In this video I share my rules for this challenge, what you can expect in the behind-the-scenes, and my audacious goals: to take 💡 Sutoscience, my secondary Substack account that you’re currently reading now, from 100 to 1,000 paid subscribers with the momentum of the serialized fiction.

I’ve already done a version of this challenge (successfully!) with my main Substack ✍️ Make Writing Your Job, and you can watch the YouTube video series chronicling the 2-year journey here.

See you for the first installment of let me be your ghost, dropping soon! And be sure to subscribe so you receive both the new fiction chapters as well as the behind-the-scenes updates.

-Amy

I taught a longer version of this flow in-person at The Commons here in San Francisco last week, and after class one of my students came up to me and said “this flow feels very much like a Los Angeles yoga class!”

Aside from being a sweet compliment, I knew exactly what she meant. I’ve taken yoga classes here in SF as well as NYC, Kyoto, on the beaches of Costa Rica, and (of course) in Los Angeles, which is where I got my 200-hour yoga certification at a beautiful studio called YogaRaj (which, unfortunately, is no longer around.)

There’s something about LA yoga that just hits different. My instructors in that city taught flows that repeated and built upon themselves: themes would recur in class, each twist and warrior pose leading to a peak pose or a peak sequence. It blended a rhythm of breath and movement and creative sequences that usually ended with a melting savasana that paired with literary quotes from Rumi, Mary Oliver, or a meditation teacher’s musings.

That’s what inspires the classes I teach.

And no, I’m not a yoga influencer (nor am I trying to be!), so this video I’m sharing with you today isn’t “perfect” in many ways.

But this 30-minute yoga flow does contain…

• shoulder openers to reverse the 🥐 croissant posture we get from being hunched over in front of our computers and devices all day

• 🥨 twisting and backbends to activate your back-body and re-awaken your spine to make you back feel less crunchy and more fluid

• ❤️ heart openers to help you get reconnected to the part of yourself that creates for the love of it

• ⚔️ warrior poses to give you confidence to tackle hard things

• ⚖️ balancing movements to keep you feeling into the present moment by getting you out of your head and back into your body

• 🧘 rocking movements leading into savasana to tell your parasympathetic nervous system to sloooooooww dowwwwnnn so you can drop into a calm and creative place

🧪 These are the ingredients of a yoga flow that help you be more creative, unlock a tight body so you can move and think more freely, and allow you to return to your writing with a fresh mind.

Share

Also, I recommend playing this playlist in the back of the video if you want the playlist I use when I teach:

I’m also working on this new playlist I wanted to share with you as well:

As you join me in my creative lab here at 💡 Sutoscience, I hope you continue to experiment with your creative practice in ways that feel interesting and inspiring to you.

enjoy :)

-Amy

p.s. if you’re in SF I’d love to see you in one of my classes! Right now I’m teaching a weekly “yoga &” series that pairs 50+ minute yoga classes with different mindfulness practices just for $5 suggested ticket. This Wednesday 5/20 is yoga & tea tasting — RSVP here.

Feel free to follow me on Instagram or reply to this email saying you want to get notified about upcoming classes in San Francisco!

Hey creatives,

I’ve been getting ~ out and about ~ more than usual here in San Francisco. I’ve been trying to create parts of the city I wish existed like 3pm yoga classes and romance writing events!

I’ve been reminded of the magic that comes with putting oneself out there. It can be a bit scary (I am an introvert, after all) but every time I do so I’m rewarded with new friends and a deeper sense of meaning and community.

It can feel safe to stay behind our laptops and exist on the online world, but in-person community is what we make it. That’s why I’ve been putting effort in rooting down more here in SF.

If you’re based here or in town I’ve got different ways you can plug in to what I’m up to, linked below!

And if you’re not based here, don’t worry — I’ve got links to author interviews and interesting creator news before to help keep you informed and inspired.

Let’s get into this week’s roundup:

💬 Links I Sent My Fiancé

My fiancé (!!!) Kyle Cords is my co-founder which means DMing him links counts as productive work 💕

• tbh this week Kyle and I have mostly been talking about CozyJobs, our jobs + opps platform for creatives, freelancers, fractional talent, and people wanting interesting full-time work. We’ve also recently built out some improvements for the application tracker so you can better track what you’ve submitted to both for jobs and opps!

🌁 Dispatches From the Bay

What to do and where to eat in San Francisco.

• I’m teaching a romance writing class in support of San Francisco’s newest romance bookstore opening, The Love Potion Library! It’s on June 2nd from 7-8:30pm. RSVP here. The class is for romance writers (and readers!) who want to learn how to use screenwriting techniques to write more cinematic novels. There’s already 25 people registered so sign up soon if you’d like to join!

• It’s official — I’m now teaching a weekly “yoga &” series where I’m pairing yoga with different mindfulness practices! This Wednesday it will be a yoga & tea tasting event at The Commons in Hayes Valley here in SF. RSVP here!

☕️ Content Trends

Trends in social media, content creation, and what’s going on here on Substack.

• I interviewed award-winning author and TV & film writer Jordan Harper about his modern Los Angeles noir novels as part of my ✍️ Make Writing Your Job author interview series. His books are both elevated and fascinating and also can’t-put-them-down pageturners. Check out our conversation and pick up one of his books if you’re ready for a great read:

✍️ Make Writing Your Job

✍️ A Conversation with Author Jordan Harper (Everybody Knows, A Violent Masterpiece)

Jordan Harper is an Edgar Award-winning author and TV writer based in Los Angeles. His credits include The Mentalist and Gotham, and his novels include the Edgar-winning She Rides Shotgun, Everybody Knows, and The Last King of California. She Rides Shotgun…

Listen now

7 days ago · 13 likes · Amy Suto and Jordan Harper

• The TikTok-skits-to-three-book-deal pipeline is now an editorial template. PW’s May 11 issue has a great inside look at how Saga acquired Jaysea Lynn’s Hell’s Belles romantasy series — she went TikTok skits → self-pub → 18K print copies in week one of the trade paperback → 23K week one for the deluxe edition (now in its fourth printing). It just goes to show that self-made authors are able to find different ways to market their work and get in front of their readers. From TikTok Skits to a Three-Book Deal (Publishers Weekly)

• Lena Dunham used Substack as a primary driver of her book tour. Just goes to show that lots of avid readers are on this platform, and this is where future books will be marketed. This is also part of the reason I’ve been enjoying interviewing authors on my Substack ✍️ Make Writing Your Job — I love supporting books and writers while also giving our readers a look into their writing career behind-the-scenes.

💰 What to Watch & Read If You Want to Make Money Online

Resources to make you smarter and richer in the Creator Economy.

• I interviewed writer Julie Clark Robinson as part of my community interview series at ✍️ Make Writing Your Job. We talked about how she sold personal essays for $1,500 and $2,000 per piece and used that to build momentum to get published in anthologies and short story collections.

