A Users Guide to Sayable + Substack
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Almost six years ago, I made the shift from posting regularly at sayable.net (my home on the web since circa 2009) to sharing my work here on lorewilbert.com.
Long time subscribers probably didn’t noticed the shift since it mostly affects the back end work of maintaining a presence on the web and not their experience of reading the work. Instead of getting new posts emailed to them from Squarespace/Mailchimp, they were now getting new posts from Substack. The transition was mostly seamless and I haven’t had a single regret about making the shift.
98% of you, my readers, read Sayable through your email. Most of the emails are free to read, but sometimes the email is truncated by a notice that it’s a paid post and free readers will need to upgrade their subscription to read. This paywall option is one of the main reasons I haven’t regretted making my shift to being hosted by Substack. You can read more about that here.
One of the unintended—though not altogether unwanted—effects of a paywall is it puts a governor on the reach of my work. Readers are less likely to share a post on their social media or forward an email when they know it’s behind a paywall, and therefore fewer people are reached with a post. This creates a sort of tug and war for many writers who use Substack and value the security a paywall offers, but also hope to continue growing their readership.
Some creators on Substack get around that by offering perks in addition to their writing. They offer courses, classes, trips, groups—means of gathering people but also gathering email addresses which they can convert into subscribers by importing them. It’s a less organic means of growing readership, though a highly effective marketing tactic.
For someone (like me) who wants to keep the writing as the main thing and doesn’t want to add on massive courses, classes, etc., growth will be slower because reading long-form writing is slower. Nine times out of ten, people will drop their email address for a free perk, a downloadable PDF print, a quick course on how to grow quick, etc., faster than they will give it in exchange for a long-form, thoughtful email from a person who's trying to take writing seriously. In other words, if you want to get rich, writing isn’t your niche. The making of words may come swiftly, but making of a living from them will not be easy.
It occurred to me recently that I probably haven’t done a great job in helping you, my reader, know how to help me, the writer. I’ve treated writing Sayable on Substack like writing Sayable on Squarespace—and they’re very different beasts.
Glossary of terms
Squarespace: Website builder and host. The creator is responsible for all backend (behind the scenes) building and maintaining. Offers a lot of design flexibility, but has a lot of unseen added costs.
Substack: Host with already built back-end for the creator. Less design flexibility but prioritizes the written word or other content (video, podcast, etc.).
Substack Notes: Substack’s “social media” arm. Think of it like Twitter or Threads or BlueSky, but generally nicer and not given to pithiness or bullying. A place where writers can share thoughts to their followers without sending them via email to all their subscribers.
Substack followers: People who read a writer’s Notes but don’t receive their emailed articles. (These are generally Substack app users.)
Substack subscribers: People who read a writer’s emailed articles but probably aren’t reading their Substack Notes. (These aren’t necessary Substack app users.)
The Ecosystem of Substack
Substack is an ecosystem and it’s a closed ecosystem. It’s a flourishing one once you’re in it, but it’s still closed. What I mean by that is other social media sites like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) hide links to posts from Substack—which means when I share a link from here on one of my FB, Insta, etc. pages, it’s very likely you don’t see it and even more likely any possible new readers won’t see it.
I can see a direct line from when I began using Substack and a total screeching halt in growth on my Meta owned social media sites.
They do this on purpose because Meta wants to keep you on their pages, not Substack’s page. They’re competitors. In fact, if you’re lucky enough to see someone sharing a link to their Substack page on Instagram and you tap on it, it opens the page within the Instagram app—not your browser—as further prevention from keeping you on their app and not Substack’s app.
Substack does the same thing. If I shared a link to Instagram on the Substack Notes page, SS would hide it. All these corporations have a vested interest in keeping your attention zeroed in on their site.1 I could opt out entirely and have considered it over the years, but ultimately I’m committed to continuing to write, learning new ways of working within the systems we have, and sharing ways we can all try to do better. Meta and Substack are never going to play nice with one another. And like it or not, Substack is a closed loop ecosystem which makes it hard to share posts outside Substack.
The most growth a writer on Substack experiences is through Substack users alone.
Now, I happen to think that Substack is a superior social media platform to Meta’s various iterations (even if it’s still a capitalistic giant who will eventually have given itself over to mammon like the rest of the SM conglomerates).
The users here are generally nicer, the algorithm is less prone to promoting schticks and trends and pithy phrases, and as of now, there are no ads or if there are, they’re the sort you’ve opted into by subscribing to people who use them. (I solemnly swear to never opt into them.)
There are still echo-chambers here, completely partisan spaces, crazies, conspiracy theorists, and extremists, but Substack (thus far) has done a good job of creating spaces for the 60% of Americans who want no part of that. There are still metrics and leaderboards and badges and other elements I wish weren’t a part of the writer’s life, but overall, in 2026, the choice isn’t obscurity or going full hog, sometimes you can opt in up to your ankles.
Why does this matter to you, my reader?
Well, I think you care about me. Maybe I’m crazy, but the last few months have shown me how absolutely wildly you care for me. You sold out my last 50 original copies The Understory in about seven minutes flat and then kept on ordering the POD copy in droves for weeks afterwards. You showed up here three weeks ago when we lost our pup and your kindness has been overwhelming. You consistently comment on things I write here with kind, genuine, heartwarming, and loving words. I’m a classic Enneagram 9 so the fact that I matter to one person feels crazy, but the fact that I seem to matter to you all, well, it feels too good to be true. But the proof is in the pudding:
You’re here and you care about me and you want me to know it.
