Full Stack Saturday
A round up of author advice Substacks worth your time
Looking for some new reads? Here’s my roundup of the Substacks I’ve been reading this week that I think are worth investigating and subscribing to. This week I’m focusing on Author advice and particularly author marketing.
Here’s my top faves with a sample post to get you started on them.
The Author Stack
Run by Russell Nohelty “USA Today bestselling author of fantasy books and comics who sits at the intersection of craft and commerce, helping authors create sustainable businesses that light them up inside,2 The Author Stack is “Helping create a sustainable path forward for authors to build businesses that allow them to thrive and lives that light them up inside.”
This sample post looks at book marketing from a launch perspective, and includes lots of strategies to try in your author business.
The Author Analyst
Monica Leonelle runs The Author Analyst, “a newsletter all about how to get your book selling in as many formats as possible—print, ebook, audiobook, translations, and more—and through as many retailers as possible.”
This sample post provides an interesting balancing point to the one on The Author Stack, focusing on reader retention and cultivating super fans.
Ask an Author
Kate Broad "an author and award-winning editor with twelve books, two literary agents in two genres, and twenty years of publishing experience” runs Ask An Author "to provide advice and support for authors at all stages of writing, publishing, and han[d]-wringing."
Kate is steeped in the world of traditional publishing, so a great resource for those of you not wanting to take the independent route to market. As such, this piece on Marketing and Publicity from the trad-published author’s perspective makes interesting reading.
Screenwriting tricks for Authors
You don’t have to be turning your novels or shorts into a screenplay to get value from Screenwriting Tricks for Authors by Hollywood Screenwriter and "a million-selling, Thriller Award-winning author" Alexandra Sokoloff. Although the Substack exists to support (and sell) the Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks: Writing Love and Stealing Hollywood, you’ll learn plenty just reading the posts there, like this one on writing a synopsis that sells.
