The hottest Publishing Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Culture Topics

A Story Comes Out of a Transient State of Mind

Story Club with George Saunders • 91 implied HN points • 22 Feb 26
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. Lincoln in the Bardo is getting two major adaptations: a movie to be directed by Duke Johnson and an opera by Missy Mazzoli with a libretto by Royce Vavrek scheduled for next October.
  2. There’s clear excitement and gratitude about attracting accomplished collaborators and adapters for the project.
  3. After a busy week in the U.K., there’s a plan to follow up on CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and share more about it.

Free content almost always beats paid

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 424 implied HN points • 31 Dec 25
💼 Business Publishing
  1. Free, ad-supported and shortform platforms are winning attention more than paid subscription services, so audiences are increasingly choosing free over paid content.
  2. A surge of low-effort, AI-generated videos is soaking up huge amounts of viewer time and ad revenue, making it harder for higher-quality creators to get noticed.
  3. Creators and publishers are diversifying how they make money — from audiobooks and microdramas to community memberships, sponsorships, and merchandise — and must adapt or partner to capture revenue.

Re-Launch: Secretary Of Perpetual War E-Book

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 642 implied HN points • 18 Dec 25
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. The e-book Secretary Of Perpetual War has been re-launched and is available as a pay-what-you-want digital download, with a paperback still sold on Amazon.
  2. A Gumroad account suspension blocked downloads and resolving it required a long fight with an AI chatbot before reaching a human, underscoring frustration with automated customer support.
  3. The work is reader-supported and freely shareable, with multiple ways to support or access it including subscriptions, donations (even Bitcoin), and direct download or purchase links.

Inventing the Methods Section

Asimov Press • 380 implied HN points • 12 Jan 26
🔬 Science Publishing
  1. Over time, methods went from practical, detailed recipes to short, sidelined Methods sections, and that shift makes many experiments hard or slow to reproduce.
  2. A lot of essential lab know-how is tacit and doesn’t fit cleanly into text, so videos, protocol repositories, and supplements help but face sustainability and credit problems and still treat methods as second-class outputs.
  3. Fixing this requires new infrastructure (versioning, executable protocols, automation, recorded workflows, cloud labs) and changing incentives so people are rewarded for sharing and improving methods, not just for novel results.

I want to share your writing

The Intrinsic Perspective • 4533 implied HN points • 16 May 25
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. There's an opportunity for paid subscribers to share their writing. You can submit links to your work for others to read.
  2. Submissions should be something you wrote and published publicly, like blog posts. Make sure it's interesting to the audience.
  3. The deadline for submissions is June 20th, so be sure to send your piece before then.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

The YouTube "middle class" does exist

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 199 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
💼 Business Publishing
  1. YouTube and social-first channels can support a real middle class of creators. Big audiences and advertisers are increasingly treating YouTube like TV, which makes sustainable revenue more possible.
  2. Newsletters still make money but require active strategies like tracking sponsors and using creative referral partnerships to grow. If you sell your newsletter, try to keep ownership or negotiate a buyback option.
  3. Media companies are diversifying with new products and business moves—standalone apps, licensing viral clips, and acquisitions—to reach audiences and create new revenue streams.

Why a magazine geared toward political operatives wants to expand into a B2B media empire

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 249 implied HN points • 14 Jan 26
💼 Business Publishing
  1. New owners refocused the brand on serving political operatives and rebuilt its digital and events businesses instead of trying to be a generalist politics outlet.
  2. They killed the print edition to force the team to focus on scalable growth verticals. That "burn the lifeboats" move created pressure and a laser-like focus to transform the business.
  3. They rebuilt and monetized events by resisting discounts and raising prices, then expanded into new markets and acquired other tightly regulated B2B outlets to scale into a media empire.