And that means a lot to me. Like, a lot a lot a lot.
If I believe you, I think you care about me because I’ve tried to be care-full in how I show up on online spaces. I’ve tried to be kind and thoughtful and patient. I’ve tried to be slow to speak but to speak with ferocity when I do. I’ve tried to lead with my convictions and not my passions. I don’t know if I’ve succeeded at all or even much of that, but I think you care about me because you see me trying.
Sometime in the past year I had a conversation with someone who is in charge of something and I was worried their thing was going to grow too quickly and lose its humanity, and I haven’t stopped thinking about what they said in response to me:
“My job isn’t to plan for some future growth. It’s to care for the people within my care currently. If more are added, I’ll do my best to care for them too. But that’s not my business today.”
Hearing those words helped me so much because I could see from a growth mindset, they looked foolish, but from a human perspective, they were trying. And I guess that’s what I’ve been trying to do here on Sayable since 2001. I’ve been trying to stay human-sized, not minimizing myself into obscurity, but not maximizing myself into something unrecognizable, something monstrous, ravenous in hunger for more, more, more of everything.
But how can a writer grow their readers in 2026 while staying human-sized?
I suspect any writer who says publicly on the Internet that they’re content to merely write is not being entirely honest about their motivations. I’m here to write, yes, but every word I write, I’m hoping someone reads. I’m hoping you read it and I’m hoping a friend of yours reads it and I’m hoping strangers read it.
I’m not writing just to write.
I’m writing because I’m interested in the sharing of ideas, the expressing of something rote in beautiful means, the telling of sacred stories, and the communion of similarity when we find someone saying something we feel and can’t express.
How do I stay human-sized and also continue to exist and grow as a writer who is read in 2026? How do I share, express, tell, and commune through words?
All I can do is keep writing.
How do you participate in the sharing, expressing, telling, and communing?
By inviting others to join in. That’s it. We participate in the good work of good words by sharing them with others. This is why I do Link Love every month; this is why when I find a book I love, I tell you about it; this is why I keep on telling you about newer writers I’m excited about and older writers who have done work that keeps on changing me.
You can participate in the work of Sayable by merely showing up or by showing up and sharing the work here with others—even if Meta and others SM sites try to resist the sharing of it.
How to share on Substack
If you’re on the Substack app or you’ve tapped through to lorewilbert.com from your email, here’s your options for engaging:
Like the post by tapping the ♡
Comment by tapping the 🗨
Repost it onto your Substack feed with the 🔁 button
Tap the Share button on the far right for options to share on your personal social media sites or send to a friend (seen below)
How to share on Instagram or Threads
If you see someone you already follow on social media share a link to their Substack, engage with it somehow. Meta will hide still try to links to Substack 9/10 times, but you can still share them there and hope they’ll break through.
Like the post by tapping the ♡
Comment by tapping the 🗨
Repost it onto your own feed with the 🔁 button
Send it to a friend or share it on your stories by tapping the paper airplane ⌲
The process is similar for FB and Threads
How to share through your email
You can forward any email you get from me to a few friends who might appreciate it (even if it’s behind a paywall—some people worry about sharing those posts but why? Encourage your friends to pay the $3.50 a month to read, why not?).
Share directly from the post by scrolling to the bottom of the post and tapping the SHARE button, which will bring you to Sayable and the share options from above.
Other Housekeeping Stuff
Complimentary Subscriptions
I have said from day one here on Sayable that I don’t want the paywall to keep anyone out, especially for financial reasons. I have given a complimentary subscription to literally every single person who has asked me over the past near six years and I will continue to do that without judgement or shame. I’ve given away thousands of paid subscriptions and won’t stop.
The cost of a year of Sayable ($3.50 a month) is affordable to me now but there was a time in my life where I was putting gas in my car a gallon at a time because that’s all I could afford. I don’t want anyone to feel something as inconsequential as Sayable is off limits to them because they are living on saltines + peanut butter (something I was also doing in that season of life). If you need it and you ask, I give it, no question asked. Email sayabletheblog@gmail.com with your request and I’ll get you in as soon as I’m able.
However, I do keep the subscription cost to Sayable intentionally low (lower than any other paid Substack I subscribe to and I subscribe to a lot!) and I promise you that as long as I can continue doing that, I will continue doing that. I have no plans to raise the price anytime soon and I believe (though I’m not sure) that once you’re locked in at the current price, future price raises won’t affect you.
Give a Subscription to Someone Who Needs It
If you can afford the cost of Sayable for yourself and want to provide the ability for others to get access, there’s three ways you can do that:
The first is to give a gift subscription to someone. All you need is their email address:
You can also refer someone to Sayable and get free months of Sayable yourself by doing so. The more people you refer, the more free months you’ll get:
The third and most generous way of providing access to Sayable is by becoming a Founding Member (what I call a Liberating Member). This is an annual membership to Sayable for you and enables me to provide more paid subscriptions to those who need it. (As a Liberating Member, you’ll also get a copy of my latest book in the year it releases + a personally handwritten card from me to you. It’s my way of saying thank you for being here.)
Okay, this was a very long email but I do hope it was helpful for some of you. Technology is confusing sometimes, but we do what we can. This is me trying to do what I can =)
Let me know in the comments if you have any other burning questions about Substack, Sayable, subscriptions, etc. No question is off limits.
Thank you for being here. You’re seriously the best.
Oh. PS. I wanted to share with you a few of the most read articles from the past six years just because that sounds fun to me. Maybe there’s one in here you haven’t read yet and wanted to!
