When this post first appeared, it created some controversy. It even sparked an excellent counter-postââAgainst Branding (and Sarah Fay)ââfrom the excellent
. (I joked that his post would have been better if it had been shorter.)Iâm not against long-form. I write long-form. I teach long-form at Northwestern. One of my long-form essays, âOn Solitude (and Isolation and Loneliness [and Brackets]),â appeared on Longreads (note the name) and was a notable mention in Best American Essays.
âLong-formâ is now considered anything over 800-1500 words. (There was a time when long-form was anything over 3000-5000 words. No longer.)
If youâre offering great writing on Substack, write as much as you want. Or give your subscribers the audio option.1 (More on this below.)
âGreatâ writing doesnât necessarily mean you have to be a great stylist, journalist, or literary writer; it can also translate into being masterfully personable (which doesnât mean talking about yourself all the time).2
But very few people on Substack are doing that.
Whatâs below is just dataânumbers to show you readersâ habits. Plus, below I give you two easy ways to write shorter posts and a tip if you still really want to write long-form.
This post is also meant to free those who think you should write a lot. More doesnât equal better.3 We think it does, but it absolutely doesnât, especially in the era of subscription fatigue.
Read on and enjoy!
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