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Your favourite author likely has a newsletter that they use to connect with their audience, announce upcoming events and more. But did you know that a newsletter can turn into a book? Thanks to platforms like Substack, it's happening more and more often. And sometimes, these books really take off.
In this post, we are looking at three writers who took their mailing lists and turned them into traditionally published books, and quite successful ones at that.

Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American → Democracy Awakening

When a historian from Chicago started a newsletter in 2019 to explain the news through historical context, she likely didn’t expect it to grow into Substack's largest newsletter, with millions of subscribers.
Her Substack posts became the foundation for Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America – a traditionally published book that became a New York Times bestseller.

Anne Helen Petersen: Culture Study → Out of Office

Shortly after Anne Peterson left her job at BuzzFeed to focus on writing her Substack about consumer trends and everyday culture, she grew it to over 100,000 subscribers.
She leveraged her audience and her research materials to co-write Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home, which was published by Penguin Random House. It was named ‘a book to read’ by Fortune Magazine and received a business award.

Kyla Scanlon: Kyla's Newsletter → In This Economy?

Kyla Scanlon built her audience explaining finance and economics in plain language, and her Substacks were quoted by outlets like Bloomberg and The New York Times. And even referenced by a U.S. Treasury Secretary!
Simply titled “Kyla’s Newsletter”, her writing turned into a debut book In This Economy? How Money & Markets Really Work in 2024, becoming a New York Times bestseller.

What this actually means for you

If you have an active newsletter, you already have everything you need to publish a book. That would've sounded far-fetched a decade ago, but today, it's how a growing number of authors land agents and book deals.
The authors in this piece built substantial followings before going the traditional publishing route. But you don't need millions of subscribers to turn your newsletter into a book.

With a tool like Written, you can self-publish your writing in book form and distribute it directly to your audience, with minimal restrictions and up to 90% royalties kept.

Either way: it's not "just a newsletter."