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| A Creative at work |
Building an audience as an independent writer or creator often feels like slow, unrewarding work. You publish consistently, experiment with platforms like Substack or newsletters, and still struggle to see meaningful growth. Most advice focuses on surface-level tactics—posting more, chasing algorithms, or growing follower counts—but these rarely lead to durable results. Real audience growth comes from a different place: a set of counter-intuitive principles about engagement, discipline, and practice that fundamentally change how creators build trust, attention, and long-term momentum.
This article shares four surprising but impactful truths about building a following, synthesized from recent interviews and reports from across the creator economy. These aren't just tips; they are fundamental mindset shifts that can change the way you approach your work.
1. Growth Isn't an External Hunt; It's an Inside Game.
Many creators operate under the misconception that growth is an external hunt, believing the path involves building a massive following on platforms like X or LinkedIn and then constantly trying to funnel that audience back to their publication. This strategy pits creators against platform algorithms incentivized to suppress outbound reach. However, the surprising truth, especially for those on integrated platforms like Substack, is that the most potent growth is an inside game.
The data and anecdotal evidence bear this out. Features like Substack Notes, for example, function as the "wide open end of your audience funnel," with some creators achieving significant growth with almost zero external promotion. They focus their energy instead on engaging within the community through notes, comments, and recommendations. This dynamic is captured perfectly by one creator:
"Having followers here (on Substack) negates the need to cross-promote on traditional social media (which throttles the life out of outbound links anyway, so what’s the point?) and means you can “market” your publication directly to people with a far greater chance of converting into subscribers."
This approach is impactful because it allows creators to reallocate their finite bandwidth from low-ROI external platforms to a high-intent, warm audience within a closed ecosystem. It's a strategic move from audience hunting to community farming, optimizing for conversion velocity rather than broad, passive reach.
2. Stop Chasing Follower Counts. Engagement is Your Real Currency.
The obsession with follower counts is pervasive in the creator economy, where it's often seen as the primary, public-facing measure of success. But for creators aiming for meaningful action—whether it's generating paid subscriptions or inspiring high-bar calls-to-action—raw follower numbers are far less important than engagement metrics. For campaigns and publications with specific goals, it is more cost-effective to reach a smaller, highly-engaged subset of users than a broad, passive audience. A creator's engagement metrics are a much better predictor of success than their total follower count.
This mindset shift is crucial because it redefines the primary KPI for a creator from a vanity metric (follower count) to a business driver (audience engagement). An engaged audience has a lower effective customer acquisition cost (CAC) for paid conversions and a higher lifetime value (LTV), making it a far more efficient model for sustainable revenue. It helps you focus on building a genuine community with the right people, not just accumulating passive followers.
3. Your "Newsletter" Can Be a Novel (or a Business Parable).
The term "newsletter" typically conjures images of a non-fiction format: news analysis, personal essays, or industry reports. This narrow definition, however, overlooks a powerful and highly viable niche where unconventional formats build deeper connections. Creators are successfully challenging these boundaries. Marylee Pangman, for instance, writes fiction that teaches business concepts through storytelling, while niche communities like the "Vault of the Supernatural" prove a dedicated audience exists for serialized horror.
As fiction creator Marylee Pangman, who writes business parables on Substack, explains, fiction offers a unique value proposition in a crowded content landscape:
"...it gives you...this vacation... if you have a really good novel... it was my Escape, it was my world..."
This effectiveness stems from its ability to forge a deep emotional bond, achieving a level of "audience capture" that non-fiction often struggles to replicate. In a content-saturated world, fiction provides a unique respite, building loyalty not just through information, but through escapism and emotional investment.
4. Success Isn't a Hack; It's a 9-to-5 Mindset.
The creator economy is filled with the promise of shortcuts and "hacks" for instant growth. The impactful truth, however, is that sustainable success is rarely the result of a clever trick. It is almost always the outcome of treating a creative endeavor with the discipline and structure of a job, not just a hobby. Across interviews with successful creators, the themes of consistency, scheduling, and showing up for subscribers recur with striking regularity. This principle is best captured by creator Marylee Pangman, who argues that "80% of success is mindset."
This philosophy is the engine that drives execution, perfectly summarized in a simple but profound line:
"A plan without an action is just a dream..."
This professional mindset is the foundation for turning a creative passion into a viable business. Platform features and content strategies are merely tools; discipline is the operating system that makes them effective. It transforms erratic creative bursts into a predictable, repeatable process—the hallmark of any scalable enterprise.
Conclusion: Build a Practice, Not Just a Following
The path to a sustainable creative career is paved with mindset shifts, not just tactics. By focusing on internal community over external promotion, valuing deep engagement over wide reach, embracing unconventional formats, and adopting a professional discipline, you can build a more resilient and rewarding creative practice.
Instead of asking "How can I get more followers?", what if the more powerful question is, "What is the one creative practice I can commit to, day in and day out, that will eventually build the audience I deserve?"