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The insider’s guide to Substack

Invest in the one thing that makes everything else on Substack work:

 

You.

 

Get started right.

Investment: $945 (save $90), or three payments of $345. Doors to the bonus live sessions close October 30.

Enroll in the Accelerator
Sarah Fay

This course is the best intro course to Substack, hands down.

So informative and the step-by-step approach makes so much sense of the wealth of potentially confusing options on Substack

— Marie-Elizabeth Mali

There's so much Substack "advice" out there.

 

And Substack is maddeningly unintuitive.

 

The problem isn’t you, and it isn’t what you have to offer.

 

It’s foundational.

 

In the Accelerator we fix the foundation first—your Substack DNA—and then everything else flows.

Welcome to the insider’s guide to getting unstuck on Substack.

 

You don't need another year of trial and error; you need an expert guide with a behind-the-scenes view into what actually works on Substack.

This is for you if:

  • You’ve been meaning to start on Substack and have have taken the first steps but just haven’t seen it through.
  • You started your Substack—and started strong—but it just fell off your priority list.
  • You’ve been on the platform, putting in all this time and effort, and aren’t attracting subscribers.
  • You have the subscribers and they love what you do, but they don’t pay.
  • You have a hundred ideas but can’t choose one.
  • You keep adding more, giving away more for free, but it doesn’t make a difference.
  • Posting can feel like shouting into the void, and every unsubscribe feels personal.
  • Some days you wonder if you’re too late, or if you’re the only one who hasn’t figured this out.

“The OG of Substack education.”

— Melissa Scala

Sarah Fay headshot

About Sarah Fay

Phd, ma, mfa

I started on Substack nearly half a decade ago and fell in love with the platform.

It was so different from other platforms. It felt like someplace real, something I could make my own.

I immediately wanted to help people like you use Substack to build a platform, earn an income, and bring your work to the world.

After Substack set me up to see private clients, I helped hundreds 10x their subscribers, triple their income, and build a platform of loyal subscribers.

I quickly became known as the leading Substack Growth Strategist and the go-to Substack expert.

My Substack DNA Growth Framework™️ is the result of four years of pattern recognition based on my work one-to-one with more than 1,000 private clients and tens of thousands inside Substack Writers at Work.

I'm the Founder and CEO of Substack Writers at Work, a bestselling author—my memoir Pathological was an Apple Best Books pick, a USA Today bestseller, and featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and NPR—and I teach writing at Northwestern. I'm also Fortier PR’s Substack consultant and do Substack trainings for companies, organizations like NPR, PR agencies, literary agencies, and publishers around the world.

The New York Times  •  The Atlantic  •  Time  •  NPR  •  HarperCollins  •  USA Today bestseller  •  Northwestern

The biggest mistake I see people make:

They get bogged down in Substack’s tech and the platform.

And they don’t ever discover the magic of their Substack.

“A transformative experience, and worth every penny.”

— Denise Pyles

Here’s what changes when your Substack finally runs on its own DNA

…and you “get” not just how Substack works but how it can work for you:

  • You can say what your Substack is in one sentence—and so can your readers.
  • Your subscriber growth becomes something you can see and trust instead of guess at.
  • You have a paid strategy that expresses your value instead of apologizing for it.
  • You stop stumbling around in the dark, randomly posting, hoping something will go viral.
  • You feel, maybe for the first time, like a writer or creator with a real audience of people who want what you do.
  • You’re building something you’re proud of that will outlast platform trends and gimmicks.
Enroll in the Accelerator

Everything flows from one core: your Substack DNA. Get that right, and growth, engagement, and revenue follow.

Substack DNA Growth Framework: your Substack DNA at the center, with Growth, Engagement, and Revenue

“I was ready to quit. Then I reflected deeply on my Substack DNA and shifted my strategy to something that feels more authentic and sustainable. Sarah combines writing and marketing expertise, and she speaks ‘Substack.’”

— Catherine Palmer

Real Substack writers

Real Results

David Roberts subscriber growth
David Roberts subscriber growth

David Roberts

Sparks from Culture

Featured bestseller ¡ +4,000 subscribers in a year

“I was clueless about how my posts were landing on Substack. Sarah is a superb teacher. The result has been an improvement in the quality of my posts and a surge in subscribers. I’m also having a lot more fun as a Substack writer.”

