You’re here! Substack is exactly where you need to be.

I created the Starter Pack to help you navigate the Substack landscape in 2026.

Even if you’ve been on Substack for a while, you’ll want to travel this path with me.

Why?

Because this isn’t generic How-to-do-Substack information you could get from ChatGPT; the Starter Pack taken from my Substack DNA Growth Framework™️ built on years of pattern recognition across 1000+ private clients and tens of thousands on Substack Writers at Work.

Go to it, knowing you have the support of someone you can trust—an expert with nearly half a decade of experience helping tens of thousands of Substack writers and creators like you double and triple and 10x their subscribers, substantially increase their revenue, and build a platform with real engagement (not a dead email list).

Become a paid subscriber to begin. Invest in yourself and your Substack for one year with my guidance and watch your Substack become what you want it to be.

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Click on each step below…

STEP 1:

STEP 2:

STEP 3:

STEP 4:

STEP 5:

You’ll be redirected to this Starter Pack homepage at the bottom of each step.

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Enjoy!

Your Substack Strategist,

Sarah

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Today:

• Why I turned down Substack for Dummies

• Why knowing your Substack DNA is the key to creating the Substack you want and making all your Substack dreams come true

• How to find your Substack DNA (tell us yours in the comments!)

Yes, I was asked to write Substack for Dummies.

And I turned it down.

Many reasons, of course, but here are the main three:

1. There’s no such thing as a “dummy” on Substack—or anywhere, to my mind but mainly on Substack because Substack is maddeningly unintuitive.

2. And the platform changes soooo quickly that a book is too static to keep up.

3. And because what makes Substack great—and what you’re doing on here great—and what actually helps you get subscribers and earn an income and what makes this your internet home—instead of another platform to game and place where you’re not doing enough or you aren’t enough—has very little to do with whatever would be in a book like that.

We want you, not your Substack

The truth: People subscribe to you, not your Substack—and they get to know you and subscribe when you know your Substack DNA.

But you have to come out in your Substack—clearly.

What your Substack DNA isn’t

• It’s not the stuff you offer—posts, chat, etc. It’s what makes the stuff you offer make sense.

• It’s absolutely not your marketing “niche.”

• It’s not what makes you “unique” or “different.”

What your Substack is

Your Substack DNA is the core of what makes your Substack you.

It will save you from chasing after tricks, hoping to game the platform, and trying every new feature Substack introduces. Because your DNA is the operational blueprint that determines how your Substack functions, based on your goals, expertise, talents, skills, obsessions, and interests, translated into the right type and mode for the platform.

Knowing it will bring subscribers because there’s no confusion about what your Substack is, who you are, what’s important, what we get as subscribers, etc.

More importantly, it gives us a sense that we’re describing to a person, not a strategy.

When my clients discover their Substack DNA, that’s when their Substacks really take off. To show you how this might play out, here’s what happened with two of my clients.

Your Substack DNA may be narrower than you think: Petya Grady

Petya K. Grady is the creator of .

Petya changed her Substack from Lifequakes, about life transitions, to A Reading Life—a wonderful Substack about how we can reclaim our intellectual and reading lives and take responsibility for our inner landscape.

• Within a year of figuring out her Substack DNA, she went from 400 subscribers to over 7500.

• In the eight or so months following, she was also featured by Substack three (3!) times.

A key moment came during one of our sessions when she realized she should focus on who she wants to be “talking with” rather than “talking to.” (I love this too.)

It happened when she stopped asking What am I an expert in? and instead focused on What am I most interested in? and (I love this) What activates my gossip nerves?

Your Substack DNA may be broader than you think: Emma Vivian

Emma Vivian is the writer behind .

Her story of being diagnosed with breast cancer at 29, shortly after her best childhood friend was also diagnosed, and being the only one to survive it, is so compelling but better suited for her memoir. Her Substack, as we discovered while working together, is larger than that.

