Keys to Collaboration: A Guide to Cross-posting

Introducing a NEW series for collaboration tips, guidance, and encouragement

In this new Keys to Collaboration series coming to you every third Monday of the month, I’ll share tips and insights to help you collaborate on Substack. Sometimes this guidance will come from me, and sometimes it will come from special guest writers. (Read more about being a guest writer here.) It might just be a quick tip on using Substack features for collaboration, or it might focus more on the keys to relationship-building and the structure of a successful partnership.

This week, I want to give an overview of a quick and easy way to collaborate and support other Substack writers: cross-posting.

While you may already have a good idea of how cross-posting works, I often find people aren’t taking full advantage of the feature or are confused on the difference between cross-posting and guest posting, so I’m diving into the specifics below.

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But first . . .

I’d like to share with you a time-sensitive collaboration opportunity with CollabStack Premium Member and sponsor of this post,

Carlie Melody Mae

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Carlie writes The Wild In-Between and the new print publication, Letters from a Wild Soul. Carlie is currently seeking submissions for her print publication:

Taking the [Digital] World by [Analog] Storm - Get Ready!

The submission deadline for the first edition is Feb 28th, and you can submit here.

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A Guide to Cross-Posting

If you’re someone who already knows the ins and outs of cross-posting, drop your insights in the comments below. I’d love to know:

• When you’ve cross-posted someone else’s work, what response did you receive from your subscribers?

• And when someone else cross-posted your work, did it lead to new subscribers?

For everyone else who is not as familiar with it, you’re not alone. When I first started, I thought that it was simply for cross-posting a guest post you wrote for someone else onto your own publication. But that’s just one way you could use it!

With cross-posting, you can cross-post any full post from another publication, so long as they have the feature enabled in their settings. That means if you really like a post someone wrote, and you know your subscribers would love it too, you can cross-post that full article to your newsletter or publication—and all while still giving full credit to the original author, leaving their work unaltered.

You can also include your own intro to the article at the top, so you can give your subscribers some context and say exactly why you’re sharing it with them.

Here’s how to enable cross-posting on your publication:

• Head to your publication’s Settings.

• Select Privacy from the left-hand navigation.

• Toggle on the option to Allow cross-posting.

Here’s how to cross-post someone else’s work:

• Go to the post you want to share and click the three dots in the upper right.

• Select Cross-post.

  

• When the pop-up appears, write an introduction for your readers.

  

• Choose which publication to share it to (if you have more than one), and who you want to send it to (options are everyone, paid, or founding)

• Choose whether you’d like to email it, post it to web, or both and then schedule or send/post now.

  

You can then view the usual stats on your dashboard for the cross-post. You can read more details in this post from Substack Support.

Why cross-post?

Cross-posting is a great way to:

• Introduce your readers to other writers you love

• Share perspectives and ideas that enhance your own

• Cover areas you aren’t as familiar with but that add value to your work

I’ve also heard people say that cross-posting is useful when you’re unable to post yourself or when you’re taking a short break from writing. (For example, I wish I had known of this when I took maternity leave. I could’ve used cross-posting to continue connecting with my subscribers.)

While you can cross-post any article or post from a writer who has this feature enabled, it could still be good to give them heads up, simply to make the connection and let them know you appreciate their work!

Cross-Posting vs Guest Posting

When you want an article tailored to your publication’s style, asking someone to author a guest post is the best way to go. But if there’s a post you love just as it is, with no customization, then a cross-post is the quickest and easiest option!

And as I mentioned earlier, you can cross-post an article you wrote for another publication to your own, so long as that other publication has cross-posting enabled.

Ready to Collaborate?

Whether it is cross-posting or another collaborative project, you can find potential collaborators over on the CollabStack Directory. Plus, our February Call for Collaboration is still open! I recommend checking in regularly to read the newest comments.

February Call for Collaboration

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Thank you again to our post sponsor,

Carlie Melody Mae

! She’s currently accepting submissions to her print publication. You can read more about Carlie and how to collaborate with her on her CollabStack profile:

The Wild In-Between

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Post sponsors help make it possible for me to manage CollabStack. You can learn more about post sponsorship here. You can also consider becoming a CollabStack Premium Member (paid subscriber) and receiving Premium benefits.

Another way you can support CollabStack is to simply spread the word! The more people we can include in our CollabStack Directory, the more potential collaborations we can all take part in!

Happy Collaborating!