I think this was a spectacular idea, gathering posts and compiling into a book A couple years ago I published a book that actually came from years of notes about my life experiences, pre-Substack of course! Congratulations! You have me thinking about my next writing project now…
Nice! Welcome to the Healthy Jew community. Being Jewish, loving Israel, and eating healthy are solid starts! But I must point out that the personalized, wellness-centric angle of Judaism that I cover on The Healthy Jew is universal and relevant for anyone that values spiritual traditions and is looking to become a healthier, more balanced person.
Shmuel Robert Puelz (Rob) asked inside the membership experience
Hey there colleagues…..I want to compile my Substack posts into a digital book by topical area. I have the topical areas worked out. I prefer to avoid taking the posts into Latek and compiling them there…..Have you seen solutions for Substack writers?
Hmmmm, I'm not so sure about that. I'm pretty old school with tech, mostly work with Microsoft Word and more recently with Apple Pages (which by the way is just so much better than Word).
So after getting into a document that's organized well by subject, I hired a typesetter/graphics person to make it into a real book. For my first self-published edition, I worked with a fellow on Fiverr who was affordable and did a great job for that price (I'm happy to share with you his profile by DM if that's helpful). For the second, professionally published edition (with Menucha Publishers), I worked with a local expert who really brought the book up to the next level.
Hi Shmuel, if you could recommend someone his would be cool. However, I think the second one then was the best to help you... So I guess for professionally published editions you need to level up the design and branding of the book.
You can send me the name/Link in the DMs. Good idea with Apple Pages! Most of my members use Apple.
Yes, for sure. The Fiver was a good start, and in some cases can be enough. But there really (at least not yet) isn't a substitute for a professional designer. But still, I'll send you the Fiver's contact info soon by DM
Thank you all for your lovely comments! Shmuel will reply to every single one of your wonderful pieces of feedback. Seeing this kind of engagement truly means so much—it reminds us why we write in the first place. Knowing there are readers out there who resonate with our work keeps our creative juices flowing. Thank you again for being part of this journey and The Club! 🙏
Yes, I'm here now working through every comment, and I so appreciate all of you!
Special callout to Kristina for the vision and encouragement to make this post happen. I see this as a small taste of what I touched upon in the post about understanding my marketing limitations and reaching out to partners for help: This story is my writing, but you did an incredible job packaging and promoting it. When the time is right, I hope and pray that I'll discover great partners like you to help Healthy Jew make a meaningful impact on the larger community.
Beautiful article Schmuel 🙏 Love how you take us with you on your path to being a published author. No fluff just meaningful transparent writing about your journey.
Paring 'Healthy Jewish Living' with foraging in the 'Lands of Israel' is a seamless way to share all your passions, live your Faith and teach others how to live their best life!
I look forward to seeing where your journey takes you in 2025. Be well 🙏
Thank you, Janet! Yes, this pair is the heart of my message: the healthy of the individual person is expressed in the health of the Land of Israel, which is the healthy body of the Jewish nation. This idea is the central thesis of my book!
Part of my 2025 is expanding into a third related area, which I'll probably call "Healthy Judaism." These posts will present a balanced, holistic approach to questions of Jewish faith and rituals.
Congratulations on a very innovative approach and thinking outside of the proverbial box. I loved reading your journey of starting with 3 subscribers. Very often that’s how most of us start and then life takes us on an inspiring journey that ends with book publishing, new business, new relationships..
And you have to keep in mind, Magdalena, most quit. They feel overwhelmed. Are frustrated about their 2 subs and then stop. Ist stop after week 14 or 16 here. That's why most newsletters are inactive if you want to be better than 9O% of writers, keep going by sharing your stories, your true voice and so people conna discover you and connect
Thank you, Magdalena! Yes, I've always been the type who likes thinking a bit different than most folks. I think that lots of people appreciate approaches to spirituality and religion that are original and personal, especially when they remain grounded in traditional sources and practices.
Thank you! As I think you sensed, I'm still a bit sensitive about that after all the criticism and rejections I've received over the years. So I appreciate that.
A big part of my growth as a writer has been learning not to compare my writing to other, more "successful" and famous writers. I don't need to be Stephen King (who by the way has an excellent book about writing, called On Writing), I just need to be Shmuel Chaim.
Thank you! I'm so grateful you enjoyed! Yes, you're Jewish friends would be write about the hashgacha (divine provenance) guiding my journey - both in what works and what doesn't!