Initially, it was called Am I Cured Yet? but then she realized she didn’t want to write about cancer all the time. We talked through what her posts had in common. As Emma put it, “I had cancer. I am not cancer.”

The DNA, the core, of her Substack ended up being her outlook on life: attempting optimism despite our natural human pessimism (and without toxic positivity).

It didn’t change what she was writing; it just made her Substack clearer to readers, subscribers, and herself.

Your turn: Find your Substack DNA

I can’t take you through the entire process of finding your Substack DNA in a single post—and don’t feel like you have to know yours right now. But know that with every post I send, you’re honing yours and working from my Substack DNA Growth Framework.™️

For now, answer these questions and move beyond the obvious. Again, this is not about “finding your niche” or what makes you “unique.” It’s deeper than that.

ANSWER IN THE COMMENTS:

1. YOUR SUBJECT: What’s the topic of your Substack in one or two words?

   Wait! Check your archive. Just scroll through the headlines. If you haven’t posted yet, meditate on this: Is that actually what you write about or is it something else?

2. YOU: What obsesses you about that topic?

   Really. Don’t “get ideas” or brainstorm with AI. Check in with yourself. Whatever just came to mind is the right answer. If it feels too simple or too hard, “not interesting” or “not what people want,” great.

   What can you talk and write about endlessly and never get bored?

3. YOUR SUBSCRIBERS: Who do you want to be “talking with” rather than “talking to”?

Remembers to share what you came up with in the comments…

Leave a comment

All my best,

• If you want to go deeper into your Substack DNA and what actually makes a Substack succeed, relaunch your Substack in my signature Substack DNA 4-Week GrowthAccelerator: May 1, 8, 15 & 29, Fridays, 12-3 PM CT. Limited space available. » Enroll and get the details before doors close on Thursday, 4/30 here.

• Join this week’s Notes Boost Community or our paid-subscriber 24/7 Substack Chat.

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Today: Indulge in a little self-promotion.

You’re invited to share the post you’re most proud of.

Back when we did these every Friday, we had over a thousand people sharing, meeting, talking, being seen.

What to do next:

• In the comments below, share the post you’re most proud of.

• Tell us a little bit about it.

• Include the link.

And be sure to sample the posts of others. The best part about Substack is being here together.

One of the things I love most about Substack Writers at Work is giving you a platform and helping you grow.

Leave a comment

All my best,

P.S. I wrote about proving ourselves and letting go and my interview with the Spanish novelist Javier Marías on my author Substack here. For those of you who’ve taken the Craft of Writing on Substack, you’ll notice many of the techniques we’ve studied at play...

• Come spend May with me! Substack Growth Foundations Accelerator Course: May 1, 8, 15 & 29, Fridays, 12-3 PM CT. $1085—$100 off ends the day after tomorrow. Limited space available. » Enroll and get the details here.

  • For you, if you place a high value on your time and money, and want to save your energy by building the foundation you need to succeed on Substack in weeks instead of years

• Join this week’s Notes Boost Community or our paid-subscriber 24/7 Substack Help Chat.

SW@W homepage | Premier homepage | Manage your subscription | Events | Book a 1:1 Substack Strategy Session with me

For those of you focusing on Growth this month/quarter, Notes is still the way and this makes it much, much easier:

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Welcome to our Thursday Group Thread for Premier members!

This is an informal space for you all to connect:

1. Share your Substack! Include the URL and check out at least one other person’s.

2. Share a win …

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Substack Lives (a.k.a. live streams) are the thing right now.

They aren’t new but have been updated in the extreme and are much, much, much easier and way more fun to do than when Substack rolled them out a year ago.

But with every new feature comes a common Substack emotion: overwhelm + FOMO. (Thank you, Premier member and letter-writing expert —subscribe to her Substack (!)—who astutely pinpointed this Substack emotion.)

