8 Questions for... Jon Auerbach

Spotlight on ARC Worlds

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

Jon Auerbach writes the epic urban fantasy NYC Questing Guild series, which is serialized on his newsletter ARC Worlds. He’s also releasing his first comic series, Blood of Atlantis, on Kickstarter, and writing about the process of going from script to finished issue, and everything in between.

1.     Why Substack?

I had been running a monthly newsletter on MailerLite for many years, but I wanted to connect with my readers in-between books on a more regular basis and offer a paid membership as well. I originally planned on launching a Patreon, but after doing more research, I found Substack better suited to my needs.

First, Substack is designed to deliver written content that is easy to read, both in an email newsletter and on the corresponding Substack page. I can separate chapters from my books into different sections such that only new readers will get the former and only existing readers will get the latter. And I can add other sections, like a behind-the-scenes section and a comics section without everything turning into a jumbled mess.

Second, having only one paid tier (which I first considered a negative) is actually beneficial, in that I can focus on delivering consistent value to paid subscribers, without worrying if I’m not giving enough content/rewards to each particular tier. Substack also makes it much easier for people to subscribe to free posts, so that potential paid subscribers can read my posts before deciding if they would like to subscribe.

Finally, Substack is more focused on organic discoverability and growing a community of readers, whereas Patreon is more geared toward bringing your existing audience to the site.

2.     How long did it take you to find your groove?

Honestly, I’m still trying to find it! I tend to go in bursts of about 2-3 months, where I’m sending out newsletters every week and coming up with interesting features and interviews. And then a fallow period where I scale back to maybe once a month. I have a split focus with my Substack between my fiction and comics writing, so in theory I can alternate between the two to stay fresh each week, but in practice, it ends up being some of one and then some of the other. My goal this year is to develop a system to stay consistent with my posting and that is still a work-in-progress.

3.     How has it changed you?

Having an outlet to publish on a consistent basis has definitely made me a better writer. I loved the heyday of blogging in the mid-2000s, where you had people writing about stuff they were passionate about over many years, building up a dedicated reader base and community. Sadly that era is mostly gone.

Prior to Substack, it didn’t make a ton of sense to invest my limited time writing posts on my website that most people weren’t going to read. But Substack’s feature set of tying newsletters, blogging, and paywalls together meant I could write something other than fiction and build up an audience.

Also, I’m not a particularly fast fiction writer, so oftentimes there is a long time between my releases. Being able to conceptualize, write, and publish a piece every week or several times a month on my Substack gives me the satisfaction that comes when you finish something, and it also gets more of my writing out into the world.

4.     What mistakes have you made?

Trying to do too much, too soon. At the start of my Substack, I was posting three fiction chapters a week (2 from my first book for free subscribers and 1 from my second book for paid subscribers), and then writing a blog post in between that, plus a monthly wrap-up/links post. Even though the fiction chapters was already written, it was a lot of admin work every week to schedule everything. At some point, I stopped posting everything except new chapters, and that hurt my engagement because most people were not reading along week-to-week. Taking a page from Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon’s excellent Exploding Giraffe Substack, I retooled my weekly newsletters to be an omnibus post with something for everyone.

5.     To pay or not to pay?

My original goal for my paid tier was to offer all of my work (fiction and comics) to subscribers, plus early access to my works-in-progress and exclusive art reveals. The pay-for-early-access model definitely works with the Royal Road + Patreon combination (also it’s very popular on WebToon, which sells coins to read episodes in advance). But it requires having a huge backlog of chapters, so you can entice people to subscribe by offering the ability to read far ahead. I had a book and a half worth of chapters when I started my paywall, but never saw a big uptake in people reading chapters week-to-week. I think that’s a function of the readers in the Substack network being different than the Royal Road readers, and that’s totally fine.

After I finished my second book, I decided to pause my paid tier while I figured out how to retool my Substack to provide enough value to justify the paid tier. I’m also considering moving to a patronage model, where there are no ongoing benefits for being a paid member apart from getting digital copies of my ebooks and comics when they are released. I also think Substack would benefit from having a Ko-fi-type functionality where people can tip on a free post that they found especially valuable.

6.     What artistic and technical choices have you made?

I knew when I started my Substack that I was going to split the focus between my fiction and comics writing. Those are definitely two different audiences, so I spun out the comics portion into its own section about a year into my Substack. I did a mini-launch for the comics section as if it was an entirely new newsletter, focusing heavily on those posts for the first several months. Now that I’m closer to launching my first comic on Kickstarter, I’m doing more behind-the-scenes posts to build excitement and anticipation ahead of that launch. I’d love to do more community-focused posts, where we do comic read-alongs.

For my fiction, I recently wrote a short fantasy novella that was completely unconnected to my existing series, as a way to bring in new readers. I also wrote a series of posts talking about where and how to publish fantasy stories in the current publishing climate.

Going forward, I am aiming for accessibility and on-ramps, so I will experiment more with one-off short stories, or shorter novelettes that I can post the entirety of over several weeks.

7.     What’s been the effect on your writing?

When I was writing my second book, having the weekly motivation to publish new chapters to my paid subscribers definitely helped me finish it sooner. However, there was a fine line between staying motivated and falling into a negative spiral if you miss a week or two. Banking chapters can alleviate the latter, but given my writing pace, that means going through periods where you are not publishing new fiction. Even though I’m no longer posting new fiction chapters every week, developing the habit of getting words down every day has increased my output tremendously.

8.     In it for the long haul?

Definitely! I love the versality and the community aspects of the platform, and Substack is continuing to develop new features and products all the time. Although I still have my MailerLite newsletter, that is more of a marketing-focused newsletter, compared to my Substack newsletter, which is more creative-focused. The ability to add a podcast and video features one day is also super appealing. Over time, as my fiction, comics, and blog post archives build up, I’m confident it will help drive new readers and subscribers.

Many thanks to Jon Auerbach for joining this conversation.