What I Learned About Self-Publishing in the Arab World (And Why It Matters for All of Us)

What I Learned From an Hour With Jane Friedman, “The Most Trusted Voice in Publishing”

When Jane Friedman [https://substack.com/profile/14647-jane-friedman] said yes to my Substack Live invitation, I didn’t expect it. She’s been called “the most trusted voice” in publishing. She’s been reporting on this industry for 25+ years. And me? I’m a small fish swimming in a very big pond. But Jane is the kind of person who supports the underdog. And as it turns out, this was her very first Substack Live, ever. I got to be the one to break her in. Twenty people popped into the live within seconds of me hitting “go.” By the end, we’d covered everything from why she still hasn’t moved her newsletter to Substack, to whether self-publishing is eating traditional publishing alive, to what AI is actually doing to authors (hint: it’s not what the loudest voices are screaming about). Here’s what stayed with me. Substack is ‘both great and terrible’ — and she stands by that I asked Jane about her now-famous take that Substack is both great and terrible for authors. After Lena Dunham [https://substack.com/profile/310114162-lena-dunham] reportedly moved 60,000 copies of her memoir [https://on.substack.com/p/inside-lena-dunhams-substack-press?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1&post_id=195236851&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1fwcf&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email]Fame Sick [https://on.substack.com/p/inside-lena-dunhams-substack-press?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1&post_id=195236851&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1fwcf&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email] https://on.substack.com/p/inside-lena-dunhams-substack-press?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1&post_id=195236851&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1fwcf&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=emailin a single week using Substack notes, lives, and cross-collaborations — did Jane want to revise her position? She didn’t. Her concern was never about Substack as a book marketing tool. On that front, she’s bullish. She thinks every author should be paying attention to who’s on Substack and building relationships with the right people there. What worries her is something else entirely: Substack quietly nudging the vast majority of authors — maybe 90% — to charge for newsletters that should really stay free. For Jane, an author newsletter is a marketing vehicle for your books. The moment you put it behind a paywall, you’ve narrowed your reach. And Substack, by design, keeps suggesting at every turn: shouldn’t you charge? People might pledge. How about earning some money? It’s not that paid newsletters can’t work. Jane’s own paid newsletter (The Bottolm Line [https://janefriedman.com/the-bottom-line-janes-publishing-industry-newsletter/] hosted off Substack since 2015) is proof they can. But she said she runs hers on her own website through MailChimp because she “fully owns and controls what’s happening there.” She’s not handing over 10% of revenue to a platform for infrastructure she already built. For someone like Jane — established, with website traffic, with a free newsletter feeding the paid one — staying off Substack makes total sense. But she was clear: she’s not telling other writers to follow her lead. For early-career and emerging authors, Substack’s built-in discoverability, recommendation system, and social layer are genuinely valuable. This is where I pushed back a little. Because I’m not only an author. I’m an authorpreneur. My books are a small slice of my income. Ghostwriting, book coaching, masterclasses — that’s the real engine. And Substack, for me, is the connective tissue. I give the newsletter away free, but paid subscribers get access to my monthly masterclasses. They’re getting something concrete in return, not just “buy my book, buy my book, buy my book.” Jane heard me out and agreed: the author vs. authorpreneur distinction matters. Unless you’re Stephen King, you’re not living off books alone. Substack fills the gap for everyone in between. Self-publishing isn’t the stigma it used to be I asked Jane where self-publishing is heading in 2026, and her answer surprised me with how forceful it was. Self-publishing has been growing for years, but in the last two it’s gone into overdrive — partly because of AI, and partly because of something I hadn’t fully appreciated: publishers are now actively acquiring