To save you time and energy, I bring you:

• What’s great and what worries me about Lives

• How to know if you should do them

• How to get people to your Lives and run them to attract and convert paid subscribers

• My Step-by-Step Lives Tutorial and Written Guide

Substack Lives in a nutshell

Substack Lives are the platform’s answer to Instagram and Facebook Lives, but done in more interesting ways:

• interviews, conversations, casual drop-ins

• author readings, watch parties, Q&As

• workshops, podcast recordings, co-working sessions

You don’t have to be on camera. Artists can do draw-alongs. Professional recipe taster (!) and Premier member —subscribe to her Substack (!)—and I talked about just showing us her kitchen or with just the food on screen.

Now let’s talk strategy…

#1: How to get people to your Lives

If you don’t want to broadcast into the void, you have to tell people! Schedule early, get the join link (Dashboard > Live video), and share it everywhere.

And do this:

• Mention it in every post beforehand with the link.

• If it’s open to everyone, post the link in the SW@W chat.

• On Notes, don’t just paste the link—right now, no image comes up, and it’s utterly scroll-past-able. Create an image in Canva or write an actual invitation. Make it an invitation.

• Substack will offer to auto-email your subscribers when you schedule and go live. It’s tricky. Automated emails get unsubscribes. I recommend sending your own email the day of instead.

#2: How to use Lives to attract subscribers

• Before: Set visibility to Everyone.

• During: Keep your QR code on screen. Add it under Brand effects when setting up. (Find it: Settings > search QR > download.)

• After: Post the replay immediately but uncheck Send via email under Delivery so it lands in the feed without emailing. If YouTube, LinkedIn, or your podcast are connected, upload right away. Then send it on your regular posting day.

#3: How to use Lives to convert free subscribers to paid

• First, do everything above, including immediately posting the live to your site but don’t email it to subscribers.

• A paid live replay should have a different value beyond the recording. Edit the replay already posted (but not emailed). Add a summary, commentary, timestamps, bits from the transcript, or video clips in the text portion of the video post.

• Add a summary, timestamps, transcript bits, or clips. Then send it to paid subscribers only, with a paywall and preview using the lock icon on the video.

» Paid subscribers, I created a Step-by-Step Lives Tutorial and Written Guide just for you. Get the written guide here.

Subscribe now

Until next week…

Your Substack Growth Strategist,

P.S. Come spend May with us in my signature Substack Growth Foundations Course. For Substack writers who want a strong foundation to accelerate their growth. We changed the dates to accommodate the Memorial Day holiday. We meet May 1, 8, 15 & 29, Fridays, 12-3 PM CT (no class Memorial Day weekend). Limited space available. » Save my spot.

• Post Consistently and Well (!) on Substack: How journaling and the haiku (!) can keep you showing up with award-winning writer . Tuesday, 5/5, 1 PM CT. Details here.

• Join this week’s Notes Boost Community here.

SW@W homepage | Premier homepage | Manage your subscription | Upcoming Events | 24/7 Substack Chat | Substack Strategy Sessions 1:1

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Hi there!

Thank you all so much for such great calls this month.

Quick recap: We looked at 3 new Substack updates you may have mis…

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If you’re new to it, it’s something I started in 2024 to help you get momentum on Notes, make Notes a lot more fun, and help you connect with other Substack writers and creators.

But you must, must do this as a community endeavor.

Be here to serve, not be served.

And watch yourself (and your Substack) grow…

The details:

• Each Tuesday, the link will appear in the Events section of your SW@W post.

• The Notes Boost Community lasts all week, so don’t feel like you have hurry up and get in there.

• If you treat the Boost as a competition or a way to get subscribers, it will ruin it for everyone; instead, approach it as a chance to connect and practice writing better Notes.

Welcome to our 2026 Weekly Notes Boost for paid subscribers and Premier members—where you find community on Substack and growth on Notes.

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▽ Substack DNA 4-Week Growth Accelerator May 2026

May1, 8, 15, & 29

Your strategic course to build (or rebuild) your Substack to get subscribers, build a platform, engage with your readers, and earn the income you deserve.

