Hi again Sarah! I am about to publish my first Substack newsletter, but can't decide whether to use my real name or not. Major conundrum! I am hesitating because if I use my real name and write about sensitive things that concern people I love that are important parts of my journey, how it would land if they read my writing? (I guess that's a major concern in memoir writing, yes?) And if I use a pseudonym, will I still be able to have full copyright to my writing, esp if I wish to publish a book with a traditional publisher? I'd appreciate it if you could shed some light on this subject, if it hasn't been touched on already?
Absolutely it's still yours, pseudonym or not. You own all the rights to your work on Substack--you meaning the person who owns the account.
That said, it's possible (likely?) that someone who reads your work could recognize themselves in your writing. More than that, you don't want to have to worry about it.
In terms of not hurting people you write about in a memoir/personal essay, I have three rules. Pick and choose and use any that help you:
1. Always make other people look good; if anyone has to look bad, let it be you. Memoir is an opportunity to try to understand things from other people's points of view and add nuance to their bad behavior. That doesn't mean taking the blame or pretending someone didn't do something terrible if they did, in fact, do it. A great memoir to read as an example is Jeannette Walls's 'The Glass Castle.' It's brilliant, and she was horribly neglected/abused by her parents yet writes of them with frustration, love, sympathy, anger, adoration--all the emotions.
2. Don't write about anyone else's experience. That's not memoir; that's gossip. For instance, my sister was going through difficulties during the time I wrote about in Pathological. I didn't mention any of it. That's her story and not mine to tell.
3. If it does get published by a major house, and you're still in touch or close to some of them, let them read it first and tell them you'll consider changing anything they don't want in there. We did that at the Paris Review. You'd be surprised how little people want to change, and it lets you sleep well at night.
I may reprint this in a post! I've talked about it a lot in the courses I teach but have never written about it. Thanks for the suggestion!
Sarah, I love your reply! Thanks so much for taking the time to write down these pointers. They are extremely helpful guidelines and important for me to remember as I embark on this journey.
Hi Sarah! I just subscribed to this newsletter as I'm interested in publishing a serialized work (memoir or autobiographical novel) that will eventually be published in book form. Based on what you wrote here, it looks like installments of 1,500-2,500 words would be best. I think it's doable for me; however, you mentioned in another post that installments of this length is best published twice a week. I am concerned I can't reach that goal. Would once-a-week installments still be frequent enough to keep readers coming?
Another question is, according to the instructions that you linked to above (from Substack Help Center), we can set up another "publication" under the same account. But then I found that we can set up new "sections" under the same publication. I'm confused about these two options. Which one would you suggest? I'm thinking of having two main types of content--one is my serialized memoir/novel, the other is a mix of my musings and other things that I'm interested in and have published over the years. Which structure would be best in my case?
There’s really no magic amount of words or times per week. Those are guidelines. I think success on Substack comes down to being your authentic self as a writer. Your readers will gravitate toward (and adjust to) whatever you decide.
Yes, Substack just started calling “publications” “sections.” They’re both the same. It’s just a way to collect your writing to make it easier for your readers to access. Any section will appear in the main header if you make it visible. (You’ll see when you set it up. If you have questions about it, just let me know.) Then when you post your musings, you’ll choose the Musings section and they’ll all be collected there. Make another section for your memoir, and those posts will all be collected there. Your main page will be a melange of both.
Congratulations on doing this! It really is an amazing step that many dream of but few actually do.
Thanks for your reply, Sarah! I'm excited to be here, too, and am glad to hear that those guidelines are flexible. I look forward to the dance between me and my readers, and the resulting rhythm of my postings.
Regarding "sections" and "publications," I appreciate your explanation. I find the "sections" function very useful in organizing the posts. I have done an experiment of setting up both "sections" and "publications." It turned out that the sections exist under each publication. To toggle between publications, one has to go to the "Dashboard" button on the top-right corner of the screen, click on it and a pull-down menu will show the different publications that you set up. I believe that your "Writers at Work" and "Cured" are two different publications, right? In that case, a reader has to subscribe to each publication separately. I think this may be useful if the two publications are intended to attract different types of readers (but they could overlap, of course). This is my understanding based on the experiment. I'd like to hear whether that's how you experience it through your two publications. Now, off to ponder about what sections to set up on my page!
Sarah, I found the following helpful in (re)organizing posts so they make sense when looking at it as a whole - as in your “courses” so they are ordered from first to last...
Fantastic! Thank you. I'll also include this as a resource for others.
I'm also excited about Saturday's post--we'll talk about thinking in terms of installments rather than chapters, using Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None," which was serialized first, as our guide.
Also - could you start a chat thread or put up a post dedicated to asking you questions or sharing ideas... otherwise I’ll just have to come back to this one.
Fantastic! The next post is on attracting new readers (and the how-to-catch-readers-up issue) and how to handle that. The one after that is on keeping readers reading and cliffhangers (!).
Please keep telling me what else interests you and what you need. What interests you will interest others and help me serve everyone better.
Hi again Sarah! I am about to publish my first Substack newsletter, but can't decide whether to use my real name or not. Major conundrum! I am hesitating because if I use my real name and write about sensitive things that concern people I love that are important parts of my journey, how it would land if they read my writing? (I guess that's a major concern in memoir writing, yes?) And if I use a pseudonym, will I still be able to have full copyright to my writing, esp if I wish to publish a book with a traditional publisher? I'd appreciate it if you could shed some light on this subject, if it hasn't been touched on already?
