Apr 30, 2026
Mark interviews Orna Ross, an award-winning novelist, poet, creative catalyst, and founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors about her recent move towards focusing all her social media energy on Substack.
Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episode, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor.
This episode is sponsored by Author Nation, being held in Las Vegas Nov 13 through 14, 2026
Learn more about Author Nation and register at AuthorNation.live.
In the interview, Mark and Orna talk about:
- That one time in London at a Kobo device launch event when Mark and Orna were hanging out together
- Orna's background as a writer, a poet, and a freelance journalist
- Her experience in both self-publishing and traditional publishing
- The origin of wanting to create something to help support authors who were self-publishing, and the 2012 launch of ALLI (Alliance of Independent Authors) at London Book Fair
- The connection one of Orna's multi-book writing projects has to do with Irish poet W.B. Yeats
- Orna's experience with deciding to go "all in" with Substack
- One of the best things about Substack, which is how "everything" can be there (blog, socials, "patrons," serialization of a novel, poetry, self-development for creativists)
- How on Substack you can segment what goes out to different people
- Orna's recommendation for authors considering not doing it the way she did it, but instead picking a single lane and staying in it
- The main mistake Orna sees a lot of authors making on Substack
- How Substack is completely different than everyplace else on social media
- The difference between notes and posts on Substack
- The visibility of analytics of what's working, who is interacting with what, etc
- Advice Orna would give to writers related to "meaning and purpose" as well as understanding our value
- And more...
After the interview Mark reflects on the idea of simplicity in execution, creating things that are "unmistakeable human" and how Orna describes herself as a "Creative Catalyst."
Links of Interest:
- Orna Ross's Website
- Orna Ross on Substack
- Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%)
- Buy Mark a Coffee
- Patreon for Stark Reflections
- Mark's YouTube channel
- ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link)
- Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
- An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
- The Relaxed Author
- Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
- An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
- Wide for the Win
- Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
- The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard
- Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
- I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises
Orna Ross is an award-winning novelist, poet, creative catalyst, and founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors
The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0