Desk of Amy Suto
Meet Amy Suto, bestselling author and San Francisco content creator. Check out her writing blog, explore her city guides, or browse her writing portfolio.
the full playbook
SUBSTACK GROWTH GUIDES
Everything I know about growing and monetizing a Substack, in one place. I’m Amy Suto — my newsletter Make Writing Your Job is a Top 20 Business bestseller with 44,000+ subscribers and $267,000 in gross annualized revenue, grown over three years with no paid ads. These guides are the playbook, free, with real numbers.
The Receipts First
$267K
Gross annualized revenue — most of it built in a 12-to-15-month sprint.
44,000+
Total subscribers — 1,900+ paid, zero spent on ads.
Top 20
Business bestseller on Substack, out of tens of thousands of publications.
Start Here
Deciding whether Substack deserves your writing (and your readers).
What Is Substack and How Does It Work? (A Writer's Guide)
What Substack is and how it works for readers and writers — publications, Notes, the 10% fee, and discovery, explained by a Top 20 bestseller author.
Is Substack Worth It in 2026? An Honest Answer From a Top 20 Bestseller
Is Substack worth it in 2026? Honest pros and cons from a Top 20 bestseller — the 10% fee, network effects, Substack vs beehiiv, and who should skip it.
How to Start a Substack: Setup Guide From a Top 20 Bestseller
How to start a Substack, step by step — profile, URL, categories, Stripe, and the settings that matter on day one, from a Top 20 bestseller author.
How to Start a Paid Substack Newsletter (From Blank Page to First Paid Subscriber)
How to start a paid Substack newsletter, from a Top 20 bestseller — pick a niche people pay for, then build the engine around it.
The Most Popular Substacks (+ the Ones I Actually Pay For)
The most popular Substacks in 2026 — the biggest newsletters on the platform, plus the ones a Top 20 Business bestseller author personally pays to read.
Grow Your Substack
The growth playbook — discovery, Notes, and turning readers into subscribers.
How to Grow a Substack for Your Business or Personal Brand
How to grow a Substack for your business or personal brand — the strategy I used to build a Top 20 Business Substack with 44,000+ readers.
How to Grow a Substack: What Actually Took Me to 42,000 Subscribers
How to grow a Substack, from a Top 20 Business bestseller: the real playbook behind 42,000 subscribers on Make Writing Your Job — and the honest timeline.
Substack Notes: What 6 Months of Going All-In Actually Did
What Substack Notes actually does for newsletter growth — real data from my 6-month experiment, the formats that convert, and the strategy I use now.
How to Get Paid Subscribers on Substack (What Converted My First 1,900)
How to get paid subscribers on Substack — the 7 tactics that converted 1,900+ paying readers on my Top 20 Business newsletter.
How to Become a Full-Time Substack Writer (What My Weeks Really Look Like)
How to become a full-time Substack writer, from someone living it: what the weeks look like, why the newsletter is the hub, and where income comes from.
Make Money on Substack
Revenue streams, fee math, and what the 10% actually buys you.
How to Make Money on Substack: My $267K Breakdown
How to make money on Substack: a Top 20 bestseller breaks down her $267K in annualized revenue — paid tiers, pricing math, and what Substack takes.
Substack Pricing: What It Costs and How Much Substack Takes
Substack pricing explained: free to publish, 10% + Stripe when you go paid. Fee math from a writer paying ~$26,700/year — and when it stops being worth it.
Substack vs Everything Else
Honest platform comparisons from someone who has used (or migrated clients off) the alternatives.
The 7 Best Substack Alternatives (and When to Just Stay)
The best Substack alternatives in 2026 — beehiiv, Ghost, Kit, Patreon, Medium, and your own site — compared honestly by a Top 20 Substack author.
Substack vs Medium: Which Is Better for Writers in 2026?
Substack vs Medium, from a writer who's published on both — who owns your audience, what each pays in 2026, and which one can become a real business.
Substack vs Patreon: Which Should Creators Choose in 2026?
Substack vs Patreon from someone who pays for both — fees compared, reader experience, discovery, and which fits writers vs podcasters and artists.
Substack vs WordPress: Which Should Writers Use in 2026?
Substack vs WordPress from a writer who has used both (and now self-hosts) — SEO reality, maintenance costs, and why the real answer is a loop of both.
beehiiv vs Substack: An Honest Take From Real Migrations
beehiiv vs Substack from a consultant who has migrated several clients between them — fees, discovery, paid-subscriber results, and who should pick which.
Substack vs ConvertKit (Now Kit): I Migrated. Here's the Truth.
Substack vs ConvertKit (Kit) from a writer who migrated at 600 subscribers and grew to 44,000+ — costs, discovery, and who should pick which.
Go Deeper
Substack Consulting
Book a $1,000 Substack Audit — a 60-minute one-on-one with next steps and a written summary — or go done-for-you with a launch intensive. The same playbook behind $267K in annualized revenue, adapted to your newsletter.
Make Writing Your Job
My Top 20 Business bestseller on Substack — weekly writing jobs and the business of writing, live and in public.
Sutoscience
My personal Substack — growth experiments with real dashboards, plus serialized fiction, essays, and the occasional Note that gets 15,800 likes.