✍️ Make Writing Your Job

✍️ How to Build a Writing Career From Personal Essays with Julie Clark Robinson (Community Spotlight)

Julie Clark Robinson is a writer and ✍️ Make Writing Your Job community member whose personal essays have been published in Family Circle magazine — where she was paid $1,500 (and $2,000!) per piece. She's here today to talk about how she built a writing career around personal storytelling, and how writers can actually get paid to write from their own l…

Listen now

7 days ago · 11 likes · Amy Suto and Julie Clark Robinson

• Open Tab Episode 2 with Esther Perel just dropped. Hanne Winarsky sits down with Perel at Temple Bar in SoHo on the day of the 20th anniversary re-release of Mating in Captivity. She talks about how she hires and builds her businesses, why work has replaced religion as a source of meaning, whether AI can give good therapy, and how she's making it her life's work to recreate the proverbial village online.

🛍️ Add to Cart

Things that have made my life better or products I have my eye on.

• Wide mouth mason jars have been the best purchase I’ve made for my kitchen. I’ve been prepping overnight oats + celery juice and they’re great for that as well as for random leftovers that would take up too much space in other containers. I also have been getting back to growing my own sprouts for smoothies and salads, and you can get a mason jar kit for that as well :)

  • Sprouts can grow on your kitchen counter without soil (you just rinse the seeds each day — here are the seeds I get), and they’re really good for enhancing the natural detoxification of your body. I inhaled so many sprouts in my journey to reach remission of my autoimmune condition, so they’ve been a staple in my diet during my recovery journey (and beyond, now that I’m healed!)

Questions? Thoughts? Would love to hear what you’re thinking, reading, or making in the comments.

Happy creating,

-Amy

Nobody told Charles Dickens he needed a book deal.

He got paid by the cliffhanger. Serialized novels, sold chapter by chapter through periodicals, turned him into a celebrity — one who sold out reading tours across America and bought the kind of real estate English nobles envy. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexandre Dumas did the same thing: collect checks every week, build an audience in real time, monetize as they wrote.

As I wrote in my most recent nonfiction book Write for Money and Power: “Serialization was the 19th-century version of a paid newsletter.”

We’re just living it again — except now you don’t need a printing press.

Andy Weir released The Martian chapter by chapter on his blog.

Hugh Howey started Wool as a self-published novella, kept serializing, and hit $150,000 per month in ebook sales before Hollywood came calling.

Elle Griffin serialized her gothic novel Obscurity one chapter a week for 42 weeks — first four chapters free, rest behind a paywall. In a recent interview on The Indy Author podcast, she said she earned $120,000 from roughly 150 paid subscribers over the course of the serial. The math works when people subscribe for the full run instead of buying a $10 book once — and it's a case study in what a small, deeply committed audience is actually worth.

John Pistelli serialized his literary novel Major Arcana on Substack throughout 2023 and 2024 and got picked up by a traditional publisher in 2025. Even Salman Rushdie and Chuck Palahniuk have come to the platform to serialize their work.

The format isn’t new. The opportunity is.

I’m putting my money where my mouth is: I’m about to start publishing my own serialized erotic thriller here on my 💡 Sutoscience Substack called Let Me Be Your Ghost — and I’ll be doing weekly breakdowns of how it’s performing as I go. It’s a build-in-public experiment for anyone who wants to watch serialized fiction get made in real time. (More on that below.)

But first — if you’ve been sitting on a novel, a story world, or even a collection of interconnected short fiction — here’s how to actually do this:

1. Treat Every Chapter Like a TV Episode

Read more

I wanted to open this issue by sharing a conversation I had with author Emma Gannon about the question — do authors still need gatekeepers? Lots to think about here — you can watch it below!

The Hyphen by Emma Gannon

Do authors still need gatekeepers?

Amy Suto’s book Write for Money and Power has an arresting cover. It’s bold. It’s not messing around. It asks: can you be an artist — and want money and power? Inside a system that doesn’t often grant artists much power? How many of us have been sold the starving artist myth? That to be an artist, you should be living off nothing, and never ever “sell o…

Listen now

13 days ago · 43 likes · 2 comments · Emma Gannon and ✍️ Make Writing Your Job

I’m also teaching yoga + journaling classes in SF, more on the “why” you should consider doing more yoga (or trying it if you haven’t already!) as a creative below as well as the details of the class:

So I’ve been busy lately but not in a hectic way. I’ve replaced screen time with in-person writing sessions with local writers — I’ve spent more time perusing farmers markets, bookstores, and assembling bouquets of spring flowers.

Because of all that I’ve been feeling more creatively fed and feeling lucky to be able to spend more time in the pages of my next novel.

All of that aside — there are lots of fascinating changes in the landscape for creatives! Here’s what I have for you this week:

💬 Links I Sent My Fiancée

My fiancée (!!!) Kyle Cords is my co-founder which means DMing him links counts as productive work 💕

tbh this is most of the vibe of what I sent Kyle this week:

🌁 Dispatches From the Bay

What to do and where to eat in San Francisco.

• I have mixed feelings about San Francisco, and “San Francisco is Creatively Dying” by Georgia Witchel hits on some of the issues I have with this city. It’s also why I’ve been getting more involved on putting on events here — I’m wanting to create pockets of this city that feel more creatively inspired and fruitful.

☕️ Content Trends

Trends in social media, content creation, and what’s going on here on Substack.

• I talked about this back when I visited LA in April — all of my Hollywood friends are talking about are the rise of verticals (AKA: made-for-social-media content). Disney is doubling down on them publicly. I guess Quibi was a trailblazer all those years ago!

• Netflix has added a clipping feature and a short form video feed, showing that they’re trying to compete more with the likes of YouTube. Looks like the Creator Economy is here to stay :)

💰 What to Watch & Read If You Want to Make Money Online

Resources to make you smarter and richer in the Creator Economy.

• Substack started a talk show/interview series called Open Tab, where they interview top Substackers at bars. Here’s the first episode featuring Emily Sundberg of Feed Me fame.

  • I saw a comment on social media of someone saying this was a good move on Substack’s part — making content they want others to emulate on their video platform.

    • ALSO: this means that they’re putting forth a signal of wanting ~ more video ~ on the platform. So, if you have any video component to your work, it might be a good time to lean into it here on Substack. I talk about this a lot as part of my monthly Substack Lab group workshop, but wanted to continue to reiterate it here!

📕 What I’m Reading Lately

I really enjoyed ’s book A Violent Masterpiece. I discovered his work after reading his LA noir novel Everybody Knows, and his prose is lyrical and cuts to the bone in a way that is so rare to see in this genre!

As a former LA citizen myself, it was also cool to read something that embodies the gritty side of the city so clearly.

📚 buy A Violent Masterpiece

I also finished Emma Gannon’s book A Year of Nothing, her first foray into self-publishing/indie publishing. It’s a raw and emotional look at creative burnout, and it was so fun to be able to chat with her about it in our conversation about self-publishing.

📚 buy A Year of Nothing

🛍️ Add to Cart

Things that have made my life better or products I have my eye on.

• Kyle got me a Ninja Creami as an early birthday present and I’ve been loving making more “healthy” versions of ice cream :) I’ve been eating less dairy these days, so being able to whip up gelato and non-dairy ice cream at home (rather than buying store-bought versions of things full of additives!) has been helpful.