Take My Books, Please

Dada Drummer Almanach • 129 implied HN points • 10 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Publishing
  1. Many published books were scraped into AI training datasets without authors' knowledge or permission, prompting writers to join a class-action lawsuit.
  2. The case settled for $1.5 billion, but the AI company denied wrongdoing and kept its fair-use stance, while estimated payouts are small per title and many works were excluded from payment.
  3. The outcome mirrors how streaming devalued recorded music by narrowing which creators get paid, and it pushes writers toward offering work directly to readers and relying on subscriptions or direct support.

The Future Belongs to The Imposter Writers

Kristina God's Online Writing Club • 739 implied HN points • 19 Jun 24
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. Feeling fear and self-doubt is normal and can even help you grow. It means you're pushing yourself and trying new things.
  2. Everyone has their own journey, so don't compare your start to someone else's success. You are exactly where you need to be right now.
  3. Instead of letting fear hold you back, use it as a motivator. Embrace your feelings and take risks for the chance of amazing rewards.

Soon Will Come a Day That None of This Exists

Discourse Blog • 3400 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
📰 News Publishing
  1. Legacy media is being replaced by something worse, with media-wide layoffs being a visible sign.
  2. Publications are struggling and dying due to financial issues, particularly affecting traditional print media.
  3. The future of journalism looks bleak, with the rise of individual-driven media leading to misinformation and lack of accountability.

Goodbye to the Age of the Book

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 565 implied HN points • 15 Dec 25
🎭️ Culture Publishing
  1. Reading long books has declined in cultural importance, with fewer people reading for pleasure and fewer whole books assigned in schools.
  2. Digital snippets on smartphones and oral formats like podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, and audiobooks are replacing deep reading as the dominant way people consume information.
  3. Even so, long books still offer unique depth and remain well worth the time for those who seek it.

Why Fiction?

Political Currents by Ross Barkan • 54 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. Fiction and imagination are core human abilities that let us build inner worlds and connect across time, and they can’t be replaced by facts or more passive media.
  2. Some tech trends and powerful actors prize efficiency and automation so much that they risk outsourcing thinking and creativity to machines, which could hollow out our cultural and intellectual life.
  3. Writing and reading novels demand active imagination, so keeping faith in fiction is a necessary defense of personhood and a collective effort to preserve storytelling and art.

From Beginner to Substack Expert | Interview with Sarah Fay

Kristina God's Online Writing Club • 1398 implied HN points • 27 Apr 24
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. Many publishers are encouraging writers to use Substack to connect with readers and promote their older works. It's a good way to keep selling books that might otherwise be forgotten.
  2. Building a network on Substack is key to success. It's not just about writing; you need to engage with your audience and connect with others in the writing community.
  3. Unlike social media, Substack allows writers to grow their presence without constantly chasing trends. It offers a supportive environment where writers can focus on quality and creativity.

Why legacy news outlets are embracing Substack

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 449 implied HN points • 17 Dec 25
📰 News Publishing
  1. Traditional news outlets are increasingly using Substack as a distribution platform to reach broader audiences and collect email addresses they can own and monetize. It functions like a social network and a direct-marketing channel that publishers can use for sponsorships and subscriptions.
  2. The user experience — the container, interface, and product — matters as much as the journalism itself, and publishers lost attention when platforms offered easier, cleaner ways to consume content. Improving UX and distribution is now central to rebuilding audience and revenue.
  3. AI is severely disrupting the copywriting industry, with many companies replacing or downgrading writers in favor of AI-generated drafts that humans only edit. That shift is drying up freelance work and forcing the industry to rethink roles and monetization.

Medium Isn't Dead. It's The Era of Smaller and New Writers.

Kristina God's Online Writing Club • 1198 implied HN points • 09 May 24
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. Many new and smaller writers are finding success and growing their audience on platforms like Medium. It's a good time for fresh voices to emerge and make their mark.
  2. Big-name writers leaving Medium often create noise, but writers should trust their instincts and explore their own path instead of just following trends.
  3. The landscape of writing platforms is changing, but opportunities still exist. Writers can still build careers and connections if they put in the effort and adapt to new demands.

