Sarah, this is something that I need, but part of your side screen is cropped so I didn’t quite see how to organize my posts in groups after I tagged them!!
If you had not explained this to me in detail, I would otherwise have had no idea what the difference was between groups or sections, let alone how to set them up. Thank you, team (shout out to your assistant) WAW.
No worries! My work around, before I knew about this, was to make a page of one of the posts, the first one, then I kept adding links to the newsletters of the same group on that one overarching page. So I have it as a menu item, then when you click you see all the links. One advantage I see to that is that I could place some text at the top (in my case letting fellow teachers know they can use the material if they credit me for it). Now I have it both ways, which I think will be useful for subscribers.
I have taught a workshop on flash memoir/cnf and it's been a fairly popular class even though I don't myself write flash memoir. Most of my fiction is based off my life, but I use the same tools I teach. I'm teaching an abbreviated version of that weekend class in a 90 minute live webinar later this month.
This was so useful. I do have sections because one is my everyday substack posts and the other is grief, endings and beginnings. But I am now going to look again 😁xxx
I decided to put my workshop replays in a section. Partly because I like having a description on its main page (https://alyssapolizzi.substack.com/s/paid-subscriber-workshops). It also allows me to hide them from appearing on the homepage so they are only in the section listing (I prefer the look of this). You bring up some good points here though that I'll reflect on. Thanks, Sarah!
So helpful, Sarah! I kind of like how I have sections set up for my pub, with buttons in the navigation bar and a short description when you click on each section tab. Still, I'm considering keeping sections AND making groups with the same names, so that I can have those displayed lower down on the homepage.
Sarah, thanks for this helpful and clear guide. Did you personally have any internal debate about making Cured: The Memoir and Substack Writers at Work separate sections of the Sarah Fay Substack, or were you clear from the start that you wanted them completely separate? Or in the examples you gave, what do you think would point towards right thoughts on dogs and carpets (or literary non-fiction and serialized fantasy novel) being separate publications versus sections? Is that a matter of author preference, or are there logical steps you would walk through? I don’t know if that makes sense. I might be overthinking it.
It's tricky. I don't think creative nonfiction and genre fiction are that different, but it's what feels right to you, of course.
When I met with Substack and said I wanted two separate Substacks, they said, "Don't." They were right. You're competing against yourself and it's very hard to get people to pay you twice. If nothing else, it's a pain on Notes and in the comments because you have to keep logging in and out.
I loved Pathological, by the way. After I listened from the library and also to a couple of interviews you did, I bought 5 copies to give away. You unveiled really important information I wish everyone struggling with mental health had. Maybe I’ve mentioned that before, but it’s worth repeating if I did. Thank you for your work.
I wish substack would just name things normally. Like, don't we all have an understanding of what "categories" are from the old blogging days? Or is that just me? I feel like people would understand categories more than they do tags, especially since it's so close "HASHtag." I don't like being complain-y, but in my day job I'm very user-experience and anti-jargon focused and this kind of stuff drives me nuts.
I suspect that they may be coming from a very tech mindset. Tags is a common term within development software and the tools they likely utilize for creating this platform. Substack has a bad tendency to forget to look at things from the user perspective. As a business analyst, this makes me grumble. Jayshree Gururaj of Tech Made Simple has a great article on it titled "Why Substack Is Engineering Led, and Not User Design Led."
Pardon the ugly URL, but there's no way to tag her or link it in a more user friendly way in Comments (see title of article 😊). There are some great adds to this ever growing list.
I must be dense. Groups of posts? Or groups of people to receive separate posts. Also, i have now set up one section on travel and i want two others. Can you do something on how to fully set up a section. I would also appreciate how to change the photo on my site. I have another photo in the profile but the very first one i inserted is still what goes on my transmissions. Thanks very much .
Sarah, have you figured out a way to toggle Sections on the app? My readers are running into this issue. I intentionally started a separate newsletter without opting any of them into it. Now they can't add themselves from their phones. Utterly obnoxious. There's also a distinct possibility that one has to have an account in order to toggle Sections on and off, but I have yet to test and confirm this.
Exactly. Sections are a nightmare. I'm not 100% sure about the app, but it does have limited functionality. I think you're right about needing to have an account to toggle. I wish I had a better answer.
Sarah, this is something that I need, but part of your side screen is cropped so I didn’t quite see how to organize my posts in groups after I tagged them!!
Fixing now! I just caught that.
Glad I pointed it out. Luckily Substack is super helpful so it’s sorted now! :)
Aha! I wondered how people got groups showing on their home page. Perfectly timed explanation for me, thank you Sarah!
Apologies! The screen was cut off. Fixed now.
If you had not explained this to me in detail, I would otherwise have had no idea what the difference was between groups or sections, let alone how to set them up. Thank you, team (shout out to your assistant) WAW.
Apologies! The screen was cut off. Fixed now.
I asked Substack for help and figured it out… :)
Very helpful, Sarah, thanks!
Apologies! The screen was cut off. Fixed now.
No worries! My work around, before I knew about this, was to make a page of one of the posts, the first one, then I kept adding links to the newsletters of the same group on that one overarching page. So I have it as a menu item, then when you click you see all the links. One advantage I see to that is that I could place some text at the top (in my case letting fellow teachers know they can use the material if they credit me for it). Now I have it both ways, which I think will be useful for subscribers.