self-published authors. According to Publishers Marketplace, those acquisitions doubled from 2024 to 2025. Jane’s read on why: publishers don’t move fast. When they spot a hot sub-genre — romantasy, LitRPG, certain corners of sci-fi and fantasy — it’s easier to scoop up an author with a proven readership than to build one from scratch. The risk is lower. The audience is already there. There’s a caveat she was careful to flag. A lot of the recent self-publishing growth is from AI-driven get-rich-quick operators flooding KDP with low-quality books. That’s not the community she’s interested in, and it’s not the path she’s describing. The real opportunity is for genre fiction writers who can produce consistently — usually in series — for two to four years before things click. She added that traditional publishers used to be the gatekeepers of book discovery because newspapers, magazines, and book reviewers were how readers found new titles. That ecosystem has collapsed. Discovery now runs on word of mouth, BookTok, peer influence, and social media — exactly the channels where self-published authors are often stronger than their traditionally published peers. On AI: she’s tired of the circular firing squad Jane doesn’t want to be in the AI war. What she calls the “circular firing squad” — authors attacking other authors for whether they use the technology — is exhausting and, in her view, unproductive. She sees her role as bringing factual information, lowering the temperature, and giving people a 360-degree view rather than another hot take. A few things she said that I want to sit with: The AI scandals dominating the discourse (Shy Girl, the New York Times book reviewer caught using AI, all the rest) are not actually indicative of how AI will change publishing. They’re the worst actors. They’re loud. But the enlightened uses exist — Jane confirmed she uses AI for business administration and efficiency in her own one-woman operation. The people doing thoughtful work with AI mostly aren’t talking about it publicly because they don’t want to get attacked. Jane added authors’ deepest fear with AI is being written out of the publishing story entirely. That fear is valid. But she pointed out something publishing leaders increasingly recognize — the industry’s core problem has never been “how do we get more books out faster.” Producing more books or producing them faster has never been what makes publishing stronger. So the AI use cases that actually move the industry forward aren’t about replacing authors. They’re about analyzing the vast data publishers already hold about readers and sales — data they currently can’t process at scale. The marketing advice nobody wants to hear Toward the end, I asked Jane what trends authors should be tracking — BookTok (still relevant, but she doesn’t personally engage with it), live selling (fascinating, especially on TikTok Live, where authors like AP Beswick are reliably moving inventory by literally boxing up orders on camera — but the fulfillment burden is real and it mostly works for self-published authors). Her advice: whatever the new shiny thing is, it’s probably just the old thing with a new name. The “podcast tour” used to be the “blog tour.” There has never been — and will never be — one formula that works for every book and every author. The trap most writers fall into is chasing whatever’s trending instead of looking honestly at their own strengths. Don’t go on podcasts if you’re bad at podcasts. Don’t do TikTok Live if you can’t be charming on camera. Build on what you’re actually good at, especially for a first book launch. That’s where success comes from. How Jane stays on top of everything I had to ask — how does she know everything? Her sources: Core industry baselines: Publishers Lunch, Publishers Weekly, the Bookseller (UK), Publishing Perspectives. Then her Substack Reads list, which has about 150 publications she follows — Kathleen Schmidt’s [https://kathleenschmidt.substack.com/]Publishing Confidential [https://kathleenschmidt.substack.com/], Lincoln Michel’s [https://countercraft.substack.com/]Counter Craft [https://countercraft.substack.com/], [https://countercraft.substack.com/]Dear Head of Mine [https://dearheadofmine.substack.com/] by an anonymous Big Five editor, [https://dearheadofmine.substack.com/] Ann Trubek of Belt [https://notesfromasmallpress.substack.com/], Doug Seibold of Agate. [https://dougseibold.substack.com/]Off Substack, she follows agent Kate McKean’s Agents and Books. And because writing and digital media now share the same problems — AI, multiple revenue streams, the