I Am The Friend Who Will Tell You To Get Paid.

Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith • 2712 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
💼 Business Publishing
  1. The myth that true artists don't sell their work leads many women and marginalized writers to fear being seen as sell-outs, resulting in lower sales.
  2. Scarcity mindset conditions creatives to accept low pay and resist self-promotion, inhibiting them from knowing and declaring their worth.
  3. Shaming creatives for valuing self-promotion implies it's wrong to recognize and assert your own value.

Protocolized Writing Workshop

Breaking Smart • 49 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. The workshop is a free, AI-positive program that teaches magazine-style longform writing and the emerging "protocol" genre, combining broad coverage with deep, genre-specific training.
  2. It runs four online sessions across Friday and Saturday, led by experienced editors and writers; Saturday sessions have limited capacity and attendees who complete the workshop and submit a strong pitch can get an anthology copy.
  3. Organizers are building a self-publishing "factory" around AI, using tools as research, administrative, and writing collaborators to accelerate turning archival and new material into many books, with the main bottleneck now being human follow-through.

vgr: The Twitter Years (2007-22)

Breaking Smart • 54 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Publishing
  1. A personal Twitter archive was turned into an LLM-friendly online book that collects top threads and hundreds of single tweets, with print and ebook versions planned.
  2. The project deliberately avoids embedding others' tweets, using links and footnotes instead, accepting that serializing Twitter's nonlinear conversations is lossy but more practical and legally safer.
  3. Building the book required bespoke scripting and heavy data cleaning, and using Claude Code sped up the technical work; this is part of a broader effort to create a queryable archival self that can serve as a prosthetic memory.

How do we fund slow journalism?

The Novelleist • 304 implied HN points • 29 Dec 25
📰 News Publishing
  1. Publish fewer, much longer, deeply researched essays as digital and print pamphlets to reclaim attention and produce higher-quality, evergreen work.
  2. Cover costs with a blended funding model: annual subscribers and paid tiers, direct sales on platforms like Metalabel, plus patronage or organizational sponsors to fund design and print.
  3. Publishing less often is a financial risk, but it yields stronger, better-tested ideas and allows commissioning custom art and research, making niche, slow journalism sustainable for dedicated readers.

Why Did I Start The Ruffian and Has Paul McCartney Read My Book?

The Ruffian • 356 implied HN points • 03 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Publishing
  1. A newsletter grown from social platforms can become a sustainable, full-time project if you stick with it, move to a monetizable platform, and keep improving the product.
  2. Effective writing often isn’t the result of a rigid system: regular deadlines, saving half-ideas, and committing to a messy first draft help you find what you actually think.
  3. Singular cultural phenomena like the John‑and‑Paul partnership were tied to a specific historical moment, so today’s fragmented, niche-driven media landscape makes an equivalent global creative dominance unlikely.

Legacy publishers embrace the Creator Economy

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 249 implied HN points • 07 Jan 26
💼 Business Publishing
  1. Big publishers are building creator networks and paying individual creators to make content on their channels, acknowledging that individual personalities now hold more audience power than brands alone.
  2. Creators are choosing platforms based on audience ownership and monetization control, with some moving platforms over fears of lock‑in even though email lists are generally portable.
  3. Newsletter and creator monetization is shifting: sponsorship tracking is becoming important as ad formats fragment, market forces like GLP‑1 drugs are changing affiliate and brand-deal dynamics, and some partisan outlets are losing traffic as audiences splinter.

