Hey friend and bootcamper,
Do you worry that starting with zero subscribers means no one will ever read your work?
Do you feel like an outsider in your niche, wondering if you even belong in the subculture you’re writing about?
Do you catch yourself asking:
Will this ever go anywhere?
In one of our exclusive writing workshops inside the Online Writing Club, Raz Rauf shared he had those exact same doubts.
What It Feels to Start From Nothing
When he launched his Substack,
, in March 2023, there wasn’t an audience waiting.“I had no audience when I launched. Zero. I just started writing because I wanted to figure out what I actually had to say.”
He had no profile in the running world. No bylines. No name recognition. Just an idea and a passion for running.
“I’ve never written about running before March, 2023. No bylines in Runner’s World, nothing. I have been a runner on a personal level for 20 plus years, but… I was coming in writing about runners writing about running.”
Consistency and Clarity Are Crucial
From the start, Raz committed to publishing regularly.
“I was publishing once a week… the main post with the profile, it’s well researched. I’ve got to take time interviewing the person, transcribing it, writing it in a way that is coherent. You know, it’s like the equivalent of a three-page magazine article.”
By summer 2024, he added a second post each week.
“Then last summer, about a year ago, I went to a second post. So two posts per week. But that post was much more personal. And, you know, it was less time consuming, essentially.”
Consistency mattered.
But clarity mattered just as much.
“If you don’t know what you’re doing, if you don’t know what you want, if you don’t know what your publication is, if you don’t know what you’re trying to convey to your reader it’ll be very apparent. And the same with any pitches. If you don’t care, then they won’t either.”
And passion drove everything.
“If you don’t like what you’re writing, if you’re writing it to try to do something in particular that you don’t really care about, everyone can see that and no one else will care. If you don’t care about it, no one else will care.”
Raz Put Himself In a Position of Luck
Like many writers, Raz dreamed of a book.
And he didn’t wait for permission.
“I just found the emails, found the commissioning editor and emailed them… through being an internet creepy guy, I guess.”
His pitch was simple.
“It was a pretty well fleshed out idea. Let’s say 10 bullet points. Just about the book that I wanted to write. It wasn’t like super well developed. I didn’t, and I still don’t know what a pitch looks like.”
At first, nothing. Silence.
And then, the publisher came back to him.
“They did approach. They emailed me… And you’ll see on my about page the first thing is: get in touch with my email address. Because that’s the most important thing. I love it when people send me emails. It’s great. I try to reply to them all.”
Raz Started Writing His Book With Every Post He Shared on Substack
When asked how much of his newsletter made it into the manuscript, Raz didn’t hesitate:
“Loads of it. I’ve reimagined a lot. I’ve used some passages in there. I’ve used a lot of the ideas in there because it’s everything I’ve been writing about.”
And his first byline?
“My first byline is going to be my book.”
Raz’s Tip
What turned his “tiny” newsletter into the launchpad for a book deal was vision, consistency, and care.
And when asked what advice he’d give to other writers starting at zero, Raz said:
“Don’t wait to feel ready. The work you put out now is what opens doors later.”
Fast forward to today, Running Sucks has 4,000 subscribers, was named a Substack staff pick and featured publication, and opened the door to a book deal with his dream publisher.
⭐NEXT Writing Workshop With Superstar Karen: Write With The End In Mind (& Euology)⭐
📅 September 24
🕘 4 PM Berlin | 3 PM UK | 10 AM ET | 7 AM PT | 12 AM Sydney
Inside the members-only session, Karen will….
share her writing process,
why “writing your eulogy” is her favorite exercise, and
how you can use it to create your most meaningful work with “the end in mind”.
You’ll also have the chance to ask her your own questions in the Chat and Q&A.
Replay will be available!
In our conversation Raz shows what can happen when you publish with clarity and stay rooted in your subculture.
The smallest newsletter can open the biggest doors!