freelance economy in collapse — she also reads media analysts like Brian Morrissey’s The Rebooting and Simon Owens. [https://substack.com/@simonowens] That’s the playbook. Until next time — Natasha Thank you From the Source | D.L. Lee [https://substack.com/profile/1789883-from-the-source-dl-lee], Roja [https://substack.com/profile/32291944-roja], Alyse Diamond [https://substack.com/profile/505217166-alyse-diamond], and many others for tuning into my live video with Jane Friedman [https://substack.com/profile/14647-jane-friedman]! Join me for my next live video in the app. Read and Write with Natasha is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber, and you will get lifetime access to some of my courses and paid masterclasses (worth over $300). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe [https://natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

What I Learned About Self-Publishing in the Arab World (And Why It Matters for All of Us)

Last week, I sat down with a pioneering Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab [https://substack.com/profile/1116240-daoud-kuttab] who’s been shaping conversations about media freedom in the MENA region for over four decades and has authored multiple books. Our conversation was a masterclass in how radically different the publishing landscape is depending on where in the world you happen to be sitting. And, surprisingly, it made me appreciate KDP in a way I never had before. Let me break down what I learned. 1. The Arab press is “totally free” — except about itself. Daoud put it perfectly: “The press in the Arab world is totally free in everything except what’s happening in that country. Syrian news is great when it comes to Lebanon. Egyptian news is great about every country except Egypt.” That self-censorship doesn’t stop at journalism. It bleeds straight into book publishing. Writers in the region carry an internal censor in their head before a single word hits the page. Many end up writing in English, or publishing abroad, just so they have room to breathe. For those of us writing freely on Substack, that’s worth sitting with for a moment. 2. Sometimes writers PAY publishers. In parts of the Arab World, your only choice to self-publish is to pitch a publisher, and they ask you for money to put your book on their roster. No advance. No real editorial vetting. No marketing. You pay them to: * Design the cover * Run a basic copy edit * Print the book * Stick it on a shelf at the annual book fair Then you wait. And hope. It’s essentially how self-publishing worked in the U.S. twenty years ago — before KDP changed everything. 3. Amazon doesn’t ship to Jordan. So print-on-demand basically doesn’t exist. This is the part I keep thinking about. I asked Daoud how authors in Jordan, where he is mainly based, handle print-on-demand the way I do: list on Amazon, let Amazon print and ship, no inventory in your basement. His answer: they can’t. Amazon doesn’t deliver to Jordan. KDP isn’t a real option for Arab readers. So if you self-publish in Amman, you’re physically printing copies, stacking them in a spare room, and hoping you sell them at book fairs and town halls. The risk is entirely on the author. I told Daoud this is a million-dollar gap. Someone needs to build “Arab KDP.” Who wants to partner with me? 4. Marketing still falls on the author — everywhere. Here’s the part that translates universally: Even Daoud’s traditionally-published U.S. book didn’t sell well, while his self-published https://www.amazon.com/State-Palestine-NOW-Practical-arguments-ebook/dp/B0DPDRJ9T8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=324H6SBXQCS4O&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FZKDbSnce9qNAmn6SoxXyUtj6rllJ67p7WvUz90qrCi0EcVn18Ic-3uKGfN53GPb7UX9zCPJN00oM3r59duzmSbHGkA4cdzqy_u4cno6MfECkDSga8LzuUJrWGtp5k1sr_NGSKeYUEPQrpgFXtH1rDWcfguApZGfwAtG1Ib_2BNckutHeOHFis208UrA4slgRfO5CUZxA_YKTNhuFCOW9ArTbB2JGreoOwOX29VW0Lg.s1-aw1USBhsi4ZcnhsoI3TkcFLh4h1tiGOxJ9PueJ0M&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+state+of+palestine+now&qid=1777708419&sprefix=the+state+of+palestine+no%2Caps%2C319&sr=8-1State of Palestine Now [https://www.amazon.com/State-Palestine-NOW-Practical-arguments-ebook/dp/B0DPDRJ9T8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=324H6SBXQCS4O&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FZKDbSnce9qNAmn6SoxXyUtj6rllJ67p7WvUz90qrCi0EcVn18Ic-3uKGfN53GPb7UX9zCPJN00oM3r59duzmSbHGkA4cdzqy_u4cno6MfECkDSga8LzuUJrWGtp5k1sr_NGSKeYUEPQrpgFXtH1rDWcfguApZGfwAtG1Ib_2BNckutHeOHFis208UrA4slgRfO5CUZxA_YKTNhuFCOW9ArTbB2JGreoOwOX29VW0Lg.s1-aw1USBhsi4ZcnhsoI3TkcFLh4h1tiGOxJ9PueJ0M&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+state+of+palestine+now&qid=1777708419&sprefix=the+state+of+palestine+no%2Caps%2C319&sr=8-1] https://www.amazon.com/State-Palestine-NOW-Practical-arguments-ebook/dp/B0DPDRJ9T8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=324H6SBXQCS4O&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FZKDbSnce9qNAmn6SoxXyUtj6rllJ67p7WvUz90qrCi0EcVn18Ic-3uKGfN53GPb7UX9zCPJN00oM3r59duzmSbHGkA4cdzqy_u4cno6MfECkDSga8LzuUJrWGtp5k1sr_NGSKeYUEPQrpgFXtH1rDWcfguApZGfwAtG1Ib_2BNckutHeOHFis208UrA4slgRfO5CUZxA_YKTNhuFCOW9ArTbB2JGreoOwOX29VW0Lg.s1-aw1USBhsi4ZcnhsoI3TkcFLh4h1tiGOxJ9PueJ0M&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+state+of+palestine+now&qid=1777708419&sprefix=the+state+of+palestine+no%2Caps%2C319&sr=8-1book — which he toured virtually across Italy after the war in Iran grounded all flights — has sold close to 1,000 copies through small town hall events. His takeaway echoed something I say constantly: “You need to keep the book alive. Keep talking about the book. That’s what sells books.” Doesn’t matter whether you’re with Simon & Schuster, Amazon KDP, or a small press in Amman. Nobody is going to market your book harder than you will. 5. The lesson for all of us Whether you’re sitting in Maryland, Amman, Milan, or anywhere in between, the gatekeepers are different, the obstacles are different, but the answer is the same: * Tell your story. * Find your readers. * Show up consistently. * Stop waiting for permission. The infrastructure to publish freely is one of the most underrated luxuries those of us in the U.S. have. If you have it, use it. Don’t sit on a manuscript while writers in places without that access are paying out of pocket just to be read. P.S. Daoud and I are launching a new Substack together — Two Arab Journalists, One Levant. [https://twoarabjournalists.substack.com/] https://twoarabjournalists.substack.com/He’ll bring you the view from Jerusalem and Amman. I’ll bring you the suburban-mom-with-a-press-pass take from Washington. Half an hour every week on Monday at 12:00 PM EST. Stay tuned. P.P.S. If you’re a writer in the MENA region trying to figure out how to publish your book, hit reply. I’d love to hear what’s working, what isn’t, and where the real gaps are. Read and Write with Natasha is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber, and you will get lifetime access to some of my courses and paid masterclasses (worth over $300). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe [https://natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

What Running 1,000+ Author Interviews Teaches You About Podcasting

It’s not every day you get to chat with someone who’s been doing what you do—but at a much higher level—for 15 years straight. This week on Substack Writers’ Salon [https://natashatynes.substack.com/s/substackwriterssalon], I sat down with Brad Listi [https://substack.com/profile/49792546-brad-listi] novelist, founder of Deep Dive writing courses, and the creator/host of Otherppl with Brad Listi [https://www.otherppl.com/]—a literary podcast that has racked up over 1,300 episodes and interviewed hundreds of leading writers, including George Saunders. I’ll be honest: I started the conversation feeling a healthy dose of podcast envy. Brad has spoken with authors such as Ottessa Moshfegh, Dave Eggers, and countless others I’d love to have on my own show. So I asked the obvious question: “What’s your secret sauce?” Starting Early + Staying Consistent = Magic Brad’s answer was refreshingly unglamorous: * He launched in 2011, when literary interview podcasts were still rare. * He reached out directly (he even emailed George Saunders at Syracuse—and got a reply). * Most importantly, he fed the stray cats. Week after week. For 15 years. “If you don’t feed the stray cats, the stray cats are going to go to somebody else’s house.” Today, his schedule is: new author interview every Tuesday, a fun pop-culture series with Mira Gonzalez on Thursdays, and archival “golden oldies” on Sundays. He’s missed hardly any weeks in a decade and a half. Consistency, it turns out, builds legitimacy. After enough time, people start seeing your show as “a thing.” How Does He Book Big Names Now? Early on: cold emails and personal connections. Now? The publicists come to him. He gets 50–75 requests a day. For someone like Stephen King? Probably not happening unless it’s NPR-level. But for most working authors, the door is open if the show has proven staying power. My takeaway: If you’re just starting, reach out