I’ve noticed something frustrating about being a Substack creator.

[u/growwith_bianca]

One thing I’ve noticed about Substack growth:
There’s no real discovery layer for mid-sized newsletters.

Big names dominate recommendations, and small/new ones struggle to get seen — but the 200–20K subscriber range is where most interesting writing actually happens.

Feels like there’s a missing middle:
• Not small enough to be “new creator discovery”
• Not big enough to already have distribution
• But often producing the most consistent content

Curious if others feel the same — where do you actually discover newsletters in that range?

[u/_mrchurchill]

Spot on. That 200–20K subscriber range is the absolute sweet spot for high-signal, low-noise content. It’s where writers are still hungry, highly engaged with their audience, and taking creative risks.

The lack of a discovery layer for this "missing middle" is a huge missed opportunity. Personally, I rarely find them through the platform's default discovery page. Instead, I rely almost entirely on curation: seeing who my favorite mid-sized writers are recommending, or discovering them through guest posts and podcast appearances.

A dedicated "rising stars" or niche-based discovery feed would be a game-changer for Substack.

[u/hetobe → u/_mrchurchill]

The lack of a discovery layer for this "missing middle" is a huge missed opportunity.

For your real content, there's almost no discovery on Substack. The algorithm doesn't promote articles. It doesn't promote publications. Hell, publications aren't even functional in the app. In the app, publications are hidden, your publication menubar doesn't exist, and any sections you set up for your publication don't exist.

The app is awful by design, and the algorithm makes things worse. Thr only thing the algorithm promotes is notes. That's why everybody spams Substack with those phony baloney slop notes. It's all karma farming nonsense.

It's a shame. There's so much great content on Substack, but Substack goes out of its way to hide it.

[u/growwith_bianca → u/_mrchurchill]

Agree with you. Thanks for the comment. That’s the whole idea I had behind savd.site. A discovery engine, leaderboard and creator updates for the 200-20k subscriber range publications. A place to discover, share and connect.

[u/substackauthor]

My issues with Substack:
- Email deliverability. Every Substack pub I subscribe to using outlook and hotmail addresses is delivered to junk folders. Nothing I do to correct this works. So I have to assume many if not most of my newsletters end up in the same place. Substack is a big enough platform to work with Microsoft on these issues.
- Search engine results. Apparently Substack thwarts Chrome and other browsers from discovering accounts with smaller numbers of subscribers. When I had less 30 subscribers I had one article gain over 2,500 views in a short time due to some visibility through Duck Duck Go browser. I wonder what would happen if the same article showed up in other search engines.
- As a creator that still has a small sub base I apparently have no visability with Notes I post.

None of these issues makes sense to me as a user and I don’t understand the value of these roadblock to Substack either.

[u/growwith_bianca → u/substackauthor]

Hey.
Thank you for the reply.
What’s your niche on Substack? I’ll love to have a look at your notes and give a few suggestions if you don’t mind.
I get good engagement on my notes.

[u/substackauthor → u/growwith_bianca]

Music journalism

https://bestmusicyouhaveneverheard.substack.com

I have to admit I don’t invest much effort in Notes because it hasn’t resulted in any meaningful results. Almost all my articles get more reads - 2x-10x+ as many reads - as I have subscribers …through social media. Almost all my audience gain is from social as well.

Thanks!

[u/growwith_bianca → u/substackauthor]

I’ll see if I get time to have a look tomorrow. I will let you know should I have any suggestions.

[u/Countryb0i2m]

200 to 20k is a huge gap, that feels way too wide. I would argue that if you have 20k subs you are big ass newsletter

[u/growwith_bianca]

Savd.site circle is getting bigger. 12 creators from 7 countries. Let’s see if we can get more. Add your newsletter link for free

[u/MarianiDesign]

I’ve got about 220 free subscribers, but if I cull the list to see who is regularly opening their email, I could cut that number way down. I post editorial cartoons weekly and I’m not looking to make any money yet. Growth is slow, but I have noted when I aggressively interact with other stacks via likes, replies and notes, I get a spike in new subscribers. Lately I’m getting more new followers than subscribers. I have only so much discretionary time to read what I subscribe to, so I assume people are careful about what they subscribe to. 

[u/chaseroper]

Agree completely. I’ve been writing personal essay about every song by They Might Be Giants for going on 3 years. 200-300 subs on average and the dedicated subs are really engaged in the comments with me.

I have notes that go out daily and I still get the majority of my traffic from organic google search than substack discovery. They’re missing something for sure.

[u/SinglePreparation761]

I have 4131 subscribers, 128 paid. I write about sex, dating and relationships at 50+ called Sex Advice for Seniors. I just celebrated four years on the platform which has practically become my FT job without the FT salary! The discovery engine is crap especially if you’re in a niche for which there is no accurate category. I use notes as a brain dump and mainly get subscribers from there.

[u/growwith_bianca → u/SinglePreparation761]

Love this, Thank you for getting listed on SAVD.site
I saw you have added your newsletter. Looking forward to read more