Why I'm on Substack
...hoping it's the right move to launch a Hidden Gem
At some point I came to the realisation the writing community I started in wasn’t the right community for my story. I’ve been pondering where to take it to give it a chance of being appreciated.
Over the years I’ve become more interested in writing, and now have a bit of regret around it: partly around losing some accessibility to traditional publishing. I didn’t have this goal when I started to write my story because it was just some fun thing during Covid so I didn’t think anything further of it at the time and now that I’m more involved with writing it’s something I’ve considered more. A small part of me keeps whispering in my ear… what if.
For now I’m keeping my focus on just finishing my story and then I can figure out what to do with it and that’s why I’m here on Substack. There isn’t any rush to post it somewhere other than my own impatience and not posting gives me the time to look around at different ways to share.
One place I came across is Royal Road and I started looking at its forums and reading its subreddit. It seemed like a viable option but not being in the LitRPG genre, my story would never be big there. And I’m okay with that because the site gives a nice tidy place to have it collated with chapters and volumes, and ways to market and interact on-site so there’s a chance for it to be found.
Unfortunately, what turns me off is the elitism of some users: The site was created for one specific type of story and they hold a belief that it will be forever that way and cannot evolve; Stories are given bad ratings to make sure they stay down low on the ‘top’ lists; Users tell you that if you’re not posting LitRPG and “meta” stories that you don’t belong on the site at all: Writing a romance? Go to Wattpad. They don’t complain about those there!
Well, actually…
“Just post a romance on the romance site” doesn’t consider there are sub-genres of romance. As a romantasy/fantasy romance my writing probably does fit the Wattpad demographic better overall but the top/popular stories are about mafia werewolf billionaires. I’m not writing one or any of those and this is what the site highlights, similar how RR focuses on LitRPG, so I don’t fit there either. In Wattpad communities people do complain about their romances not getting readership—because there’s no way for readers to find them.
Inkitt is another option (I’ve seen it referred to as where Wattpad writers go when they grow up) but after following its community I’ve been finding it has similar issues about visibility amongst the mafia billionaire werewolves. Neither Wattpad nor Inkitt seem to have any on-site ways to market or interact outside of story comments and it’s bad etiquette to use another person’s story to advertise your own.
And yet despite the favoured billionaire werewolf mafia lovers, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a writer on Wattpad or Inkitt claim anything along the lines of “you’re not writing <site meta>, go away” and they’re pretty positive in suggesting to any writer, regardless of genre, to post on the site because the site exists for the purpose to post stories on. The “go away” remarks are aimed towards the scam bots. Lack of algorithm and on-site marketing is a bummer though.
When looking into RR, I found the Hidden Gems Discord and have been there from the start with varying levels of activity. Substack was recently suggested as a place for members to launch their stories in hopes we can find and curate a writing community here and you can find a number of them in my recommendations.
So while I’m not joining the official launch with a story as I’m not ready to post it yet, I’m here to cheer them on and see if Substack is the place for me. I’m hoping to meet more writers on their own journeys!
Admittedly, I am a little unsure about Substack thus far. I’ve tried searching keywords to find people to follow but come across a lot of dead and abandoned accounts. Active ones are just trying to sell me something—there are so many (too many) Substacks trying to sell tips on how to use Substack 🥴 so my first impression is this place is just people shouting at each other to get subs.
Hopefully the more I get to know this place, and gain familiarity in how it works and get more involved, I can find where the active people are.
I appreciate your candid humility. I hope you find a writing home. I, too, have looked at Royal Road, but I write a style that will have little chance of an audience there. Perhaps, we will find more opportunities here.
I joined Royal Road's discord for less than a week before I decided I had enough. I haven't seen this much sterile "publish or perish" attitude since my PhD days, and their fixation with LitRPG and Prog Fantasy is unreal - I tried to explain why I did not like that specific genre despite liking fantasy in general, and you won't believe the extent to which I was flamed for it despite being perfectly civil about it. Thanks for your post, it soothes me to hear other people having had similar experiences!