Substack for Authors 2026
A 5-week course from a New York Times bestselling author and Substack bestseller on how to grow an author newsletter, connect with readers between books, and earn money from your writing
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Build a loyal readership and sell more books.
This is a Substack course specifically for authors who want to grow their readership, promote their books, and build a long-term writing career.
Why do you need Substack?
Most authors struggle to stay connected with readers between books.
Substack is the most powerful tool available to authors right now to create genuine connections and find new, engaged readers.
Substack is the ideal platform for writers because it requires no design skills, keeps you motivated to write, and helps you grow your audience in an authentic way.
With Substack, you can
- stay connected to readers between books
- share your work consistently, without social media burnout
- build anticipation for new releases
- make it easy for your audience to share your writing
- get paid to write between books
Whether you want to share personal stories, serialize a novel, sell your book, create an author newsletter, or simply provide a glimpse into the things you love, Substack can help you find readers and create community. If you want to earn money for your writing, Substack provides tools to do that too.
Course dates: Open enrollment. Get your first module the moment you enroll. Get new lessons every week.
Who is this course for:
- You've published a book, but you disappear between releases
- You're tired of social media and want a more meaningful way to connect
- You want to reach readers, not scrollers
- You have a backlist and want a smart way to bring it back to life
- You want to promote your book without feeling "salesy"
Substack for Authors is also great for you if
- You want to serialize a novella, novel, or memoir on Substack
- You want to create audience and community around your writing
- You're paying money to use your existing email service
In this course, you will learn
- How to set up a Substack author newsletter from scratch
- How to position your Substack so it attracts the right readers
- How to serialize a novel or memoir
- How to create an About page that captures a new audience
- How to migrate and grow your existing author newsletter
- How to write posts that keep readers engaged between books
- How to use your backlist and unpublished work to attract new readers
- How to turn dedicated readers into paying subscribers
- How to generate strong pre-sales for a forthcoming book
- How to use audio to make your readers feel more connected to you
- How to make the Substack growth engine work for you and your books
At the end of the course, you will have
- a Substack designed to support your writing career
- several published posts that reflect your voice and attract readers
- a system for staying connected to readers between books
- a strategy for turning readers into superfans
- a foundation for promoting your work, without relying on social media
What you get: more than 7 hours of video lessons, 18 written lessons, and ongoing discussion forums so that you can connect with the instructor and your classmates. All lessons are available for a year, so you can view the lessons and complete your assignments at your own pace.
Substack for Authors is designed specifically for authors.
Everything in teach in this course comes from my own experience writing and publishing a bestselling Substack.
Michelle Richmond's "Writing for Substack" course is superb. I had tons of ideas but zero structure in my head, and Michelle was an excellent guide...The lessons are very well structured, informative, easy to follow, and packed with excellent advice (that you don't get anywhere else) on writing in general and writing for Substack specifically. Plus, I have found Michelle to be extremely supportive, kind, welcoming, and inspiring. I can't recommend this course enough!
- Andres Celati, The Vinyl Room
"This course was incredibly useful. Michelle gave us an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process for setting up our Substacks. Thanks to the videos that accompanied the lessons, I could see exactly what I needed to do. She also gave us lots of great ideas for posts. I'm so glad I took this class. I sign up for a lot of online classes, and this one was by far the most useful. Great class!"
- Cynthia Gentry, author of seven nonfiction books and creator of the Substack The Mind Reels
Here are a few Substacks created in Writing for Substack and Substack for Authors:
- Dear Fiction by Brooke Lea Foster
- Murder Books and Cupcakes by Kieran Scott
- Elizabeth Stark Powers
- The Vinyl Room by Andres Celati
- The Mind Reels by Cynthia Gentry
- 1,017 Acres: Life in the Park by Susan Freinkel
- Nuclear Fiction by Leslie R Schover
- Book Marketing Podcast by Lainey Cameron
- Colleenie Watches Movies by Colleen Gonzalez
- Oops My Brain by Natalie Mead
- Stumbling Blocks by Jennifer Krebs
Why I'm teaching this course:
I've been writing The Caffeinated Writer newsletter for a decade, in addition to my author newsletter. I also publish work by new and established writers through Fiction Attic Press. For years, I paid over a thousand dollars per year to send out my newsletters on Mailchimp. At the end of 2022, I realized the pricing model just didn't make sense, and I migrated all of my newsletters to Substack. I also created a new publication, The Wandering Writer, to share stories about writing and travel. I have been surprised and delighted by the motivation the Substack system provides, and by the way my audience grows organically without the use of time-consuming "lead magnets" and "marketing funnels." With Substack, it's all about the writing.
Among my audience, I notice a lot of subscribers have a "coming soon" page but haven't yet started their newsletter. I created this course to inspire you to start writing and hit the publish button.
Your Instructor
Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels and two story collections. Her books have been published in 31 languages.
She is the publisher of Fiction Attic Press and the founder of Fiction Master Class. She has taught in the Masters of Fine Arts programs in Creative Writing at the University of San Francisco, California College of the Arts, Bowling Green State University, and St. Mary's College of Moraga. She has served as Distinguished Visiting Writer at Notre Dame de Namur University and has designed and taught online writing courses for Stanford Continuing Studies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Start today and get immediate access to your first set of lessons.
By the end of the week, you will be ready to go live with your Substack, and you will be on your way to building a powerful author platform that grows with you.
Do you want to build a writing habit and engage new readers?
Replace the "Coming Soon" page on your Substack with your first post, and start growing your audience today.