Thank you for this post Shmuel!! I subscribed. And I love what you say here: Substack = perfect solution for people who don’t want or know how to sell. And I've also found the land is medicine. We are Earth 🌎
Indeed, on Substack it's possible to gain traction without being a born marketer. But I must say that I'm learning the hard way that some marketing help can be crucial if our goal is to directly make money from subscriptions, and not just to share our message with current and potential subscribers.
If people vote with their wallets and join you on your journey that's wonderful. The cool thing is that you can really build a community around the topic you're writing about!
Yes, absolutely. The wallet-voting takes time, and isn't always the first priority. I'm now focusing on getting the message out in any way possible, growing the community.
Shmuel, I had another blog before I got serious and wrote for AMERICAN ESSENCE Magazine, then there was so much I wanted to do, but couldn't find an outlet for, so I got on Substack.
I always said, and still do, that I only have THREE READERS:
1. You, who are receiving my creative efforts. I hope to lift you by it.
2. Myself, I must be satisfied with my effort.
3. The DIVINE, who sees all the doings of humankind. Is it pleasing to my CREATOR?
Anyhow, I'll ALWAYS say I only have three readers. I love your story!
...and I just saw this, spent the entire day yesterday ignoring work and playing with my three grandchildren. The oldest and I coloured a map together, the middle child presented a drama with multiple costumes, and the youngest (1 yr old) simply wanted to climb on everything. They are a blessing! Cherishing them is part of a healthy and happy life! Better than any seminar on creativity I've ever attended! So glad to have met you here!
Wonderful, Bob! My kids are a blessing too and I try to cherish every moment (although it's often not so easy for me ^^) but I guess being in the thick of it is different than being in the role of a lovely granddad.
I think this was a spectacular idea, gathering posts and compiling into a book A couple years ago I published a book that actually came from years of notes about my life experiences, pre-Substack of course! Congratulations! You have me thinking about my next writing project now…
Great! I'm so glad you found this helpful!
Congrats! I subscribed. I’m Jewish, I love Israel and I eat healthy. Looking forward to learning more. 🥰🙏👏
Wonderful 👍 happy to connect you
Nice! Welcome to the Healthy Jew community. Being Jewish, loving Israel, and eating healthy are solid starts! But I must point out that the personalized, wellness-centric angle of Judaism that I cover on The Healthy Jew is universal and relevant for anyone that values spiritual traditions and is looking to become a healthier, more balanced person.
🥰🙏👏
Shmuel Robert Puelz (Rob) asked inside the membership experience
Hey there colleagues…..I want to compile my Substack posts into a digital book by topical area. I have the topical areas worked out. I prefer to avoid taking the posts into Latek and compiling them there…..Have you seen solutions for Substack writers?
Thank you.
Any tips?
Hmmmm, I'm not so sure about that. I'm pretty old school with tech, mostly work with Microsoft Word and more recently with Apple Pages (which by the way is just so much better than Word).
So after getting into a document that's organized well by subject, I hired a typesetter/graphics person to make it into a real book. For my first self-published edition, I worked with a fellow on Fiverr who was affordable and did a great job for that price (I'm happy to share with you his profile by DM if that's helpful). For the second, professionally published edition (with Menucha Publishers), I worked with a local expert who really brought the book up to the next level.
Hi Shmuel, if you could recommend someone his would be cool. However, I think the second one then was the best to help you... So I guess for professionally published editions you need to level up the design and branding of the book.
You can send me the name/Link in the DMs. Good idea with Apple Pages! Most of my members use Apple.
Yes, for sure. The Fiver was a good start, and in some cases can be enough. But there really (at least not yet) isn't a substitute for a professional designer. But still, I'll send you the Fiver's contact info soon by DM
Thank you all for your lovely comments! Shmuel will reply to every single one of your wonderful pieces of feedback. Seeing this kind of engagement truly means so much—it reminds us why we write in the first place. Knowing there are readers out there who resonate with our work keeps our creative juices flowing. Thank you again for being part of this journey and The Club! 🙏
Yes, I'm here now working through every comment, and I so appreciate all of you!
Special callout to Kristina for the vision and encouragement to make this post happen. I see this as a small taste of what I touched upon in the post about understanding my marketing limitations and reaching out to partners for help: This story is my writing, but you did an incredible job packaging and promoting it. When the time is right, I hope and pray that I'll discover great partners like you to help Healthy Jew make a meaningful impact on the larger community.
Thank you!
Congratulations on the book, Shmuel, fabulous work!
Thank you!
Here's my feature post about the book: https://thehealthyjew.substack.com/p/about-land-of-health
On my Substack, of course.
