Hi friends,
I’ve just finished reading a book by an author who values “likes” more than sales.
This is typical of the advice writers receive.
Be “likeable.”
Don’t promote your books or courses too much or you’ll get unsubscribes.
Be careful about what you say about agents or the publishing industry because they might “blacklist” you.
Well, fuck that.
No one’s got time for that B.S. in this community.
Who I am—in all my ranty and outspoken glory—is a strength, not a liability, and an agent, a publisher, or an editor who can’t see that is certainly not someone I want to work with.
Better they self select themselves out than I have to waste years of my life discovering this small mindedness. (Been there, done that.)
Same goes for readers.
The newsletters I send that get the most reader response also get the most unsubscribes.
The same book that got the most agent offers is also the one that got the most rejections.
The same aspects of my personality that turn many of my readers into raving fans are also the ones that get me the hate mail.
It would be a mistake to take either the love or the hate and make it mean something about me, to let it change who I am.
When I work with authors on platform, messaging is the first thing we talk about. Because if you’re not solid in who you are—or if you allow outside feedback to dictate what you say and how you say it— then you’re not going to appeal to anybody.
When it comes to audience building, you don’t want to be bland.
You want to be unique.
Do you know what makes you unique?
Start there.
Cheers,
Natasha