directly. Be genuine. Build your own small audience first. The snowball takes time, but it does grow. The Money Question (and the Reality Check) Brad is candid about monetization. He makes some money—through ads via an ad network (The Podglomerate), his long-running book club, and Deep Dive courses—but he’s not in the “podcast empire” category. “It’s a 1% economy. I’m not in the 1%.” He doesn’t believe every author needs a podcast. Only do it if you genuinely enjoy the conversations. And he pushed back hard on the marketing-guru advice that “you must do a podcast tour to sell books.” His realistic take:Podcast appearances are like bookstore events. Even a “middling” show can expose you to hundreds of people. Conversion rates are low (think banner-ad math from the old internet days), but the long tail matters—someone might hear you today and buy your book two years from now. Word of mouth and cosmic timing still rule book sales. Nobody has cracked the code. Audio Purist in a Video World This was the most fun part of the conversation—Brad and I gently sparred about video. He loves the intimacy of audio: earbuds in, walking the dog, letting a conversation unfold without staring at another screen. He resents the algorithmic pressure that turns everyone into a TV show. I played devil’s advocate: many people (including me while cooking dinner) prefer video. Clips on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts are how many listeners discover new podcasts. Brad’s stubborn (and principled) stance: He’s holding the line for audio lovers. Radio didn’t die when TV arrived, and good podcasts won’t die either. (Full disclosure: I’m still team “do both when you can.” But I respect his resistance.) Other Gems from Brad * He reads (or rather, speed-listens at 2.5x) most guest books to honor the work, while keeping the conversation human and accessible. * He runs a paid book club via PayPal where members get the selected book + an author interview. There’s churn, but it’s been running for 15 years. * On outsourcing: He’s a one-man band by choice (trust issues with editing!), but he admits a good VA could solve 99% of his headaches. * His advice to new podcasters: Use something like Riverside for clean audio. Don’t obsess over the “perfect” platform. Just start. Final Thoughts Brad Listi is proof that longevity and genuine curiosity still matter in the crowded creator space. He’s not chasing every trend, not turning himself into a brand, and not burning out trying to game algorithms. He just keeps showing up, having real conversations, and building something that enriches his own life first. If you haven’t listened to Otherppl, [https://www.otherppl.com/] go fix that. It’s available wherever you get podcasts (just search “Otherppl” — spelled annoyingly but worth it). Links: * Podcast: Otherppl.com [https://www.otherppl.com/] * Brad’s site: BradListi.com [https://www.bradlisti.com/] * His Substack: bradlisti.substack.com [https://bradlisti.substack.com/] What about you? Are you team audio-only or team video clips? Would you start (or keep) a podcast purely for the love of conversation, even if the money stays modest? Drop your thoughts below—I read every comment. And if you enjoyed this, hit the ❤️ or share it with a writer friend who’s thinking about launching their own show. Until next time,Natasha Read and Write with Natasha is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber, and you will get lifetime access to some of my courses and paid masterclasses (worth over $300). P.S. Special thanks to everyone who joined the live Substack Salon—especially Holly for the kind comments that made Brad (temporarily) less cranky. 😄 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe [https://natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

How to Create Your Audiobook for Under $20

I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been putting off recording an audiobook for years. My excuses were plentiful: I don’t have a studio. I have an accent. It’s too expensive. I don’t know the technical side. Then I sat down with Gunnar Habitz [https://substack.com/profile/2696833-gunnar-habitz], a 28-time published author, course creator, and Substack writer from Sydney, Australia, for an episode of the Substack Writer’s Salon. [https://natashatynes.substack.com/s/substackwriterssalon]And within an hour, he dismantled every single one of my excuses. Here’s what I learned. The Mindset Shift You Need First Gunnar opened with a story that stopped me in my tracks. He bought a book from a well-known Australian sales expert, whom he personally