Super! Happy to help and support your work so you get seen more. If you need my support with marketing, promo, let me know
Thanks! We'll be in touch soon, for sure.
Beautiful article Schmuel 🙏 Love how you take us with you on your path to being a published author. No fluff just meaningful transparent writing about your journey.
Paring 'Healthy Jewish Living' with foraging in the 'Lands of Israel' is a seamless way to share all your passions, live your Faith and teach others how to live their best life!
I look forward to seeing where your journey takes you in 2025. Be well 🙏
Thank you, Janet! Yes, this pair is the heart of my message: the healthy of the individual person is expressed in the health of the Land of Israel, which is the healthy body of the Jewish nation. This idea is the central thesis of my book!
Part of my 2025 is expanding into a third related area, which I'll probably call "Healthy Judaism." These posts will present a balanced, holistic approach to questions of Jewish faith and rituals.
Love that you're already planning your next book 📚
Congratulations on a very innovative approach and thinking outside of the proverbial box. I loved reading your journey of starting with 3 subscribers. Very often that’s how most of us start and then life takes us on an inspiring journey that ends with book publishing, new business, new relationships..
And you have to keep in mind, Magdalena, most quit. They feel overwhelmed. Are frustrated about their 2 subs and then stop. Ist stop after week 14 or 16 here. That's why most newsletters are inactive if you want to be better than 9O% of writers, keep going by sharing your stories, your true voice and so people conna discover you and connect
Thank you, Magdalena! Yes, I've always been the type who likes thinking a bit different than most folks. I think that lots of people appreciate approaches to spirituality and religion that are original and personal, especially when they remain grounded in traditional sources and practices.
Schmuel, you are an excellent writer, well worth reading.
Thank you! As I think you sensed, I'm still a bit sensitive about that after all the criticism and rejections I've received over the years. So I appreciate that.
A big part of my growth as a writer has been learning not to compare my writing to other, more "successful" and famous writers. I don't need to be Stephen King (who by the way has an excellent book about writing, called On Writing), I just need to be Shmuel Chaim.
Spot on! Often we try to be someone else. This is exhausting. I also learned to embrace who I am and make this my writer DNA
Absolutely brilliant story. Thank you for sharing. My Jewish friends would say there’s a lot of hashgochoh in there!
Thank you! I'm so grateful you enjoyed! Yes, you're Jewish friends would be write about the hashgacha (divine provenance) guiding my journey - both in what works and what doesn't!
Learned something new :)
The best!
Thank you for this post Shmuel!! I subscribed. And I love what you say here: Substack = perfect solution for people who don’t want or know how to sell. And I've also found the land is medicine. We are Earth 🌎
Indeed, on Substack it's possible to gain traction without being a born marketer. But I must say that I'm learning the hard way that some marketing help can be crucial if our goal is to directly make money from subscriptions, and not just to share our message with current and potential subscribers.
If people vote with their wallets and join you on your journey that's wonderful. The cool thing is that you can really build a community around the topic you're writing about!
Yes, absolutely. The wallet-voting takes time, and isn't always the first priority. I'm now focusing on getting the message out in any way possible, growing the community.
Shmuel, I had another blog before I got serious and wrote for AMERICAN ESSENCE Magazine, then there was so much I wanted to do, but couldn't find an outlet for, so I got on Substack.
I always said, and still do, that I only have THREE READERS:
1. You, who are receiving my creative efforts. I hope to lift you by it.
2. Myself, I must be satisfied with my effort.
3. The DIVINE, who sees all the doings of humankind. Is it pleasing to my CREATOR?
Anyhow, I'll ALWAYS say I only have three readers. I love your story!
Interesting 🤔 Bob!
Wow, I love that. So Healthy Jewish, as I'd say to my students - balanced, personal, and spiritual.
I love little Eitan snoozing while you write! Now that's real life!!!
Yes, he's such a sweet gift! He's actually sleeping on the sofa right next to me as I respond to your comment, great connection there!
...and I just saw this, spent the entire day yesterday ignoring work and playing with my three grandchildren. The oldest and I coloured a map together, the middle child presented a drama with multiple costumes, and the youngest (1 yr old) simply wanted to climb on everything. They are a blessing! Cherishing them is part of a healthy and happy life! Better than any seminar on creativity I've ever attended! So glad to have met you here!
Wonderful, Bob! My kids are a blessing too and I try to cherish every moment (although it's often not so easy for me ^^) but I guess being in the thick of it is different than being in the role of a lovely granddad.