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Today's guest post is from Claire Venus and Russell Nohelty and their all day events on Substack x publishing and you can find out more about it here.
Today we are very excited to have a guest post from
and telling us about their ‘Sparkle Summit’ which is a day of events here on Substack exploring how Substack can influence publishing and publishing can influence Substack. If you’re interested in developing your newsletter here on Substack, or want to know more about how building a readership might help you land a publishing deal, then there you’ll find these events interesting. The Summit happens on 16th August and it is free. You can read more about it here:And subscribe to follow all the events here:
As our
is on the memoir panel, she wanted to interview Claire and Russell and share their work with you. Claire is a guide to all things Substack with a wealth of useful advice for the budding newsletter writer… and both Claire and Russell have their finger on the pulse for how Substack is developing and influencing the publishing industry. But in the meantime, here’s the interview!
Hi Claire and Russell and thank you so much for agreeing to do a guest post for us and to tell our followers a little about what you do on your newsletter ‘Sparkle on Substack’ and the Author Stack. We are also keen to hear about your ‘Sparkle Summit – Substack x Publishing’.
Claire - I have heard from many that you are the place to go for all things Substack. Could you tell us a bit about Sparkle, and how you help guide people to get the most from their newsletters?
CLAIRE: Sure. Hi Lily, hi everyone. So Sparkle on Substack is a newsletter for readers who are keen on staying creative on the Substack platform. In the membership tier, I work with best selling authors, creatives, artists, journalists and those in search of their authentic voice. I offer monthly, annual and a Diamond Member level subscription so there’s something for everyone. I’ve had the publication a year and in that time I’ve done a tonne of work in service for my community, free classes, gentle challenges and set up accountability spaces to write. My practise is rooted in co-creation so I adore connection and deepening the relationship with those who want to spend time with me.
And could you expand to introduce us to the Sparkle Summit? How did it come about, and what is your intention for the summit?
CLAIRE: Yes! Russell and I are super excited about the summit. It’s a one day event that brings together some of our favourite voices on Substack to explore how folks are making their publications work with selling books, working with publishers and growing their readerships. There are such juicy conversations planned on everything from earning a living with your Substack, self publishing, traditional publishing and crowd funding books. It’s two weeks before our very own Kickstarter campaign closes for ‘How to Build a World Class Substack’ and so we are super hopeful it creates a huge buzz and folks who come feel inspired to carve out their own path with Substack, publishing and how they move forward.
Oh and it’s forever free.
RUSSELL: When I reached out to Claire, my honest intention was that it would be cool to work with her on something, and this felt like something I had a handle on since I’ve run so many before and wrote an extensive guide about it for The Author Stack. I didn’t have much past that. The specific focus of the conference was all Claire. I knew it should be about Substack, but the focus on Substack + Publishing was all Claire. We decided to run it all on Substack after both taking part in Christin’s Content Brief Summit. It should have been obvious, but it took seeing it happen for us to make the connection that it had to be run on Substack.
In your intro post on the summit you write, ‘We are re-writing the rules of publishing’ – could you expand a little?
CLAIRE: Yes, so one of my passion is to remove as many gate keepers as I can to long timelines.
My background is in the arts and cultural sector. A lot of my work, my ideas, my passion projects were only funded if someone in a room said yes after 12 weeks. Applications would take up to 3 months to write and I only got paid if we got a successful outcome.
I’ve had a lot of successes in applying for funding for world class art and community projects but I’ve also experienced many, many rejections.
In 2023, I started a piece of work which saw me show up for 6 months once a week to write about my own experiences of rejection and the alchemy of it into stories of hope. ‘The Rejection Palace’ is now an anthology project and I have had 24 short stories submitted for round one. For me it feels an important topic to explore and to hold people in. I am really excited for the ripple effects of this work.
I’m not a traditionally published person but I have self-published four books I’m very proud of. I love working where the concept of idea to actualisation was very fast. It’s refreshing.