Questions? Thoughts? Would love to hear what you’re thinking, reading, or making in the comments.

Happy creating,

-Amy

1. I taught my very first public yoga class!

2. my personal essay about how pole dancing helped me come out as bisexual was published in the Los Angeles Times

That day was unique because it was the intersection of two things I love: writing and yoga.

It also was a moment that showed me that I was on the right path with my decisions. My first yoga students were eager to take more of my classes, and the LA Times readers who emailed me praise about my piece said they related to many of the sentiments I shared in my essay.

Sometimes the world humbles you with challenges and lessons — and other times it says “hey! keep doing what you’re doing!” — it’s important to listen to both signals.

🗝️ yoga as a key to unlock your creativity

I’ve been a lifelong yoga student, and even before I started teaching yoga, I saw how critical having a movement and meditation practice has been in my creative career.

When I’ve been blocked on a storyline for one of my novels, I love taking a hard vinyasa class and let the sweat solve my story problems.

(I loved going to Humming Puppy in Chelsea when I was writing my romantasy book The Ash Trials in Manhattan, and here in San Francisco Arise Yoga is my must-visit as I get started on my newest novel!)

If I’m not sure how I want to position a personal essay I’m writing for a publication or for my Substack readers, evening restorative yoga classes help me stretch out the knots of hunching over a desk and let me get back back to the basics.

Sometimes there’s just a lot of ~ stuff ~ to do, and I find myself surrendering to a child’s pose when I need reset. Just the act of letting my forehead touch the ground is therapeutic, like I’m pulling energy from the earth.

If you do anything with your mind, you’re likely prone to overthinking like I am. Yoga is a great counterbalance to both sitting at a desk all day and being in your mind too much. It gets you out of your head, into your body, and has the side benefit of helping to prevent a permanent looking-at-our-phones-or-devices neck hump that modern life seems to want to inflict upon us :)

⚡️ yoga as an incentive to create better habits

I took my 200-hour yoga teacher training during a period of my life when I really needed it. I was partying and drinking more than I should have been, and it wasn’t setting me up for success in the way that I wanted for myself.

I could blame my collection of less-than-healthy habits at the time on the “networking” culture of Hollywood, but in reality I needed something deeper.

Yoga ended up being the catalyst for a new lifestyle. A regular yoga practice became the “brakes” on my hustle-fueled lifestyle. It helped me carve a better path for myself: one that was more creative, more intentional, and more of what I wanted for myself.

Yoga was there for me when I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition and then went on a years-long healing journey to put it into remission.

At every stage of life, yoga has been a necessary ingredient in some of the biggest leaps forward in my life personally, professionally, and creatively. It’s transformed my life — and the lives of so many others. This is why yoga has survived as more than just a “fitness trend,” instead often being a vehicle for self-actualization with “getting abs” as simply a nice side effect.

✨ you don’t realize how much you need a yoga practice until you have one again

A year ago, I attended ’s retreat in the dreamy Tuscan countryside. I met some lovely female writers and began working on the early drafts of what would become my most recent nonfiction book, write for money and power.

(I actually just had an amazing conversation with Emma on her creative coffee series as part of her Substack about write for money and power, the retreat, and Emma’s own journey in independent publishing! Lots of full-circle moments lately.)

The Hyphen by Emma Gannon

Do authors still need gatekeepers?

Amy Suto’s book Write for Money and Power has an arresting cover. It’s bold. It’s not messing around. It asks: can you be an artist — and want money and power? Inside a system that doesn’t often grant artists much power? How many of us have been sold the starving artist myth? That to be an artist, you should be living off nothing, and never ever “sell o…

Listen now

14 days ago · 43 likes · 2 comments · Emma Gannon and ✍️ Make Writing Your Job

As part of that retreat, we also had daily yoga classes in a beautiful studio nestled in the Italian farmhouse, the smell of olive trees and fresh espresso wafting in as we moved through poses.

Last year I had been less steady with my own yoga practice because “life” had gotten loud: back in 2025 I was ending my digital nomad journey and moving to San Francisco, so nothing in my life was consistent at the time.

But doing yoga for that week in Italy reminded me why it’s a practice. As we ended our morning meditation and meandered to the terrace for a farm-to-table breakfast, I realized that you never get to the end of fine-tuning your ability to notice, to breathe, and to exist fully in the present moment. Yoga is the way we can strengthen our ability to find joy even in the simplest pieces of daily life.

📕 consistency is born from ritual

Having rituals implies that you have made the mundane routines of life sacred.

A yoga practice is both a ritual and a concerted effort to work on your breathing, your connection with yourself, and your relationship with the poses.

When I stay consistent in my yoga practice, I notice that…

• My days feel calmer and I feel more in control to “set the pace” of how the day unfolds

• I feel lighter and find myself noticing the small joys in life more often

• Creativity comes more easily — ideas seem to flow better and I encounter more breakthroughs in my writing projects

All of this is true because of the mind-body connection. The body does keep the score, and a more free body begets a more free mind.

Even if you’ve never done yoga before, I encourage you to roll out your mat and see how you feel after a week or two of consistent practice. You might be surprised how good life feels on the other side of a regular savasana.

🌱 new offering: a $5 donation yoga + journaling class here in san francisco

I’ve gone down memory lane in today’s post in part because I’m bringing my teaching back into focus again! I’m teaching a new yoga class in the SF Commons, and would love for you to join.

If you’re unfamiliar, is a special community hub here in San Francisco that I’ve recently joined. I’ve been a fan of The Commons for awhile — I went to several events back in 2021 when I was just visiting the city, and I’ve been a longtime subscriber of the founder and her curated Rabbit Holes Substack.

All that to say, I’m honored to be teaching in such an intentional space.

If you’re based in San Francisco, would love to see you in class as it’s open to the public!

As with all of my yoga classes I like there to be an emphasis on getting to know the people on the yoga mats beside you. We’ll open with journaling and intention-setting before moving into the yoga flow itself.

If you’d like to attend, go ahead and RSVP below:

🧘 join me for class!

wishing you a week full of inspiration and movement,

-Amy

If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

Welcome to our monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

💡 become a founding member

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best writerly conversation you had but didn’t want to end.

💡 Join Our Monthly Substack Lab and Get Feedback on Your Substack from Fellow Writers

📅 When: Saturday, June 6th from 10am PT / 1pm ET - 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, the 6 Week Substack Sprint, a 1:1 60 minute Substack Audit with me, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

Read more

But when I bring up the topic online, there’s a ~ lot ~ of conflicting emotions around it — especially in creative communities.

And I get why! On the surface, it can feel like an existential risk for creatives and freelancers. But when you dig a little deeper, the nuance shows something a bit different.

In this video, I share…

• A years’ worth of thoughts, experiments, and conclusions about AI use for writers and creatives

• Why writers who use AI in their traditionally published books are in danger of serious consequences, but self-published authors are using it to reduce publishing, design, and editing costs

• How many screenwriters in Hollywood are secretly using AI — despite telling the public otherwise

• What you need to know about using AI to run your creative business

This video has a paywall because I’m still developing some of the concepts + workflows I share with you, so I’m not ready to share everything with the broader internet yet!