You’ll walk away with:

• Your complete Substack DNA blueprint (what makes you stand out and encourages people to subscribe), short description, bio, and title

• Your About page, Substack site, and profile page designed to compete with the top Substacks

• Clarity about the value of your Substack and why people should become paid subscribers

• Your Substack Growth Plan

• Your Substack launched or relaunched

Via personalized coaching and exclusive office hours to help you translate your specific capabilities into strategies that work, we solidify your Substack DNA = Personal DNA + Platform DNA, combining them to produce your operational blueprint: content strategy, editorial calendar, paid offer, growth strategy, and engagement approach. You also receive ongoing support in our private Substack throughout the four weeks.

$1085

If you want to go deeper into your Substack DNA and what actually makes a Substack succeed, relaunch your Substack in my signature Substack DNA 4-Week GrowthAccelerator: May 1, 8, 15 & 29, Fridays, 12-3 PM CT. Limited space available. » Enroll and get the details before doors close on Thursday, 4/30 here.

⊕ Craft of Writing on Substack Course

TBA

This 6-session course covers the five essential elements of the craft of writing on Substack: writing the personal, voice, storytelling, humor, and edge. Guest teachers include Micaela Blei (co-founder of The Moth’s education program) and Nadine Kenney Johnstone (mentor to NYT Modern Love writers), plus a panel of agents and editors who’ll share what the publishing industry looks for in a Substack writer. Students receive weekly peer feedback on their posts, work through curated readings, and develop templates for their future posts. The goal is to put more of you into your writing in a way that makes subscribers want to read (and pay for) more.

Join the Craft of Writing on Substack Course waitlist here.

♢ Advanced Craft of Writing on (and off) Substack Course

TBA (likely August 2026).

In this 4-week course, we dive into advanced craft techniques to deepen your writing on and off Substack. We focus on the aspects of personal writing that will be essential in the age of AI: voice, edge, and storytelling. Weekly workshops. Limited to 15 students for personalized attention.

Includes a 45-minute, private one-to-one editorial session with Sarah in addition to class sessions.

$1985

Join the Advanced Craft of Writing on (and off) Substack Course waitlist here.

Nearly 250 paid subscribers—including , , , —came to the monthly paid-subscriber live with of Social Media Escape Club.

» I love when we all get to be together.

Below is your 4-step written guide to Substack followers, including how to:

• Encourage them to subscribe

• Get out of your comfort zone by engaging with others

• Stop feeling like you’re just posting into the void

Paid subscribers, get the replay ↑ and the full written guide below ↓

During the live, I mentioned 3 must-read (!) posts I’ve given you to get traction on Notes and bring subscribers from Instagram:

One of the best pieces of advice Seth gave: Do the work with others!

The new Notes Boost is working again! If you’re new to it, it’s something I started in 2024 to help you get momentum on Notes, make Notes a lot more fun, and help you connect with other Substack writers and creators.

Please, please take advantage of the tremendous growth on Notes in a way that feels authentic to you.

Until next week.

Your Substack Strategist,

Sarah

P.S. If you’re new to Substack or have been on for a while and feel stuck, the spring cohort of our 4-week Substack Growth Foundations Intensive begins 4/24. Be the first to hear when the doors open by joining the waitlist here.

• Join this week’s Notes Boost Community here. It’s all about finding your people and connecting on Notes.

• May Paid Subscriber Live Event: Surprising Strategies to Help You Post Consistently (and Well!) on Substack with award-winning writer : May 2, 2026 | 11 AM - 11:45 AM CST. Live link to come. Details here.

SW@W homepage | 24/7 Substack Support Chat | Manage your subscription | Notes Boost Community | Premier homepage | Courses & Intensives | Archive | Work with me 1:1

If you’re not a paid subscriber, become one to access Seth’s Turn-Followers-into-Subscribers Guide, our weekly Notes Boost Community event (to help you find your people on Notes), our 24/7 Substack Support Chat, upcoming posts on the 3 Paid Models and How to Run Substack Lives, and our May live event to help you stay consistent on Substack.

You and your Substack are worth it.

