#Substack success

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

An Interview with Yana G. Y. to Inspire Freelance Writers

Yana shows that you don’t have to be famous or a full-time writer to be a Substack Bestseller. Dear Readers and Freelance Writers, As you may know, I have interviewed writers since 2019, reflecting on their experiences and insights in spotlight stories. It is a valuable tool and an absolute pleasure for me to introduce inspiring creators to my audience. Every writer has an interesting life…

[mummer]

just implemented a paid subscription option on my substack because im a SELLOUT just kidding it has no advantages all my posts will still be public forever but if you want to give me money for no reason you can do that now

[lettersxcaffeine]

You can’t rush what times time and commitment to build, but you can put in time to guarantee that you’re building. 

[utterlyvapid]

[foxmulderautism]

one niche weird thing about reading for a litmag is the more online flash/micro fiction i've read the more i've found specific writers that i really admire or at least i can recognise their name when i see them published in litmags. and sometimes they'll they show up in the queue and it's like oh i'm really inspired by this writer and their skill but now i'm on the side where i read and analyse and vote on their submission. and my impostor syndrome is like what the hell

[strangebiology]

Success is Dependent on Secret Information

A lot of career success depends on you and the work you put into it, as well as luck beyond your control, but sadly, it also depends on secret information, magic words, and stupid little tricks.

That's not fair. I don't like it, but we can help by sharing that secret information--which is the antidote to gate-keeping. That's why I recently wrote this in my Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress substack:

It can be really disheartening to realize that, when you thought you failed at something because you didn't do well enough, other people had the magic words. For instance, some injustices I've witnessed (that may or may not always be the case, or maybe not anymore!) include:

A good athletic score doesn't get you into a college sport--having a coach or parent talk to the college coach is mandatory

Many school-sponsored scholarships are often not tightly linked to grades, test scores, or financial need, but whether the student said the right words ("I can't afford that") to the right person (presumably some financial office person.)

Apparently, some aspects of some degrees are cheated on by most students (if that's the case, we should tell all students that it's ok to cheat on that so they don't waste their time on something that apparently wasn't important anyway, or worse, fail out just for being ethical.)

Especially related to books: Few people will mention that you can get grants! Not my agent, not my publisher, not the 1 zillion "pros and cons of trad publishing" articles out there mentioned grants (Grant eligibility is a HUGE benefit of trad publishing.) I got more money from grants than my entire book advance!

Let me know what magic words/secret knowledge you've learned, that you wish you knew sooner. Or: the widespread understanding of what information would make a field more fair?

And please share ANBIP with anyone writing, publishing, or seriously about to start writing, a nonfiction non-memoir book, especially if they're interested in the more practical side (I share more about resources and strategy than craft.)

[anettrolikova]

Failure should punctuate a strong track record A rich person says, “I struggled a lot. Now, I’m here doing this cool thing.”

A broke person says, “I struggled a lot. Actually I’m still struggling.”

One makes you think, “What a rags to riches story. I’m so inspired.” The other makes you feel sad. You don’t want to be vulnerable at the expense of your ultimate goal, which at work, is generally about inspiring confidence in your abilities—so your startup gets funded, so you get hired, so your manager trusts you more.

Let’s say you’re a candidate interviewing for roles. Over-emphasizing failure makes you seem like a risky hire. The hiring manager thinks, Wow, I appreciate that they shared this, but it was kind of a poor judgment call, they missed obvious signs, and the expensive mistake probably could have been avoided altogether. Maybe we should pick another candidate who has better judgment. Failure can be perceived as a pattern match or a pattern break. Startups have to tow the line between simultaneously playing up aspects that make them the underdog (because they’re clearly not Google and can’t hide this) AND playing up that they are proven, trusted, the go-to, reliable, stable, etc (elements of the favorite) so customers are willing to take a chance. If you’re the challenger, not the default, you’re already deemed risky. When in doubt, show why you're the winning team to counterbalance.

People want to read about your failures if they deem you a success. If you’re talking about failure, remember to share a few points of credibility, so you give folks a reason to want to learn from you. If you're going to share widely-make sure you're sharing from your scars, not your open wounds. Love Warrior is intensely personal, but it's not a diary.

I started turning it into a memoir two years after it all happened, and I had enough distance to look at all of it somewhat objectively. 

