The horrible Substack writing advice that's actually great zine advice

I am once again asking you to make a zine

Zines¹ are coming back to our collective consciousness and this Substack has become me standing on a corner of the internet, ringing a bell and shouting about how great they are. Sometimes I recommend zines, sometimes I give out resources, but today I’m going to talk about some of the Substack writing advice I’ve seen that’s absolutely horrid for online writers², yet actually great for zines. Whee!

Bad Advice No. 1: Write Like No One’s Reading

One piece of advice for writers I keep seeing on here is “write like no one is reading” ie: write like you aren’t under the scrutiny of the internet where your writing will land somewhere on the continuum of being ignored to being pilloried. What this advice really means is “write like no one is going to comment or restack you with a bad-faith critique.”

‘Tis not possible. Whether you intend to hit publish or not, if you write thinking it will be posted online at some point, it’s going to impact your writing because you’re going to anticipate the feedback.

You know where you can actually write like no one is reading?

In a zine.

Zines are the perfect place to publish your writing without feedback because you will be writing for a very small audience and that audience - and here’s the important part - won’t have a comments section. No one is paying $5 to hate read a zine when that same person can hate read the entire internet for free. Further, I doubt that most writers are capable of the mental gymnastics required to convince themselves that views aren’t feedback, too. Getting 10 views on a post is feedback³. Getting 1,000 views on a post is feedback. Getting no comments is feedback. Getting a negative comment that someone else then likes is feedback. You get the point.

Publishing your writing in a zine lets it simmer and gives you the chance to work on things you actually want to write about. Without algorithmic feedback, would you really, really care about the new Taylor Swift album? The Met Gala? The [insert current pop culture discourse here]? Do you want to spend your life writing about things your don’t care about, (at least not really) anyway?

Writing a zine is you giving yourself permission to genuinely write what you would write if no one was watching and cultivate your skills without instant feedback.

Bad Advice No. 2: Write About Whatever Interests You

I see this advice on Substack Notes all the time and usually to great applause. “Write whatever you want! It can change from day to day and that’s totally fine! Your audience will still find you! Poem and then thinkpiece?! No problem!”

This advice is so bad, I sometimes wonder if it’s attempt to destroy the competition.⁴

If you’re publishing online, on Substack perhaps, you absolutely need to have a clear focus for what you are writing and ideally a publication title that communicates what that is. Doing otherwise is going to nearly guarantee that you won’t be able to build an audience.

But you know where you can write about whatever you want?

In a zine.

You can write a poetry zine and then a fanzine and then a personal zine. My whole zine is made up of random articles about whatever I’m thinking about at the time and one of my favorite zines is the exact same type of format. That’s normal for zines and people love it because zines are the antithesis of being online. Zines are sort of like catching up with a friend over coffee where it’s normal to change topics dozens of times, whereas a Substack is more like a lecture series you're signing up for. You don’t need to limit yourself with zines the way you do when you’re writing online⁵.

This Table of Contents would make for an awful Substack, but it makes for a great (imo) zine!

Bad Advice No. 3: Don’t Use Social Media

I’ve seen the Notes, you’ve seen the Notes, we’ve all seen the Notes where people are telling authors to “quit social media” like Substack isn’t social media⁶ … which is a rant for another day. When I see people on here encouraging others to “quit social media and focus on their writing” I cringe a little because it’s such bad advice for people who aspire to be professional writers.

Publishers now want you to bring your own audience to the table and do their marketing for free once your book is out. I can think of three people off the top of my head who got book deals off their TikToks⁷, one of which was a four book deal⁸. I cannot tell you how many books I have read this year that, when I get to the acknowledgements, they mention that it all started with their podcast⁹. A writer not building an audience on social media is a great idea if you want to stay sane and fly under the radar, it’s abysmal advice if you’re trying to get a book deal.

But you know where you can write without worrying about social media?

Say it with me!

In a zine.

Zines are very anti-social media in a lot of ways. Go to a local zine fest and a good 75% of the people tabling there won’t have online shops. Maybe they’ll have an Instagram they rarely update, maybe. You can write and publish a zine, get the satisfaction of seeing your writing in print, share a tangible object with others, and never think about how to make it into a snappy post with an attention-grabbing hook¹⁰.

It’s freeing.

In Conclusion

Serialize your novel, start a literary magazine with your friends, drop a new poetry chapbook. Zines are a place where you get to have fun with your writing again. And that’s not everyone’s goal, but if you write for the love of the game, to find your voice, to share your story, consider doing it in zine form. We’d be happy to have you.

Okay, bye!

1. Zines, pronounced zeen like magazine, are small run, independent publications.

2. Probably! I’m a zinester not a writer so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Actually, that is a lie, I have published writing, mostly in magazines, just not enough for me to actually walk around going “I’m a published author!”

3. I saw someone on here bemoan that they “had” to start writing about tending topics to get views even though they didn’t want to, which I thought was so sad. It doesn’t need to be like this, people! It’s okay if you don’t have an opinion about the Dubai Chocolate Labubu Sabrina Carpenter Taylor Swift Bezos Wedding Industrial Complex. Further, for people who want to read about those topics (often, me), interesting pieces by people actually examining them are being drowned out by attention-seeking luke warm hot takes. It’s bad for everyone (and silly).

4. What it actually is, I think, is people engagement farming by telling others exactly what they want to hear.

5. You don’t need to limit yourself when you’re writing on here either, the only issue is that way fewer people will see your work, and if you’re publishing your work on Substack, that writing being seen is probably kind of the point.

6. If Substack isn’t social media, can someone please explain to the class how my husband of ten years, who has no social media but did join Substack this year, sent me a meme for the very first time? Hmm?

7. Courtney Gustafson’s Poets Square: A Memoir in 30 Cats (NY Times Bestseller, also actually good), Geo Rutherford’s Spooky Lakes (ended up being a children’s book), and Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s Assistant to the Villain series (#1 NY Times Bestseller that I just spotted a special edition of at B&N last weekend; she’s also been in several short story anthologies). This is without me Googling, by the way.

8. It was Maehrer, whose first book did so well they extended the series to four books. If it’s five I will scream. They all end on cliffhangers and I refuse to read the series until it has come to a satisfying conclusion. I’m off topic!

9. Off the top of my head How to Kill a Witch and Yesteryear and that’s just books I read in May.

10. Like here, when I called the advice “horrible” in the title when it’s more accurately described as “not the best.”