👇 Here are the link mentioned in the video:

Read more

If anyone ever comes to you and tells you that “your Substack is too niche!!!” just show them this email I got about how much money community/newsletters on the platform Skool make:

^I’d particularly like to draw your attention to poop scoop millionaire, a community that earns $42,891/month teaching people how to pick up dog poop as a business.

While Skool is a Substack competitor, I think the platform itself is irrelevant here when we’re talking about niche. There are Substack publications that are very niche that are also doing ~ numbers ~ and I’ve broken down some examples in my 6 Week Substack Sprint.

I talked a bit more about niches and what we can learn from these communities at the top of our most recent Substack strategy workshop, Substack Lab, which is open to all Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience (consider upgrading your subscription if you’d like to join us + gain access to the 6+ hours of content of the 6 Week Substack Sprint + 1:1 Substack Audits as I’ve reopened my books for a limited time!)

Without further ado, here are more of the links, content trends, and other creative news items of interest for you to check out:

💬 Links I Sent My Fiancée

My fiancée (!!!) Kyle Cords is my co-founder which means DMing him links counts as productive work 💕

• Kyle sent me this piece about how Spotify is starting to sell physical books. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: physical books are so timeless even tech companies are betting on them.

• Kyle shared this chart with me that is the future of “new media” in the social age.

• A Japanese developer created an app where a fat cat sits on your screen to get you to log off and touch some grass.

🌁 Dispatches From the Bay

What to do and where to eat in San Francisco.

• Kyle and I were both pulled up on stage for magic tricks as part of this great SF magic show with magician Kevin Blake. You enter through a speakeasy and it’s a really lovely date night, so highly recommend if you’re in the city!

☕️ Content Trends

Trends in social media, content creation, and what’s going on here on Substack.

• Grammarly now lets you prove your writing is human. The new Grammarly Authorship feature tracks your keystrokes in real time and generates a report showing what was human-typed vs. AI-generated or pasted. For freelance writers pitching to skeptical clients, or authors who want to demonstrate authenticity, this is the kind of tool that might soon become table stakes. The fact that we now need to prove our own writing is ours is... a vibe, but here we are.

• YouTube expanded deepfake protection to every creator on the platform. All creators can now request removal of AI-generated content that simulates their face or voice. For authors who do content online, this matters — the threat of someone making a fake version of you promoting something is no longer theoretical. Social Pilot

• Instagram Reels can now run up to 20 minutes. The line between Instagram and YouTube is officially blurry. Long-form writing vlogs, process videos, “a day in the life of a working author” — all of these have room to breathe in a way they didn’t before. If you’ve been hesitating on video because you felt like you needed a whole YouTube setup, this might be your moment to start smaller.

• TikTok is now showing your new videos to your existing followers first. If your followers don’t engage, the video doesn’t travel to the For You Page. This is a quiet but massive shift — the “go viral with strangers” era is over, and the “build a community that actually cares” era is here. For writers on BookTok or anywhere: follower count is now a vanity metric. Engagement from real readers is what unlocks reach.

• Two years after selling Simon & Schuster, Paramount is back in books. Paramount Skydance just launched Paramount Global Publishing, a new imprint starting in the U.S. and Canada. The pitch: expand franchises (your SpongeBob novels, your Mission: Impossible tie-ins) and develop original IP to pipeline into film and TV. On one hand — Hollywood continues to treat books primarily as IP farms. On the other hand, that means more acquisitions, more deals, and potentially more money for authors. Silver linings! Variety

💰 What to Watch & Read If You Want to Make Money Online

Resources to make you smarter and richer in the Creator Economy.

• 32 million new Substack subscribers came from inside the platform in a single quarter. The Substack discovery engine — Notes, Recommendations, the algorithm — is genuinely working. Which means if you're not treating Substack Notes like a micro-social platform where you post 1–2 times a day, you are leaving real subscriber growth on the table. Here's a solid YouTube breakdown of what a $400k/year Substack strategy actually looks like right now from newsletter creator Nicolas Cole:

• Kyle and I have launched our CozyJobs — our jobs platform for creatives! — far and wide with a new coupon code for all subscribers to try a week of our paid plan for just $0.99! Get the code and watch the demo here:

  ✍️ Make Writing Your Job

  ✍️ Apply to Writing Jobs Faster with CozyJobs

  Hey writers…

  Listen now

  21 days ago · 1 like · Amy Suto

🎥 Random Pick of the Week: 50 Hours on Europe’s Most Dangerous Island

Personally, I find that some of the best documentary work is being done on YouTube.

I’ve been loving Yes Theory, and here’s a recent video they made about the surprising history of a French island you probably don’t know about:

I really like Yes Theory’s videos because (despite the clickbait-y titles) they take time to really understand a local area and the people who inhabit them. It’s the kind of understanding I’m always chasing as a memoir ghostwriter and (in fictional projects) as an author.

🛍️ Add to Cart

Things that have made my life better or products I have my eye on.

• We just bought a whole pack of disposable cameras for our wedding guests to help us capture our special day. There’s something nostalgic about this bad boys, don’t you think?

Questions? Thoughts? Would love to hear what you’re thinking, reading, or making in the comments.

Happy creating,

-Amy

If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

Welcome to our monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

💡 become a founding member

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best writerly conversation you had but didn’t want to end.

Show up. Ask anything. Leave more inspired than you arrived.

📅 When: TODAY, Saturday, May 2nd at 10am PT / 1pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

No polish required. No dumb questions. Just writers helping writers.

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, community, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

Read more

If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

Welcome to our monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

💡 become a founding member

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best writerly conversation you had but didn’t want to end.

Show up. Ask anything. Leave more inspired than you arrived.

📅 When: Saturday, May 2nd at 10am PT / 1pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

No polish required. No dumb questions. Just writers helping writers.

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, community, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

Read more

After my break from coffee for 50 days (!!) I’m back at my usual Blue Bottle haunt.

I routinely take breaks from coffee + caffeine (my current record is an entire year without coffee and caffeinated tea) but let me tell you — the first cup back is better than any drugs on the planet. ☕️

I’m also almost done with 75 Hard (it’s been a busy last few months) and I’ve been marinating on some projects (including CozyApply + CozyJobs which I recently shared with you!) and another fiction project I’m excited to announce soon.

While I’m getting more things prepared to share with you, here’s my dispatch from my creative lab for you in the meantime:

💬 Links I Sent My Fiancée

My fiancée (!!!) Kyle Cords is my co-founder which means DMing him links counts as productive work 💕

• It’s actually more mentally healthy to be optimistic to a delusional degree. I can attest by this — the more insane my goals (and certainty I’ll reach those goals) are, the better and faster my results are. Call it manifesting or just plain positive thinking, I think we operate better from a place of “everything works out for me.” It keeps the demons at bay, y’know?

