LegendFiction Evolution: how we're helping writers grow and get discovered faster

Here's why we're moving our blog to Substack. It's so easy, a medieval knight could start one.

Ahead of our super-exciting convention, LegendHaven, we’ve begun an exciting chapter in our journey to ignite faith-inspired fiction.

Members of our community know that we’re always testing things, trying new projects - with one goal in mind:

How can we help authors write their stories, grow their reach, and have epically ludicrous levels of fun doing it?

Moving our blog and our mailing list to Substack is the next step for a few really important reasons.

1. It’s so easy to just start writing and growing a mailing list

2. Substack is like a social network

3. It’s easy to collaborate and discover each other

4. We can help our members grow their reach

I’ve been using it for almost a full year now, and have started 3 of my own. And I’m still not even using all it’s features.

Even Sir Lancelot would love Substack.

Let’s dive in.

1: Substack makes it so easy to just… start

This is totally from personal experience: merely starting is the hardest thing.

New authors can feel overwhelmed about how to set up a website, find a theme, and then find a tool for gathering emails, and then extra tools to offer special content to paying subscribers.

That’s why I love Substack - it makes all of that instantly easy.

As a creator, the only thing I want to think about is creating content that I can share with people, and through it to keep meeting new people.

Here’s an example of one of my own Substacks, started as a way to let off creative steam. It just works. Beautifully. Zero fees. In fact, if I make money, only then does Substack take a percentage - which they’ve totally earned.

2: Substack is like a social network

I’ve talked about how amazing Substack is as a tool, and as a platform for discovery. I have 3 of my own Substacks, purely for fun. The amazing thing is this: new members keep magically discovering my posts, and subscribing. While I’m asleep. Or mowing the lawn.

It’s amazing. So of course, since LegendFiction is leading the charge to help inspire and equip fiction authors, it makes sense that we stop blogging quietly on our own website, but join a social network that makes it easier for people to find us!

It’s so easy to discover other people, like exploring upvotes and comment authors to instantly follow them.

See? Hover over someone who comments to see their bio, and subscribe to what they’re writing.

Plus, it’s got a really beautiful app, and it always enjoyable to read with.

3: Substack makes it easy to collaborate

This part is the most exciting for me. In the past, we’ve invited our collaborators and friends to post on our blog. We’ve announced academy events and original articles.

And we’ve done our best to share the news of these things.

Now, with Substack, it’s as easy as one click to explore our guest posts, subscribe to them, and support them. You can crosspost any post from any other Substack in one-click, or highlight a section to restack anything.

We will continue to encourage you to post on our blog, as a way for you to share what interests you, and talk about your writing projects.

Finally, we can give our creators and writers the best chance at getting discovered, both in the short term, and in the long term.

4: Helping our members grow

From the beginning of LegendFiction, we’ve been committed to helping our authors get discovered, find their audience, and grow their writing brands.

Now we’ve made it one step easier! What an amazing looking profile, right? Fill in a few fields, instant professionalism. Plus the beard helps…

Authors can create their own Substack accounts for free, submit content to LegendFiction, build their mailing lists, and even start asking for membership levels!

Or, if you already have an email list, you can create a Substack profile, and then link to your own website. You don’t have to actually use Substack if you’re happy with what you have.

But you can’t beat free, especially when you’re starting out.

Plus, it automatically creates nifty graphics for sharing on social media… and you can even start your own podcast!

Substack is brilliant because you can grow your list, collaborate with others, get discovered, and you ‘own’ your audience. At no cost.

Plus, you can export your list of emails and migrate them elsewhere if you decide it’s time to move on.

And it tells you how you’re doing and growing! Here’s a screenshot of my own dashboard: I don’t have a schedule, and I post whenever I want. And it slowly grows. I love this insight.

And you can see details per-post, so that you know which ones work best for you. If you’re into that sort of thing.

Plus… it’s a beautiful system that forces/focuses you on the act of writing, and not getting lost in designing a beautiful website. Sure, you can build landing pages and put lovely graphics on them. But the whole goal is to communicate and build community by writing.

Which is what authors love to do.

5: Islands vs Mainland

This is the most important metaphor for understanding why we’re building out our community on Substack.

Think of all the websites out there like islands, floating in an imaginary internet ocean. You have to use all kinds of extra, free or paid tools to network these islands together, and reach people. The authors on these islands create their own content, and hope to be discovered.

But social networks bring islands together into superclusters, and create mainlands. And these get larger as more people join. They get better and easier to use.

So now, instead of launching (only) a website, what you create now has a chance to be discovered by people who love to read, subscribe, and support creators.

You can still (and probably should!) have your own website. That’s important for all kinds of other reasons. But you can blog on Substack to collaborate, get discovered, offer memberships, and support other creators.

These are some initial ideas on our end.

We think its such a valuable thing that we’re leading the way ourselves. Practicing what we preach.

We’re excited about this, and welcome your feedback and ideas on how we can continue to get better, and help faith-inspired authors everywhere.

Our community and unmet friends are out there.

This might be the next best chance to meet them!

Are you on Substack? Drop a comment and say hi, and share your top reason why you love this platform!