knew. When the audiobook version arrived, it wasn’t his voice. A professional actor had read it. And Gunnar said: “I heard the voice. I know how he speaks at conferences. It’s his words, but not his voice. Then I realized — that’s not good.” That’s the mindset shift. Your readers don’t want a perfect voice. They want your voice. As one of our live viewers, Coach Sean, put it beautifully in the comments: “Your true readers want to hear your words. Those who are hung up on your accent are not your real audience.” I needed to hear that. What It Actually Costs Here’s the breakdown Gunnar shared, and it’s far more accessible than you’d think: Studio route: $2,000–$2,500 to record at a professional studio, get it edited, and submit to Audible. High quality, but is the ROI there for an indie author? Gunnar had his doubts. The bootstrapped route: Gunnar’s preferred approach for self-published authors involves two main tools: * Riverside FM — a recording platform with built-in noise reduction and audio optimization. Around $20/month (and they often have free trials). You record your book yourself, chapter by chapter, in a quiet room. * ElevenLabs — an AI voice cloning tool. Around $5–$10/month for the starter plan. You upload your Riverside recording, it clones your voice, and then it can generate audio for additional books in minutes. Gunnar’s total investment to produce two audiobooks? A couple of months of software subscriptions — well under $100. The Step-by-Step Process Gunnar shared his exact roadmap for indie authors. Here it is: Step 1: Have the courage to record yourself. The authors want to hear you. Not an actor. Not an AI clone (unless necessary). You. Step 2: Find a quiet space. You don’t need a professional studio. A quiet hotel room, a silent library, even a closet with soft walls can work. Many city libraries now have podcast recording rooms — free to use. Step 3: Record in Riverside FM. Record each chapter as its own file. (Gunnar’s tip from experience: don’t record three chapters in one take. You’ll regret it.) Before you start, record a few seconds of silence so the software can calibrate the ambient noise level. Step 4: Upload directly to Spotify. Spotify has a lower barrier to entry than Audible and is actively competing for market share in the audiobook space. Gunnar uploads directly from Riverside to Spotify, no studio engineer needed. Step 5: Use ElevenLabs to clone your voice for future books. Feed ElevenLabs two-plus hours of your Riverside recording, and it creates a professional voice clone. You can then upload the text of any book and generate an audio version in about 30 minutes — even for a book that takes two hours to listen to. Gunnar used this for his fiction series. Where to Distribute Your Audiobook This is where things get interesting. You have more options than you think: * Spotify — accepts recordings straight from Riverside. No professional audio engineering required. * ElevenLabs Reader (11 Reader) — their own marketplace where listeners can purchase your audiobook directly. * Your own platform (Kajabi, Gumroad, Teachable) — sell the audiobook as an upsell or order bump at checkout. 60% of Gunnar’s buyers add the audiobook when it’s offered as a $10 bump. And when you sell it yourself, you keep nearly 100% of the revenue. Compare that to Spotify’s ~60% royalty or ElevenLabs’ ~70%. * Your Substack — offer the audiobook as a bonus for annual paid subscribers. * Audible — yes, this is possible, but requires professionally edited audio. Gunnar’s workaround: hire a sound engineer on Fiverr for around $200 to take your Riverside files and make them Audible-ready. The Accent Question I asked Gunnar directly — because this is something I personally wrestle with. Does having an accent hold you back when recording your own audiobook? His answer: “There are people who want to read the book from us, not from anyone else. And there are people who want to hear the story from the author. That is better — authentic — compared to perfectly read by a machine or by a professional actor.” He even pointed out that discovering Tony Hughes’ co-author through an audiobook — because the co-author read his own book in his own voice — led Gunnar to buy four more books from that author. Your accent is not a barrier. It’s a fingerprint. A Note on Audible and AI One important clarification for those wondering: Audible (Amazon) does not currently accept AI-generated voice clones. If your goal is Audible distribution, you’ll need to record in your own voice and either edit the audio yourself or hire a Fiverr sound engineer (~$200) to