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I’m so glad you’re here. There are few things I

✨ Trusted by 36,000+ subscribers since 2022
✨ One of the Top 5 Substacks globally

Substack Writers at Work is where you access a proven framework to achieve all your Substack goals.

Everything we do stems from my Substack DNA Growth Framework™️—built on years of pattern recognition across 1000+ clients and tens of thousands on Substack Writers at Work.

It’s the exact framework I’ve used to help tens of thousands of people:

• double, triple, and 10x their subscribers

• significantly increase their revenue

• produce their best work

• build deep engagement with their subscribers

• create incredible opportunities off the platform (e.g., get book deals, build six-figure businesses, find clients, run workshops, and more)

Paid subscribers receive:

$12/month or $110/year (~ $9/month)

• Exclusive weekly expert guidance from me, the leading Substack strategist, to build your Substack and develop your growth, paid, and engagement strategies

• Access to our monthly paid-subscriber-only lives with guest experts to help you navigate all-things-Substack, including how to convert followers to subscribers and subscribers into paid subscribers

• Your Substack Starter Pack for 2026

• The Substack DNA Strategy Handbook, A-Z

Premier Members receive:

Our accelerated, high-touch program: $985/year

Everything in the paid subscription, plus:

• Direct access to me in weekly Office Hours and our Monthly Premier Strategy Calls

The Premier is currently full; get on the waitlist to be the first to hear when the doors open.

In case you don’t know me, I’m the world’s leading Substack Growth Strategist and founder and director of Substack Writers at Work. Looking back, I’ve taught creative writing for 20 years in MFA programs at The University of Iowa, Northwestern University, and more.

I was recently hired by Fortier PR as their Substack consultant, helping their authors launch and sell their books on Substack.

My work as an author is also deeply tied to Substack. My author stack is a bestselling, featured Substack. I used it to get my memoir Pathological (HarperCollins) on the USA Today bestseller list. I’m also a freelance writer at many publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review, where I was an advisory editor.

I live in Chicago with my two beloved cats—Sweets and Baby Theo. More than anything, I want a t-shirt that says, Ask me about my cats. (All typos in all posts are Baby Theo’s fault.) Note: I’m a part-time dog lover too.

Join us!

All my best,

Sarah

What paid subscribers and Premier Members are saying:

I help a limited number of writers and creators 1:1—book your Substack Strategy Intensive or Substack Accelerator Package here.

*I subsidize a 3-month paid subscription for anyone truly on a fixed income. If this is you, email me: sarah@substackwritersatwork.com.

Here are all the details. Timestamps are below.

Substack live particulars

• “Liv…

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Atomic Habits for Substack Writers

I’ve given paid subscribers meaty guidance as of late—how to write your AI policy, how to write your hero post, and how to use images—so today we’re going to kick back and talk about how to have self-discipline on Substack.

Self-discipline (def.): “the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it.”

Below I take you through the five keys to self-discipline that draw on what’s worked for me, the latest research on behavioral change, and parts of James Clear’s blockbuster Atomic Habits:

1. Define success

2. Make writing easy

3. Be your own boss

4. Reverse visualize

5. Understand your beautiful, primitive human brain

The Five Keys of Self-discipline on Substack

1. Define Success

There’s no objective measure for success on Substack or as a writer. You can win all the awards and get on all the bestseller lists and still not have the kind of clearly defined status in other professions: president, CEO, etc.1

Think of success in terms of what you achieved each day and in each writing session. Clear talks a lot about incremental behaviors leading to lifelong habits.

Define Success in Terms of Results:

• Decide what a successful writing session or month on Substack will be. This might be word or subscribers count, pages or likes, chapters or restacks or connections made—any measurable amount. Write it down.

2. Make Writing and Being on Substack Easy

The basic premise of Clear’s book is to make the habit of writing or being on Substack obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying, and the surest way to break one is to make it invisible, unattractive, hard, and unsatisfying.