If you’re still in the midst of struggle, talking about your failure can look like a cry for help. And most companies don’t want to hire a content marketer or product manager who seems like they’re in the middle of crisis.

[mzannthropy]

I think it was also the format. Journal entries, letters, newspaper clippings, and bc of all of that happened in real time, people felt as if they were on that journey with the characters.

Was talking to a fellow English major about why exactly did Dracula daily get so popular? Like some people tried to like do it for other novels/works after the success of Dracula daily like Frankenstein weekly but it didn't like get as much traction.

I have a theory. The combination of vampires and poor little meow meow characters. Is it the timing of it? Is it the characters? But honestly I'm so curious as to what everyone thinks. I need to do an experiment.

[cinader]

Laurie Stone, Christopher D. Sims, Crystal Cauley

Martha Cinder speaks with Laurie Stone about her Substack, Tony Robles with Christopher Sims and Crystal Cauley about Juneteenth at the Carl Sandburg House

Episode 16 – Listen & Be Heard Subscribe at Spotify Subscribe at Apple Subscribe at Google Martha Cinader hosts live at WPVM in Asheville, NC, with interviews and spoken word. Laurie Stone Laurie Stone Martha speaks live from the WPVMfm studio in Asheville, NC with Laurie Stone in upstate New York, about her Substack: Everything is Personal, the series Succession, the VIDA count, (remember…

[dashcon-two]

Volunteering, Virtual Dash, and Various Other Happenings!

Hey y’all!

Buckle up, we’ve got a bit of everything in this one.

Volunteer Applications!

We’re excited to say that volunteer applications for DashCon 2 are now open! You can apply to our form here (https://forms.gle/aaBjd9eSGZBsARBE7), or find out more on our website (https://www.dashcontwo.com/volunteering/). Our convention relies on volunteer staff to keep everything running smoothly, and there’s plenty of work to go around. We’re really glad to have received interest from so many of y’all, so applications will be open until we’ve filled all of our positions.

All regular volunteers will be assigned to at least one 4-hour shift between 7 AM and 11:30 PM on July 5th, 2025. Volunteers who complete their shift, or otherwise work 4 or more hours, will get free access to the con for the rest of the day.

Successful applicants will be required to sign a waiver to volunteer for the convention. Applicants who are under 18 years old must have a parent or guardian sign their waiver.

What about Virtual DashCon?

We appreciate all of the feedback we got after our announcement post last week! We’re happy to say that we’re going ahead with our plans for a virtual convention! However, considering how many of you were enthusiastic about the concept of virtual dash, we’d like to address a common question!

Why would a virtual con cost money? Because it costs money to run! We’re partnering with Live Media to ensure that the live-streamed panels, pit, and duel will run smoothly. We want to make our convention as accessible as possible, we’ve received hundreds of messages from people who couldn’t get a ticket, but we just don’t have the resources or expertise to run a virtual event with volunteers alone. Even with a professional live-streaming team, we’ll need to organize moderators for the official server, vet digital panellists, and all the other administrative work that comes with a virtual event. DashCon 2 is going down in history one way or another, but we’ll be damned if we don’t get good footage for the next generation of documentarians.

We’ll also donate 15% of every ticket to the Canadian Cancer Society! That’s 15% of the total price of the tickets, not the profits. You can learn more about our fundraiser here, and donate directly to our campaign on the Canadian Cancer Society’s website.

Drag at DashCon 2!

DashCon 2 is excited to announce that we’ll be featuring a spectacular showcase of talented drag performers! Performers will be lipsyncing, dancing, and generally serving, to the tune of such classics as How Bad Can I Be? We’re happy to say that we have two confirmed drag artists: Heaven/Hellish Lee (@heaven_lee_court.hellish_lee) and Pandora’s Box Muncher (@pandorasboxmuncher), both on Instagram! They are both incredibly talented - please check out their work and give them some love :)

We hope to announce a few additional performers before the day of the con, so stay tuned!

If you’re an interested local performer: please feel free to reach out to us directly at activities@dashcontwo.com with a link to your website/social(s), a few example photos, and what sort of performance you’d like to give. Portfolios may contain 18+ content, but performances at DashCon 2 must be appropriate for ages 13+.