make it Audible-compliant. But as Gunnar said: “Audible is not everything.” Spotify, ElevenLabs Reader, and your own platforms are legitimate, profitable distribution channels — and you keep more of the money. The Big Takeaway What struck me most about this conversation is how much of the barrier to creating an audiobook is mental rather than technical. The tools are affordable. The process is learnable. The platforms are accessible. What’s actually standing between you and your audiobook is the belief that you need a studio, a perfect voice, and thousands of dollars. You don’t. You need a quiet room, a $20/month subscription, and the courage to press record. This post is based on my Substack Writers Salon [https://natashatynes.substack.com/s/substackwriterssalon] conversation with Gunnar Habitz [https://substack.com/profile/2696833-gunnar-habitz], a 28-time published author, course creator, and strategic networker based in Sydney, Australia. You can find him at his Substack [https://substack.com/@gunnarhabitz?utm_source=global-search] and on LinkedIn. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunnarhabitz/] Have you recorded — or considered recording — your own audiobook? I’d love to hear where you are in the process. Drop a comment below. Read and Write with Natasha is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber, and you will get lifetime access to some of my courses and paid masterclasses (worth over $300). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe [https://natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

How to Turn Your Substack Into a Real Income Stream

This week on the Substack Writer’s Salon, [https://natashatynes.substack.com/s/substackwriterssalon]I sat down with Carrie Loranger [https://substack.com/profile/222708081-carrie-loranger], a Substack strategist who helps creators and solopreneurs turn one newsletter into multiple income streams. What followed was one of the most practical conversations I’ve had about building a real business on this platform. Carrie Loranger [https://substack.com/profile/222708081-carrie-loranger] didn’t come to Substack with a grand plan. She came to it after losing everything. After 18 years in corporate marketing, a health scare, Guillain-Barré syndrome that left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down, forced her to completely reprioritize her life. Then, just as she was building her online business, Meta’s automated systems wiped out two of her businesses overnight. Instagram, Facebook, Threads, her ads account, gone. “I had to start over from scratch,” she told me. She chose Substack. And within a year, she had nearly 8,000 subscribers [https://thrivewithcarrie.substack.com/] and a full-time income built around what she calls a portfolio of paychecks, multiple income streams that don’t all depend on any single platform, employer, or algorithm. Here’s exactly how she built it. The Foundation: Get Your Messaging Right First Before you think about paid tiers or digital products, Carrie is direct about what she looks at first with every client: your messaging. “Some people say, ‘I’m clear about what I do — I do this, that, and the other thing.’ That’s three things. That’s not clear.” If you want people to pay for what you offer — whether that’s a paid newsletter subscription or a coaching program — you need to be laser-focused on the single outcome you help people achieve. What is the transformation? What does someone walk away with? The same applies to your homepage. Is it obvious what your newsletter is about? Is there a logical next step for someone who likes what they see? If someone has to work to figure out how to work with you, they won’t. Carrie’s foundation checklist: * Clear, singular messaging (one outcome, not three) * A homepage set up for conversions, not just aesthetics * Pricing tiers that reflect what your audience has actually told you they’ll pay for — not what you assume they’ll pay for The Revenue Model: More Than Just Paid Subscriptions Most people think Substack monetization begins and ends with flipping on paid subscriptions. Carrie has built a much more layered model, and she was generous enough to walk me through all of it. 1. Paid Subscription Tiers Carrie restructured her tiers this year. Her founding member tier is now called the Creator Cashflow Club, designed for serious creators who want to build multiple income streams. Members get a monthly group coaching call and access to her full Substack 360 course. The key insight here: she took content she might have sold as a standalone course or cohort and bundled it into her founding tier. This increases the perceived value of the membership while deepening her relationship with her most committed subscribers. 