How to make 7 figures on Substack, Once Upon a Time on Miracle Miracle

I read a post this morning about how a writer makes 7 figures on Substack, which has more to do with engagement than anything else. I’ve been reading Emma Gannon’s newsletter, thinking about value, so I don’t know what to do with it. I find engaging on these platforms a juggle because I don’t like being on the phone. I don’t like phones. I don’t like engaging on platforms. I have a one-minute limit before I have to disconnect. I’m trying to get over it, admittedly.

This morning, I read about how this writer carved their way to making a profit on Medium. It’s not talent, it’s persistence. I just don’t know what to do in my case. I’m not writing about writing, or writing about how to do something, not to say I have to, but this email I read suggested thinking about it like a business. What do I need to do from that perspective? People make money, a lot, in many ways now. I shouldn’t have a problem doing that. And I cannot seem to make money.

I’m working on a short story for EPIC Magazine; should I not do that? Should I just post this story on Substack? Promote on my own? It feels weird promoting — “I was in a sex scandal when I was four,” this is what I learned about overcoming your family, or “I had two parents who were mentally ill/ill, an invitation to revisit the slash.” My father ended up being diagnosed with Parkinson’s first, didn’t tell anyone, conveniently, and it ended up being Alzheimer’s. His problems were emotional. People with that disease, regardless, and he was diagnosed after Miracle Mile, develop mental health issues, and he had them. Most definitely. I can’t speak in definitive statements, yet, so that sucks, about whether or not that was true about him.

But a woman dying in a single bed, Dr. J, putting on dying displays while a grown man slips into the master bed, the image isn’t soothing. No one was talking to me, I was up against the door, at four, in the dark. Not knowing why she’s dying… or pretending to…and he’s acting like it’s not happening. I don’t have any recollection. I thought I just woke up… but now, I’m graining away, because of the experience I ended up going through. The story never made sense, in the past, to anyone, no one could even understand what I was saying, that’s the main piece of feedback I got. And years later, I was seven, not seventeen, and I realized I was back in my house at a Christmas party. I hadn’t seen my goddamn parents all evening. Not once. Why am I here? And she was upstairs dying… again. I knew that, automatically. Why did you throw a party to die? Looney tunes. I was in an episode of looney tunes. I didn’t even think of getting my father so — I contacted Angelita recently, she’s older now, but can she remember anything? What was I like after that? When she picked me up? I don’t have memories past this weird party. I didn’t sleep at my house, right? Because he was…a child molester? What did Dr. J say? We’re “working it out?”

What the hell was this situation?

I wanted to write something for EPIC because they have connections with publications and film, it seems, which is the direction I wanted to go in — I’m trying to be a story writer, at least in looking at the stories I have. I’m trying to get a book deal, evidently, though people say traditional publishing is dead, but I’m not sure in my case. I am trying to take the easiest way, I just don’t know what that is. Do I self-publish? Regardless, once I complete this short, I’ll be able to pitch an agent since I’m working on a chapter outline that I can expand.

I just thought that the sex scandal, Miracle Mile, particularly my “undercover investigation,” was a clearer sell; it makes the most sense. I like Christmas in Naples is a Sport, I just don’t know what to do with that, yet. Given the climate, the sex scandals, the pervasive problem of child abuse, and the sheer fact that I studied the psychology of it as a kid, I think Miracle Mile was the obvious direction to go in.

That’s what I’m doing: I’m starting at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club. Angelita recounts what Dr. J told her, that my father was a child rapist, and so, she decides to launch the game, and I take it from there.

There’s a part of me that wants to publish these sections online and promote them, bypassing the need to publish a short story with EPIC or some other publication, so I don’t know what to do, as I’m just trying to break in, just get one strong piece of work out there. I can ask them how they work, if they are interested in the story, and I can decide the best course of action from there. I feel antsy because I can’t quite steer, or I can’t think clearly about strategy. Do I start a Substack “once upon a time on miracle mile” and I just create content around that, instead of going the conventional route?

That’s what I’m thinking about right now.

But at least I’ll be able to pitch agents soon. I don’t know what it’s like, to be frank, book-wise, not that I haven’t been reading, but I’m working on a short story, and I can easily turn it into a book. Not every agent asks for comps upfront; they ask for pages, and the thing is, the first page: I was in a sex scandal when I was four, and I launched an undercover investigation about it when I was nine.

I’m almost there. I just don’t feel smart right now because I can’t utilize these platforms to help me reach my goal. I read about a woman who got a book deal off her Substack. Given the story, it feels weird sending content about abuse to someone’s inbox. I’ll figure this part out. I just feel that I’m not thinking outside the box, that I might not be taking the most efficient route. Which is why I’m writing a blog as I go.

I’m finishing this story for EPIC because they are there, looking for extraordinary stories. So that is my goal — and I’m working through the outline… so I’m going to get back to work. I’ll stay another month in Turkey, I guess, I hate that I’m here, and yesterday, I flipped out, I just wanted to get back to NYC, but maybe I’ll be done, or at least close to being done. I don’t know, it’s a tense moment.

Given where I am — I wonder about uprooting myself this second. Talking with my crypto friend, he said, because I was thinking about liquidating some of that, “um, it might go up at the end of the year? So, it’s almost like, you might be on the brink of recuperating what you lost, so — don’t do it, unless you have to?” So do I need to sit tight, a second? Hard to tell, to be honest, as I’ve reached breaking points. Just based on where I am at.

I made some headway, hopefully, this time; structure, admittedly, has been a struggle for me, but I think I had a breakthrough. I have a few ends floating around, it seems, but I’m going to question whether or not it was a lie, as everyone will, at step one, I’m pretty sure. So I could open my heart in some capacity in the end, as the whole thing was scored to love songs, or make peace with a villain as Dr. J was a villain archetypically…so I’ll figure this part out, but at least the journey is clearer.

All the best.