On my podcast ‘Sparkle on Substack’, I was so shocked to hear from authors about negative experiences they had had with agents, publishers, PR and timelines. I was shocked to hear that there was a disconnect between the way they felt writing their books and the way they feel about their books in the here and now.
It felt a parallel experience to what I’d experienced in the cultural sector. I’ve now shifted my work be full time on Substack.
This year, I have three commissioners who approached me to support their participants and staff with Substack and a mentoring gig for Substack too. I’ve never felt more financially and creatively secure in my life – I’m literally writing a new paradigm for myself and encouraging other to think about the one they accept for themselves.
As you know, I’ve taken part in the Summit and am on a panel of writers who write memoir, and there was a lot of discussion about how publishers might be more tapped into the amazing content being produced on Substack. Do you think there is a future for more collaboration?
CLAIRE: Love this question and yes I’ve sent the press release around my UK contacts and a couple of agents and PR folks are definitely coming – I guess we’ll see. I know there is a warmth there with a couple of my publisher pals and some friends agents but they seem to be the ‘busiest people on the planet’ and in all honesty I think perhaps TikTok and traditional media has their attention?
I think it will be a fantastic time capsule of information to deliver to them after it’s taken place and Russell and I encourage support with sharing it further.
RUSSELL: The thing about Substack is that it combines 20+ years of indie publishing and traditional publishing tactics into one platform. It used to take tons of time to put together a press list, find the right blogs to reach out to, and develop a release plan. Now, so many influential people are already on Substack that you can collaborate with at the snap of a finger. Just this morning somebody DMed me about writing an article for their launch, and I okayed their article in a few seconds.
When you put lots of good creators together in the same place and encourage them to collide with each other, you’re going to get a lot of cool collaborations happening, and those will accelerate over time as the opportunities are tested and explored.
If this is being read by someone who isn’t yet on Substack, but is tempted to try – what advice would you give them?
RUSSELL: It is almost inevitable that you’re going to change the name and focus of your publication at least once before you hit on something that resonates with you and/or an audience, unless you have been doing this for a long time. Even I changed my focus 2x before I hit on something that stuck, and I’ve been doing this work for a long time. It’s better to just start going and figure it out later. You won’t know what resonates with you or with an audience until you start writing things for a while.
Don’t do everything, though. Choose one format (video, text, audio) to start and figure that out really well. Then, expand out. I recommend text first b/c this is still a text first platform, but you can really do any of them. You get better on the skills you focus on, so pick one and spend at least 3 months getting really good at it before you expand, and probably more like 6-12 months.
Then I would say get involved with Notes and find your network. Notes isn’t great for finding readers, but it’s amazing for finding collaborators, and those lead to finding more readers as you introduce people to new voices and they introduce yours to their audience.
And lastly, could you tell us a bit more about what subscribers can expect from the day? And do they need to be a paid subscriber to take part?
RUSSELL: Everything is pre-recorded, and we’ll be releasing them starting at 8am PT on August 16th. In addition to us we have VAs to help us handle comments. Some speakers will be available for live chats after their presentation, and we’ll be there to encourage you to connect with each other.
Everything is being delivered by Substack, so you’ll be able to see it in your inbox, either in the app or in your email depending on your settings. We’re hoping that throughout the day we’ll get even more people joining us and that will lead to some amazing conversations, that lead to incredible insights, and tons of ah ha moments.
This is a completely free event, and you can get access just by subscribing to our Sparkle Summit Substack.
We have had people pledge to pay for our publication, but it’s 100% free. We ask anyone who is interested in supporting our work to pledge to the Kickstarter for our new book, How to Build a World Class Substack. There are pledge levels from $10 up to $300 with great rewards up to an including a 2-hour masterclass on the secrets of Substack and a bundle of courses designed to supercharge your growth.
We’re so excited to share this experience with you. See you on the 16th.
CLAIRE: Thank you and really looking forward to the Summit.
Thanks Lilly and Zoe for supporting us and the book! It was a joy to connect. See you at The Sparkle Summit.