1,628 Readers in Less Than 24 Hours

Hello you 🤍

I wanted to share something with you that you might find valuable on your own Substack journey.

Something I have noticed while building my second publication.

23 days ago, I published my second Substack publication, called The Curated Woman.

I shared the first article during the night, fell asleep, and when I woke up, more than 1,628 people were following her page.

Now, not even 30 days later, she has a total following of almost 2,000 readers—followers and subscribers included.

Why?

Well.

There are a few things I did differently this time, and I would love to share them with you. All shared with love, care, and admiration for what she has become.

Let’s start somewhere.

1. Be Very Specific About Your Point of View

You do not need to write about something no one has ever written about before.

But you do need to know how you see it.

What do you believe about love?

Work?

Beauty?

Money?

Relationships?

Ambition?

Life?

Your point of view is what makes familiar subjects feel like yours.

Before you write, ask yourself:

What do I actually think about this?

Not what sounds good.

Not what everyone else seems to be saying.

What do you think?

2. Create a Recognisable Voice

Your reader should begin to recognise you before they even see your name.

Think about the words you use.

The rhythm of your sentences.

How much you explain.

How much you leave unsaid.

Whether you are funny, direct, soft, provocative, poetic, practical—or something entirely different.

With The Curated Woman, I knew very quickly how I wanted her world to sound.

And perhaps more importantly, how I did not want it to sound.

That consistency makes a publication feel like a place rather than a collection of unrelated articles.

3. Know Who Is Speaking

This one has been especially important for The Curated Woman.

She is a character.

So when I write, I am constantly asking:

What would The Curated Woman think?

What would she notice?

What would she do?

What would she never do?

Even if your publication is written entirely as yourself, you can do the same.

Who are you on this page?

What part of you are we meeting?

The clearer you are about the person behind the words, the easier it becomes for the reader to understand what they are entering.

4. Give Your Publication a Worldview

A publication can be about many different things while still feeling cohesive.

The Curated Woman explores relationships, beauty, work, standards, culture, rituals, ambition, time, food, love, and everyday life.

On paper, those are very different subjects.

But they all pass through the same worldview.

The question is not only:

What do I write about?

It is:

Through which lens do I look at everything I write about?

That lens is what connects it all.

5. Build a World People Can Recognise

Think beyond individual articles.

What does your publication feel like?