Announcing The Mind Reels, and Why Only You Can Make It a Success

Freddie deBoer • 5909 implied HN points • 19 Feb 25
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. The author is excited to announce their new book, 'The Mind Reels', which is about a college student facing mental struggles. They feel proud of the work and appreciate the chance to publish it.
  2. For the book to succeed, the author emphasizes the importance of grassroots support from readers since mainstream media may not cover it fairly. They hope that readers will help spread the word and support independent publishing.
  3. There’s a chance for subscribers to win an advanced copy of the book in a giveaway, encouraging readers to engage and participate in the launch excitement.

What the Book Section Likes

Freddie deBoer • 7023 implied HN points • 09 Jan 25
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. The publishing industry is not dying, but book media is getting less attention and resources. Many people love book reviews and discussions, but they are threatened.
  2. There's a lot of conformity in how books are celebrated by the media. Many books get praised just for following trends, making it hard for unique voices to break through.
  3. Nonfiction books often oversimplify history to support a central idea, which can distort the truth. This trend makes both book critics and readers miss out on a wider range of stories and perspectives.

The most exciting media companies have non-media business models

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 199 implied HN points • 14 Jan 26
💼 Business Publishing
  1. The most successful modern media companies build non-media businesses — like ecommerce, SaaS, or product lines — so audience attention turns into direct revenue. Those commerce arms often outperform ads and subscriptions.
  2. Live events and conferences are a lucrative revenue channel because they generate fast, high-margin income and attract influential audiences. But events carry high overhead, are limited by venue capacity, and are hard to scale indefinitely.
  3. Creators and publishers need diversified monetization — sponsorships, paid newsletters, AI tools, branded content, and partnerships — plus a focused, often affluent audience and active sales effort to make those models pay. Relying on a single revenue stream or on platform-driven distribution leaves businesses exposed.

Call for Subscriber Writing, December 2025

Freddie deBoer • 556 implied HN points • 04 Dec 25
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. Paying subscribers can submit links to their writing for a bimonthly roundup by using the Google Form, and the deadline is Sunday, December 7 at 10 PM EST.
  2. Submissions must be entered in the exact Markdown format requested (bolded name, bracketed title with https link, blank line, short description) or they won’t be included.
  3. This roundup is only for links to already-hosted written work (not podcasts, streams, or to post full text here), so link to a blog post, Substack, publisher page, or Amazon listing so readers can access your piece.

Deleted scenes from Leave Society

Tao Lin • 539 implied HN points • 25 Jun 24
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. There are many scenes and sentences that didn't make it into the final version of 'Leave Society.'
  2. The author is considering using some of this deleted content in upcoming essays.
  3. They are thinking about naming the essay collection either 'Reasons to Live' or 'Life in Wartime.'

Regrets

Random Minds by Katherine Brodsky • 60 implied HN points • 22 Feb 26
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. Once something is published on someone else’s platform you usually can’t push updates or erase mistakes, so past pieces often remain as they are.
  2. Own what you once believed and wrote, because those views came from the information you had and the person you were at the time.
  3. Being informed helps but doesn’t prevent error; people change opinions both from new facts and from personal growth and experience.

welcome to not boring world

Not Boring by Packy McCormick • 235 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
💼 Business Publishing
  1. Not Boring World is a paid section that gathers smart founders, researchers, and creators and helps them co-write longform essays so their best, frontier ideas actually get published.
  2. This is a bet on the written word over podcasts and video: deep, canonical ideas are meant to be written, and the project aims to surface fresh inputs you won't find in LLMs.
  3. They'll build editorial infrastructure and a contributor network to curate those inputs into a coherent 'means and meaning' worldview, funded by subscribers, with community features like chats, debates, and more frequent co-written pieces.

What questions should writers ask?

The Common Reader • 2764 implied HN points • 05 Jun 25
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. Writers today should focus on asking deeper questions instead of just discussing surface-level political issues. This can help bring more relevance back to literature.
  2. There is an ongoing debate about how different forms of writing can be explored beyond novels and personal essays. Writers should think about how new platforms like Substack can influence this.
  3. The literary community should work on encouraging and promoting new talent, especially those who can connect with modern themes and technologies like AI.

