PPC Meeting – Substacks – Publishers Publicity Circle

Emma Rowley – Substack
 Marie-Louise Patton – Penguin Random House
 Natasha Lunn – Conversations on Love
 Elizabeth Morris – Crib Notes

Emma Rowley – Substack

Emma is from the Partnerships team which is the outward-facing part of business. Emma
works alongside creators to make the platform grow.
Authors fall under Emma’s remit. Emma is also journalist and author herself and has a
vested interest in working with authors.
Substack is a media platform built for growth and is nearly in its tenth year.
Sunstack wants to be the home of the cultural conversation
Their key metric is always paid subscriptions
5 million paid subsections across network. Their global reach is growing – have tens of
millions of subscribers so big reach globally. Half a million paid subscribers in the UK.
More than 2 million posts are discovered in the app now.
Author can write ‘notes’, which acts as their internal twitter
Features to drive growth and discovery across the network
In terms of how some authors have worked with Substack previously, Lena Dunham for
instance would do guest posts on others people’s Substacks and write notes on the book on
her own Substack.
No charge on Substack if an author wants to open one. Very organic, authors can share any
details they’d like. Authors can tap into the existing Substack network and grow their own.
Naomi Alderman is another good example of authors working with/on Substack – she would
have live convos with other writers on Substack and also has a podcast hosted on Substack.
Non-fiction authors can really lean into their expertise on Substack – they get a great
reception – Peter Frankopan and other high-profile Non-fiction authors are established on
Substack.
Publishers are starting to now launch their own profiles and pages on Substack – Faber doing
this. Great way to build relationship with writers. Literary agents/publicist/authors can all
show up on Substack.
Emma runs educational workshops

Marie-Louise Patton – Penguin Random House

Substack is changing how we reach readers which is great as traditional media is changing
and becoming harder to cut through.
Substack creators are treated/pitched to in the same way as journalists.
Marie-Louise is currently organising a Substack lunch with favourite creators to showcase
new and upcoming titles – one way to work with Substack creators and showcase titles.
Working with authors who have high=profile substacks.
Q&A’s and interviews posted on Substack have a real impact on book sales, and Amazon
sales spikes have been recorded from these pieces.
Translated fiction also does very well on Substack.
Recently it has been noticed that an extract on Substack has been far more sales-driving for
a book than an extract in Sunday Times Style for instance.
Setting some authors up with a Substack has been really beneficial – gives a chance to
brand-build and get them some new followers pre-publication. One author was
subsequently asked to chair events and write pieces in the press off the back of their
Substack traction, so lots of added value from Substack.
Around 9 months – a year is a good time to start building an author’s Substack.
Substack newsletters are also a great way to reach readers. Alexandra Steadman’s
newsletter good. The likes of Lucy Williams and Faye Ellaby have huge platforms of trusted
readers.
Some authors with higher-profile followers can be less likely to promote something, so you
sometimes need to find creative ways of working with some of the bigger Substackers.
Can track click-through rate.
Marie-Louise worked with an indie bookshop to offer signed copies. Also worked with
Waterstones to offer discounts for paid subscribers.
The notes section is a good way to persuade authors to write about their book in an informal
way. The notes function generally is a good way to work with authors who are less inclined
to promote book on their platform.
It is sometimes easier to reach out to creators through the message function on app.
It can be a good idea for Publicity teams to have an account and subscribe to lots of creators
on there.

