On newsletters and substack

Pamela Fraley

@makekong I was actually just wondering about substack the other day. Some people I follow started talking about it like it was something everyone knew about and I was lost. I finally looked it up. Still a bit confused. Is it like a blog/ newsletter?

makekong

@Pamela-Fraley just doing my best to help lol. we can agree that all newsletters are just emails lol. So anything you send in your email to your followers is a newsletter.
Substack is the perfect example of how you can do anything, podcast, video, comics, blog etc.

You can do this with any email account like gmail, but because of list management tools like mailchimp came out. Then they started adding nice tools to craft a great email.
Substack just did what noone wanted to do, pack everything into one app.

The three examples I added you can see are like blogs, but there are also great comics, videos, tutorials, etc

What substack did is allow everyone to be able to see your newsletter without needing to follow it, and this is discover ability that you wouldnt have unless someone forwarded your email newsletter to someone else

Pamela Fraley

@makekong that’s actually really cool. I’ve been wondering if I should get in on it. I think I’ll go look at it. ️

Jeremy Ross

Hi @makekong , this is precisely why I created a Substack Newsletter titled, “Just One Thing!”

https://jeremyrayross.substack.com/

Here are a few others I follow:

Adam Ming
https://www.tenminuteartist.com/

Jacob Souva
https://jacobsouva.substack.com/

Helen Stephens
https://helenstephens.substack.com/

Adam Rex
https://adamrex.substack.com/

Similar to a sketchbook practice, a weekly writing ritual has been helpful for me.

I’ll check out the ones you recommended, too!

makekong

@Jeremy-Ross yeah ! My retail life webcomic is also on substack but I used a redirect with my url Stroogle.xyz

Yiming Wu

I actually wish there's a substack equivalent but more geared towards images. I just couldn't find myself writing a whole bunch of stuff. To me a lot of what I have to say is regarding feelings... Maybe it's good for sharing drawing techniques like perspectives etc but those posts needs to be edited very well for it to deliver and be understandable. So I'm not sure.

What would you say that substack being different from patreon in here? Looks to me that they can all post passages, either for free or for subscription only, both gives you email notifications. I just couldn't quite wrap my head around all these stuff...

makekong

@Yiming-Wu is basically a tumblr. You can post whatever you like. There is a lot of variety because people are experimenting with everything.
But the best thing is you dont need to focus on anything but your newsletter.

If you want to send a comic in your newsletter just go at it.
There are many great artists sharing comics here, some write blurbs some don’t. Some just send the daily comic strip, some send a page cut for the scroll (like webtoons) and its all free

The subscription is just an option (and its what pays the bills for them so the free account users can use it freely

makekong

@Yiming-Wu

A daily comic strip

a weekly comic cut for the scroll

a once in a while 4 panel serialized srtip

Yiming Wu

@makekong Wow this is actually so cool! I didn't know this kind of posts also exists on there. I guess I should go explore it a bit Thank you for the pointers!

Kristen Lango

Hey all I'm just looking at this thread now and I'd love to find and follow you all on Substack. I just found Jeremy's which is so much fun to read.

here's mine

Can't wait to read what you guys have to say over there

Jeremy Ross

Thanks @Kristen-Lango ! I followed yours, too!

Kristen Lango

@Jeremy-Ross Thanks Jeremy!

tombarrettillo

@Kristen-Lango @Jeremy-Ross Would I be correct in assuming that newsletters are the new blog? Do you treat your Substack as a blog? I started with blogging when I began exploring childrens illustration and miss that type of community. I am thinking of resurrecting/revamping my old blog, but wonder if it is worth it.

Jeremy Ross

Yep! @tombarrettillo

It’s a great medium for writing and possibly helping others in your community.

Kristen Lango

@tombarrettillo I think that's accurate Tom!

I sort of treat it as a place to explore my own thoughts about the things I'm working on. Would love to follow you on there!

I think you just do it, Substack feels like a really low pressure place to me.

tombarrettillo

@Jeremy-Ross Thanks!

tombarrettillo

@Kristen-Lango Thanks! I'll update when I get mine going.