Great! I like doing that too. An index.
I asked you this before and dropped the thread. Do you ever write about flash essays or flash memoir?
I have taught a workshop on flash memoir/cnf and it's been a fairly popular class even though I don't myself write flash memoir. Most of my fiction is based off my life, but I use the same tools I teach. I'm teaching an abbreviated version of that weekend class in a 90 minute live webinar later this month.
Fantastic!
This was so useful. I do have sections because one is my everyday substack posts and the other is grief, endings and beginnings. But I am now going to look again 😁xxx
That seems like a good use for it if you want separate email lists.
I decided to put my workshop replays in a section. Partly because I like having a description on its main page (https://alyssapolizzi.substack.com/s/paid-subscriber-workshops). It also allows me to hide them from appearing on the homepage so they are only in the section listing (I prefer the look of this). You bring up some good points here though that I'll reflect on. Thanks, Sarah!
You sum it up: Use sections intentionally! Great use of them there.
Yes, intentionality is key! Thanks :)
So helpful, Sarah! I kind of like how I have sections set up for my pub, with buttons in the navigation bar and a short description when you click on each section tab. Still, I'm considering keeping sections AND making groups with the same names, so that I can have those displayed lower down on the homepage.
If you just change the layout in customize to groups, sections will automatically give you groups. Have to add this to the video!
And yes, you can also as groups to the nav bar.
Sarah, thanks for this helpful and clear guide. Did you personally have any internal debate about making Cured: The Memoir and Substack Writers at Work separate sections of the Sarah Fay Substack, or were you clear from the start that you wanted them completely separate? Or in the examples you gave, what do you think would point towards right thoughts on dogs and carpets (or literary non-fiction and serialized fantasy novel) being separate publications versus sections? Is that a matter of author preference, or are there logical steps you would walk through? I don’t know if that makes sense. I might be overthinking it.
It's tricky. I don't think creative nonfiction and genre fiction are that different, but it's what feels right to you, of course.
When I met with Substack and said I wanted two separate Substacks, they said, "Don't." They were right. You're competing against yourself and it's very hard to get people to pay you twice. If nothing else, it's a pain on Notes and in the comments because you have to keep logging in and out.
That practical information helps. Thanks so much.
I loved Pathological, by the way. After I listened from the library and also to a couple of interviews you did, I bought 5 copies to give away. You unveiled really important information I wish everyone struggling with mental health had. Maybe I’ve mentioned that before, but it’s worth repeating if I did. Thank you for your work.
I wish substack would just name things normally. Like, don't we all have an understanding of what "categories" are from the old blogging days? Or is that just me? I feel like people would understand categories more than they do tags, especially since it's so close "HASHtag." I don't like being complain-y, but in my day job I'm very user-experience and anti-jargon focused and this kind of stuff drives me nuts.
I agree!!!
I suspect that they may be coming from a very tech mindset. Tags is a common term within development software and the tools they likely utilize for creating this platform. Substack has a bad tendency to forget to look at things from the user perspective. As a business analyst, this makes me grumble. Jayshree Gururaj of Tech Made Simple has a great article on it titled "Why Substack Is Engineering Led, and Not User Design Led."
Pardon the ugly URL, but there's no way to tag her or link it in a more user friendly way in Comments (see title of article 😊). There are some great adds to this ever growing list.
https://techmadesimpleguide.substack.com/p/why-substack-is-engineering-led-and
omg it’s worse than I thought! 😂😭🤦♀️
Thanks for linking that article - sending it to my husband Bryan who is co-writing a book about why design is hard.
https://whydesignishard.substack.com/?utm_medium=web&utm_medium=reader2
Ooh. That promises to be a great read!
I must be dense. Groups of posts? Or groups of people to receive separate posts. Also, i have now set up one section on travel and i want two others. Can you do something on how to fully set up a section. I would also appreciate how to change the photo on my site. I have another photo in the profile but the very first one i inserted is still what goes on my transmissions. Thanks very much .
Groups of posts. Sections create different email lists, i.e., different people to receive different posts.
I take you through sections and there's a link above as well.
Hope this helps!
Photos are a whole other thing...
Wow. This is just blows my mind. Really useful tip! To be honest, I thought that "tags" were hashtags :') Glad to learn I was wrong.
Thank you
Me too! And practically everyone else.
This has entirely improved our homepage - thank you Sarah!
Great!
Sarah, have you figured out a way to toggle Sections on the app? My readers are running into this issue. I intentionally started a separate newsletter without opting any of them into it. Now they can't add themselves from their phones. Utterly obnoxious. There's also a distinct possibility that one has to have an account in order to toggle Sections on and off, but I have yet to test and confirm this.
Exactly. Sections are a nightmare. I'm not 100% sure about the app, but it does have limited functionality. I think you're right about needing to have an account to toggle. I wish I had a better answer.
You’ve confirmed that I’m not missing something glaringly obvious. Thanks for that!
Wish I'd known this before I started "tagging" everything! Only 594 more tags to delete... Very helpful information moving forward, none the less.
I feel your pain.
Thanks. Is the link in this thread?
It's above, but here you go. Special delivery: https://on.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-publication-sections