Audience Building & Publicity in 2026
A cross-collaboration with IanD.M.Taniels|Writer & Curator
This week, Ian Taniels dropped this question into Notes, and I responded.
“Is writing on Substack going to help you become a published author?”
Then he said, “wanna collaborate?” and this post was born.
As long-time readers know, I’ve been noodling about audience tactics, selling and publishing for a long time, helped by my author interviews. So, let’s get to it!
I am not a published author, but I am an online marketer.
Tale of 2 Cities is hovering on my to-do list like a cat about to nick the bacon off your plate, but it’s not published yet. However, I do have two decades of cynicism and experience in digital marketing, plus quotes, tips, and strategies from authors who are selling their books right now.
So when I tell you: this works, I’ve either done it in my day job, or witnessed someone doing it in theirs.
Marketing is similar to writing. You’ve got to care enough to do it, and you need to do twice as much work as you originally thought.
Then, people who have never done it, will tell you how to do it better.
- Nat
To make an income, you need something to sell + someone to sell to. This is not always a book. It can be art, audio, video, games, competitions, events and services. In some cases, it can even be space (for example, advertising space in your newsletter). Most authors cultivate multiple income streams, so they are not dependent on book sales, even if the story is the heart of everything they produce.
In 2026: Community is King
Across all my interviews, I hear the same thing: “Substack is a community.” That means peer-to-peer interaction instead of a sales channel and a chance to talk instead of shouting into the void. Almost no one came here with a strategy, aside from relief; it wasn’t Medium or Meta.
Alice Kuipers (writing coach and best-selling author) maintained an email list for years that she never used. "People were subscribing and signing up and then not getting anything from me," she admitted. When she moved to Substack, she lost many unresponsive subscribers. She also lost the guilt and the busywork, unsubscribing from other media platforms. It’s much easier to write a post and let the platform send it out.
Helpfulness is the other key to Substack and something I’ve seen again and again. Thaddeus Thomas writes free craft-first critical essays. S.E. Reid supports other writers’ projects in her Talestack news. Ian Taniels does the same with serials in House of Chapters, and Brian Reindel runs the Lunar Awards (which is a special sort of insanity).
Serving their community also serves their own efforts - more followers, subscribers and word-of-mouth promotion about their Substack, which feeds into interest for their own books. It’s something you’ve got to love doing as the effort takes place over years, rather than months. However, this is also where Substack comes into its own. You can write about what interests you, rather than chase the latest trend. Both J.S. Hyder and Caroline Barnard-Smith built their readership by playing the long game on pure writing. Paid subscribers get perks, such as novelettes and exclusive collections.
"Write what really interests you. Don't chase trends and then just edit, edit, edit. It's really important."
- Caroline Barnard-Smith
Substack is your dev environment
Substack is not an easy place to sell your book directly, but it’s a brilliant place to develop it. You get feedback, accountability and encouragement to keep going Hannah Delaney and Eric Falden are both parents of young children, serialising their books on Substack (Hannah then publishes afterwards on Amazon). It’s worth noting you don’t have to go down the book route - some authors prefer the flexibility of serial instalments on the platform.
"I'll be happy to wear that label of being in between, kind of like the pulp and raw fantasy action, and also the literary themes and deeper narratives... because that fascinates me too. I want to be able to deliver things that have an impact and make you think beyond the adrenaline of any given story."
-Eric Falden
Notably, all my guests did more than just post stories. Personal essays, information, humour, daily insights into their lives… people might come for the books, but they stay for the connection. It also helps authors develop their craft - before you write an essay (say) on horses in medieval warfare, you need to research the subject. Instead of disappearing down the research rabbit hole, you can now share your new obsession online! And get ❤️ for it! And followers!
You might also get a bunfight, marriage proposals and discord server dedicated to sheep art, but that’s the risk you run.
So how do we get people to buy our books?
In order for someone to buy your book, they need to hear about it. And that means publicity.
"You can write the greatest masterpiece of all time... and no one will bloody know about it if you don't promote it, if you don't build your platform."
- Joseph Chaput
The Bros Krynn run four Substacks and a YouTube Channel with 133,000 subscribers. Some of this was luck - the channel took off, thanks to YouTube’s SEO discoverability, plus judicious ads - but a lot of it was hard work. Joseph believes you should spend 50% of your time promoting, and if you don’t want to spend time, consider spending money. Just $5-$10 per platform, per week, can help you find new readers and free up time to write.
The other interesting thing Joseph raised was in-person sales. For print books, you can shift 1,500-2,000 books at major conventions, not least because people who turn up are committed and ready to buy. In-person sales also work on a local level - get your book into the library (Hannah’s recommendation) and promote it there as well as your local bookshop. Shared geography can spark more interest than a random website, but you can always link back to your Substack via bookmarks with a QR code or a URL printed on them. And, of course, tell everyone on your list you will be at that event.
If you are only going down the digital route, it’s worth noting that Kindle Unlimited can now be made available to UK lending libraries, and Draft2Digital gets ebooks into US libraries. Indie authors still get royalties from every checkout.
How are authors making an income from their books?
Brace yourself: most authors do not make their books their primary income. If your plan is to write the occasional novel, craft a fallback, such as editing, copywriting or commercial projects, so your books nourish you instead of exhausting you. Writing a book and selling are two different baskets. In one, there is your heart - in the other is an asset to sell.
It is possible to operate as a publishing house; the trick is to build a back catalogue. J.L Patricia has managed 17 volumes on Amazon and collects her money through aggregate royalties. In 2026, this is less sustainable thanks to AI slop, but you can still remarket old books to new readers who discover you for the first time. What you can’t do is publish on Amazon and wait to be discovered. Nor can you give up. People still prefer to read and buy from other people.
"We want to see that spark and that blood, that someone sat down at the typewriter and they bled. And you're not going to get that from AI."
- Thomas Thaddeus
Fortunately, it’s much easier to work across multiple platforms now, giving you multiple revenue flows. The Bros Krynn offer the most deliberate example of this: books on Amazon, Substack subscriptions, YouTube as a discovery engine (this could bring in cash through ad displays on their accounts), plus Kickstarter campaigns and in-person events. Instead of a story, it’s a multi-revenue ecosystem, built around an IP. If you want to see what this looks like scaled up, study Games Workshop, Wizards of the Coast or even the Marvel/Disney giants. They all run on stories.
Like our imagination, the sky is the limit when it comes to promoting and publishing our stories. There are 6 billion readers out there, connected to the web - enough for a new subscriber every single minute, for the rest of your life.
All they need to do is find you.
I enjoyed preparing these two blog posts together - it was the right call to give both parts enough room to breathe in individual posts!
You've put a lot of work and thought into this, thank you for sharing what you've learned with us!
… and if you are building your ecosystem, don’t look around and get discouraged when you see others doing well. First, that’s comparison, so stop that… no one wins that contest. Second? You’re not late, you’re probably early to the proverbial table.