If/when my novel gets published, I will have to promote it online. I had a blog which I suspended in 2022. I am thinking of reviving it, both as a general lit blog with book reviews and similar items, and to promote my book. However, Substack is also an option. As a newsletter, it seems like it could be more effective at targeting readers. There is also the possibility of making some money by offering exclusive content. I know that bloggers sometimes make money, but it seems more hit-and-miss. But with regard to promoting a book specifically, which do you think is a better platform?
Is this Highlander-world, where there can be only one? How about both? There's also Tiktok, Youtube, Facebook, and on and on. A blog doesn't draw people to itself ya know. You need exposure on big sites where it'll get lots of views.
I believe it can; certainly Substacks I've read function like that. I'm wondering what specifically are the advantages of Substack over old-fashioned blogs when it comes to promoting one's book.
I'll say of all the media I come across as a consumer, it's basically never someone's Substack. Of course the Internet has lots of disparate corners; my experience doesn't speak for all. The hard part either way is directing traffic to your platform, which probably means having a presence on the established ones Xoic alluded to. You're competing with a lot of hungry content creators and terrible search algorithms there, but that's just the nature of the game today. I'm cynical enough to say that, all methods considered, video format might be the far more realistic way to build audience, which seems so silly when we're trying to collect an audience that will read our books. Or maybe audiobook format is basically a mandatory option now. Hey, I don't make the rules.
This is a great point from both, though probably understated. The amount of content being produced challenges our capacity to consume it. Consider these (randomly sourced) statistics (with a pinch of salt): Every hour, approximately 300,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. Facebook sees around 350 million photo uploads and 1 billion story shares daily. Twitter users send out 500 million tweets each day. Globally, there are roughly 600 million blogs, generating about 7.5 million articles daily. Navigating through this abundance of content to connect with your People can be challenging. The question isn't merely "which tool" to use, but rather “which tools” and how to configure them effectively to engage individuals consistently and coherently so as to build an audience. In my limited experience with Substack, it seems to cater well to journalists and non-fiction authors who offer specialised knowledge that subscribers are willing to pay for. However, it's less clear how fictional content fits into this model.
"In my limited experience with Substack, it seems to cater well to journalists and non-fiction authors who offer specialised knowledge that subscribers are willing to pay for. However, it's less clear how fictional content fits into this model." This is a good point. I'm thinking that I could eventually provide paid content (on writing, editing, whatever else I feel competent to advise on). But I'd have to establish a readership first. Regarding fiction, I have a few existing models. One of them is a literary critic who has made a name for himself writing book reviews and related think pieces. He self-publishes his novels and promotes them on his site. I don't know how successful he is in terms of sales, but he has certainly built up a readership in the last few years.
