/substack-ghostwriting

name: substack-ghostwriting
description: "Write, optimize, and grow Substack content — newsletter issues (email-first) and web posts (web-first essays). Covers voice matching, Substack algorithm and Notes strategy, email formatting, SEO, growth tactics, and paid-subscriber monetization. Use when the user mentions Substack, a newsletter issue, a Substack post or article, evergreen content, newsletter growth, Notes, paid subscribers, 'ghostwrite for', or 'write in the style of' — and for newsletter or essay writing even when Substack is not named, or when adapting a blog post, talk, or thread into newsletter format. Do NOT use for generic blog post writing without a newsletter context — use samber/cc-skills@technical-article-writer instead."
user-invocable: true
license: MIT
compatibility: Designed for Claude or similar AI agents.
metadata:
  author: samber
  version: "1.1.5"
  openclaw:
    emoji: "📰"
    homepage: https://github.com/samber/cc-skills
allowed-tools: Read Edit Write Glob Grep Agent WebFetch WebSearch AskUserQuestion

Substack Ghostwriting & Content Optimization

A skill for writing Substack content — both newsletter issues (email-first) and web posts (web-first articles/essays) — that grows subscribers and converts readers. Handles two voice modes (own voice, ghostwriting) and two format modes (newsletter issue, web post).

Core philosophy

Substack is not a blog with an email list. It's a social-media-newsletter hybrid with an algorithm that optimizes for subscriptions, not engagement. This changes everything about how you write, format, and distribute content on the platform.

The algorithm's incentives genuinely align with quality. Substack's revenue comes from subscription cuts (not ads), so gaming engagement metrics doesn't help. What helps: writing content good enough that readers convert to paid subscribers and recommend you to others.

For ghostwriting specifically: the job is capturing someone's existing insights in their voice, not generating insights from scratch. As Nicolas Cole frames it: clients are "insights-rich and time-poor", writers are "time-rich but insights-poor." The art is extraction and voice matching.

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Platform formatting constraints

Substack is a social-media-newsletter hybrid with an algorithm that optimizes for subscriptions, not engagement. Revenue comes from subscription cuts (not ads), so quality genuinely wins. For ghostwriting: the job is capturing someone's existing insights in their voice — clients are "insights-rich and time-poor."

Read `references/platform-constraints.md` for post fields, Notes limits, special content blocks, and media embeds.

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Mode detection

Determine two dimensions:

**Voice dimension:**

• **Own voice** — the user writes/publishes under their own name. Go directly to the Writing Workflow.
• **Ghostwriting** — writing in someone else's voice, or preparing content for a client. Complete the Ghostwriting Workflow first, then the Writing Workflow.

**Format dimension:**

• **Newsletter issue** (email-first) — sent to subscribers' inboxes. Subject line and email formatting matter most. Read `references/email-formatting.md` during Phase 3.
• **Web post** (web-first) — published as a Substack article/essay, discoverable via search and Substack's feed. SEO and web formatting matter most. Read `references/web-post-formatting.md` during Phase 3.

If unclear, ask the user. Default to newsletter issue when they say "newsletter" or "issue"; default to web post when they say "article", "essay", "post", or "evergreen content".

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Ghostwriting Workflow

When writing for someone else, voice matching comes before content. Read `references/voice-matching.md` for the full extraction process — it covers sample collection (transcripts > writing > media), voice marker extraction, building a voice guide (10-15 markers with examples), and iteration with the user.

Complete the voice guide and get user validation before proceeding to the Writing Workflow.

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Writing Workflow

**Phase 1 is mandatory — always ask the user the intake questions and wait for answers before writing anything.** If the user already provided some context, extract what you can and ask only about missing pieces.

Phase 0: Voice calibration (own voice mode)

Skip this phase if ghostwriting (the Ghostwriting Workflow handles voice separately).

Ask the user for their **existing Substack URL**. If they have one, recent posts are a valuable source of tone markers — formality level, sentence rhythm, humor style, paragraph length, how they open and close, recurring phrases. Summarize the voice in 5-7 bullet points and confirm with the user before writing.

If they don't have an existing Substack, ask: "How do you want to sound? Casual and conversational, professional and authoritative, or something else?" Use their answer plus any other writing samples they can share.

Phase 1: Content planning (interview)

**Stop and ask.** Present the intake questions below to the user and wait for their answers. Do not skip this phase, do not infer silently, and do not start drafting until you have explicit answers or confirmation on every item.

1. **Topic**: What's this about? If vague, ask what specific angle or story the reader should walk away with. 2. **Format**: Newsletter issue (email-first) or web post (web-first)? See mode detection above. 3. **Audience**: Who reads this? (developers, founders, marketers, general tech, niche community...) A newsletter for junior devs reads very differently than one for CTOs. 4. **Objective**: What's the concrete goal?

• Grow subscribers (free or paid)?
• Drive signups/traffic to an external product (SaaS, course, tool)?
• Establish authority / thought leadership?
• Nurture existing subscribers toward a paid tier?
• Something else? The objective shapes the CTA, the hook angle, and where depth goes vs where the paywall or link sits.

5. **Context**: Part of a series? What have recen