[DIGEST] The four main stages of Substack growth...

Your weekly stackable roundup

Hi friends,

There are four main stages of Substack growth that I’ve identified during my time here. These are very broad categories, but pretty much every human I know has gone through them at one point, or is currently in one of them.

1. Figure your publication out. Spend as long as you need to just write whatever, flit around, pretend, explore, get good, and futz around. Don’t even worry about a name yet. Just start and call it whatever.

2. Rebrand. A publication almost always has to rebrand once they figure their stuff out, so don’t worry about your name at the beginning. You’ll have time to get it right once you’re ready to get it right. I had two I can remember. I started as Wannabe Press, then went to Author Ecosystem, before finally ending up with Author Stack (and am currently fiddling with another thing that might change my branding again, though not for the main publication).

3. Lay out your case. This is the one most people miss, jumping straight from stage 2 to stage 4 and missing …