First, you need to know why people should read your work. For us it’s because we’re better than legacy outlets in terms of quality and wit. Frankly, it’s not even close. Often writers don’t have the same intellect to share with the world. If that’s you I suggest reading some of our pieces and borrowing the style that meshes with you best. Given our level of talent we think we owe it to help others: there’s plenty to go around.
Second, you want to grow carefully. It’s easy to get 1,000 subscribers. Work your way up to that when you’re ready. Curate and refine your subscriber list. When you’re publishing at an elite level your subscribers should be at that level too. The worst thing you can do is get more people to read your work. Aim for a new subscriber about every half month. Your subscribers are your advocates so make sure they’re smart. It’ll be tough to grow if your writing isn’t appreciated by your readers. We’ve been extremely prudent on who receives our work. Again, we want to reiterate that we could grow exponentially. We actively limit our growth.
Writing frequency is another hotly debated topic. Do you publish every day? Once a week? Twice a week? It wholly depends on confidence. If you’re confident you should publish every day (like we do). If you have less confidence reduce your frequency. Van Gogh, Steinbeck, Eliot — artists who we consider our peers — were famous for hyper-confidence. You should be the same way.
Lastly, if you’re exploring new genres or trying to “find yourself” you’re making a mistake. Readers ideally know exactly what they’re getting when they open up your articles. They should be able to guess the themes, topics, and even all of your words before they read your work.
The tips above are the reasons we’ve grown to 10 subscribers in the last 6 months. We’re confident if we continue walking-the-walk we’ll dominate the space. If you follow our advice you might have a shot getting to 10 subscribers in 6 months too.
The concept of pruning the subscriber list is quite intriguing, and could even generate some healthy habits among readers: "Whoa—I got kicked off X publication's email list because I'm not good enough! Now I NEED to know what I'm missing—I'd better shape up!" etc.
You absolutely nailed it. It’s like purchasing a piece of art. People only buy art if they have to have it. Same with readers. There are millions of writers out there but what makes people want to buy our art? Us!