Jeannine Ouellette subscriber growth
Jeannine Ouellette subscriber growth

Jeannine Ouellette

Writing in the Dark

Paid subscribers jumped from 560 → 953 in 70 days

“Sarah is brilliant and knows Substack inside out. Her guidance is not cookie-cutter; it’s very precisely tailored based on your specific publication and vision.”

Petya Grady subscriber growth
Petya Grady subscriber growth

Petya Grady

A Reading Life

400 → 7,500+ in a year

Renamed her Substack through the DNA work, became a bestseller, and was featured by Substack three times.

Emma Vivian subscriber growth
Emma Vivian subscriber growth

Emma Vivian

Attempts at Optimism

150 → 600+ in 9 months

“I dilly-dallied, wondering if I ‘deserved’ to make such an investment in my writing/my Substack/myself. I’m so thrilled that I ignored my fears and went for it. I feel so much more confident, with a clearer idea of not only what I’m writing about, but also my very identity. These insights are truly blessings.”

What’s Inside

My four-step accelerated system to go from I don’t know what my Substack really is to confident and growing.

1

CALIBRATE

Master the Substack ecosystem and the power of owning your list and your work. Discover your Substack DNA and the three ways to enact it (Project, Topic, or Lens). Start communicating it in your short description, bio, and About page.

Leave with: your Substack DNA, a scroll-stopping short description, a clear and compelling title, a punchy bio, a hero post that converts, and an About page that tells people why they should subscribe.

2

IGNITE

Fire up the engine and build visual horsepower. Decide what, how, and when to post and which post modes are yours. Design and brand your homepage, welcome page, and posts in an exclusive bonus session with Substack design icon Nan Tepper.

Leave with: your editorial calendar and done-for-you templates for your icon, wordmark, welcome page image, and homepage image.

3

FUEL

Turn reader attention into sustainable economic power. Develop your paid strategy architecture (reader motivations, sponsorship models, tiered offerings). Confidently choose among the three paid models that work and learn paywall best practices. Ask people to pay for your Substack (even if you hate doing so) in a bonus session on Authentic Marketing with marketing guru Brenda Lynch.

Leave with: your paid strategy that expresses your value instead of apologizing for it.

4

ACCELERATE

Hit velocity.

Perfect your welcome emails with automated welcome journeys that keep subscribers. Crack the Notes algorithm with my Notes Hour One system for real, sustained subscriber growth, and get traction via Substack’s recommendation engines.

Leave with: your coordinated launch/relaunch to get the traction on Substack you deserve.

5

PLUS

Access to my exclusive templates and guide library.

These are the same templates and guides typically reserved for my private clients: the Complete Guide to Launching or Relaunching in 2026; the 8-step hero post process; short description, bio, and About page templates; your Substack Strategy Handbook; and the Mentions growth guide.

I brought in two of my favorite experts to help you brand and design your substack to bring in paid subscribers.

Two Guest Sessions

Bonus session speaker one

Your Substack Design

Nan Tepper

Substack's design icon, Nan is a graphic designer with a 15-year web-design career who helps writers brand their publications through her studio, Style Your Stack. In the Accelerator, she walks you through branding your homepage, welcome page, and posts, so your Substack looks unmistakably like you.

Bonus session speaker two

Authentic Marketing

Brenda Lynch

A strategic marketer with 25 years of experience, from global tech giants to nimble startups, Brenda teaches you Authentic Marketing—how to build trust and sell from your values instead of using hacks and funnels—so you can get the paid subscribers you deserve without feeling salesy.

Your live bonus!

This enrollment only.

You, in the room with me.

Mark your calendar:

  • A Jumpstart session on Friday, 10/2 at 9 AM CT or 2 PM CT (choose one)
  • Q&A and breakout sessions on Friday, October 23 at noon CT and Wednesday, November 11 at 2 PM CT

Your questions answered, working alongside writers doing exactly what you’re doing, so you don’t get stuck and will follow through.

After September 30, the Accelerator stays available on demand, but the live sessions are only part of this enrollment.

“This course is the best intro course to Substack, hands down. So informative, and the step-by-step approach makes sense of the wealth of confusing options on Substack. I feel confident to relaunch.”