• I’ve read in the past about why walking has been a staple in the routine of many writers (such as walking around the block before sitting down to write) because of walking’s benefit on creative thought. But new studies suggest it also might be worth it to pick up your pickleball paddle or tennis racquet to get 10+ years added to your life. Think about all the words you could write with 10 additional years.

• Claude Design is crushing it. If you’re a writer who needs some design work done, people are making some cool stuff with this tool. I haven’t tried it yet, but curious if you try it what you think.

🌁 Dispatches From the Bay

What to do and where to eat in San Francisco.

• A guide to some of your matcha options in SF. I personally have been obsessing over Q Specialty Coffee since it opened!

• Love the concept of a startup taking over a coffeeshop. If I took over a coffeeshop for writers and made it a combo bookstore/yoga studio/event space/coffeeshop/mocktail bar would you come and hang?

☕️ Content Trends

Trends in social media, content creation, and what’s going on here on Substack.

• Vanity Fair and Dazed Digital covered the rise of smutty books (and media) in the mainstream. From romantasy as a trend to the explosion of Heated Rivalry, audiences want more sex on-screen and on-page. I have a lot of feelings about this topic as a romantasy/romance author myself, but this paragraph from the Dazed Digital interview captures another driver behind this trend going more mainstream:

“The word ‘smut’, as she outlines on the society’s website, is derived from the Germanic word “schmutzen” which loosely translates to the act of staining, smudging and defiling. This definition alone highlights the unfortunate cultural view of the genre as a whole and the shame its readers can experience. Often, when female pleasure is prioritised – both within these books themselves, and by the mounting numbers of women finding enjoyment in them – it is not taken seriously. In creating community around ‘smut’, readers are reclaiming its meaning and attempting to melt the stigma around the books they love.” - Dazed Digital

💰 What to Watch & Read If You Want to Make Money Online

Resources to make you smarter and richer in the Creator Economy.

• Do you hire freelancers on the Internet? Some of them might not be who they say they are. I loved this incredible piece of investigative journalism because I ran into the same problem when I was trying to hire technical help last year for some of the projects Kyle and I are working on:

🛍️ Add to Cart

Things that have made my life better or products I have my eye on.

• I got the cutest mini waffle maker for $9 on Amazon!!! I had a craving for cute waffles and I made some great gluten-free vegan buckwheat waffles topped with fresh blueberries from the farmer’s market. Sometimes things just taste better when they’re fun-sized.

Questions? Thoughts? Would love to hear what you’re thinking, reading, or making in the comments.

Happy creating,

-Amy

This past Monday night, I was invited as a panelist to speak at ’s amazing Women + AI event here in San Francisco.

I was on the panel sharing my experience as a founder, as I’ve just recently launched CozyJobs, a project I’ve been vibecoding with my fiancée for the past 10-ish weeks. It was such a lovely night and I had some life-giving conversations with some very creative women in that room.

But I left the event thinking about how the title “founder” still feels a little lopsided to me at times. I don’t know exactly what would replace it — my preferred title of “creative person who likes making stuff” is a bit wordy.

On paper, my work resembles being a founder pretty closely: I’ve built six- and seven-figure businesses and have been freelancing as a memoir ghostwriter for the past decade.

When I lived in LA, I even ran an in-person events company called Kingdom of Pavement where we hosted open mic nights and secret shows spotlighting local creatives, writers, and musicians.

When 2020 arrived and disrupted our show schedule, I pivoted the company into producing scripted podcasts with our community of actors and musicians, and we produced my show The Last Station and Kyle’s show The Horror at Martin’s Beach with an insanely talented cast and crew.

That’s just a few of the projects I’ve been doing for the past chunk of time, and yes they’re business-shaped even if they all have some sort of creative heartbeat at the center.

Even CozyJobs.ai has a little lo-fi player at the bottom right of the screen that plays lo-fi music made by Kyle to help de-stress your job search.

But even if I hadn’t made any of those things and I was a writer on Substack as my sole focus, I’d still claim the title of “founder.”

✍️ if you write on Substack, you’re a founder

I do a sprinkling of Substack audit sessions for writers, Founding Members here in Sutoscience, and interesting startups that I like, and in one of my conversations with a founder I shared something I think you’ll find relevant.

Writing on Substack isn’t just about learning a platform — it’s about understanding how to capture someone’s attention.

How do you structure a post that a reader feels joy scrolling through? How do you write a headline that makes someone want to click in and read?

For many of us, writing on Substack means we are running a one-person media business. We set prices, run discounts, do our own art direction (maybe with the help of a hired designer!), and write the copy of our welcome emails.

Founders are people who do similar strategic thinking. They ask themselves “what will my target audience get value from?” and run experiments. They create a hypothesis and then create milestones to test their theories.

Writing on Substack is an art and a science, and that’s why some writers can feel a bit conflicted here: art, science, and commerce are almost always at odds in some way.

🎨 protecting your art while making money

I wrote an entire book on this topic, but the fundamental error in logic us creatives make is that when we focus on commerce, our art suffers.

In reality, thinking like a founder allows you to build a better buffer around your creative time.

By being strategic with my finances and business structures, I get to have more open creative time.

By optimizing my SEO and Substack landing pages for paid subscriptions, I get to chill out and enjoy the writing process more since my systems are bringing in subscribers on autopilot while I spend too much time on a chapter of my new fiction novel.

I used to stick my tongue out at thinking like a bUsinEsS pErSOn, but then I realized that being a “founder” doesn’t mean kowtowing to venture capitalists or being on Zoom calls all day. In fact, I don’t have to operate like any of the founders I see on the internet — I can rewrite the rules to fit my no-alarm-clock life.

Instead, being a “founder” is just a cap I put on from time-to-time to make my world better so that I can then go back and do my creative work undisturbed.

✨ the rule is this: the person having the most fun wins

Not all money is created equal.

There were freelance assignments where founders or companies were throwing money at me — but I ended up walking away from those projects because I just couldn’t stomach another day doing something that I didn’t feel passionate about.

When I discovered memoir ghostwriting, I felt like I stumbled on a huge secret. Are you telling me I get to write people’s stories and be a detective in their lives? I get to travel to exotic locations and get to know their culture and families and business partners? I get to see inside the lives of the rich, famous, and accomplished and learn from them? Hell yeah, sign me up. I’ve spent a decade being a ghost, and it’s still some of the most fun I’ve had as a writer.

Discovering Substack also was one of those moments. In 2024, I found myself sitting on the floor of our traditional Japanese home with a powerpoint on the screen of the small TV telling my fellow digital nomad friends that they all needed to get on Substack, stat.

I wasn’t making much money on Substack back then, but at the time it was enough to fund my travels and give me a place to share my writing and ideas.

These days, I make quite a bit more than I did then, but my passion for Substack is not just about the money. I’m more excited about how the business model frees up creatives to do more of what they love (and less admin work!)

When I think about what brings me the most joy in my career so far, I know that I have the most fun sharing what I’ve learned, teaching others the things I wish I’d known earlier, writing books for people, building stuff, and writing my own fiction and nonfiction.

Because I do what I love, work doesn’t feel like “work” to me, which means I can do much more of it, and do it at a higher level. That’s my advantage — and the advantage of anyone who is having fun.

