Sari Botton on Building Her Many-Splendored Substack Empire
Bonus Material for Launch & Grow a Newsletter to Boost Your Writing Career
Happy Friday, writers!
I’m sending you into the weekend with some awesome newsletter inspiration from our literary Substack queen,
of Oldster, Memoir Land, and Adventures in Journalism. These are notable publications with tens of thousands of subscribers. She seriously has a Substack empire going on; it’s very impressive.But that’s not all — Sari Botton is the author of the recent memoir in essays, And You May Find Yourself...Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo, which was chosen by Poets & Writers magazine for the 2022 edition of its annual "5 Over 50" feature. An essay from the book received notable mention in The Best American Essays 2023, edited by Vivian Gornick. Botton also edited the bestselling anthologies Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York and Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York. Buy her books!
Now for a lesson from the Substack Jedi Master herself.
What’s the basic premise and tagline of your newsletter(s)?
SB: For
, the flagship of the Botton, Ink. “media empire” is: “Exploring what it means to travel through time in a human body, at every phase of life.”I also publish
, a “magazine” about personal essay and memoir with four verticals, and , more of a personal blog that’s in part about my wayward career path.
When and why did you start your newsletter?
SB: I launched Oldster on August 31, 2021, after dreaming the night before that I’d started a publication called Oldster. I joked about it on Twitter, then realized, Oh, wait, this is a good idea. It’s an extension of an essay series I’d launched and edited at Longreads called “Fine Lines,” another exploration of getting older, fueled by my curiosity. I knew when I left Longreads in June 2020 that I wasn’t done investigating the subject. Experiencing age discrimination in the job market, while also experiencing worsening arthritis, made the subject of aging even more interesting to me.
Who’s your main audience?
SB: Originally, I was aiming toward Gen X, plus some younger Boomers and older Millennials. I joked that I envisioned something like a large-print edition of The Awl. But once I got going, I realized I wanted Oldster to be for everyone of all ages. I was curious about everyone’s experience of getting older, not just people in my broad demographic. My own curiosity about getting older had first been sparked when I was 10, and my uncle came to my bowling birthday party and said, “Wow, you’ll never be one digit again.” It blew my little tween mind and got me thinking in a way I’ve never stopped, no matter where I’ve been in my life. Everyone who reads or contributes to Oldster (or is alive) is the oldest they have ever been, and it feels like a big deal, no matter what the numbers are. Including everyone means that I’m hosting an ongoing intergenerational conversation, which serves my mission of normalizing and destigmatizing aging. I’m showing that we’re all going through it, in different ways.
How is your newsletter differentiated from the other newsletters in your niche?
SB: Most of the newsletters that address aging do so for very narrow audiences — women over 40, women over 50, Gen X men. I wanted to broaden the scope and include all genders and age groups, and get a conversation going. It’s been really beautiful to see my readership grasp onto this, to comment often and supportively, and to get to know each other.
What’s your editorial strategy? Including: What kind of content are you focused on offering? What’s your publishing cadence? How far in advance do you plan your content calendar?
SB: I’ll start with the last question first: It’s February 20th now and I have my editorial calendar planned out through mid-May. I treat Oldster Magazine like, well, a magazine. Most weeks I publish three times: personal essays on Mondays, Oldster Magazine Questionnaires on Wednesdays, and alternating blog posts by me on Fridays — link roundups every other week and open threads every other week. On the second Thursday of each month, I also have an essay by Laurie Stone in a series called “Notes On Another New Life,” and on the third Tuesday of each month, I have a Q&A called “Ask a Sober Oldster” that’s a collaboration with A.J. Daulerio’s
, “A Newsletter About Sobriety for Everyone,” that’s also very much about mental health, and being human.
How many subscribers do you have?
SB: Over 40K at Oldster. Over 27K at Memoir Land. About 2K for Adventures in “Journalism.”
Do you offer paid memberships? If so, explain when and why you turned that on, what your subscription offering includes, the cost, how many subscribers are part of your paid community, and any takeaways from going paid.
SB: I turned on the paid option the first day, and many people were only too happy to support me. I very rarely paywall content — I plan to do some more paid things — but mostly, I just ask people to support Oldster because I pay contributors. So my subscribers are helping me do that. Between Oldster and my other newsletter, Memoir Land, I paid writers, guest editors, and illustrators over $20K in 2023. I’m very proud of that. Right now, I have 2,256 paid subscribers to Oldster and 801 paid subscribers to Memoir Land. It grows every day, and I am so grateful that people want to support my work.
Have you tried any other methods of monetization?
SB: No.
Tell us about your newsletter’s growth trajectory. What have been the most effective ways for you to promote your newsletter? Did you have any growth spurts, and what did you learn from those?
SB: My audience has been growing steadily since I launched it about two and a half years ago. It helps that I had a platform to begin with, from my work at Longreads, my work editing my anthologies, Goodbye to All That and Never Can Say Goodbye. I feature a mix of well-known and unknown contributors, and of course, I always get my biggest growth spurts after well-known people have contributed. For instance, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Oldster Magazine Questionnaire brought something like 1,500 new subscribers, about 50 of them paid.
What’s been your most popular content, and your guess as to why?
SB: Of course, the pieces by well-known contributors like Liz Gilbert, Neko Case, Hilma Wolitzer, Stacy London, and Lucy Sante are very popular, but now and then, a piece by someone who is not well known will really take off because people are inspired by it. For instance, a questionnaire by 76-year-old mountain climber Dami Roesle really took off. People were so inspired to learn that at 76, she is still at it. “Monster-in-Residency,” A recent essay by New Yorker Cartoonist Carolita Johnson — about reimagining her new life in her childhood home, where she is caring for her octogenarian mother, as a long writing residency — has been immensely popular.
How has your newsletter served your career as an author?
SB: Between Oldster and Memoir Land, I am currently able to support myself and pay writers, guest editors, and illustrators at least something. I have used my third newsletter, more of a personal blog called Adventures in Journalism, to develop new material. I’d like to start pitching other publications again. I hope my success with my newsletters helps me land bylines.
What’s your #1 tip for writers who want to start a newsletter?
SB: Take advantage of the lack of gatekeepers, and really let your original voice shine. Protect yourself from the lack of gatekeepers/editors, and at the very least, use Grammarly before hitting “send.”
What’s your #1 tip for writers trying to grow their existing newsletter?
SB: Including other people’s voices invites the audiences of other people. So find a way to either interview people or have them contribute.
Shout out another writer-newsletter that you admire and enjoy consuming.
SB: My favorite is
. I also really enjoy by , and and by
Anything else you’d like to add?
SB: I seem to have found my medium in newsletters. Or, a medium that works well for me. I’d like to believe I have others…
Oh, Sari, you’ve already proven yourself multi-talented. Thank you so much for sharing your newsletter wisdom with us!
Follow Sari Botton on Substack, subscribe to Oldster, and check out her website
Your Newsletter Bestie,
Courtney Kocak
You can find the introduction post here if you’re new to this course.
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Loved that you highlighted her. She just affirmed for me that my multiple Substack ideas can all work as separate entities. Of course they will take time to build but seeing that she has multiple successful newsletters gives me hope, and helped me get unstuck on trying to figure out how to make all my ideas fit into one place..definitely have more to think about but I gained a lot of clarity so thank you both for that.
Sari is incredibly talented and a gift to Substack! In awe of her output, which is consistently high quality and immensely enjoyable! Lovely feature!