No one can hear you scream in space
(paraphrased from Barbara Gips’ tag line for Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with Substack. My first post was about writing in a vacuum, which is what I feel like I’ve been doing on my blog for years. There was little communication and no feedback, and I began to wonder if anyone was reading my posts at all.

But to be honest, I’ve started to wonder whether writing in a more enclosed environment like Substack can become its own kind of vacuum. Blogging on the wider internet once felt like standing in a windy, unpredictable landscape. Substack feels quieter. More contained.

If you want to read the full post about stepping out from behind the scenes and what I was writing in the vacuum, you can find it on my Substack here: Anita’s Substack – What I Was Writing in the Vacuum.

Reading this again has made me think about the visibility of my posts.

I have come to realise content published on Substack does not contribute to the search engine optimisation of my own WordPress blog, Much To Do About Writing. It lives on Substack’s domain and like any platform, Substack is designed to keep readers inside its own ecosystem. It is not built to send traffic back to my own independent space.

By contrast, posts in theory should strengthen my long term search presence. It has already grown as an archive of my book reviews, author interviews and writing achievements. It is a discoverable home for my writing.

Discoverability matters to me. Substack is already crowded with reflections on being a writer and updates on works in progress, so it can be difficult to stand out or to reach beyond an already engaged circle. This does not make Substack redundant, it simply changes its role.

I think if I use it thoughtfully, it can complement my WordPress blog. I can republish selected posts on my blog to reach new readers, while also sharing blog posts on Substack to encourage subscribers to explore the depth of material on my site. The goal is to build conversation and deepen engagement with readers who are genuinely interested in what I have to say.

For me, the real question now is how to make both platforms work together as a writer: to grow an audience who is interested in my work and to learn from other authors who have found ways to make it work for them.

However, this brings up a bigger question: Am I wasting my time? Writing only has impact if it is seen, read and responded to. A blog without responses feels more like a private diary than a conversation.

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Anita Loughrey writes for children and young people. Her debut YA novel is Who Is Moira Miller?.