Hi friends,
My memoir proposal is off to my agent and she’s promised to read quickly so we can map out next steps. I find myself book-less for the first time in many months. There is no short-term payoff to finishing another book so I’m wondering if I might like to do something else instead.
I’ve been thinking about platform.
I don’t particularly like thinking about platform (does anyone?) but I’m interested in having a long term career in this industry, and so I am. I spoke to my agent about this a few weeks ago and the consensus was: You have a good platform. Keep working on it.
The trouble I get into (like so many other writers) is that I don’t want to or intend to write about one subject only. If you write books about health and wellness and that’s all you ever want to write about, platform is easy. You write all damn day about health and wellness and people will resonate with what you have to say. You have a subject. You write about that subject. You blog about that subject. You tweet and create Insta stories about that subject. Everyone knows that this is your subject and when people follow you, they’re following you because of your expertise in that subject.
This is not true for me. The three novels I’ve written so far are vastly different from one another, in terms of style and subject. Then we add in the nonfiction. A memoir I’m co-authoring on a woman’s life journey, a book of essays, a narrative nonfiction title on a specific immigration issue. My books for writers.
How the heck do I build an audience for this?
So far, I haven’t. I talk about writing because it’s something I absolutely love to do, teach, and talk about all day long. It is the only subject I can talk about consistently for years on end, because it is the only subject that is consistent in my life for years on end. The subjects of my books will change, but the fact of writing doesn’t. The learning about freelancing and publishing doesn’t. The sharing the behind-the-scenes, which so few writers feel comfortable doing, doesn’t.
But I’m aware that while this helps grow my business, it doesn’t necessarily sell books.
Maybe I need to build a personal brand. (I’ve become increasingly disinterested in arguing about politics, sharing my personal opinions on everything, or displaying my personal life on social media, and given that these are the best ways to build an audience and get engagement, this presents additional challenges. )
Maybe I just continue doing my work with writers, and find other ways to prove platform to publishers.
Maybe I need to do more freelancing.
Maybe I need to just build what I can right now for this book, and then be ready to pivot later.
Maybe I need to get more creative in thinking about this.
Maybe I need to stop thinking about this.
I’m talking about it today because in my conversations with writers, the way to approach platform is the thing that trips up most of us. We’d build it if we knew what exactly we were building, but for authors who are interested in more than one subject area, we get stuck on that first hurdle: What would anyone follow me for?
When you have an answer to that question, the building of the audience is easy.
When you don’t, it’s confusing as hell.
My goal, before I start writing my next book proposal, is to figure out where in my publishing puzzle this piece belongs.
And here’s where I’ve currently landed for my own work: This newsletter, a mix of my own personal updates, behind the scenes of my own writing life, plus business strategies for other writers, is the thing I will most focus on for platform.
That’s the common piece for all my books, the ability to say I have this many thousand people subscribed to my newsletter. In addition to that, for each individual book, I’ll do some creative thinking (I have some ideas) for how to tap into potential audiences for that particular title as part of my platform.
For this month, however, I’ve decided to put my focus on building this newsletter.
I’ve been thinking about a strategy I used a few years ago to get 4,000+ subscribers in ten days, and how I can tweak it for my current focus so I can replicate the results.
As always, I really enjoy doing these things with people, and you know I can’t stop myself from sharing both my successes and failures, so if this is something you’re interested in, stay tuned because I’ll be talking a lot more about platform in the coming weeks and months.
In the meantime, here’s a simple thing to remember:
This isn’t just about having a book platform.
Whether you’re a freelancer, or an author, or a creative business owner, having an audience who enjoys what you do and will read, buy, or engage with your work, gives you the means with which to not only monetize that work, but the means to create it.
I don’t have to tell you why having an audience is important, no matter what you do.
My next focus is showing you how to build it.
I’ll see you again tomorrow.
Cheers,
Natasha