How I grew my Substack to 20K in 6 months (and how to start yours)
Substack in 2026 is like TikTok in 2019. Here’s how to get in early.
Hi, I’m Hannah! Welcome to Nonlinear News, where I write for smart, ambitious people choosing the nonlinear path.
Substack in 2026 is like TikTok in 2019.
20K on Substack feels like 200K on Instagram.
The platform crossed 5 million paid subscriptions last year, up 67% year over year. When TikTok was stuck in its US legal limbo, Substack put up a $20M fund just to poach creators off it. Even Charli XCX started a Substack last November and pulled in around 12,000 subscribers in a single day.
The money from just “writing words” adds up. More than 50 writers now make over $1M a year from paid subscriptions alone. A New York Magazine salary survey this March found an anonymous fashion Substacker making $275,000 a year, most of it from brand partnerships, vs. a NY Times bestselling author in the same survey made only $49,000. Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me has 150,000+ readers and the New York Times estimated she pulls in over $400,000 a year from subscriptions (when she only had 60,000 readers), before any brand money.
In an AI world, Substack feels like the analog of digital.
We’re a couple years into the AI slop flood, so the internet is full of generated content that all sound the same. People are tired of short-form content on top of that, to the point that “brain rot” went from a meme to a term in the Oxford dictionary. The reaction has been a swing back toward analog and in-person. CNN ran a piece this January on people “committing to the analog lifestyle” out of AI fatigue, film photography is in a full revival, and run clubs and dinner clubs are more popular than ever.
Substack feels digital but analog: a real person’s voice, long-form, an audience you own (for the most part, and for now) instead of rent from an algorithm. In a feed full of AI slop, a human writing like a human is what stands out. It feels like blogging in the 2010s, except with built-in distribution and less cringey photos.
Substack offers something for everyone. On one end you have Lenny’s Newsletter, a product management and tech focused audience, over a million subscribers and more than $1M a year. On the other you have Maybe Baby and Morning Person, much more personal and culture focused. There’s room for almost anything in between.
The startup cost is one of the lowest of any platform (you don’t have to film or edit), and it’s not LinkedIn, where every professional contact you’ve ever had is watching you post.
So…is it still a good time to start as a new creator? Back in mid-2025, Chenell Basilio, who writes a newsletter about newsletters, predicted that Substack had “12 to 18 months of good opportunity before it gets as crowded as everywhere else.” A year on, that window is still open but closing. The readers are coming in, but the money side only just turned on: Substack just launched early access to Creator Kits a few weeks ago, where creators can build a profile for brand partners to shop from. I got early access as a Substack Bestseller.
Yes, it’s still early. But also…don’t obsess about being early. Just start. I got on Instagram and Tiktok in 2024 feeling like I’d already missed the huge growth cycle, and now I’m at 250K+ followers across both platforms. Timing helps, but showing up and not quitting helps more.
My story with Substack
I had a newsletter before this one that was a weekly list of jobs that my assistant helped curate because I wanted an email list but didn’t want to do any work. It drove some growth but no trust, because a jobs list is a utility. Nobody learned anything about me from it.
I started seriously writing around the end of last year. Since then it’s become my favorite creative practice and the most relationship-building thing I do with my audience. Someone has to consciously decide to sit down and read a long thing I wrote. That’s a completely different relationship than someone double-tapping a reel. I’ve also gained over 2,000 subscribers from Substack alone, reached a 5 figure and growing ARR from paid subscriptions, and even had a post get over 1,000 likes that got reposted…by Substack!!
It’s also the channel that gives me the most clarity behind the scenes on the business and brand I’m building, so I’m probably underestimating all the other ripple effects it has on helping me grow.
Today I’m breaking down:
Who should start a Substack
What to write about without forcing yourself into a niche
How to write something people resonate with and recommend
Substack’s cold start problem and how to build a growth engine that fits you
The 4 ways to turn good writing into an income stream
Plus my real growth breakdown from the last 90 days, the actual percentages and where every subscriber came from, what I’d copy from it (and what I wouldn’t).
Who should start a Substack
The simple answer first: you should start one if you like to write, or want to become a better writer. If you’d rather make videos, go make videos. A newsletter you don’t enjoy writing becomes drudgery fast.
But let me get more specific, because “do you like to write?” is too broad to be useful. Start a Substack if:
You were on the school newspaper, or wanted to be.
You kept a blog that no one read but you still loved writing it.
You’re an introvert with a lot of thoughts and opinions, and you want a way to put yourself out there that doesn’t involve a camera (at least not at first).
You actually like to journal.
You wanted to be Carrie Bradshaw (in the writing-a-column-way, not in the bad relationship decisions way)
You get a little thrill from writing an exceptionally well-worded email.
You’re building something and want to share the behind the scenes story of it.
You want to get better at writing and thinking clearly, which sharpen each other.
You have tactical, long-form, how-to knowledge that doesn’t fit into shorter formats.
