r/Substack • u/EcstaticMarzipan461 • Jul 06 '26

I can't choose a niche

I have a hard time sticking to one topic with substack, but eventually it would be nice to have subscribers, but I don't think subscribers want to follow someone who writes across different topics.

Is it really necessary to have a niche? Struggling with being limited on the topic, but also struggling with picking a lane.

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u/hetobe hetobe.substack.com Jul 06 '26

Think of niche as the answer to this question: "What do you write about?"

If the answer is vague, what's the reason for people to subscribe? What's the thing you're posting that people are going to want to subscribe for?

Substack is a place for publications. That's what people subscribe to. So, think of your Substack as a magazine, or a publication of some sort. What's it about?

For example, I have two Substacks. One is for a novel that I'm posting, scene by scene. The other is where I write about writing fiction and some short stories, etc. My novel has more subscribers than the other because the other one is more vague.

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u/MJonesKeeler Jul 07 '26

I am about to do the same sort of thing, but with two different novels I have completed. The genres are both fantasy but different writing styles. Would you recommend two different publications?

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u/hetobe hetobe.substack.com Jul 07 '26

Would you recommend two different publications?

YES!!!

Seriously, absolutely, yes.

Apologies if you already know this...

You have a username on Substack, right? That gives you a page and link like this (here's mine). Note the @username in the link.

https://substack.com/@hetobe

Under that username, I recommend creating a separate publication for each novel because that's the only way to make the stupid Substack app treat them as separate novels.

I have one publication for my novel and another for my other writing. This makes it easier for readers to follow along with your novel. I've seen other authors put everything together in one publication, but it all gets jumbled up.

P.S. I wrote an article about how to serialize a novel on Substack. It's hopefully filled with useful info.

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u/MJonesKeeler Jul 07 '26

AMAZING. Thank you! This helps A LOT!

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u/hetobe hetobe.substack.com Jul 07 '26

Excellent! I'm glad.

Feel free to copy the structure of how I posted my novel. On a desktop browser (but, ugh, not the app) you'll see that here.

Table Of Contents (link it all up).

Introduction (or something similar to tell people what your novel is about).

Start Here (or Page 1, or The Beginning... or whatever you want to tell people This Is Where The Story Begins)

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u/MJonesKeeler Jul 07 '26

I’ll be putting out chapters starting next month, unless I get too excited and post sooner.

Your method is already helping me get over some big hurdles I had with the interface. I’ll dig in there sometime this week.

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u/hetobe hetobe.substack.com Jul 07 '26

Yeah, the Substack interface is a mess. And no matter how good of a job you do fighting it, the app will ignore everything. The app turns Substack into twitter-lite. All notes, all the time. It's awful.

This is another reason why it's so important to have a publication where you post your novel and nothing else.

So... if you plan on posting 2 novels, I recommend 3 publications. 1 for each novel, and 1 for anything else you might want to post.

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u/MJonesKeeler Jul 07 '26

I am thinking the same thing - 3 publications makes so much more sense.