newsletters – Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Newsletters are not blogs

By Brendan O’Meara (11/29/2024)

There are a few “newsletters” I subscribe to that are anything but. Newsletters have morphed into blog posts. But you wouldn’t ever call a blog post a newsletter? Remember blogs? This is a blog post. Maybe it’s like how a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isn’t a square?

Newsletters have the one golden thing going for them: permission. This is getting increasingly violated. Now, instead of posting to a blog, or even social media, creators with your email address are bombarding you with their Substacks.[SEE FOOTNOTE 1]. It goes directly to your inbox! No algorithm! These creators/writers/whatever are letting the platform host their blog in exchange for the ease of distribution. It takes effort to visit someone’s website.

Battery drain

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By Brendan O’Meara

I understand how tiresome it is when someone talks, talks, talks about social media use, the struggle of it, the do-we-really-need-it questions.

Over the years, you know my tendency is to rage against the algorithm. It’s my passion. I’ve deleted apps from my phone. Put them back on. Deleted certain accounts. You know the cycle; it’s the cycle of an addict.

A few weeks ago, I experienced a revelation regarding social media: It drains me. It makes me sluggish. I saps my motivation. It was a physical reaction.

The Simple (But Not Easy) 3-Step Way to Build a Platform without Social Media

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By Brendan O’Meara

So often I see people on social media doing all they can to get attention in some capacity. A lot of time is wasted on what the person says they want to do: write.

They might be begging for advice, or complaining about what to put on their website, or otherwise shouting frustratingly into the void hoping the algorithm will place them in front of readers and suddenly they will be famous and make a living from writing … books? Blog posts? Who the hell knows?! (I’m particularly sensitive to this because I was very much like this in the 2012-era.)

Here’s the TLDR version of this blog (!) post:

1. Start a permission-based newsletter available from your website

2. Write for as many publications as possible with your signature pointing people back to your website/newsletter

3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2

But you want more detail, right? Read on, friend.

Episode 311: Jane Friedman

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Jane Friedman came back, CNFers!

She’s practically running a school for writers with the incredible offerings she has over at janefriedman.com. If you want to be a better writer and, more importantly, have a greater understanding of what it means to marry your art with commerce, Jane’s work is required.

Though we didn’t delve into book proposals, a CNFin’ faux pas if there ever was one (my b), but I had taken a book proposal refresher with her as part of Creative Nonfiction Magazine’s offerings. She’s a pro. (@janefriedman)

So we dig into plenty of stuff that’s germane to your journey like author platform, building a newsletter audience, social media (and its trappings) and the tension you can glean from a show like Better Call Saul.