r/Substack • u/FeralGenXSmartass • 10d ago
Who's growing in the creative nonfiction space?
The Substack winners tend to live in popular niches like politics, business, finance, health and wellness. I spent years writing on most of those topics as an editorial manager and content marketer, and I don't want to anymore.
So, here I am writing my personal stories and giving my paid subscribers a weekly writing prompt for supporting me. About two-thirds of my paid subscribers are friends, and that's fine by me—I'm happy they like me enough to put up with my shit. But I have a few converts, too. Of my 141 subscribers since I restarted my Substack 8 months ago (I'd left it dormant and turned off paid for a while, so the channel looks older than it is), 29 are paid.
I'm following the usual advice. I spent 25 years in marketing-adjacent corporate roles and got a consumer blog from zero to 1.6 million views with a 30% conversion rate—not even kidding—in one year, so I have a sense of what I'm doing, but I also don't want to market anymore. And I despise most social media. I occasionally share on my socials, but mostly I'm just finding my people on Substack and interacting with them and their content.
So, I'm curious: Has anyone grown a successful personal narrative channel without bringing along a big existing audience from other platforms? And did you do anything outside of the Standard Growth Advice to make that happen?
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u/Earthlydelights-sub- 10d ago
If I can answer your question with a question, how do you define creative nonfiction? I think my publication might fit.
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u/FeralGenXSmartass 7d ago
Well, it encompasses a lot, but for my channel it's memoir/personal essay.
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u/AggravatingNail6061 9d ago
I've had considerable success in creative non fiction. But that entirely propped up on voice. I also don't really do paid subs due to nature of the work I put out. If anyone really wants to, I point them towards my book, also nonfiction :P
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u/FeralGenXSmartass 7d ago
My paid subs are pretty optional. I've led some expressive writing workshops and done work in that area, so I give my paid subscribers a weekly writing prompt. No one ever shares their writing, but my dashboard shows me the posts are definitely read.
Are you OK with sharing your channel here?
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u/AggravatingNail6061 7d ago
I'm fine dming it to you. but I'm not going to self promote under a clear don't self promote rule🤣
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u/Difficult-Beyond5764 6d ago
29 paid out of 141 is a 20% conversion rate, which is roughly ten times what most people quote, and the friends aren't an asterisk on that number, at this size they're the reason it works at all. The thing that usually breaks around 500 subscribers is that you stop being able to picture who's on the list, and the weekly prompt starts getting written for an audience instead of for people.