Substack for Authors

to help writers launch an author newsletter on Substack and serialize fiction or memoir

Since moving The Caffeinated Writer to Substack in 2022, I’ve received a lot of questions from writers about how to use Substack as an author newsletter. This led me to create the course Substack for Authors, where I help writers launch their author newsletters, write engaging posts, serialize fiction or memoir, breathe new life into previously published work, and connect with new and existing readers in meaningful ways. I also help you avoid the mistakes I made when moving my author newsletter to Substack (I made a lot!).

You will find more than seven hours of video lessons, dozens of written lessons, assignments, and writing prompts, as well as the discussion forum, on my dedicated course site, which features a clear, clean learning format with a practical progression and easy navigation.

Michelle helped me launch my Substack and she's an excellent teacher. I highly recommend her Author Studio. Booke Lea Foster, Dear Fiction

Is SUBSTACK FOR AUTHORS right for you?

• Substack for Authors is designed for both traditionally and independently published authors, as well as writers who want to build an author newsletter before publishing their first book.

• It’s not just about likes, views, and subscriber numbers. You will learn about those things, of course, but it’s also about the WRITING. You will get exercises and prompts to help you write posts that resonate with existing readers and draw new readers into your world.

• You will get inspired to write, learn to use Substack as a working notebook, and discover how maintaining an author newsletter on Substack can make you a more consistent writer. And if the joy has waned a bit, you’ll rediscover the writing spark.

About me: I’ve been a working writer for more than twenty years, with eight books under my belt. We all have our literary labors of love; mine is Fiction Attic Press (now on Substack), where I’ve been discovering and publishing work by emerging and established writers since 2005. I’ve also spent a lot of time teaching in MFA programs in creative writing and designing online courses, including courses for Stanford Continuing Studies. (You can read more about my teaching experience at the bottom of this post).

My teaching philosophy: I believe that every writer, at every stage of a writing career, deserves time and space to develop. I believe the writing comes first.

My Substack philosophy:

• An author “platform” should be a natural extension of the author’s voice.

• Maintaining your online presence as an author should feed your creativity, not drain it.

• Substack makes a great writer’s notebook for stories and essays-in-progress and fragments without a home. “Draft” mode is your friend.

• As an author, you get to choose what remains private and what goes public. Your boundaries may naturally shift over time. “Unpublish this post” is your right.

• You are not “producing content,” chasing likes, or trading clicks. You are a writer. You should feel good about the writing you are putting out into the world and the readers who are receiving it.

• The writing you do on Substack can become an integral part of your body of work. It may have a future beyond Substack, as a traditionally or independently published book or a personal anthology.

Teaching experience: I have taught in the MFA programs in Creative Writing at The University of San Francisco, California College of the Arts, St. Mary’s College of Moraga, and Bowling Green State University. I have also designed and taught online novel writing courses for Stanford Continuing Studies. I launched my private online courses more than ten years ago with the Novel Writing Masterclass. In 2019, while living in Paris and feeling disconnected from my beloved Bay Area writing community, I created Novel in Nine, a comprehensive program to help writers draft a novel in nine months.