With writing, there are four ways to do this:

1. Always write or be on Notes for a set amount of time. If you think you “can’t write today” or don’t feel like it, set a timer for ten minutes and just write for those ten minutes. You can do anything (that’s not life-threatening) for ten minutes.

2. When you set aside time to write or be on Substack, mark it on your calendar. Be sure to set specific results for each time block, e.g., finish drafting chapter 1, not write.

3. Someone once told me, “Do what you want to be first thing in the morning.” I used to run after waking up but didn’t want to be a professional runner. So I write first and then exercise and get some air.

4. Set up your environment the night before: desk cleared except for a pad of paper and pen, document to work on pulled up on the computer, all windows closed and distractions off, ready for the next day’s writing session.

Bonus: It should go without saying that all your notifications—and phone—should be off while writing.

3. Be the Boss of Yourself

Take the drama-filled air out of writing and being on Substack.

The best thing you can do is treat writing and Substack as a job. Just a job. Like being a carpenter or the CEO of Apple. (If you aren’t yet earning an income, think of it as an internship.) Show up. You don’t have to feel inspired or even interested. Do your job. And that includes being on Notes if you want to grow.

Be the CEO of the nascent startup called you. Writing and Substack are entrepreneurial in spirit. When no boss is looming at the office down the hall and you would much rather sit on the couch and pet the cats (for example) or comment on student work (many writers use teaching as an excuse not to write), you have to draw on your inner resources, i.e., self-discipline.

Without a boss, we also don’t have anyone to tell us when we’re doing a good job, so we look everywhere for reinforcement: bestseller status, comments, acceptances, awards, etc. So be a supportive boss to yourself. Bestow lavish praise on yourself. After every single writing session, say to yourself something along the lines of You’re awesome or You’re the best. It may feel goofy, but it’s like being an athlete. Watch Serena Williams on the tennis court. When she nails a shot, she acknowledges it.

4. Reverse Visualize

Everything I thought I knew about visualization is scientifically incorrect. We’re told to visualize what we want—picture ourselves at the desk, finishing the novel, getting the email, and being on the bestseller list.

But a recent study found that people who succeed in achieving their goals actually visualized the worst-case scenario of what would happen if they didn’t achieve their goal.

For instance, if the goal is to stop spending money and save a hundred dollars a week, then the way to achieve that isn’t to picture your savings account with a hundred-dollar balance but at zero and you being evicted because you can’t pay your rent.

It’s morbid, but it works.

5. Understand Your Beautiful, Primitive Human Brain

Writing doesn’t appeal to the primitive part of your brain, which is designed to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and conserve energy—i.e., sit on the couch and watch Netflix instead. You aren’t going to want to write most of the time. That’s normal. That’s your brain doing its job.

But you’re not just your brain; you’re a writer on Substack and a human.

Until next week…

Your Substack Strategist and writing mentor,

• Join this week’s Notes Boost Challenge here.

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» Support Substack Writers at Work by restacking (sharing) about us on Notes.

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Welcome to our 2026 Weekly Notes Boost Community for paid subscribers.

The goal: growth!

How? ↓

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I had to send the news.

I’ve been waiting for this since I was in the beta version of Notes in 2023—3 years and worth the wait.

—> We can schedule Notes! Available on the desktop, iOS, and Android.

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• Click the 📅  icon on the desktop (or “…” on the iOS and Android apps). 

• Select “Schedule” and choose a publishing time in your local timezone.

• You’ll find all your scheduled Notes in Drafts on the desktop, where you can make edits before they go live.

I could not be more excited.

Now, don’t just go randomly schedule a bunch of Notes. That’s a waste of your time and energy. And do not post 3-5 times/day. The algorithm privileges you engaging with others more than you getting engagement for yourself. That’s the Substack way.

Read the two posts that matter most for you on Notes:

1. I tell you exactly how the algorithm works and how to work with it to your advantage:

2. I tell you exactly how to think about Notes and the 4 types of Notes that go viral:

Your Substack Strategist,

Sarah

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