LVLUP Board Game Room

We’re happy to remind you all that DashCon 2 will have a board game room, kindly sponsored by LVLUP Games! A quick FYI: while they will be providing board games of all sorts, they will not be providing TTRPG materials, dice, or DMs, so you’ll have to BYOD (Bring Your Own Dice). There must be at least a few dice goblins in our audience who have collections to show off.

As always, you can find more information on our website or follow us on Substack!

[luigilore]

oh PLS tell me your thoughts about inexperienced luigi whenever possible,,,,🙏🙏

omg ofc okay sorry this took a sec and is also just me rambling BUT

luigi would be so earnestly excited to have a girlfriend and it's YOU! is always like ive never been able to do this before' whenever ur doing coupley things and he loves it.... it's always 'my girlfriend' like yeah he is obsessed with dropping that in convos

i think he would get jealous so easily idk like he is NOT sharing sorry! he loves his girlfriend a lot.

okay inexperienced... in that sense... i cant even imagine how much he would lose his mind the first time you suck him off like actually couldn't compute, would accidentally pull your hair a bit too tight... not that u totally mind...

is rambling out an apology and is cut off by his own moan when u suck harder like shut up babe <3

would cum so fucking fast lol like he's actually embarrassed the first few times you guys have sex... esp when u ride him

and lovesss when you ride him like he used to dream of times like this fr

his fav position is missionary tho he just loves how intimate and loving it is... he likes any position where you guys are face to face... but looks down at you with sm love in his eyes like

mouth agape at you shirtless for the first time like please lol. dont even start on any frilly, pretty, cute lingerie luigi would die

his hands shake a little... just a bit! when he's undoing ur bra for the first time and touching your boobs; he'd be so tentative and shy so ur'd be like ... "ur my bf they're urs" 🤗 and luigi is like :0 "you can't just say stuff like that" lmfao

his hands are soooo big like shut up. "anything you do will feel good," you'd reassure him with a sweet smile and you're very right like it's so easy for him to curl/hook his fingers inside of you does that make sense? idk it just feels GOOD whenever he touches, wherever he touches you tbh

a very enthusiastic learner like genuinely is on substack researching feminine pleasure and buying sm different books... you come over one day to him reading that 'come as you are' book and you're like ? lol okay thank you baby

omg library study dates... imagine just like putting you hand on his thigh while you guys are working and he's looking at you like... babe... baby.. um :) like that's enough for him to be totally distracted like gl getting any actual work done after that

pleasuring you is very important to him it's like a game/challenge/hyperfixation for him to like he's a perfectionist he doesn't like not being good at something and yes that applies to sex like shut up

would be blushing at you offhandedly mentioning u have a vibrator... then asks to see it... will eventually work up the courage to ask to use it on you lol

would be sooo loud.. is aware of this and tries to not be... but is never quite that successful

luigi would be such a soft baby after sex like sorry like it's so physically intimate and that goes hand in hand with emotional intimacy to him and he'd just want to hold his GIRLFRIEND in his arms <333

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Why I Joined Substack: A New Chapter in Supporting My Readers

Welcoming the Value of Repurposing Content Across Platforms Throughout my career, I faced the challenge of reaching an audience for my scientific work. Simplifying complex issues for the public was difficult, and finding readers for these simplified messages was even harder. As researchers, our primary outlets were scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and writing for trade journals was…

[drdemonprince]

I’ve only just read your Burnout piece on Substack and it made me think of the anon you answered awhile back about anti depressants and anti anxiety medications.

I’m Autistic and am on anti anxiety medication which basically masked all the warning signs and symptoms of Autistic burnout. Those usual indicators I usually can pick up on which indicate I’m doing too much and not resting enough weren’t present on the medication.

I felt good (although very numb like the anon said) so I kept on taking on more and more and initially thought it was great! I’ve never been able to commit to things or work on multiple projects at once even ones that super interest and excite me because I get overwhelmed and burnt out quickly.

But without the warning signs I kept going and going until I started to feel really weird. Disassociated, not sleeping, upset stomach, drinking a lot. I thought everything was great so it took awhile to piece together that this is maybe what Autistic burnout results in when it’s covered by meds.

I’m now slowly withdrawing from the meds. I figure the authentic anxiety is better than false measures of “success”.

