🎉The Substack Bookstore Turns 1 Today (and We Have a Surprise for Authors)

Fleur and I just came off our birthday celebration live video, and I’m still buzzing.

If you missed it, the recording is right here in this post. Grab some of our virtual vanilla cake, watch it with us and join our first ever…

Substack for Authors Summer Camp in August.

Use CELEBRATION to get it for $249 $129.

What we’re celebrating?

The Substack Bookstore turned one year old and nothing sells books like a great Substack!

And Fleur Hull, the mother of the bestselling newsletter baby Substack Bookstore, showed up with a real vanilla cake, an edible printed cover she designed herself in Canva, and a candle she lit on camera while her son slept on the couch behind her.

Meanwhile I couldn’t get into my own live. Network error. Invalid token. Smartphone one, smartphone two. Substack simply would not let me in…

We were also both wearing pink. Nobody planned that. Fleur is in Australia, I’m in Germany, and somehow we’re connected anyway…

A one-year-old newsletter, and what a year it’s been

As a mom of two, I think about what a human being does in their first 365 days:

They arrive knowing nothing. They wobble. They fall over. They say one word and everyone in the room cries. They take a first step holding onto the furniture, and then one day they let go.

That’s exactly what this year looked like.

Fleur started her Substack in summer 2025. Late, as she’ll happily tell you. She had no idea what the platform even was.

One year later, this “baby” has:

* Nearly 4,000 subscribers and over 20,000 followers

* Close to 300 authors who have listed their books

* Over 400 books listed across 365 days

* Well over 1,000, getting up to 1,500, clicks on those books

* And 12 Amazon category bestsellers. Some of them multiple-category, multiple-country bestsellers.

* Gunnar Habitz went triple #1 on Amazon Australia with Happy Habits. I read the whole thing in an afternoon, go get it.

* Sarah Tinney was the quiet achiever. Fleur didn’t even do a promotional note for Jack’s Train Day. She simply listed it. Two days later it was an Amazon bestseller, in one of the most competitive categories there is.

* Gary Coulton’s Demons to Champions was already ten months old. That Amazon launch magic had long faded. Fleur and the bookstore community revved the algorithm back up anyway. Gary went #1 in three categories and then went kayaking, because he’s still Gary. As he said in the chat tonight:

“You took my year-old memoir and made it a number one bestseller. It’s still selling another year later.”

* And Paul Cobbin’s Decode Your Diagnosis became an International Best Seller. In his words: launching through the Substack Bookstore is

“truely Fleurific.”

That’s a one-year-old. Now we’re heading into the toddler phase. And you know what toddlers do? They run.

Here’s what Fleur did while all of this was happening

She lost her mother at the end of April 2026. She took four months off. She’s raising two kids on her own. She’s doing all of this part-time, like me.

And she came back and said: I’m not quitting anytime soon.

“Everywhere else I go, I think I should be on Instagram, I should be on TikTok and it’s just got nothing of the heart that Substack has. There’s so much more of a sense of people cheering each other on.”

I’m doing this part-time too, with two kids in the house, a corporate job I actually love, and a non-native accent. So please hear this from both of us:

You can write your book part-time. You can be all in without really being all in.

🎉 And now… the announcement - Grab your seat for $129 TODAY!

There are around 70,000 books published on Amazon every single week. Standing out is about being SEEN and being SUPPORTED.

Remember when Fleur and I said last year around this time we were writing a book together called Substack for Authors?

I picked up the phone. I said YES. And then life got its hands on us. Her mum got sick. I moved house. The kids, the jobs, everything.

So instead of making you wait for a book on Amazon, we’re giving you something better: direct access to both of us for a fair and no-brainer price.

Fleur asked me to co-host the first-ever Substack for Authors SUMMER CAMP and if you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m a big fan of summer camps. (Bootcamp, summer camp, call it what you like. We’re calling it summer camp.)

We cleared our calendars for you!

🏕️ Substack for Authors · 4–6 August · Live

Three live masterclasses. One live Q&A. 14 days together in a brand-new community we actually own.

* Day 1 · Set the foundation — build (or refine) a publication you own, in the right order

* Day 2 · Grow real readers — Notes, recommendations, and your backlist

* Day 3 · Turn readers into buyers — free reader → superfan → paying subscriber → book sale, plus your launch playbook

9am ET · 6am PT · 2pm London · 3pm Berlin. Every session is recorded and yours to keep forever.

We’re going deep on Substack and on Amazon KDP, Fleur’s zone of genius.

Remember the 81% statistic?

81% of self-published authors will sell fewer than 100 copies of their book. Ever.

Definetly NOT because the books are bad but because nobody helped them get SEEN. That’s the whole reason this summer camp exists.

👉Use the code CELEBRATION

To celebrate the bookstore’s first birthday and every indie author out there with a dream and a manuscript, we’re opening the doors with the code CELEBRATION.

Six people who were on the live with us a few minutes back have already grabbed their seat.

With CELEBRATION you get the Summer Camp plus ALL 6 bonuses:

* Substack for Authors Guide — the must-have guide for 2027 ($49)

* StackBuddy, 1 month full access — schedule and analyse your Notes ($29)

* Substack Quick Start Guide — set it up once, set it up right ($19)

* Amazon Visibility Checklist — 7 quick wins before launch day ($19)

* Book Description Analyser — turn browsers into buyers ($29)

* Indie Author Scorecard — know exactly where you stand ($19)

That’s $164 in bonuses, free.

Save my seat with code CELEBRATION →

Split it into 2 × $129 or 3 × $89 if that’s easier. And if you truly want to be there but the money isn’t there right now, just reply to this email. We’ll figure it out. That’s a promise from both of us.

Show us your book baby in the comments, please 👇

Fleur and I are building a list of indie authors on Substack so we can all support each other, buy each other’s books, read them, review them, restack them, cheer each other on. That support is the entire reason twelve authors became bestsellers this year.

So drop a comment below and win:

Your book baby — the title, and one or two sentences on what it’s about

Where we can find it — your newsletter, your Amazon page, your book page

Where you’re stuck — the blank page? the marketing? the launch? the “who am I to write this”?

What you’d love help with from Fleur and me

Whether your book is published, half-written, or still just an idea you whisper to yourself at 6am, it counts.

Post it and win a special susprise!

I had a conversation recently with a woman who is 75. She told me her kids and grandkids aren’t interested in her stories yet but one day they’ll ask,

“What was grandma’s story?”

So she sits down every morning for an hour and writes her memoir. That’s who this is for. Every single one of you who FINALLY wants to give birth to that book baby inside you.

Happy birthday, Substack Bookstore 🎂

Thank you, Fleur Hull , for what you’ve built in 365 days while carrying more than most people could. What you’re doing for the indie publishing community and connections are mind-blowing.

And thank you, all of you, for showing up tonight from every time zone on the planet.

See you live on 4 August and in one of the upcming LIVEs with Fleur and myself leading to the biggest SUMMER CAMP for (indie) authors this year!

P.S. — Still reading? Consider this your loving kick in the pants. Your book has waited long enough and so have you. Code CELEBRATION, all 6 bonuses, doors close before we go live. Save your seat →

P.P.S. — Tag Fleur and me when you share the summer camp and there’s an extra bonus in it for you. Spread the word! 🎈

Thank you Dr Donna Blevins, Sarah Stone, Sandy, Louise S Williamson, Jessica Onne, and many others for tuning into my live video with Fleur Hull!