Hiya! I’m Lucy from Hype Yourself. I’m rebuilding my archive after this happened. Join to receive A weekly email cheerleading the self-employed in work and life. Creative ways to promote your work. Alternative income for experts. Slightly above average living.

Woof. What a week and a half since my whole publication was wiped.

🏠 Small bit of housekeeping

I have managed to update a few of the most requested articles here:

How to write a press release (that doesn’t get ignored)
A little task to help you get personal
Borrow everything I know about your media toolkit
Get paid for your real life story & opinion at Metro
Get paid to contribute to Business Insider
Borrow my non-fiction book launch blueprint
Borrow everything I know about growing a newsletter

What actually happened?

The short version: I went to delete my podcast while tidying up my page and unknowingly deleted my whole publication. Here is how I unwittingly did that, so you never do!

Substack shared with me that after reviewing the data, I had deliberately deleted my publication in an area of the product marked Danger Zone.

I like to think of myself as fairly technically savvy, so I was a bit shocked at the lack of signage, which meant I sleepwalked my way into deleting all 13k subscribers and 180+ articles with two quick actions.

Although my user journey was unusual, I don’t think I should have been able to delete it in the manner that I did. I’ll leave it to you to decide.

1. Mistake one

My podcast name was my publication name. We’ll explain why that is an issue later, but you can probably see where this is going.

2. How to delete a podcast.

I’ve always found the settings page a bit tricky to navigate.

In my early days, a Substack educator told me that if I couldn’t find a section easily, I could just type it in the search toolbar in Settings. From that day forth, that was how I habitually navigated the backend.

So, I read this article on ‘How to delete your podcast from Substack’. (which has subsequently been updated)

I typed in ‘podcast’ into settings, saw a danger zone underneath the edit podcast function and hit delete. It asked for a publication name, which I typed in because, you guessed it mistake number one.

Did it ask me to disconnect my Stripe? No
Did it ask me to pause or cancel my paid subscriptions? No
Did it ask me to send out any communication to my paid subscribers? No

Since this incident, Substack has added an extra step before you can delete a paid publication. You must now disconnect your stripe.
They have also changed the wording in the danger zone to clarify which elements this includes.

3. The Danger Zone

I’ve seen the Danger Zone at the bottom of the settings page. I’ve never had a reason to go there. Just the name Danger Zone scares me.

It didn’t ever occur to me that if I typed in ‘podcast’ into the search bar, a danger zone for the entire publication would show up. Just me?

What happens next?

I'm not sure. The old publication and chat are still showing.

Anyone who bought a subscription as a gift has been deleted, so I’m still trying to identify them (if it's you—please do get in touch!).

I had over 220+ publications recommending me before, I’m now down two thirds less then that. If you have historically enjoyed my work, I would love it if you could recommend. 🙏🏼

Despite the incredible support from my readers, I’m still rebuilding and not yet back to my previous subscriber numbers or revenue.

On a more positive note, one of the overarching messages from my community is that it’s not my archive that is important; it’s me, my expertise, and my stories.

With that in mind, I’ve pulled a geographic and run away to Paris for the weekend for a creative reset.

I’ll share some of the best bits on that next week!

Looking onwards and upwards:

I will be hosting a ‘Ask Me Anything’ Q&A in my subscriber chat for paid readers on the Substack app for one hour next Tuesday 12:00-13:00 Central European Time, (11:00-12:00) British Summer Time.
I am collaborating with a few brands and be reporting from the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity next month. If anyone is there, let me know!
I’m announcing my first retreat, hosted here in France for a long weekend in September. Watch this space, as there are strictly limited places!

Again, thank you so much to everyone for the support. I can’t reiterate enough how your encouragement, emails, DMs, and restacks have helped keep me going through all this.

P.S. The transfer caused me to lose 30 paid subscribers. Now more than ever, if my work helps you, I could use the support and would love it if you would consider an upgrade.

Subscribe now