So just a warning to Autistic people I guess, I don’t know if what I’ve experienced is common or just subjective but it’s worth being aware of.

This is pretty much how I feel about psychiatric medication for myself, as well. I want the warning signs. I want to notice my body and brain rebelling. A lot of psychiatric drugs are somewhat effective at making us feel more numb, for a while, which is why they are used as a stopgap when a person's situation is unmanageable. I'm a big believer in the "Affect as Information" Hypothesis: when we feel like shit, that means something about our circumstances simply has got to change. Often that means giving up responsibilities, letting people down, letting things go.

I even feel the same way about weed. I have a lot of friends who use weed daily to manage their overwhelm, and it seems to work great for them, and potentially I should be doing the same thing. But I am terrified of having a massive dependence on a large quantity of weed in order to function, and when I *did* use weed daily, it became a baseline need and made me dissociate even further from myself. I now take the desire to use weed or otherwise get blasted as a signal that something is amiss and that I'm overwhelmed and seeking escape -- that doesn't mean I don't listen to that desire some of the time. I get high and/or drunk on the weekends pretty often. But I don't want to lose touch with my body's warning system. AND I have the immense luxury of being able to change my life circumstances when things get to be too much. If someone doesn't have that freedom, well, sometimes substances are the best thing you can get - be that psychiatric or off market.

[transmutationisms]

pinned post don't mind me

communist, erstwhile succession poster, cat enjoyer.

anti-psychiatry. beginner FAQ here and tag with many more posts on this topic here.

most of my interesting posts are probably under my featured tags but u can also try looking for tags of specific names or topics. loose faq of sorts is tagged as housekeeping.

mutuals feel free to dm for my sideblog, otherwise u can follow if u know the url. letterboxd @ 1859 and substack @ transmutationisms no other social media sorry.

i block transmisogynists.

[utterlyvapid]

So much will be made about Ewan and his grand stage taking turn. The “sad, little sob story” about one of the greatest traumas two children could ever go through. The conclusion of Rose Roy and her tragic death finally revealed as due to polio. He is offended that nobody would want him to speak, that they would dare hold him back. It is his birthright to rip his arrogant and often delusional brother one last new one. The two men’s rivalry is not dead, even if one of the parties is.

But even there, he can’t help but exalt the man they’re burying. Logan may have been “meagre”, but it was that meagreness that allowed him to speak to the souls of others. He responded to them the way they wanted to be spoken to. Ewan has never seen this ability as a gift, but on even this day, reading people is clearly something that not everyone can do. He feels the need to nod towards a special ability of sorts. The ability to communicate to an audience is something that many aspire to and few can accurately do well.

[facelessoldgargoyle]

god ok I’ve been reading aella’s public substack. I have a lot of faith in her expertise bc she’s a polyamorous slut who also worked as a camgirl and an escort. she’s also a spreadsheet nerd, and her surveys about kinks and taboos have gone viral, so she has a lot of data to work with. She’s also saying the most bonkers shit

I loved the idea that there were strategies men could use to make me want to have sex with them. I really wanted to have sex, but often had this stupid gatekeeper thing in my brain that would shut down and prevent me from getting sex. Teaching men to do a magical series of moves that would manage to circumvent my gatekeeper and help get me laid was a wonderful thing, and I advised my male friends to try it.

…

I view sex as a success for both of us, and thus seduction is a collaborative activity. We both want the same thing: to get around my annoying brain gatekeeper that got installed there by eons of evolution that doesn’t understand birth control and is trying to evaluate if you’re worthy of impregnating me. So please—use seduction techniques on me. Roleplay as an alpha male well enough to trick my vagina into believing that your cum will give me alpha sons.

Like??? Ok, to be fair, she specified at the beginning that this series of posts was for straight men who were into women who bottom, so this isn’t supposed to apply to me. But are straight women really out here living like this????

I guess if you have a horrible monkey on your back that works against your own interest in sex, then it’s useful to view seduction as instrumental, a useful tool. I do agree with/enjoy the idea of seduction as collaborative. But fuck dude, have you considered getting rid of the monkey?

Maybe I’m too hot for this post. Actually getting laid is easy. Seduction is just something fun to do while you’re still hanging out at the bar.