So if you want to think like a creative AND like a founder, here are two questions for you:

• What would you have the most fun doing?

• Now how can you get paid to have fun and do more of what you love?

Leave a comment

💡 more ways to think like a founder here on Substack

My most popular post is all about this, and if you’re a Founding Member I hope to see you in our May Substack Lab next week! These group workshops on Zoom have been lots of fun and also it’s cool to see the breakthroughs happening in real time.

And if you haven’t already taken the 6 Week Substack Sprint, you can revisit these 6+ hours of classes by me at any time if you’re a Founding Member. I’ve also reopened my 1:1 Substack Audits for new Founding Members for limited time.

But even if you don’t take a look at any of these things, I’d love to offer you this last idea.

• Think like a founder when it’s time to be efficient and measure what needs to be managed. How much money do you need to make for your ideal creative life? Since not all money is created equal, what types of things do you want to do to make it? (i.e. freelancing, Substack, self-publishing).

  • How do you track conversions/create business structures that can work while you sleep?

  • How do subscribers and readers find and enjoy your work?

  • What do you charge for and what do you give away for free?

• Think like a creative when it’s time to make the art itself. Find the fun and shut everything else down. Don’t let doubt or worry creep into your safe space. It doesn’t belong there!

It can sometimes be easy to give into the existential dread that lurks in the shadows, but I’ve found that instead finding the lightness in the delusional optimism is actually way more “productive” and life giving!

And as a bonus, the times that I’ve believed that everything was going to just work out actually did indeed work out (sometimes better than I could have every imaged.)

So how can you create more spaces of play in your life? What do you need to do strategically to protect those spaces?

And remember: the only rule is that you need to be having fun in this life.

We only get to live it once, after all.

Sending you good creative vibes,

-Amy

🛋️ get cozyjobs now

• If you’re a Founding Member of 💡 Sutoscience or ✍️ Make Writing Your Job, you can claim your special discount here

• You can also try CozyJobs for free now

• If you decide to upgrade to paid for CozyJobs/CozyApply, I can also give you a free demo over Zoom to help you get the most out of your subscription! Sign up for a time here after upgrading your CozyJobs subscription

Questions? Feedback? Would love to know your thoughts — feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Sending you all the best writing and creating vibes,

-Amy

Applying is basically a part-time job. Tracking what you’ve sent, writing the same cover letter for the 50th time, remembering if you’ve pitched that outlet before, keeping up with grants and residencies and open calls — it adds up fast.

We built 📌 CozyApply to fix that.

📌 Save to your queue — Spot a job, grant, or residency you love? Pin it straight from the ✍️ Make Writing Your Job job board (if you’re subscribed!) and save it to your tracker so nothing slips through the cracks.

⚡ Auto-fill applications — Upload your portfolio info once. 📌 CozyApply uses it to fill out applications across job listings, freelance jobs, grants, contests, pitch calls, and residencies.

✉️ Cover letters in seconds — 📌 CozyApply generates a tailored cover letter based on your materials and the listing — and you can regenerate it until it’s right.

✍️ Essay answers, handled — Those long application essay prompts? Auto-filled and ready to review.

📊 Track everything — Know exactly what you’ve applied to, when, and where things stand.

What used to take 10 minutes now takes 10 seconds. That means more applications, more opportunities, and more time for the creative work that actually lights you up.

This is what technology should do — take the boring stuff off your plate so you can do more of what you love.

🌟 Founding Member Beta Access

We’re opening beta access to our 💡 Sutoscience and ✍️ Make Writing Your Job founding members first — and we want to grow 📌 CozyApply with you. Founding Members get 1 year at our Power Tier (the highest tier) for $0.99 (normally $1,990/year).

Upgrade to Founding Member now to see below the paywall → access 📌 CozyApply → start applying smarter → and help us shape what this tool becomes.

✨ (Plus, you get all of the other benefits of being a Founding Member, such as access to the 6 Week Substack Sprint, our monthly Substack Lab Workshop, and more!)

👇 Founding Members, below the paywall is the info you need to get started with CozyApply:

Read more

Welcome to Sutoscience by Amy Suto!

Subscribe now

I wanted to make this short Start Here video to walk you through how to get the most of your subscription, and the perks associated with the Founding Member tier.

Here are some of the links mentioned in the video to get you going:

• Get to know my free Sunday series, Creator News, to stay up-to-date on recent news and changes for Substack writers, creatives, content creators, and writers. Plus: my favorite products, what I’m reading/watching/doing, and SF-related picks for the next time you’re in the Bay Area.

• Explore my most popular posts, including 💡 How I’d Turn a Brand-New Newsletter Into $100,000 in 12 Months

• Upgrade to the Founding Member tier to get access to the 6 Week Substack Sprint (with 6+ hours of workshops on how to grow your Substack!), our monthly Substack Lab group workshop, your 60-minute 1:1 personalized Substack Audit, and all of the perks of the paid tier including access to all the paid videos + articles.

• Get my new book Write for Money and Power for $0.99 on Amazon.

• Find writing jobs + opportunities over on my other Substack, ✍️ Make Writing Your Job.

I hope you enjoy all of the experiments I’m cooking up for you in my creative lab!

Sending creative vibes your way,

-Amy

Hey creators,

Entertainment is shifting quickly, and I went to Los Angeles with for the past two weeks to talk to our subscribers and writer friends who are still working in the entertainment industry to get the latest.

What I learned re-affirmed what I’ve been sharing with you. Creatives who own their platform (in the form of self-publishing, a paid newsletter, or freelancing) — or who are adapting to the new way people consume content — are crushing it. Everyone else is falling behind or struggling to stay relevant.

It’s nice to see some of what I predicted in my book Write for Money and Power continue to hold true, and I’m here to help you continue to practice your art form while being mindful of distribution and packaging of your work.

Here’s my dispatch from my creative lab for you this week:

💬 Links I Sent My Fiancée

My fiancée (!!!) Kyle Cords is my co-founder which means DMing him links counts as productive work 💕

• Kyle sent this to me: Hollywood actresses are building AI tools now. The sentiment in Hollywood has reversed — even in my most recent LA trip, AI is becoming begrudgingly accepted or warmly embraced. It’s been surprising to see, but I think it’s an inevitability for the industry.

🌁 Dispatches From the Bay

What to do and where to eat in San Francisco.

• I’m starting a new social club called Creatives ONLY Social Club here in SF. We have a picnic coming up on April 25th (we had to reschedule due to bad weather!) so if you’re a creative in search of more of your fellow writers/artists/creators looking forward to seeing you there!

• I’m also organizing a Bay Area live Substack reading. If you have a personal essay/book excerpt/short story you want to read in front of a small live audience, feel free to fill out our interest form here. Date is TBD for this, and if it goes well we’ll turn it into a series.

☕️ Content Trends

Trends in social media, content creation, and what’s going on here on Substack.

• Microdramas are going mainstream, with Issa Rae working with TikTok on her own vertical. It won’t be long before big screen talent start to move en masse to the small screen. (This is what our LA writer friends confirmed to us as well!)