2. Live Events, Workshops & Bootcamps She recently ran a Digital Product in a Day workshop, helping participants build or refine their first digital product. These live events are time-limited, create urgency, and generate a burst of revenue without requiring ongoing maintenance. 3. Digital Products (The Passive Layer) This is where the “autopilot” income comes in. Carrie has a store on Gumroad stocked with templates, guides, and resources. Once created, these products earn money with minimal ongoing effort — she mentions them in articles, links to them, and moves on. “I created it, I put it on the digital store, I mentioned it and gave a link. That’s it.” 4. Done-With-You Services This is the hands-on layer. Her Substack Setup Sprint involves four sessions where she works alongside a client to build out their entire Substack presence: homepage, paywall, welcome emails, about page. It’s not done for them, it’s done with them, which keeps it efficient while still being high-touch. 5. Done-For-You Services For clients who want it fully handled, she offers that too. These command higher rates and are selective — but they exist as an option for the right clients. 6. Affiliate Income Carrie only promotes tools she actually uses. (WriteStack, her scheduling and analytics tool of choice, is one.) This keeps her recommendations credible and her audience’s trust intact, while generating passive income on the side. The Engine Behind It All: Substack Itself Here’s what I found most interesting about Carrie’s model: Substack isn’t just where she publishes. It’s the engine that drives clients and customers to everything else. “It’s not entirely from Substack, but it’s my engine that drives everything else.” She uses an automation to move Substack subscribers into her CRM (Go High Level), where she can then add them to email sequences, communicate about off-platform offers, and track revenue from digital products and services. This is something worth sitting with if you’re building on Substack: the platform gives you the audience and the relationship, but your business can extend far beyond it. The newsletter builds the trust. The trust converts into clients, course buyers, and workshop attendees. A Note on Mindset I asked Carrie about the early days — the months when she posted notes and heard nothing back, when her chat thread got zero responses, when growth felt invisible. Her answer was simple: she treated silence as data, not rejection. “I didn’t take no results as rejection. I just took it as data. Like I was doing something that wasn’t working and I needed to try something different.” For those of us building slowly, and yes, I include myself here, that reframe matters. Every post that doesn’t land is telling you something. Every chat thread with zero comments is a data point pointing you toward what to try next. The Bigger Picture Carrie built her model out of necessity. A health crisis, a layoff, a platform wipeout , life kept pulling the rug out from under her. The portfolio of paychecks isn’t just a business strategy for her. It’s a form of protection. “I really believe everybody needs multiple income streams, employed or not, because things change so fast.” Whether you’re building on Substack as your primary platform or layering it into an existing business, the framework she’s built is worth studying: strong messaging, a homepage that converts, paid tiers with real value, digital products that earn passively, and services for those who want deeper help. None of it is complicated. All of it takes consistency and the right mindset. You can find Carrie at thrivewithcarrie.substack.com [https://thrivewithcarrie.substack.com]. If you want to explore what a multiple-income-stream model could look like for your own Substack, her DMs are open. Thank you Kimberlee Jennette [https://substack.com/profile/439167591-kimberlee-jennette], Susan Collins [https://substack.com/profile/33839686-susan-collins], Dear Daughters, Love Mom [https://substack.com/profile/13459438-dear-daughters-love-mom], Sumu Sathi|Entrepreneur [https://substack.com/profile/162795651-sumu-sathientrepreneur], Patricia [https://substack.com/profile/124443664-patricia], and many others for tuning into my live video with Carrie Loranger [https://substack.com/profile/222708081-carrie-loranger]! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe [https://natashatynes.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]