The Curation: Volume 51
The Non-Dummies Guide to Capri, my path to Substack "success," and additions to The France Hotel List.
For Quick Consumption
One of my favorite hotels on the East Coast, Castle Hill Inn in Newport, Rhode Island is having a 100 hour sale for the next 100 days. Book by Wednesday, February 5th at 4pm EST for 50% off your second night stay. A very good deal, if I may say. Also, whenever I post a sale it’s because I subscribe to a whole lot of hotel newsletters. No one has ever and will ever ask me to share! (If they do, I will not)
If I still lived in NYC, I would be anxiously awaiting this week’s opening of the new restaurant Crevette.
There are a lot of exciting books coming out this month, many that I’ve been long awaiting!
February 4
A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall (mystery/thriller)
February 11
The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (historical fiction/mystery)
You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego (mystery/thriller)
A Girl Like Us by Anna Sophia McLoughlin (mystery/thriller)
We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes (romance/womens fiction)
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (literary fiction)
February 25
Back After This by Linda Holmes (romcom)
Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (mystery/thriller)
Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger (mystery/thriller)
Today’s Agenda
Part One: sharing how I’ve gotten where I am today on Substack. I would never want to steer one to think this is a copyable formula, because we all know content doesn’t work that way – there are so many factors. But many have asked, and now I’m answering – this is just what I did and what has seemingly worked, from the start to today.
Part Two: Capri for Non-Dummies is this year’s addition to my digital purpose of making sure people do Capri “correctly” so they end up loving it. It doesn’t have everything, but it has all my top recs. The Comprehensive Guide to Capri on happyhoteling.com or available to Founding Members still has the most complete information that exists in the digital universe (I have searched far and wide on this and do believe this claim may be true).
Part Three: 18 additions to The France Hotel List, with a lot of particularly Special places.
What’s Worked for Me on Substack
I’ve had requests for a guide for Substack success. I don’t think I’m equipped to give that, nor might be anyone who doesn’t work for the company – it’s so individual. And that’s the entire point of Substack and what the platform is set up to celebrate.
Without framing it as tips, this is what I do and have done to get me here today. I am able to make a living off of this, and for my internal metrics, that does mean I’ve reached success and I will likely never get over that.
I am no Zoltar, I don’t know what has made the most impact necessarily, but I’d be shocked if it weren’t a sum of the parts.
First, while I’ve opened up even more as time has gone on, I have been fully myself on Substack since day one. I write how I like to write, which is a reflection on how I think and speak. I think people like to feel like they trust the voice behind the words they read – I do. Personality and opinion are so important to come in tandem with taste, in terms of trust.
Which means – tone of voice is important. If you don’t work in the brand/agency/marketing world, perhaps you’re less familiar with the term. Your tone of voice is how you speak and sound, and it’s both consistent and varies as is natural with any human. In today’s crowded creator space, I do think having a distinct tone of voice serves you well. I’d say I write in a way that’s both a bit academic and equally conversational. With a directness and an equal love for hyperbole. With confidence and a bit of eccentricity. I write in the way I experience this trip to planet Earth.
If you don’t come from a writing background, your tone of voice could come through isms, or catchphrases that become your thing. Translate the IRL you to the URL you as much as you can, unless you’re trying to be a faceless brand, in which case this is irrelevant.
Besides that, I’d say my posting/paid strategy is likely the biggest positive contributor. I knew that I needed two things to be successful on Substack: something to hold me accountable to show up every week, no matter what and to be financially compensated for my work. To me, if I had one paid subscriber that meant I was never going to let that person down. And that meant I was going to always give it my all.
So, I turned on paid subscriptions at launch. I think this did a few things. Certainly, it set the precedent that there was a paid value for my work. Only Child Syndrome may have this one silver lining.
My goal was to have one paid subscriber on day one in order to feel like this was worth it, and I felt pretty certain I could do that. And I did. For everyone who made that a reality, you’re the realest of the real and I can’t thank you enough.