Blogging class: Multiple blogs

Sex and the State • 15 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
💼 Business Publishing
  1. Running multiple blogs doubles the setup and maintenance work and makes it harder for new readers to discover all your writing.
  2. People follow people more than topics, so keeping your work in one place helps readers connect with you across different subjects.
  3. You can’t please everyone, so it’s better to have a distinct voice that attracts devoted readers; only split into separate blogs if the audiences or goals are truly incompatible.

The Substack AI Report

Substack • 1915 implied HN points • 24 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Publishing
  1. About 45% of publishers on Substack are using AI tools, mainly for tasks like research and proofreading rather than full content creation.
  2. While many appreciate how AI helps with productivity, there are concerns about losing personal creativity and the risks of plagiarism or ethical issues.
  3. Younger publishers tend to use AI for translation and writing help, while older ones focus more on research and image generation, showing a divide in how AI is used based on age.

Write a Newsletter 52 Weeks in a Row and Watch It Change Your Life

Kristina God's Online Writing Club • 2118 implied HN points • 27 Jan 24
🚌 Education Publishing
  1. Writing a newsletter weekly for a year can build consistency and discipline. It's about showing up even when things aren't perfect.
  2. Doing this helps improve your writing skills. After a year, you'll have a lot of content and feel more confident in your writing.
  3. You might discover new interests by writing regularly. It allows you to explore what topics truly excite you as you go.

Foxes or Red Foxes

Nice Try • 339 implied HN points • 09 Jul 24
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. A new short story titled 'Foxes or Red Foxes' has been published and can be read online.
  2. The story is paired with a beautiful painting by artist Scott Michael Ackerman.
  3. The author is currently working on a novel and finds inspiration while relaxing and daydreaming.

Books as Art Projects

Counter Craft • 397 implied HN points • 05 Dec 25
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. Books can be made as art objects — creative formats and special editions turn reading into a tactile, collectible experience you want to keep on a shelf.
  2. Many readers like small, pocketable books, and independent publishers are responding with well-designed, compact editions that are cheaper and easier to carry. That portability often matters more than expensive deluxe finishes.
  3. The internet feels flatter and is increasingly full of cheap AI-generated text, so people may seek out real, handmade things like printed books or live events. Authors can stay online while also experimenting with unique physical projects that only work in the real world.

What Is Substack For?

Castalia • 3017 implied HN points • 21 Nov 23
🎭️ Culture Publishing
  1. Substack can help writers make money from their work, encouraging them to think like entrepreneurs and market their writing effectively.
  2. Some argue that Substack is more about building a community of writers, emphasizing creativity and support over money.
  3. Another view is to see Substack as a base for writing, where authors can share their voice while also engaging with wider audiences through different platforms.

Going Still. Still Going.

Story Club with George Saunders • 85 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
📚 Literature Publishing
  1. A writer must decide and know the story’s key events and take responsibility for them, because those facts are the bedrock that let the story mean anything.
  2. Readers are free to draw meanings, but they shouldn’t be left to invent core facts; if an author wants an alternate or ambiguous reading to feel believable, the text needs to include subtle signals that support it.
  3. Choices about point of view and how and when events are revealed shape the story’s emotional balance and meaning, so narrative timing and subtlety can make an ending feel satisfying or unsatisfying.

6 Things You Need to Know About Medium’s Latest Changes

Kristina God's Online Writing Club • 979 implied HN points • 15 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Publishing
  1. Medium has banned AI-generated content, meaning all writing must be done by humans. If you use AI to write, you can lose access to their Partner Program.
  2. The platform routinely removes fake accounts, which might cause some users to lose followers. This is part of Medium's effort to maintain a genuine and quality community for writers.
  3. Medium is encouraging authentic engagement and discouraging any schemes that generate artificial traffic. It’s best to treat Medium like a magazine by reading and responding to what interests you.