Substack for Introverts
Featured Substack: Beth Spencer's Introvert Drawing Club
Beth Spencer is one of my favorite people on Substack. Her warmth and enthusiasm are unparalleled. Her love of drawing is infectious. And genuine. As her About page puts it, “If you asked my dogs about me, they’d say, ‘She’s always got her nose in a sketchbook.’”
Her Substack is the place to be on Substack if you’re looking to get support, suspend judgment, and be more creative. Introvert Drawing Club, her Substack, is a haven for people who love or want to draw. (Notice I didn’t say artists.) One of my favorite posts is titled “Be the artist your dog thinks you are: You can’t be mad at an ugly drawing of a dog. It’s impossible.”
Introvert Drawing Club’s growth in 2023 was explosive. Beth went from 200 subscribers to 3000 in one year. Introvert Drawing Club also became a bestselling Substack and was chosen as a Featured Substack.
Beth is an illustrator helping artists come out of their shells in Introvert Drawing Club. She hosts twice-monthly drawing sessions and shares her creative process as she works on her author-illustrator debut, which will be published in 2025.
Read on for Beth’s rich insights and excellent advice. They may inspire you to try something new in your own Substack. Notice how clear she is on what her Substack is and what it offers. So important.
What is your Substack about in one sentence?
Introvert Drawing Club is a community of kind, supportive artists drawing, learning and growing together.
When did you start on Substack and why?
I moved my newsletter audience of almost 200 in January 2023, simply because Substack was free. The community here kept drawing me back. Readership has grown to nearly 5,000 exactly one year later.
How long did it take for you to see real growth?
The growth began in May after I launched the Introvert Drawing Club. I had another bump in September when Substack Reads featured me.
Who do you write for? Who are your readers?
I write for people who want to explore their drawing and painting practice playfully, without expectations. My readers are a community of kind creatives learning, practicing, and sharing art tips and techniques.
What does your Substack offer them in terms of value?
Workshops with visiting artists. We learn from brilliant guest artist cohosts who teach everything from character development to color palette practice.
Live drawing sessions with guest artist cohosts - It's like a live podcast, but we all draw and chat together on Zoom. The guest cohost chooses a theme and may provide reference photos to draw from. These sessions are the real magic of Introvert Drawing Club.
Accountability - I post a "mid-week tech check-in," in Substack’s chat, sharing my screen time statistics and how they affect my creative practice. I post my intentions for the next week and invite everyone to share theirs. We share tips to minimize screen time and feel better about how much we're on devices.
It's been transformational for my creativity! When I started in September, I clocked more than 3 hours daily on devices. Nowadays, that number is closer to 1 hour, giving me nearly 14 extra to write, draw, and paint each week!
Studiomate sessions - This is 30 minutes of muted coworking followed by 30 minutes of working with the option to chat while we work. There's also an option to share work at the end.
Prompts - These cover drawing techniques, mixing art materials, generating story ideas, and character development.
How does your Substack take us to a place no other Substack does?
We’re exploring ALL challenges of art-making, including distractions, mindset, marketing, and making art a career. We focus on ways to tap into individuality to make art fun and joyful. I want to help folks love their failures as much as their masterpieces, instead of giving them a formula for making a pretty drawing.
What significant change (or changes) have you made in your Substack (design, content strategy, etc.) in the past three months?
I raised the price from $7 to $10. I turned off the Boost discount. I disabled free trials. The growth has been slow, but steady. The logo is a turtle, so I suppose it's fitting. With the extra Studiomate sessions, workshops, and weekly video prompts, there's more value. The price has to reflect that. I’d rather give more to a smaller community than keep the cost down to attract more members.
What advice would you give a writer who's struggling on Substack?
Keep going even when you're not growing as quickly as others. My mother-in-law was my only paid subscriber for months. I posted Notes to Crickets before realizing what a welcoming, supportive place it was.
Support other writers. Think about the kind of support you want to receive and give that to others. If you can't pay for their content, share their work!
Stop viewing other writers & artists as competition. They're not your competition. That envious mindset will hold you back in the ugliest way.
Don't use AI: We're all here to write and be creative. Your ideas should come from YOU, not a machine.
Have fun! If you're not having fun, no one is.
P.S. Do everything Sarah Fay tells you to do. :)
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Thank you for writing such nice things about me, Sarah! When I signed up to Writers at Work, I thought I'd learn some tricks to improve my writing practice. Then you created an endlessly inspiring, supportive community!
My favorite line, “Think of what you want to receive and share that with others.” Reading this interview was a a great way to begin my day! Thanks Sarah and Beth.