Yup, I’m writing a novel, and it’s taking forever. But frankly, I’m having fun, and I think it’s going well. So, yes, I’m a novelist, and I’m on Substack. It’s probably not a surprise to learn that there are a lot of novelists on Substack. In fact, Substack is a great place to find novelist and writers. Lots of authors have tried to serialize their novels on Substack. I’m not sure if it’s a great idea or not as I’ve heard conflicting opinions. I haven’t tried it yet, but I suppose it’s not out of the question.
If you’re interested in finding out who’s writing novels and either slowly sharing the novels chapter by chapter, or they write novels and have a Substack presence, this post is for you!
Novelists and the Biz of Publishing
by Russell Nohelty. He’s an author I’ve followed for quite some time here on Substack. He writes a ton of books, but to my mind, he’s more prolific in writing about the business of being an author. This latest post, which he calls his weekly Stackable roundup, digs into the business of writing. Leonelle is a USA Today bestselling author who writes fiction and nonfiction. Like Russell, she’s deep into the publishing world, and in fact they work together on a lot of projects., who writes The Elysian, describes how, in this post, Substack is great for authors. There are 20 million monthly active subscribers, and 2 million active paid subscribers. She presents a ton of useful ideas on how to make it even better.Graphic Novelists
A lot of Substacks by novelists and authors are about the process and business of writing. Here’s a publication that delves into the graphic artists and novelists on Substack:
Lee Curtis is an author whose Substack I’ve subscribed to for a year or so. Here’s a good way to get introduced to her, which is her opening sentence on her “about” page:Some folks subscribe to my sometimes expletive-laden feminist agenda so that they get regular notifications in their email now that Facebook has decided to try to boost their dwindling revenue by obliterating the reach of many popular FB pages.
Serialized Novels from the Past
A lot of Substack publishers have taken advantage of expiring copyright protection, which means you can find a ton of classic novels in serialized form on Substack. Once you subscribe, the chapters show up in your inbox on a regular basis:
One author,
, serialized his novel when a deal with his publisher fell through. You can find the novel and his approach to serializing it here:Substack posted a list of the top fiction Substacks, which looks at what they term the top 25 fiction newsletters on Substack. Going through the list, it was fun to discover that I was already subscribed to over half of them!
Author Caitlin Wahrer writes Present Tense: Suspense Fiction and More, which has a lot of fun and serious advice for authors, as well as articles about fiction for readers looking for something new.
Famous Authors Have Found Substack
Famous authors are also finding Substack a place to hold forth, and share tips and takes on their writing. Esquire has a good article here.
Substack has pulled several together in this post, pointing to Substacks by Cheryl Strayed, George Saunders, Emma Gannon, Kelly Oxford, Tom Ryan and others.
Sarah Fay’s Writers at Work is a comprehensive lineup of helpful methods for any Substack writer to increas the quality and readership of their Substacks. As a paid subscriber, you’ll find regular training videos and articles all designed to life your Substack up.
Sitting in Silence is by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, the author of National Bestseller The American Daughters, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, a NY Times Editor’s Choice and We Cast a Shadow, a finalist for: PEN/Faulkner Award and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Lots of podcast episodes here, too.
Pandora Sykes publishes
is a place to discuss books and other bits and pieces of the culture. Pandora is a London-based journalist and broadcaster who has written for more places than I can count on both hands and feet.Salman Rushdie publishes Sea of Stories on Substack, where he discusses stories, and has a serialized novel.
Podcasts
I may have to write a post about podcasts on Substack. Publishing audio as a podcast is as easy as pie on Substack. Here’s a podcast called Friends & Fiction, hosted by bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey & Patti Callahan Henry.
Sara Zarr holds forth at
with work on her novels, and a podcast. She claimed in February of this year that she was winding it down, but there are numerous posts and podcasts to explore.The great thing about searching out authors, novelists, and writers on Substack is that they don’t just write about their own works. They talk about their lives, their kids, their business, other writing they find interesting and so on. Find someone who’s writing resonates with you and dig a little deeper to learn more about them. Writers love to write, and they can’t help it to share a lot of info about what they’re up to.
Tip of the Iceberg
Lots of great writing to find on Substack, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Keep in mind, that many of these authors have paid subscriptions, keeping a lot of their work behind paywalls, and some let any reader in. My suggestion is to find a few that you’d like to read, and if they resonate with you, step up to becoming a paid subscriber!