How to be a Featured Substack (Updated 2025)
Quality, quality, quality.
You can’t throw a dead cat around here without hitting someone’s tips about how to succeed on Substack.
And those might work—on the surface and short term.
But…
What’s the one thing you really need to grow, make money, get engagement, build your platform, and create previously unimaginable opportunities on Substack?
→ Quality.
This word gets tossed around a lot, so much so that it’s nearly devoid of meaning, but the definition is actually excellent and wholly applies to Substack:
Quality refers to “a peculiar character” or characteristic. I love this.
In other words, “quality” on Substack is your Substack DNA—which I talk a lot about and interviewed Substack writers about—the core of what you do and what makes you different. (Paid subscribers can explore their Substack DNA here.)
Quantity matters not at all.
Quality is what readers and paying subscribers want. It’s also what Substack looks for when it features certain Substacks.
The rest of this post is and isn’t about being featured by Substack.
Really, it’s a chance to make your Substack richer and/or more you to connect more deeply with your subscribers and your work.
What does it mean to be a featured Substack?
Many, many Substack writers want to be featured on the
(neé Substack Reads) and spotlighted by .Why would someone want to be featured?
It can bring in thousands of subscribers.
It’s a nod that you’re producing quality work on the platform, not AI-produced “content.”
It also gets you a cool badge (ah, the gamification of life!).
It puts you in really good company.
What is The Substack Post?
It’s published by the editors at Substack, used to be called Substack Reads, and is essentially various roundups of what’s catching their eye and what they want to highlight on the platform.
Substack defines it as “a curated guide to the creators and stories shaping our culture.”
It has five sections:
The Weekender: Curated posts, Notes, video, art, and other sometimes odd round-up-y things
Guest posts: Substack writers (typically) are invited to do their roundups of who and what to take note of on the platform
Video: Substack leaned heavily into video about a year ago and continues to highlight the form
Unstacked: A roundup of Substack writers and creators on a particular topic or trend: fiction, the Met Gala, spring, etc.
News & Views: Posts from the Substack team and editors
What kind of Substacks get featured?
It’s a little of everything:
“Every week, we spotlight the best writing, videos, podcasts, art, and ideas shared on Substack, from celebrated creators and rising stars. Our mission is to bring you work that makes you stop, think, and wonder if the world might just be a bit weirder and more beautiful than you thought.”
The Weekender is the flagship. Whereas Substack Reads just highlighted great writing on the platform, we now get what lives the editors will be watching and the requisite and mildly annoying look-what-famous-person-just-came-to-Substack alert.
Can you ask or apply to be featured?
No.
How does Substack choose which Substacks to feature?
Only Substack truly knows.
Back in the Substack Reads days, I spoke with Hannah Ray, Substack’s storytelling lead and curator, about what Substack looks for. You can listen to this excellent podcast with her here.
As Hannah says, such choices are an art, not a science. There isn’t a formula.
Of course, we desperately want there to be a formula—not just for this but for everything: writing a bestseller, pitching agents, getting paid subscribers, etc.
There are only guidelines and very rough guides.
How to be a featured Substack:
Below are the general guidelines Substack has given, and my guidance based on my experience having both my Substacks featured and the fifty or so writers who’ve been featured after our work together.
5 guidelines and guidance:
Take us to a place no other Substack does, i.e., have a focus and explore that focus in-depth in a singular way. This doesn’t mean it has to be serious, just clearly exploring something that means something to you. What do you obsess over? What preoccupies you? Take us there.
Aim for the highest quality. i.e., revise and revise again, refine, edit. Or—if you’re going for more of an ad-libbed, improvised, raw feel—make sure it makes your reader feel like they’re with you on the page, not the recipient of sloppy work.
Make sure your Substack delivers on its promises, i.e., all posts measure up to that quality, and individual posts don’t just shine for the first paragraph or two and then fall apart.
Publish consistently.
Read and subscribe to The Substack Post and featured Substacks.
It doesn’t seem to matter how many subscribers you have (I had low hundreds when mine was featured) or whether you’ve branded.
How to create “quality” posts that readers immerse themselves in
Quality: Bringing you out in your Substack
If I had to give you one workflow to bring out your peculiar character in every post, this is it.
Before you write, talk out your post to a friend or yourself. (I use Voice Memos.) This eliminates early fluff before you even start writing.
Write your entire post as you normally would. Don’t think. Let it be messy.
Reread it.
Write the topic of the post.
Take a moment. Take a sheet of paper or do this on a document. Answer these questions:
How does society typically view this topic?
How do you view this topic differently? What preoccupies you about this topic? What aspect of it do you spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about?
Why? What incident or occurrence in your life made you view it that way?
Take us there. Give us the scene—the smells and sounds, the time of day, who was there, what was happening, the noises, how it felt.
Write the one thing you want readers to remember if it’s all they take away. This could be an insight, an image, or a pivotal moment.
Revise:
Start with the incident or occurrence. Give us the full scene.
Incorporate what you feel is worth including from your first draft but write it in terms of what society thinks/the typical view of what you’re writing vs. how you view it.
Close on the image or insight.
Edit, proofread, post!
How and when to post on Substack:
![🎧Write Less, Please [updated]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F80a58fb7-3283-4270-84d3-46e9a6791af9_1500x1000.webp)
For the comments: Have you been featured by Substack?
Post about it and your Substack in the comments.
Share your URL.
Just some of the many Substack Writers at Work who have been chosen and are doing exceptional work:
, , , , , , . Check out and subscribe to their Substacks!
Hi Sarah, thank you for the tips. I actually got featured in the old Substack Reads weekend post (and my badge!) back in 2023 when, similar to you, I had a few hundred subscribers. I can definitely resonate with what you say about the growth from being a featured publication! I gained around a thousand subscribers practically overnight. I'm glad you've spoken about Quality on your post; I think it's so easy to believe there are hacks to getting seen, but in the end it comes down to being consistent and putting out your best work.
Lovely company, Sarah. Thanks for mentioning me. I've never tried the workflow you mention, but it's a great way of moving from "door shut" writing to a "door open" version, thinking about how the piece serves readers and not just me.
One thing I've mulled over the years and that you and I have discussed is the particular challenge of amassing a heterogenous readership over the years. Each reader was initially drawn by a different piece with a different emphasis, and so I still find it difficult (since I didn't start with a clear "lane," but have cast about to find my way) to know how best to serve the eclectic group I've attracted. In that case, I usually default to satisfying my own curiosity and sensibility, but I appreciate your nudge to keep thinking about others and what they might need.