How to plan and prepare Substack posts with Sheevook
Short posts to readers of your newsletter and the people who follow you on Substack. Conversational, one link at most; you post it by hand. Sheevook turns one approved idea into a Substack-native post (grounded in the platform's real rules, not a generic cross-post), then schedules it and measures what it drove.
Sheevook helps you prepare Substack content and plan the post; auto-publishing for Substack is not live, so you post the prepared draft yourself.
Is Substack worth your time?
Worth it if you already write a newsletter, or have something to say to readers who chose to hear from you. It is a poor place to advertise a product: Notes are a writer talking to readers, and a pitch reads as out of place.
Substack at a glance
- Character limit
- 10,000 (sweet spot 280-600)
- Hashtags
- None. A hashtag publishes as plain text and links to nothing
- Best times
- No published best time. Notes are shown to readers who follow you and to people the Notes feed suggests them to; post when your readers read.
- Links
- Links stay clean in the copy. The tracking is recorded on our side instead of hanging off the end of your URL, so the post reads like a person wrote it and the click is still attributed.
A Note reaches the people who follow you, plus whoever Substack suggests it to
Substack does not publish how Notes are ranked, so no ranking rule is claimed here. What is documented is the shape of the post: a Note is plain text, it takes images or a link or a video but not a mix, and a link makes Substack build the preview card itself.
That shape rewards a first line that stands on its own and a link used once, with a reason to open it. Hashtags publish as plain text and link to nothing, and a typed @name notifies nobody, so neither earns reach.
Substack bars automated access in its terms, so Sheevook does not post for you. At the time you chose, it puts the Note in front of you with the text ready to copy, and you post it in Substack yourself.
What gets a Substack post buried
Writing it like an ad
A hard sell or a request for likes reads as spam to people who followed you for your writing, and it costs the trust that makes the next Note worth reading.
Relying on hashtags or an @mention
Both publish as plain text. A hashtag links to nothing and a typed @name notifies nobody, so the reach you wrote them for never arrives.
Mixing images, a link and a video
A Note takes one kind of attachment. The extras are left out, so check the Note before you post it.
Posting before you have checked it
Buffer's Substack guide says a Note cannot be edited by an outside tool once it is published; reports on whether Substack's own app allows it conflict. Treat a posted Note as final and fix it by deleting and posting again.
Publishing to Substack with Sheevook, step by step
- 1
Get your Substack account ready
Start a Substack: Create your publication, or use your existing one. Notes are posted from the account that owns it. Open Notes: Notes is the short-post feed inside Substack. Open it from the Notes tab and write a first Note by hand to see the composer.
- 2
Know why Substack is posted by hand
Substack has no public way for a tool to post Notes, and its terms bar automated access. Draft and schedule the Note here; at its time Sheevook hands it to you with the text ready to copy, and you post it in Substack.
- 3
Write once, let Sheevook tailor it
Write your post once. Sheevook re-authors it natively for Substack, inside the 10,000-character limit, with a per-platform diff showing exactly what changed, and it blocks a near-copy of another platform's version before it schedules. The voice it writes in: A writer talking to readers: first person, conversational, specific. Never an ad.
- 4
Copy it and post it yourself
Approve the draft, then use Copy for manual post and paste it into Substack. Sheevook does not publish to Substack, so nothing goes out until you post it.
- 5
See what actually worked
Substack reports nothing back to Sheevook, so there is no engagement to read. Where the post carries your tracked link, the clicks and conversions it drove are still tied to it. Results rank on outcomes, never on vanity reach.
What wins on Substack
- Write in the first person, as the author talking to readers
- Let the first line stand on its own
- Link to your own newsletter post when a Note points to it, once, with a reason to read
- Ask something you actually want answered
Substack questions people actually ask
- Can Sheevook post to Substack Notes?
- No. Substack has no public way for a tool to post Notes, and its terms bar automated access. Sheevook schedules the Note, hands it to you at its time with the text ready to copy, and you post it in Substack.
- How long can a Substack Note be?
- Buffer's Substack guide gives 10,000 characters per Note. Sources disagree on this, and Substack does not publish a figure itself. Notes read best far shorter, so Sheevook aims for a few short paragraphs.
- Can a Note include images and a video?
- Not together. A Note carries up to six images or GIFs, or a link, or one video of up to fifteen minutes, according to Buffer's Substack guide.