• This video breaks down the downfall of Hollywood and what is rising in its ashes:

💰 What to Watch & Read If You Want to Make Money Online

Resources to make you smarter and richer in the Creator Economy.

• Substack has rolled out lots of new features recently — read about their post templates, Notes scheduling, new stylized elements like drop caps, and more here.

• Revenue does not equal profit. A lot of creators have high-ticket courses, and Ali Abdaal is a high-profile YouTuber who made millions in revenue (not profit) from his YouTuber Academy Course, but shut it down because it ended up being unprofitable. This video made by one of his fractional team members is eye-opening because it shows that just because you see a big creator making $$$ does not mean they’re taking home all (or any!) of that money.

  • This is also why I believe in very “lean” methods of building your creative business, and I dedicated a whole chapter to this in my book Write for Money and Power.

🛍️ Add to Cart

Things that have made my life better or products I have my eye on.

• I’ve had my Remarkable Tablet for over 5+ years and just recommended it again lately to another writer. It’s a great replacement for the stack of 10 notebooks you have leaning-Tower-of-Pisa stacked on your desk. Still recommend it all these years later — especially if you travel a lot like I do!

Questions? Thoughts? Would love to hear what you’re thinking, reading, or making in the comments.

Happy creating,

-Amy

And then 48 hours later we’re walking into a Spanish-style Airbnb in the heart of Melrose on a tree-lined street, ready to grab some coffee and hang out with our writing community.

Here’s what one of those weeks looked like:

☀️ Sunday: Sunshine, Coffee Meetups, Book Industry Mixers

I started the week by hosting a co-working coffee meetup for all of our paid subscribers for ✍️ Make Writing Your Job and 💡 Sutoscience. We’re traveling to more cities to put on a variety of events, so make sure you’re also subscribed to ✍️ Make Writing Your Job and our Luma event page to get notified of upcoming events!

Our co-working and coffee meetup landed at Bricks and Scones — one of those library-like coffeeshops that makes you feel like you’ve stumbled into your best writing life. ☕️ We claimed a sun-drenched corner of the patio, mugs in hand, trading ideas and stories while the warm Los Angeles spring air did its part to make everything feel just a little more possible. 🌸

From there, Kyle and I headed to a rooftop matcha + microbakery event put on by Bridges Bakehouse next to Larchmont. The golden, sunshine-soaked city views didn’t hurt — and neither did the matcha, which fully lived up to the hype. This one had serious demand energy too, with a 300+ person waitlist. Translation: if you’re even thinking about going next time, follow them on IG and move fast — these spots disappear the second they open.

Then we headed west to the Vegan Food Festival in Westwood Village, where I had a plate of vegan nachos that genuinely made me question everything I thought I knew about cheese.

But the real plot twist? Westwood itself. The last time I’d been there, it felt buzzy and full of life — this time, it was a different story. Empty storefronts. “For lease” signs stacked block after block. The kind of shift that makes you pause mid-bite and go, wait… what happened here?

From Westwood, Kyle and I split for the evening, and I traded food festival energy for something a little more intimate — an all-women book industry mixer at The Wellesbourne. It’s one of my favorite Westside spots for a reason — it feels like stepping into an old, slightly mischievous library, the kind where deals get made over cocktails and everyone secretly has a manuscript in their bag.

The LA book scene isn’t as built out as NYC, but I met some great women building cool stuff in the book space. I attended this to see how I could help support authors through featuring their work on our Substack Live interview series at ✍️ Make Writing Your Job and find any additional resources we can provide to our writing community.

☕️ Monday: Bodega Co-Working & Catch-Up Day

We spent Monday posted up at Bodega — the kind of writing spot that shape-shifts depending on the hour. By night, it’s a wine bar. By day, a plush little coffeeshop with just enough edge to make you feel like you’re in on something.

This time, though, the crowd skewed sharply corporate — suits, laptops, quiet urgency — a noticeable departure from the usual creative sprawl. Still, we carved out our corner, got some solid co-working in, and let the (semi) fresh ocean air drift through the open windows like a soft reset.

After Bodega, I made a quick pivot to the gym — strength training followed by a StairMaster session, because yes, I’m still deep in my 75 Hard era and there’s no negotiating with that voice in my head.

Monday, overall, was a classic catch-up day. As a writer, I need these days to zoom out, recalibrate, and tackle the things that slipped through the cracks. One of the major perks of being a full-time writer? The calendar’s a suggestion, not a rule. Weekends, weekdays — it all blurs. I work when the energy’s there, and when it’s not, I don’t force it. It’s less about the clock, more about the rhythm.

📚 Tuesday: Substack Audit and Late-Night Tea House

I started Tuesday morning with a 1:1 Substack Audit with one of my Founding Members, which was such an inspiring session.

(BTW — if you haven’t had a 1:1 Substack Audit with me, I’ve re-opened my calendar to all new Founding Members + any Founding Members who didn’t book one during the first round of sign-ups! Book your 1:1 Substack Audit here.)

Tuesday was a free-form day of exploring before we ended up at a super cozy late-night teahouse called Shiloh in the heart of DTLA.

The tea was brewed with almost ceremonial care, and live string musicians filled the space in a way that made the whole night feel a little suspended in time. If you’re craving a calm pocket inside the concrete chaos of Los Angeles, this is it — a quiet, candlelit escape from the city’s usual pace.

🌱 Wednesday: Nature & Reset Day

To kickoff our Wednesday, Kyle and I wandered through Robinson Gardens — a tucked-away, multi-acre estate in Beverly Hills that feels like you’ve slipped through a crack in time. One minute you’re in LA traffic, the next you’re strolling through manicured paths that look like they were designed for linen suits and whispered secrets.

It has this distinctly Gatsby-esque energy — old-school glamour, a little excessive in the best way, like a love letter to LA’s golden age. We drifted from garden to garden, pausing to watch birds, soak in the quiet, and remember that even in a city built on motion, there are still pockets that invite you to slow all the way down.

💻 Thursday: Coffee Meetup & Co-Working at Re/Creation

We did another edition of our ✍️ Make Writing Your Job coffee meetup + at Re/Creation cafe on Washington — one of my new favorite indoor-outdoor coffeeshops to work from in LA with some great food. They also have some good events like salsa nights and paint and sips.

Our coffee meetup stretched into a long, lingering lunch. Equal parts productive and unhurried, which, in my opinion, is the sweet spot. Social workdays are undefeated.

Kyle and I were supposed to hit a tech event later… and instead, we bailed and stayed home. No FOMO, no second-guessing — just a very clear this is the better plan energy. And honestly? It was.

🧋 Friday: Rest/Computer Day, Bookstore Browsing with Friends

On Friday I took it a bit more chill, playing some text-based video games (my recent obsession is A Dark Room) and handling some emails and client work.

Then we met up with friends at Dialog Cafe (apt for a group of writers/creatives) before catching up between the stacks at a local bookstore.

It’s nice to see creatives thriving even in a city that’s going through a difficult transformation.