Because then I really was accountable. I would never, literally never, drop the ball on any sort of work commitment that I was being paid to do. Remember, I grew up a Sick Kid and thus overcompensate all over the place but also, I respect the value of a dollar – not just for me, but for everyone. If you’re going to subscribe and support me, I’m not going to let you down. This is about respect, and I happen to be an American who believes in respect.
I started with two posts a week. They were, in retrospect, the product of someone who had been on the other side of the content strategy machine for a long time. On Wednesdays, I sent out Eleven Indulgences to paid subscribers and on Sundays, Five Frivolities to both free and paid subscribers. There was no rhyme or reason for the eleven or the five – it was a constraint that wasn’t contributing, and I pivoted away from it towards the end of 2023, about six months into my Substack journey.
Even though the structure was too rigid in retrospect, it created a consistent time schedule and something to expect. I tried to make it clear from the start that I was not treating this like a side hustle.
Now, to be frank, travel is one of the best niches to have on Substack. Because it’s a category where people will innately want to use the archive feature. And that is where a lot of value lies, and a reason to upgrade to paid (at least for myself, and from what I’ve heard from various readers).
This definitely can’t be applied to all categories, but somehow, try to make your archive something worth wanting access to.
Probably no one wants to hear this but the biggest thing that’s gotten me here is working really, really hard. To me, it’s not about perfectionism – I’m too far from that. It is about creating something I am honestly proud to put into the world, every time. And it takes a lot of time. I sacrifice weekends and nights, often.
To be blunt, I make sure that it’s something I would personally proudly pay $10/month for myself. And I’m picky on that. There needs to be substantial value, variety, and yet consistency. It needs to be something you cannot easily Google and find. Most importantly – I have to make sure to earn and keep your trust.
Which is another key. I have refused to sell out in sacrifice of my true taste. I am asking to be paid for my taste, therefore I believe should be as forthcoming with it as possible. I’ve never said a yes to something that wasn’t already a yes. I have never accepted a pitched story. I’ve only ever shared what I have wanted to. And that’s a gift I cherish and would encourage doing, if you can.
Lastly, I decided a few months in I was going to above and beyond, without driving myself to the ground. If you want this to be a side hustle, clearly you don’t need to do this. But if you have aspirations to growing it into a business, I would highly recommend it. I still have not turned on chat because my gut tells me it will lead me towards burnout, and I want to avoid that at all costs.
So, I’d say to treat your Substack like a startup, and you the Founder. Treat your page like a magazine, and you the Editor. Typically, I take at least 1/4 of what I originally wrote out for the final version. More is not more when it comes to content – quality reigns supreme. But with that, thoroughness is important. I try not to press publish on anything that isn’t complete in my mind.
Mostly, don’t force it. If you feel like you “should” be on Substack but don’t feel like you know what to write about nor genuinely compelled to figure that out – it’s totally ok to sit this platform out.
If you go for it, I think it’s very worth the time and effort. I really, truly love it here. And that’s all because of YOU! Thank you, thank you – I am the luckiest.
Capri for Non-Dummies
If I feel as though I have one key responsibility on the internet – to introduce people to the real Capri. I feel like it’s my duty, in many ways, to make sure you don’t make the mistakes that even the biggest travel publications publish. I want you to leave the island in love with it.
The last time I did any sort of real Capri guide was my dispatch from last Summer’s trip, and the 2024 in’s and out’s. The Comprehensive Guide to Capri on happyhoteling.com or available to Founding Members here will always have all the info.
But I want to share the cliff notes version, both so I can free up some DM inquiries and continue to help you love the island I love so much. If you’ve been here for over a year, you’ve heard versions of all of this before, but puts all the top recs all in one place. Plus, there deserves to be a Capri guide on Happy Hoteling every year.
If you’re new here – TLDR, I spent a month in Capri growing up. Same hotel room same time every year, and I made friends with the locals when I was 11. I’m really fortunate to know the island as well as a non-local can, from both a local and tourist perspective. And I really do enjoy sharing it with you.
First, let’s talk about the weather.