the world.I said I was in West Yorkshire as did a couple of other people. I subscribed to The Inkwell and Katherine kindly subscribed back (thanks). She is a historical fiction writer but also does consulting work/coaching/mentoring for writers about their novels so I hope to consult with her at some point soon (hence the upgrade because basically a year of her Substack is the cost of one session so it was worth it).
Shoutout to my founding members too. You know who you are. (I’ve even written about some of them so readers can guess which very generous men would give me big chunks of money when I wrote a tell-all of my version of events. Heh!)
Final shoutout
A final shoutout to two of my early supporters
and . By which I mean two of my early supporters not in my family (or not written about in a chapter)!Tacita recently wrote a piece on being a daydreamer (yet practical) and as a practical daydreamer too, I completely related. Tacita writes about her sober journey and writes some beautiful words.
Kristi at
was inspired by my early Substack (we used to work together long ago when I was a grad student and an intern before she went off to grad school to become an ordained minister) and decided to write about her dating life too but from the perspective of someone growing up in the Bible Belt (as we both did), being a Christian, and being asexual. It’s an interesting read so check it out.
Having a reading with a psychic medium
has over 1,000 subscribers so I appreciate that he not only answered my message but he also subscribed back. I’m tagging him in this ‘woo woo’ section because of my experience on Monday and because he writes things that align with connection to a deeper realm.My go-to psychic
doesn’t allow you to book readings when you’re recently bereaved. As some of you know, I lost my Father in February.This year, we also lost my former stepfather, Carl, (and father to my baby sister, Hannah) in May, and a dear, dear family friend, Derek, unexpectedly in January. What a year, eh? Let’s just say as someone who never really suffered from depression, it has been tough and I thought I was getting back into a better groove…
Before I lost my Dad or maybe whilst he lay dying in the hospital, I was on TikTok. TikTok usually isn’t my jam – the endless scrolling and clips made it so that I didn’t have to concentrate on anything much in a time I could barely form coherent thoughts – but I came across one of those ‘lives’ with a psychic and I followed her: Sara Taylor.
I reached out to her secretary, Lesley, to ask about the reading price and she was reasonable but this was January and she was booked up all the way until June. I finally got a reading and expected it to be a basic tarot reading, like I’d had before with Zeta and a local lady I go to in Hebden Bridge, Donna Preece (both of whom accurately predicted things for me, by the way).
I did not know that Sara would tap into ‘the dead’ and some of the details were so specific and eerie – messages from my Dad, Derek, Carl, and my Grandfather (and maybe my late father-in-law George). Talking with Hannah, my older sister, and my Mum also clarified some details that I hadn’t known or been able to understand in the reading. It was scarily specific and accurate. I hope that my loved ones are watching over me. Maybe it’s the hope of the bereaved, but maybe it’s comforting either way.
The reading also brought up so many emotions I’ve been subconsciously repressing of late so that I could ‘get on with things.’ Again, who knows if my Dad really was connecting with her or if some things could mean anything or that my prompting/answers made things happen but there were details that she talked about that when I shared what she said with my sister, my sister knew what it could relate to, things that I didn’t even know. I hope Dad is there watching over us – and if I spy a robin in my garden then I’ve been told that’ll be him trying to say hello.
I’m writing other things!
In other news, I’m submitting a one-hour TV Pilot to a competition soon. Of course, nothing may come of it but the logline is: ‘An American woman living in Yorkshire faces deportation after her husband dies in a tragic accident before she obtains a spousal visa – and finds an unusual way to solve the problem.’ (Spoiler: her postman, who is a friend of a friend of hers and her late husband, suggests they get married – you know, for the visa – and I’ve named it ‘Displaced’ – or my friend Sam helped me come up with the better name for it than ‘Spousal Visa’ which may, if it ever gets made, make people feel like they’d be watching a show about the DMV.) I won’t hear back from this opportunity until between August and December. (Oh also big shoutout to my declutter lady, Sarah, a former journalist, who read the script and helped me improve it. If it goes anywhere, I hope we can co-write the rest of the episodes.)
I finally submitted my first piece to the Modern Love column of the New York Times. I won’t hear for four months but it would be amazing if I get in. I pay £4/month to the NYT JUST to read this column, which is how I discovered
’s.I love the column. It makes me cry each week. I used the podcast to help get over my divorce and broken heart (now I have my amazing second husband so all good).
I’ve wanted since 2016 at least to write something and submit a piece but everything fell short. Even the entry I did write about my Dad seemed to fall short but we will see. And you can’t have things if you don’t try, eh?
Also, I’m working on a romance novel to submit to Harlequin. They accept unagented submissions and I figure it’s good practice at writing a novel. After all, you can’t learn how to write a novel without actually trying to write one, even if it starts as a ‘shitty first draft’ as Anne Lamott says. Thus far – and I only just started over the weekend (with planning weeks in advance) – I’m 15k words in of a 50k novel.
I love rom coms a la Poorna Bell (newly discovered), Marian Keyes, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Jojo Moyes, Beth O’Leary, Emily Henry, Julia Whelen, etc with a mix of thrillers and murder mysteries (a la Richard Osman, Agatha Christie, PD James, Val McDermid, and the Strike novels). And since I did my Master’s degree in literature some classic lit and ‘literary fiction’ thrown in. I try to read anywhere from 60+ novels per year (mostly on Audible these days, which some people don’t think counts).
Thank you and here’s a FREE way to become a paid subscriber
Thank you. THANK YOU! To all of my subscribers. It means a lot. Truly.
I would love to make some amazing living off Substack, but the truth is I have quite a good full-time job in editorial for a data analytics/publishing company that is one of those FTSE 100 fellows. So, I don’t exactly need the money, but hey, it’s nice. I mean eventually, I’d love to write books and travel the world (wouldn't we all) with my amazing husband but I really don’t expect I’ll ever do that writing about my sex life.
If you’ve ever wanted to read the juicer paid posts, but can’t afford the £4/month, let me know. I can upgrade you for free (if you DM me with your email address). I put those posts behind a paywall because I don’t want everyone and their nan (or mine – or people from work if they ever happen to stumble across this Substack – eek I hope not) reading very embarrassing diary details of men I dated and my shocking thoughts as a mid-twenty-something.
But if you want a paid subscription, just DM me. But alternatively, you can also pay the monthly or yearly subscription, too, and that will also be appreciated.
Thanks again for helping me reach 100 people!
P.S. This week Kit Kat, my later Father’s cat, bless him, has decided only tinned, smoked, or poached salmon (you know, human food) will do. Yes, yes, I know cats need cat food for essential vitamins. I’m sure we’ll convince him to eat some cat food soon, especially when we are away in Madeira next week and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are minding him!
Thanks for the shoutout Elaine!
Thanks for the shoutout! Flippin’ delighted to have you along for this grand experiment! 😁