The U.K. is now Substack’s fastest-growing global market, doubling in size in the past year, writes Substack’s head of writer partnerships for the U.K., Farrah Storr. There are now millions of active Substack readers in the U.K. and thousands of creatives making meaningful money from their own work. Read more about how this all came to be, and who the key writers are in the U.K.
UK fiction writer here. Substack's been transformative in two particular ways for me:
1. The fiction writing community that has sprung up over the last two years is phenomenal. Great people doing excellent work and, most importantly, very willing to share knowledge.
2. For the first time people are actually paying me for my writing. It's not life-changing sums, but it's not nothing. I've never had financial success on other writing platforms, but Substack seems to have just clicked with readers.
The best thing is I don't feel like I have to game the system or shift my writing to suit the platform. I'm just writing the stuff I've always liked to write - but people are now showing up to support it.
Very inspiring article - thank you Farrah! It has certainly been a game-changer for me as a novelist. I hope we see a similar uptake of Substack by readers here in Australia, where I'm based. Although one of the attractions of Substack is that we are all part of the broader Anglosphere.
Since moving from a paywalled WordPress site (run since 2009) to Substack I've found life generally much simpler (although Elon hasn't helped by throttling links). Thank you for providing a simple, all-in-one solution.
I was drawn here after listening to Farrah chat to Sara Tasker on Hashtag Authentic back in 2022 and I feel like I’ve found a great space to share my words and pictures. It’s taken over from Instagram as my favourite place to hang out online and how cool that it’s taking off over here too. Thanks Farrah!! Wouldn’t be here without you an Sara’s inspiration!!
I’m just so grateful to be here. Here in the U.S, my letters are reaching places I’ve never been in. Just here to say thank you for all the work you all put into this.
This is awesome! I've been writing on Substack from here in the UK since March 2020. I'm so glad to see the platform grow and the new app has helped me find some awesome writers, both UK and global.
I agree, very inspiring. It got thru my cynical as hell skin. 3 weeks out from leaving Zuckersburg after 16 years, Substack is my new home. I feel the potential of words and heart and my creativity not falling into the abyss.............and maybe there being an existence beyond polarisation. Thanks for the positive inspiration.....and encouragement to get caught up in the wind of change.
As a British writer (living in the Netherlands) who joined Substack after seeing your Society of Authors talk a month-or-so ago, I'm very happy to be part of the wave of UK creatives joining the platform.
Everyone will have different reasons for starting their Substack. I started mine because I wanted challenge myself to show up for my own creativity. It has been a ten month journey that has coincided with finishing a job I didn't like and emigrating but it has helped me gain clarity and focus on what I want to do. I've not enabled a pay option on my Substack because I wanted a reason to be able to create that offer which I have now discovered!
My point is that when I started my Substack I didn't know where challenging myself to create would end up but I knew that I was creative. So I trusted my belief that the more I immersed myself in the subject, the more likely that the Creative Process would fire the synapse, connect the unconnected and allow me to see my way forward.
Let's see what creativity the next ten months will present!
So very glad to read this piece - thanks, Farrah! I was at a meet up of Substackers in Edinburgh just last week, and we packed out an upstairs room in a grand old pub. There is most definitely a sense of community over here and it's growing fast (hopefully accelerated by many, many more meet-ups being officially & unofficially organised in every corner of these Isles). I still have conversations with folk who have no idea what Substack is or how it works, so there's still much spreading-of-the-word to do - but speaking as someone whose newsletter is now (just) a sustainable income, I'm eager for more people to discover this model - both the readers and the writers, because it serves both of them so well. Bring it on!
The great British take-off
UK fiction writer here. Substack's been transformative in two particular ways for me:
1. The fiction writing community that has sprung up over the last two years is phenomenal. Great people doing excellent work and, most importantly, very willing to share knowledge.
2. For the first time people are actually paying me for my writing. It's not life-changing sums, but it's not nothing. I've never had financial success on other writing platforms, but Substack seems to have just clicked with readers.
The best thing is I don't feel like I have to game the system or shift my writing to suit the platform. I'm just writing the stuff I've always liked to write - but people are now showing up to support it.
Very inspiring article - thank you Farrah! It has certainly been a game-changer for me as a novelist. I hope we see a similar uptake of Substack by readers here in Australia, where I'm based. Although one of the attractions of Substack is that we are all part of the broader Anglosphere.
Since moving from a paywalled WordPress site (run since 2009) to Substack I've found life generally much simpler (although Elon hasn't helped by throttling links). Thank you for providing a simple, all-in-one solution.
Yay substack!
I was drawn here after listening to Farrah chat to Sara Tasker on Hashtag Authentic back in 2022 and I feel like I’ve found a great space to share my words and pictures. It’s taken over from Instagram as my favourite place to hang out online and how cool that it’s taking off over here too. Thanks Farrah!! Wouldn’t be here without you an Sara’s inspiration!!
I’m just so grateful to be here. Here in the U.S, my letters are reaching places I’ve never been in. Just here to say thank you for all the work you all put into this.
This is awesome! I've been writing on Substack from here in the UK since March 2020. I'm so glad to see the platform grow and the new app has helped me find some awesome writers, both UK and global.
I agree, very inspiring. It got thru my cynical as hell skin. 3 weeks out from leaving Zuckersburg after 16 years, Substack is my new home. I feel the potential of words and heart and my creativity not falling into the abyss.............and maybe there being an existence beyond polarisation. Thanks for the positive inspiration.....and encouragement to get caught up in the wind of change.
As a British writer (living in the Netherlands) who joined Substack after seeing your Society of Authors talk a month-or-so ago, I'm very happy to be part of the wave of UK creatives joining the platform.
My question is to how to make it more affordable for the reader? I cannot afford to subscribe to every writer I love.
Let’s hope it doesn’t go the way of Xitter, Meta, et all and be a corporate schlong for global agendas. I am not confident. It works for now!
Great to see British writers taking off!
How about some love for some of us Brits in the tech category too! :)
Good to see the writers from UK are given some love. 💗 We have a telegram group for UK writers to connect and collaborate, feel free to join 😊
https://t.me/+jTXH8QB0WPY2Y2Vk
Everyone will have different reasons for starting their Substack. I started mine because I wanted challenge myself to show up for my own creativity. It has been a ten month journey that has coincided with finishing a job I didn't like and emigrating but it has helped me gain clarity and focus on what I want to do. I've not enabled a pay option on my Substack because I wanted a reason to be able to create that offer which I have now discovered!
My point is that when I started my Substack I didn't know where challenging myself to create would end up but I knew that I was creative. So I trusted my belief that the more I immersed myself in the subject, the more likely that the Creative Process would fire the synapse, connect the unconnected and allow me to see my way forward.
Let's see what creativity the next ten months will present!
So very glad to read this piece - thanks, Farrah! I was at a meet up of Substackers in Edinburgh just last week, and we packed out an upstairs room in a grand old pub. There is most definitely a sense of community over here and it's growing fast (hopefully accelerated by many, many more meet-ups being officially & unofficially organised in every corner of these Isles). I still have conversations with folk who have no idea what Substack is or how it works, so there's still much spreading-of-the-word to do - but speaking as someone whose newsletter is now (just) a sustainable income, I'm eager for more people to discover this model - both the readers and the writers, because it serves both of them so well. Bring it on!
Moore, Lewis and Cumming? Maybe not the best of the UK there: 2 professional transphobes and the ‘mastermind’ of Brexit.