Substack in Australia

I've learnt a few things this week

You are reading the free edition of Company on Sunday’s put together by Skye Manson and Thea Harrington. If you like it here, or if you see value in these writings, step a little closer into the circle by becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll received another lovely email on Wednesdays, with special guest Q&A’s and more mid-week recommendations. For the next five weeks from July 2nd you’ll also receive additional extra’s from our new special podcast, which will be formally announced next week. It’s going to be fuuuuuuunnnn!

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This image is via @substack

I’ve been finding it difficult to connect with other Australian writers on Substack, so this week I called out for help on Instagram - and was flooded with recommendations of who’s there on SS writing and newsletter-ing.

I haven’t found my crowd on this new(ish) platform just yet, I know it will come but my inroads so far have been slow and so that’s why I reached out.

I’m going to show you what happened this week in a second but first, I wanted to tell you about One of my favourite writers on Substack:

Emma Gannon

- she’s darling of the platform, who has thousands of paid subscribers and always seems to be doing something new, in her own confident way, that’s exciting. Her work is always readable and it resonates. There is lots of love out there for Emma, but she keeps consistently delivering the goods. I cannot fault her.

In one of her posts she quietly mentioned she was manifesting a trip to Australia. And well, so …. I did this …….

I posted this to Substack:

The silence was deafening.

Apart from a few lovely followers …… and well …… Emma (royalty).

So I took my mission to Instagram:

This tells me Australian’s are there*, there’s no doubt, but that perhaps they’re talking to their individual already-established audiences and using the platform to monetise the writings for those willing to pay. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of ‘conversation’ happening between Australian’s on the platform itself, which has a ‘like’ and ‘comment’ functionality and ‘Notes’ which is Substack’s live feed. People can go live and offer paid subscriber threads too.

One person commented they feel SS is heavily patronised by writers in the UK and maybe Australia has been a little slow to catch up?

It’s clear where the peeps are hanging out.

For each newsletter I publish, analytics show me how people are reading - and for Company on Sunday, almost always, 99% of my audience access is via email. The other 1% is via the SS app. I’d love to have more engagement and two-way conversation with my readers. If you read via the app, a quick like or comment when needed is easy, but via email it’s clunky - I don’t even bother.

All I wanted to say to you was that if you are signed up to Substack – and if you are interested in that platform – use it. My reasons for encouraging you are selfish. I want to see you there, I want to interact with you, I ‘d love more feedback on my writing and most of all I want to build our Australian network on the platform.

Any maybe once we are all there; we can make this manifestation of Emma Gannon’s happen and collectively get her to Australia!

*I’ll be collating a list of Australian substackers from my Instagram post and featuring it in our Mid-Week Missive on Wednesday. This is the extra weekly newsletter for my padi subscribers. If you’d like to see the list, please subscribe. You can join for a weekly rate of $7 or annually for $99. Everyone has access to my Instagram so if you’d prefer not to join up, you can see all the Substackers there and make your own connections.

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Podcast Playlist

Ummm so apparently coffee’s in Australia are underpriced. The Coffee Paradox on the Money.

Yumi Stynes: Me and Alcohol don’t mix. The Imperfects.

Not Stupid. New pod with Julia Baird and Jeremy Fernandez. I liked it.

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What’s not to adore about this? @davidpogran

Lay your eyes on these Instagram accounts

@designwanted || @davidpogran (pictured) || @thelaundrygarden

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This pile of things to read

Why it’s nice to know you. Beautiful. The Atlantic.

Tom and Emma Lane’s country retreat aka Copperstone.

Did you marry your Mum or your Dad? and other things. By the brilliant

Jess Pan

Certificates of bravery I didn’t know I had. This makes me feel so sad for her, and then ends with a huge smile.

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I hope you have a lovely Sunday lined up. We’ll be hitting the footy ground this morning, then some form of Sunday relaxation, the gearing up for the week ahead with my Sunday Energy Burst! Sxx