Substack 101

An intro to Substack, the newsletters I pay for and love, and some tips on getting the most out of this platform.

Shortbreads made with a recipe from Nicola Lamb’s excellent Kitchen Projects newsletter.

Hello! I’ve been asked a few times recently, ‘What actually is a Substack?’ I thought it might be helpful to do a brief overview of this platform for anyone who is wondering.

I publish two newsletters through Substack. There’s this one, What Should I Cook this Weekend?. Every second post is free for anyone to read, the others are for paid subscribers only and usually feature a menu of recipes and sometimes a video demonstration of me making them.

And, in collaboration with Germaine Leece, I can also be found over at Something to Eat and Something to Read (also a podcast!).

Most of the newsletters I consume and enjoy are sent out through Substack and so I find myself using and referring to this platform quite a lot.

Here’s my Substack 101 for anyone who isn’t too sure what it’s all about.

So…what actually is Substack?

It's a platform that lets people like me—anyone—publish and send newsletters, videos and content. All of my past newsletters are archived on my Substack page, which serves as a mini-website showcasing everything I've ever written and posted. This is one of the things I love most about the platform; when I discover someone new there, I can go straight to their page and easily dive into all their past posts.

So when I say something like 'to get this recipe, subscribe to my newsletter', I'm asking you to subscribe to receive it via Substack.

You don't need a Substack account to read posts here, and you can subscribe to newsletters just with your email address. However, if you wish to become a paid subscriber to someone's newsletter, you do need to create an account,

the process is pretty simple.

You'll need to verify your email with a code they'll send you, and once you're on the platform setting yourself up, Substack will also recommend other newsletters and people for you to follow. You can follow or skip this part.

Signing up to a Substack newsletter

Because you’re actually here, reading this, I’m assuming you are already down with this. But if not…you can do this via your web browser (e.g. Safari or Chrome), and as you do, you’ll be taken through a few steps;

You will be asked if you’d like to also sign up to a few ‘recommended’ newsletters. I sometimes accept these recommendations and find it a great way to discover new people, but you can select ‘skip’ and keep skipping the prompts (there may also be a couple to share that you’ve just subscribed with a friend') until you get to your person’s ‘home page’.

On paid subscriptions

Many Substack users, including me, have both a free and paid option for subscribers. This means we can generate an income from the content we create, which in turn allows us to afford continuing to create more.

And it means that users of the platform can choose to pay for content they want to have access to, or not.

Substack makes it pretty easy to upgrade to paid (of course it does—they want more people to upgrade because they take a cut of every payment!! ) and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Most paid subscriptions will be around $10-15 a month, less than the cost of a coffee a week!

I know we can’t all pay for every newsletter in the world and I know not everyone wants to pay for any.

But I also appreciate that writing anything original, recipes or stories or commentary (aka creating new content) takes time and skill, and if it’s content I want/need/value, then I am happy to pay for it.

I currently pay for (and love) the below newsletters and have free subscriptions to many more, here are a few of them.

The Substack newsletters I currently pay for (and love)

The Saturday Table
Kitchen Projects
The Garden at Moorfield
Big Salad
The Sit Spot
The Dinner Party
Thank you, Ok

And (some) of the ones I also love, read regularly and occasionally jump in and pay for.

Cooking

The Bakers Cottage
The best bits
A Good Table
Notes from Emiko’s Kitchen
The Feeder
Playing with Food
Movie Pudding
To vegetables with love
A Place at my Table
Crone Sandwich

Living; books, gardens, good things

Home by India Knight
Wallflower Cordial
Company on Sundays
Jeanette Winterson: Mind over Matter
Practicing Simplicity
Savour by Alice Vincent
Happy on Purpose
At home with Mickey Robertson
Dressed Down
Books and Bits
Read, Eat Repeat
Letters of note

So how do I actually read a Substack newsletter?

Like any newsletter, it will be delivered into your inbox when the publisher hits send.

You can, however, opt to only receive Substack newsletters in your Substack inbox via the platform's web browser or app. The benefit of this, some would say, is to keep your email inbox just for work items and collect all your Substack emails in one place so you can go through and read them at your leisure. This is what I do and this is what my Substack ‘inbox’ looks like at any one time:

The App

Substack is really pushing its App at the moment and will suggest you download and use it at every turn.

I do use it to read all my Substack subscriptions because I find it easier to keep them all in one place. Plus, like Instagram, there is the option to share and comment on content you particularly like.

You don’t need to use the App if you don’t want to. Just ignore the prompts to install it and receive the content in your inbox like you would any other newsletter. Or you can give it a go and see if you prefer receiving your newsletters there.

What I like about Substack

As a creator, it allows me to generate some income from original content I create. Not buckets, but enough to justify the time it takes me to create that content. I’m still new here and building slowly, and appreciating the opportunities that this platform and the people who support me here offer.

As a reader, the experience of using Substack reminds me of the good old days of blogging on Google. Anyone else remember them? I love discovering new writers and creators here and the opportunity to chat directly with them and to collect all of my favourite newsletters in the one place (the app/my Substack inbox) – it’s a bit like Google Reader used to be. And I also love the ‘recommendations’ feature (reminiscent of blogrolls, which I used to love too).

What do you love, like, dislike, find good or challenging about Substack? And which newsletters do you love here?

Sophie x

A snap from Something to Eat and Something to Read.