Optimize Newsletter Issue

Orchestrate foundation skills to transform outlines into full drafts or optimize rough drafts into high-performing newsletter issues. This is a thin orchestrator — it sequences skill invocations and manages the user review workflow, but delegates all content generation to foundation skills.

Core Principle: This is a thin orchestrator. Never write newsletter content manually. Always delegate to the appropriate foundation skill.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Transforming an outline into a full newsletter draft

• Optimizing or polishing an existing rough draft

• The user has newsletter content that needs quality improvement

• Converting notes or bullet points into a publication-ready issue

Do NOT use this skill when:

• Starting from a topic with no existing content (use substack:plan-issue instead)

• Creating visual assets for a newsletter (use visual-design:newsletter-visuals )

Prerequisites

MANDATORY: Existing content must be available. Either:

• A newsletter outline (bullet points, topic structure, notes), OR

• A rough draft that needs optimization

Newsletter Workflow

Execute all steps below in order.

Step 1: Assess the Input

Determine the input type and issue type:

• Outline: Bullet points, topic structure, or notes → full draft workflow

• Rough draft: Existing prose that needs optimization → audit and optimize workflow

Present the assessment to the user: input type, detected issue type, and the workflow that follows.

Step 2: Draft or Optimize Content

From outline:

• MANDATORY: Invoke writing:copywriting with content type "newsletter" to write the full draft.

• Pass the outline as source material

• The copywriting skill loads references/newsletter.md for section rules, issue types, and writing conventions

• The draft follows the Newsletter Arc: Hook → Context → Value → Close

From rough draft:

• MANDATORY: Invoke writing:copywriting with content type "newsletter" to audit and optimize each section.

• Pass the draft as source material with instruction to optimize

• The copywriting skill checks against section rules and body writing rules

• Present findings: what works, what needs improvement, and specific recommendations

• Rewrite/optimize sections that fall short

Step 3: Generate Subject Lines

• MANDATORY: Invoke content-strategy:title with content type "newsletter" to generate 3 subject line options.

• Pass the draft content as context

• The title skill loads references/newsletter-subject-lines.md for formulas and rules

• Each option includes preview text (subtitle)

• Document all options with star ratings and recommendation

Step 4: Generate Opening Hook

• MANDATORY: Invoke content-strategy:hook with content type "newsletter" to generate 2-3 hook options.

• Pass the selected subject line and draft content as context

• The hook skill loads references/newsletter-hooks.md for hook patterns

• Each hook must extend curiosity from the subject line (not repeat it)

• Document all options with rationale

Step 5: Present Options and Get User Selection

• Present subject line options with star ratings

• Present hook options with rationale

• Present the full draft (or optimized draft)

• Ask the user to select subject line + hook

CRITICAL: Present ALL options. Do not select on the user's behalf.

Step 6: Run Pre-Publish Checklist

• MANDATORY: Read references/pre-publish-checklist.md

• Run through every check against the final draft

• Flag any items that don't pass

• Present results to the user with specific fixes for any failures

Step 7: Finalize

• Assemble the final issue: selected subject line + preview text + selected hook + optimized body + close + P.S.

• Present the complete, publication-ready issue to the user

Output Structure

Present the final issue in this structure:

[Subject Line]

[Preview Text]

[Opening Hook]

[Body Content - sections with subheadings]

[Close]

P.S. [Secondary CTA or personal touch]

Execution Guidelines

NEVER generate content manually. Always delegate:

• writing:copywriting for all newsletter prose (drafting and optimization)

• content-strategy:title for subject line generation

• content-strategy:hook for opening hook generation

• writing:voice is invoked automatically by the copywriting skill

CRITICAL: Always present ALL options with star ratings and rationale.

Quality Checklist

• Input type assessed (outline vs. draft)

• writing:copywriting invoked for content generation/optimization

• content-strategy:title invoked for subject lines (3 options generated)

• content-strategy:hook invoked for opening hooks (2-3 options generated)

• All options presented with star ratings

• User selected subject line and hook

• Pre-publish checklist run (all items pass or flagged)

• Final issue assembled and presented

• No content generated manually by this orchestrator

Common Pitfalls

• Writing content manually: Generating newsletter prose instead of delegating to writing:copywriting .

• Single option: Presenting one subject line or hook instead of multiple options.

• Skipping the pre-publish checklist: The checklist catches issues the draft workflow misses.

• Fat orchestrator: Adding copywriting techniques, section rules, or formatting guidance here instead of keeping them in foundation skill references.