Today, we’re launching lists, the next generation of recommendations on Substack and a new way to showcase the work you care about.
Each curated list comes with its own activity feed: a stream of the latest posts and Notes from the featured creators in chronological order. The lists are dynamic: when a curator adds a new publisher to one of their lists, anyone who has saved the list will see that publisher’s new material in their feed, annotated to show which list it appears on.
In other words, you can curate your own feed, and save those that others create.
Recommendations have long been a core way that publishers grow on Substack, and one of the primary ways the communities around them take shape. When you point your audience to someone you trust, it provides additional value for them and is a generous way to help another creator. Curated lists make that generosity more personal and specific. And recommendations on Substack are free—nobody pays to be on a list—so a spot on one carries real weight.
With this update—which makes lists more prominent and accessible, particularly in the app—we’ve made it easier than ever for people to discover new writers, podcasters, and publishers from the trusted recommendations of creators they already know and love.
Plus, they’re fun to curate. Share your expertise, show off your taste, and highlight the hidden gems you wish more people knew about. For every list, you can add a name, a description, and an easy-to-share link. You can also see how much traffic your list has sent to each writer you’ve included.
Make your first list
Find lists on your recommendations dashboard. Curate your list, give it a name and a description, and write a short blurb for each publication so people know why it’s there.
When someone opens your list, they’ll see each publication with your blurb, plus the chronological feed of posts from everyone on it under the Activity tab. Lists can be saved, shared on Notes—where they appear as a card in the feed—or shared off Substack with a link.
Learn more about lists here.
Learn more about lists .
You know your audience better than anyone, and we’re excited to see the lists you come up with for them: the niche, the timely, the zany, the tactical, and all the other ways you might introduce the writers, podcasters, and creators you love.