Absolutely it's still yours, pseudonym or not. You own all the rights to your work on Substack--you meaning the person who owns the account.
That said, it's possible (likely?) that someone who reads your work could recognize themselves in your writing. More than that, you don't want to have to worry about it.
In terms of not hurting people you write about in a memoir/personal essay, I have three rules. Pick and choose and use any that help you:
1. Always make other people look good; if anyone has to look bad, let it be you. Memoir is an opportunity to try to understand things from other people's points of view and add nuance to their bad behavior. That doesn't mean taking the blame or pretending someone didn't do something terrible if they did, in fact, do it. A great memoir to read as an example is Jeannette Walls's 'The Glass Castle.' It's brilliant, and she was horribly neglected/abused by her parents yet writes of them with frustration, love, sympathy, anger, adoration--all the emotions.
2. Don't write about anyone else's experience. That's not memoir; that's gossip. For instance, my sister was going through difficulties during the time I wrote about in Pathological. I didn't mention any of it. That's her story and not mine to tell.
3. If it does get published by a major house, and you're still in touch or close to some of them, let them read it first and tell them you'll consider changing anything they don't want in there. We did that at the Paris Review. You'd be surprised how little people want to change, and it lets you sleep well at night.
I may reprint this in a post! I've talked about it a lot in the courses I teach but have never written about it. Thanks for the suggestion!
Sarah, I love your reply! Thanks so much for taking the time to write down these pointers. They are extremely helpful guidelines and important for me to remember as I embark on this journey.
Hi Sarah! I just subscribed to this newsletter as I'm interested in publishing a serialized work (memoir or autobiographical novel) that will eventually be published in book form. Based on what you wrote here, it looks like installments of 1,500-2,500 words would be best. I think it's doable for me; however, you mentioned in another post that installments of this length is best published twice a week. I am concerned I can't reach that goal. Would once-a-week installments still be frequent enough to keep readers coming?
Another question is, according to the instructions that you linked to above (from Substack Help Center), we can set up another "publication" under the same account. But then I found that we can set up new "sections" under the same publication. I'm confused about these two options. Which one would you suggest? I'm thinking of having two main types of content--one is my serialized memoir/novel, the other is a mix of my musings and other things that I'm interested in and have published over the years. Which structure would be best in my case?
So great to have you!
There’s really no magic amount of words or times per week. Those are guidelines. I think success on Substack comes down to being your authentic self as a writer. Your readers will gravitate toward (and adjust to) whatever you decide.
Yes, Substack just started calling “publications” “sections.” They’re both the same. It’s just a way to collect your writing to make it easier for your readers to access. Any section will appear in the main header if you make it visible. (You’ll see when you set it up. If you have questions about it, just let me know.) Then when you post your musings, you’ll choose the Musings section and they’ll all be collected there. Make another section for your memoir, and those posts will all be collected there. Your main page will be a melange of both.
Congratulations on doing this! It really is an amazing step that many dream of but few actually do.
Thanks for your reply, Sarah! I'm excited to be here, too, and am glad to hear that those guidelines are flexible. I look forward to the dance between me and my readers, and the resulting rhythm of my postings.
Regarding "sections" and "publications," I appreciate your explanation. I find the "sections" function very useful in organizing the posts. I have done an experiment of setting up both "sections" and "publications." It turned out that the sections exist under each publication. To toggle between publications, one has to go to the "Dashboard" button on the top-right corner of the screen, click on it and a pull-down menu will show the different publications that you set up. I believe that your "Writers at Work" and "Cured" are two different publications, right? In that case, a reader has to subscribe to each publication separately. I think this may be useful if the two publications are intended to attract different types of readers (but they could overlap, of course). This is my understanding based on the experiment. I'd like to hear whether that's how you experience it through your two publications. Now, off to ponder about what sections to set up on my page!
Exactly!
Sarah, I found the following helpful in (re)organizing posts so they make sense when looking at it as a whole - as in your “courses” so they are ordered from first to last...
Thought of you
https://open.substack.com/pub/subpub/p/backdating-futuredating-and-scheduling
Fantastic! Thank you. I'll also include this as a resource for others.
I'm also excited about Saturday's post--we'll talk about thinking in terms of installments rather than chapters, using Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None," which was serialized first, as our guide.
Cool! Excited to read it already...
Also - could you start a chat thread or put up a post dedicated to asking you questions or sharing ideas... otherwise I’ll just have to come back to this one.
Here's the link: https://serialize.substack.com/s/resourcesama
The thread is up, along with a resource page, where I'll collect links to technical tips like the one you gave me (!).
Yes!
Fantastic! The next post is on attracting new readers (and the how-to-catch-readers-up issue) and how to handle that. The one after that is on keeping readers reading and cliffhangers (!).
Please keep telling me what else interests you and what you need. What interests you will interest others and help me serve everyone better.
Great. I'll keep asking as questions come up. I am busy setting up my substack and basic structure. Thanks again.
Wow thank you 🙏🏻
I feel so much readier :)
I am comfortable with the idea of mixing it up
Going for the serialization-only form, yet using substack as a sandbox for a possible bigger memoir project.
This is very helpful!