🧪 Saturday: Substack Lab, Matcha Walks, Dinner with Friends

Saturday kicked off with one of my new favorite rituals — our monthly 🧪 Substack Lab here at 💡 Sutoscience. A virtual room full of writers trading feedback, sharpening ideas, and building a Substack that actually gives them autonomy and a place for creative expression. It’s part workshop, part creative ignition, and every time I leave a session like this, I’m reminded how powerful it is to not do this alone. (RSVP for the next Substack Lab here!)

From there — gym, matcha, back to writing.

We wrapped the day with dinner alongside some of our favorite creative, former-digital-nomad friends who flew in from New Zealand — which felt like the perfect full-circle moment for the week. LA has been a blur of reconnecting, meeting new people, and stepping back into a version of my creative life that feels expansive again.

And truly — thank you to everyone who came out to a co-working/coffee meetup event. Getting to meet you in real life was the highlight. Already plotting the next events!

✍️ Ready to actually grow your Substack — not just think about it?

If you’ve been reading along and thinking, okay… I want this kind of momentum too — this is your next step.

When you join as a Founding Member, you’re not just getting access to content — you’re stepping into the room where this all gets built.

Here’s what that looks like:

• ✨ Substack Lab access — join our monthly live sessions on Zoom where writers swap feedback, refine their publications, and grow together in real time

• 🧠 A 60-minute 1:1 Substack Audit with me — we’ll dig into your publication, your strategy, and exactly what to do next

• 🎓 6+ hours of the 6-Week Substack Sprint — my full system for growing, converting, and monetizing your newsletter

• 💸 Discounted rates on accountability sessions + additional audits — so you can keep the momentum going

• 📚 Full access to every article I’ve written — the strategies, breakdowns, and behind-the-scenes of how I’ve built my own Substack to over $220,000/year

This is for the writers who are done circling the idea and ready to actually make this work.

👉 Join as a Founding Member and let’s build your Substack — for real.

✍️ become a founding member

See you inside!

-Amy

Hey writers,

🌸 Want to actually grow your Substack this spring — not just think about it?

✨ Now’s a very good time to jump into my 6 Week Substack Sprint. When you become a Founding Member, you unlock 6+ hours of recorded classes plus all the bonus material — the full system, start to finish.

💡 get access to the sprint

📚 The 6 Week Substack Sprint is everything I’d hand you if you said, “I want this writing and creating career to work — for real.”

And one more thing…

📅 I’m reopening my calendar for 1:1 Substack Audits — 60-minute, high-impact sessions where we cut through the noise, pinpoint exactly what’s holding your growth back, and uncover the missed opportunities hiding in plain sight.

✨ The focus of these 1:1 sessions is simple: support your Substack growth and surface the blindspots most writers miss, including:

• Your welcome email (and whether it’s actually converting)

• About page optimization (aka your first impression)

• Category selection (so the right readers can find you)

• How you’re monetizing your Substack — or why it’s not clicking yet

💡 become a founding member

You’ll leave with sharper positioning, smarter growth levers, and a clear plan for what to focus on next — so you’re not just posting… you’re building something that actually moves.

My calendar for new Founding Members has been closed for the past two months — and I’m now opening a limited number of spots of 1:1 Substack Audits for:

• New Founding Members

• Current Founding Members who haven’t had their 1:1 Substack Audit yet

• Plus — for current Founding Members who’ve already had their 1:1 Substack Audit, I’m rolling out new discounted rates on additional sessions, including follow-up audits and weekly accountability check-ins

If you want personalized, no-BS feedback on what’s working, what’s not, and how to turn your Substack into your main thing this year — this is your window.

👇 Links to book your 1:1 session are below the paywall.

💬 Testimonials from Writers Who Have Taken the 6 Week Substack Sprint

Here are some testimonials from writers who have taken my 6 Week Substack Sprint:

“Just when I think I couldn’t learn more from Amy Suto, she does it again. The 6-week Substack Sprint was the best way to start 2026 on a high note. I’ve doubled my subscriber count in a month, converted free subscribers to paid (without feeling gross or salesy), and provided content I believe in with a newfound confidence and purpose. I didn’t think there could be a more helpful Substack than ✍️ Make Writing Your Job… until I committed to 💡 Sutoscience. If Amy tells me to jump off a bridge, I’ll have already jumped: that’s how powerful her advice and insights are.”

- Alison Lau, writer of the Monkey Girl Substack

“Amy’s 6-Week SubStack Sprint was beyond helpful, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has a SubStack or is interested in starting one. Each of the six classes focused on a specific element of successfully launching, running, and scaling a SubStack that is not only fulfilling for the creator but also actually gives readers something they want. All of Amy’s ideas and advice come from her own journey of building a successful publication, and she so generously shares all of the secrets she’s uncovered from years of trial and error. Without her 6-week SubStack Sprint, I don’t think I’d have the confidence or understanding to take the leap and launch my own publication-- I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate.”

-Lizabeth Yandel, writer of the Songs to Save Your Day Substack

“The 6 Week Sprint with Amy was a game-changer. My mind is still swirling from all of the goodness I learned, and I’m starting to apply to my newsletter. I was nervous at first since I was rebranding and bringing over my subscribers from my previous try on Substack. With Amy’s generous sharing of her wise tricks and tips, I’ve gained 20 more subs in the month of January since I posted my first piece. I feel focused, energized, and excited to have a plan for this year. I also have new writer friends who were also in the Sprint with me. We are so supportive of each other! Amy genuinely wants writers to succeed, and that vibe was felt throughout! Best thing I’ve signed up for in a really long time!”

- Kathleen Majorsky, writer of the Love and Lit Substack

“The 6 Week Sprint exceeded my expectations by far because I not only learned how to start and grow my Substack but I so appreciate the community that was also formed with the other members of the Sprint.”

- Amy Benavides, writer of the Red Purse of Justice Substack

👩‍💻 Book Your 1:1 Substack Audit Now to Get Personalized Support

Upgrade now and become a Founding Member to get access to…

• My recorded 6 Week Substack Sprint (over 6+ hours of videos guiding you through creating and optimizing your Substack!)

• Access to our monthly Substack Lab workshop series (get live feedback on Zoom from me + our community of awesome Substack writers!)

• A 60-minute 1:1 Substack Audit with me, where I’ll dive into missed opportunities and different strategies to monetize and grow your Substack

• All of my articles on how to grow on Substack, including my most popular post on How I’d Turn a Brand New Substack Into $100,000+ in 12 Months

💡 become a founding member now!

Ready to book your 1:1 session? 👇 Links are below the paywall! Upgrade to a Founding Member now to book and start your Substack growth journey:

💻 1:1 Substack Audit Links

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If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

🌱 Our April Substack Lab went great (thanks to everyone who showed up and contributed!), so here’s the invite for the next one in May!

Welcome to our monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

💡 become a founding member

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best writerly conversation you had but didn’t want to end.

Show up. Ask anything. Leave more inspired than you arrived.

📅 When: Saturday, May 2nd at 10am PT / 1pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

No polish required. No dumb questions. Just writers helping writers.

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, community, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

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