13 Newsletter Creators Share Their # 1 Tip for New Writers
Bonus material from Launch & Grow a Newsletter to Boost Your Writing Career
Hello Forever Workshop fam,
Thus far, I’ve encouraged you to orient yourself to your mission and start with why, and we’ve covered premise, purpose, and content-market fit. I’ve got another lesson for you on Thursday, but in the meantime, I wanted to hype you up with motivation and best practices from writers who run newsletters that I admire. I asked them to share their top tip for aspiring newsletter creators. Enjoy!
What’s your #1 tip for writers who want to start a newsletter?
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Find something you will actually want to write about a few times a month. It should be fun, not a chore.
Niche: Book reviews, baking
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Really think about why you’re doing it and what you want to get out of it. If you need to go hard on the business and marketing side, for example, go for it, but if you’re really just trying to be creative and experiment or find your voice, don’t get caught up in needing it to be big or competitive. You can get a lot out of a few devoted folks.
Niche: Parenting
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What are you writing about that isn’t already out there? If someone is writing the same type of content as you are or has the same takes, you’re not really “adding” anything to the conversation. What makes you unique? What do you have that is different, exciting, and special? That’s what you need to write about to separate yourself from the influx of writers starting newsletters.
Niche: Sex and relationships
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Consider why you are adding this as a tool to your arsenal: is it to force yourself to write on a deadline? Connect with readers who are interested in the same topics you write on? Form a community with people? Grow a newsletter list as part of your platform? Make money? Each of these has different pros and cons and will inform everything from your publishing schedule to the topics you write on, to the overall concept of the newsletter, to the choice of whether or not to go paid. Don’t unquestioningly commit to a twice-a-week schedule and take off. Do some brainstorming and legwork at the start to really see if this is something that will benefit your longer-term goals.
Niche: The Creative Process
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If your goal is to have fun, your niche doesn’t matter too much. You can just explore whatever interests you. But if the goal is to make money (even if it's just a little bit of side cash), your niche should be narrowed down to two concrete topics that can each be described in 1-3 words. For example, I write about writing fiction and personal development.
After you pick your niche, the next step is to decide on your content type. In general, there are three types of “growth” content that you can monetize:
Entertainment:
Examples: Skits, Memes, Games, Humor Writing, etc.
Educational:
Examples: How-to Posts, Market Podcasts, Data Visualizations, etc.
Process:
Examples: How It’s Made, Documentation of a Unique Process
Once you have your niche and content type, ask yourself the guiding questions about dreams, challenges, and fears before you create each piece of content.
Niche: Craft lessons for writers
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It depends on what you want out of it. Back in my “How I Grew…” posts last December, I was really passionate about telling people they needed to be themselves and have a very clear idea of what they were here to say and why they were saying it. Now, I realize that advice was aimed at people who want to make their newsletter into a “thing” of some significance in their lives, you know — like, build a thing with a kind of staying power. And that’s not required. It’s also totally fine to not know, try different things, and just kick around and experiment and figure out in real time what you want to write about and why. But, if you do want to make a thing with staying power, then I think I stand by my hunch that you should feel some real passion for a highly specific topic and be sure to find a way to write about it straight from the center of yourself in a way that no one but you can.
Niche: Craft lessons and workshops for writers
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Pick a topic or subject field that you could talk about for 30 minutes without preparing. Anything that you’re that interested in is going to be a wonderfully sustainable topic for you because your interest will shine through in your words. Plus, writing a newsletter is not all fun and games, and there are going to be days when the last thing you want to do is write another dang issue–making it something that you’re really passionate about will make those days fewer and further between.
Niche: Historical rebels
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Know your niche! See what exists on Substack, subscribe to your “competitors,” and make friends with them. There are bound to be a million newsletters on your intended topic. Discover what makes you different, and then it behooves you to make friends with your collaborators — and YES. COLLABORATE WITH OTHER WRITERS.
Niche: Sobriety
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Set a goal, set a schedule, and set aside time to write. Make sure it’s important to you–if it's not, you won’t be able to keep up with it.
Niche: Creative inspiration, motherhood
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Oh, god, this is so cheesy, but, to my chagrin, it is true: be yourself. Don’t write things purely for the sake of getting clicks. Don’t write something just because you think it’ll generate a buzz. Write what you love, and someone else out there will love it, too, and they will share it with someone, and that person will share it with another person, and before you know it, the ripples you start with will return as an outpouring of love and support. It takes a lot of time and patience, but if you commit to it and you take care of your words, eventually, your words will take care of you.
Niche: The writing life, mental health
Amber Petty on her newsletter
Do it! If you have imposter syndrome (and what writer doesn’t?), make your newsletter specific and helpful. If it’s just an essay a week, you’ll feel a lot of pressure to deliver. But, if you have a specific topic, it will help you narrow down your own ideas and reduce the weekly work. Then, if you add something a little bit helpful (that could be opportunities, reading lists, curated media, a small tip, etc), it’s even easier. The helpfulness frees you. Instead of wondering, “I’m bothering them,” or “Why would they want to hear from me?” you only have to deliver the little helpful thing you promised. Once you deliver that, you’re free to write about anything else you like. And, the reader has a specific thing they get from the newsletter, so they’re more inclined to sign up.
Niche: Helping writers and creatives get published
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Just do it. I tell everyone to start a Substack because I think it's one of the best things on the internet right now. It keeps you writing, it keeps you consistent, and it allows you to explore the things you are obsessed with. I’m thrilled I get to talk about waiting tables and how I hate novel outlining, and how hard yet wonderful it is to write a novel. Thinking of what I’ll share next brings so much joy to my days. If you have an idea for a newsletter, follow it. You don’t know how it could evolve and what you will learn about yourself as a writer along the way.
Niche: The writing life, working in the service industry
Diana Ostrom of Faraway Places
Don’t wait! Just do it! Figure out what platform you want to use, and go from there — for me, what I tell people is that if they want to sell their ideas, use Substack. If you want to sell goods or courses, use Flodesk. And if you want to, like, segment your list by recent behavior, you’re probably already using something like ConvertKit.
I think there’s a way bigger conversation to have here about the demolition of traditional media outlets and how independent newsletters, blogs, social media, etc., are all filling that void in ways big and small. I don’t think it’s that off-base to see newsletters as the near-term descendants of the red-giant media outlets that have crashed and burned. I look at newsletters like The Food Section, which was until recently run on Substack and is, in a powerful and compelling way, retraining the food world spotlight on places that were maybe underserved in the past. I think newsletters are an incredibly powerful tool for the motivated writer.
Niche: Travel
Okay, seriously, don’t wait! Just do it! That’s the big takeaway here, along with a bunch of practical advice for how to conceptualize your newsletter and approach the editorial.
See you back here on Thursday with Lesson 2: Who's Your Who? Identifying Your Target Reader Avatar.
Your Newsletter Bestie,
Courtney Kocak
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Excellent, Courtney!
Such great advice! Thank you for sharing!