— Marie-Elizabeth Mali

The Accelerator will save you from wasting years spinning in confusion, trying to figure out what works, and not getting the traction you deserve.

Enroll in the Accelerator

“A transformative experience, and worth every penny.”

— Denise Pyles

Enroll in the Accelerator

You’re investing in the one thing that makes everything else on Substack work: you.

Because people ultimately subscribe to you, not your Substack.

“A transformative experience, and worth every penny.” — Denise Pyles

Sarah Fay’s Substack Accelerator

$945

What’s included

  • My full four-step system: Calibrate, Ignite, Fuel, Accelerate
  • Step-by-step guidance discovering the magic of your Substack: your Substack DNA
  • The templates and guide library from my private client work
  • Unlimited on-demand access
  • Your Substack launched or relaunched like a pro in less than 20 hours
Enroll in the Accelerator

Or enroll with three monthly payments of $345.

Pay in Installments
14-day guarantee

Your Guarantee

Complete step 1 (Calibrate) and all the Substack DNA work. If you don’t walk away with a clearer sense of your Substack than you had when you started, email us within 14 days and we’ll refund you in full.

I can promise this because I’ve watched it work thousands of times—but you have to do the work. This guarantee holds you to that as much as it holds me.

99% of Substacks fail for one reason:

They don’t know their Substack DNA, what makes what they do different from what anyone else does, and they don’t know how to communicate so people pay attention to and pay them to do the work they love. That’s what we do together.

Discover your Substack DNA, build the Substack foundation you need to grow in what’s become a crowded platform, and launch with a plan you can follow—so you move from “I still can’t get traction on Substack” to “I know exactly what my Substack is and why people want it.”

I’d love to have you.

Enroll in the Accelerator

Investment: $945, or three payments of $345. Doors close September 30.

“Notes was a huge help — my subscriptions jumped by about 60%. Knowing my DNA, I don’t feel I’m stumbling around Substack in the dark anymore. It feels great to have a guide like Sarah.”

— Sara Engram

Success Stories

Sherold Barr

Sherold survived a near-fatal car wreck in 2017 — six abdominal surgeries, and she had to learn to walk twice, to come back and serve. Her Substack had an abstract name a reader couldn’t understand. Through the DNA work she made it clear and valuable, and renamed it High Road to Healing.

“I got so much value out of it. I would take another class.”

Catherine Palmer

Catherine was ready to quit.

She reflected deeply on her Substack DNA and shifted her strategy to something that feels more authentic and sustainable.

“Sarah combines writing and marketing expertise, and she speaks ‘Substack.’”

Sara Engram

Sara was stumbling around Substack in the dark and stuck on growth.

She did the Notes work and the DNA work, sharpened her short description and bio, and watched her subscriptions jump about 60%.

“It feels great to have a guide like Sarah.”

If you’re still here...

You’re probably thinking one of three things:

  • “Let me try a few more things on my own first.” You’ve been trying things on your own. That’s how most people end up here — not for lack of effort, but because effort without a clear DNA is what keeps the plateau in place. We fix that.
  • “Now isn’t the right time.” It rarely feels like the right time — there’s always a book, a season, a caregiving stretch. The sessions are on demand for exactly that reason. The live sessions, though, are to fully support you now.
  • “I’m not sure I’m worth the investment.” You are. Everyone deserves to be paid well for their work, from McDonald’s to Substack, and it’s time the careful, credentialed, quietly ambitious writer wins. 

“I’ve been on Substack for more than a year, so I’d figured out a lot of things. But I did it the HARD way. Sarah makes it so much easier. I wish I’d known her when I started.”

— Lynda McDaniel

Frequently Asked Questions

Enroll in the Accelerator

You’re investing in the one thing that makes everything else on Substack work: you.

Because people ultimately subscribe to you, not your Substack.

“A transformative experience, and worth every penny.” — Denise Pyles

Sarah Fay’s Substack Accelerator

$945

  • My full four-step system: Calibrate, Ignite, Fuel, Accelerate
  • Step-by-step guidance discovering the magic of your Substack: your Substack DNA
  • The templates and guide library from my private client work
  • Unlimited on-demand access
  • Your Substack launched or relaunched like a pro in less than 20 hours
Enroll in the Accelerator

Or enroll with three monthly payments of $345.

Pay in Installments