Natasha Lunn – Conversations on Love

Newsletter investigating love – 14k subscribers. The reach of interviews can go beyond this.
Natasha has just relaunched the newsletter.
Natasha has a mix of interviews (which are free for subscribers) and first-person pieces
about Natasha’s personal love stories. Author/expert interviews will always remain free. The
paid bit gives readers access to Natasha’s personal writing.
Occasionally Natasha will feature a piece that is collection of writers around one topic. This
is done quarterly.
The interviews are a mix of experts talking about an area of expertise. Or could be authors
talking about their personal stories – this is sometimes memoir or sometimes a fiction
author.
Natasha is only really looking for authors interested in the topic of love/something that has
happened in their life surrounding love.
Natasha is happy to send proposed questions in advance of interviews.
Natasha sees Substack as a destination spot for authors; something that we can integrate
into our campaigns for a mix of traditional press and more intimate conversations with
readers.
Readers have a connection with Natasha and take her recommendations.
Natasha tries to make the experience enjoyable for the author and always tries to make it
rewarding.
Natasha likes to receive PDF catalogues.
Natasha is always open to working with authors around paperback and likes the opportunity
to do things around paperback.
Can do a fast turnaround interview but Natasha is usually working towards a 4–6-week lead
time.
A couple of features that are coming up for Conversations on Love are Second Chances and
How We Met.
Email is best way for publicists to get in touch with Natasha for Conversations on Love.
 Elizabeth Morris – Crib Notes
Crib Notes newsletters are monthly – 4/5 book reviews which are tailored to a mood/feeling
around reading. Today’s was 4 books to refresh reading life.
Elizabeth’s mini book reviews all include when (at which point in your life/a mood/time) you
should read this book, what format to read it in and what to read next
Another feature on Crib Notes is Marginalia, which are personal essays/how to guides. A
recent example is summer reading – often Elizabeth’s writing aims to situate books/reading
into our lives.
5-minute catch up is also a very quick round up of what Elizabeth is reading at the moment.
There are seasonal elements to Crib Notes – the Christmas gift guide, hot mum summer
reading list and more.
What Elizabeth is looking for – her taste is literary fiction but also will read things in the
commercial literary sweet spot. Also, memoir and narrative non-fiction are great for Crib
Notes.
Elizabeth is interested in re-issues of classics and old literary gems.
Prefers feminist slant but will read men.
Elizabeth is a former bookseller and book publicist and if she loves a book, she will always
find a way to feature it. Readers trust taste in books and the recommendations on Crib
Notes. Trust between reader and author is important.
Crib Notes does collaborations with authors from time to time.
In terms of getting in touch with Elizabeth, email is good.
Elizabeth loves receiving proofs and is interested in audio books in advance too – interested
in audio as a format.
Likes meeting people in real life. Very happy to meet for coffee. Tries to attend author
showcases.
Still does children’s books – covers children’s books in 5-minute catch up. Children’s books
also included in Crib Notes Xmas gift guides.
Also writes for Sunshine magazine and reviews children’s books there.
Questions:
How mid-list authors can get noticed on Substack – Emma: use the tools to amplify your
posts and to find an audience. Write a post and share to Notes – use this as the tool to join
the community. Encourage authors to be active on the platform – share other posts and
respond. You can use notes to collect an audience before you actually post.
Where is the private message function – go to chat, into chat direct messages at the top.
Make sure you have latest version of app.
Debut authors on Substack– Elizabeth: very interested in championing debut writers/indie
presses/undiscovered gems. Wants to showcase authors who wouldn’t necessarily be in the
mainstream. Wants to help readers to discover books. Substack is also flexible compared to
traditional media – a book can find a targeted audience on Substack.
How to decide if an author is good to use for Substack in a campaign – Marie Louise: most
substackers are keen to experiment and spotlight new authors. Things to think about are – is
the author committed to the Substack and do they want to build on it and generate
conversation? Authors need to put the work in.
How to go about offering signed copies with indie bookshop – Marie-Louise reached out to
specific indies who either have a relationship with author or who have sold copies of their
book. Reached out and pitched the idea directly. One recent author went into a local indie to
sign and was filmed for Substack. She then did some notes on it – sold around 300 copies.
West Kirby books like it, Backstory in Balham too. Good for both indie and author.
Additional notes/links from Elizabeth:
Crib Notes https://cribnotesbookclub.substack.com