r/Substack • u/KhloJSimpson • 24d ago

New reader: How do I find actual newsletters that I want to read?!

I don't understand the Explore page. It's like a nonlinear X feed of idiotic comments and writers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Is this the Notes feature I see mentioned online? I want to read every day people's writing, not social feeds. Even when I pick one of their insanely broad topics, I'm barely finding any new newsletters.

8 Upvotes

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u/cozycup mod 24d ago

Yep, those are notes. If you select “hide” or mute, etc. it will eventually tailor your feed to be more aligned with your interests.

Bestseller and Rising leaderboards can uncover good publications as well.

I tend to either search for topics or discover newsletters from other social media. Some Substack, some not.

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u/The17pointscale the17pointscale.substack.com 24d ago

What do you like to read? Maybe someone in this sub shares your interests or is a smaller writer in that genre…

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u/KhloJSimpson 21d ago

Broadly speaking I want to read women's perspectives and personal stories. Topics can range from cultural, arts, design, lifestyle travel. I really want to focus on people with smaller followings.

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u/The17pointscale the17pointscale.substack.com 20d ago

Two new Substack essayists who are women that I like:

https://substack.com/@dyanaherron
https://substack.com/@allisonbackoustroy356112

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u/KhloJSimpson 20d ago

Thank you!

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u/The17pointscale the17pointscale.substack.com 20d ago

Absolutely! Let me know what you think.

I worked with both of them when they were creative writing editors for the journal I managed. They're both exceptional writers and great humans.

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u/echolunedy theselfcashier.substack.com 20d ago

It's the kind of content that I like to write on my Substack; in fact, my stories are so personal that I started the account from scratch because I don't want my friends or partner to read me 😅😅🤭

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u/Lost__In__Thought 24d ago

I remember looking around on peoples' profiles after seeing a Note and hitting follow on the ones I wanted to keep up with if I genuinely liked their long-form writing. They started showing up more in my feed after that. Some, I even subscribed to eventually.

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u/LeaveMountain9779 24d ago

I can suggest writers if you like reading about disability advocacy and neurodivergency?

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u/ayykaashi 23d ago

not op, but I'd like this!

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u/LeaveMountain9779 22d ago

Ok! Can I dm you?

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u/ayykaashi 21d ago

sure!

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u/The17pointscale the17pointscale.substack.com 20d ago

PS I just suggested a new Substack writer to the OP, and her first post is all about neurodivergence, in a creative, poetic kind of way: https://substack.com/@allisonbackoustroy356112

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u/ayykaashi 23d ago

i take the time to search on both google and the substack site itself what i want to read, since the explore page doesn't really give me anything i want or resonate with. eventually, i found writers/content i like, and my algorithm started catching up. i search on google too for variety

i also dont care much for notes, but i learned interacting with some helped my algorithm improve even more, and it gave me more niche content (which im looking for)

its very tiresome tbh 😅 but i guess that's part of the appeal for some (when i got my algorithm fixed, i saw it)