If you wondered about the reality of what it takes to find true success with your craft, I beg of you to listen to my interview with children’s book author Stacy McAnulty.
She published 6 books this year, and 6 books in 2016. The road to that success? Dramatically longer and more involved that even I had ever considered.
Her journey (and our interview) began with her saying “I gave myself permission” to write. This was more than 15 years ago, when she wrote her first book one-handed, without punctuation or capitalization, because she wrote while breastfeeding her first child using her other hand.
Our interview ends with these words:
“I am still rejected all the time. It never stops being a part of the job. Rejections expand. Now I get rejected from conferences, schools, and bookstore visits, [in addition to publishers.] There is a lot more rejection that “Woo-hoo!” moments. But you have to ask, and you have to try.”
The story in between that start and that ending is just astounding.
You can listen to the podcast by clicking ‘play’ below, or in the following places:
Do you struggle to keep up with consistently posting to your blog, email newsletter, or even a podcast? Let’s solve that once and for all, right now. I’m going to share the 10 simple steps that will create an easily manageable system for your blog.
This is what I have learned after helping people launch thousands of blogs, and in writing my own weekly blog for 12 years. This is my best advice.
Okay, let’s dig in…
Step #1: Have a Clear Focus
You want to be laser-focused on what you write about, and who you write for. Create a mission statement for the blog, identifying exactly what you are focused on and why.
Be clear about who this blog is for. Have a picture in your mind of the exact person who will read this. Don’t write for “an audience,” write for one person.
Step #2: Mindmap the Themes
Now that you have a clear mission and sense of who this blog is for, create a mindmap of the basic themes. You can do this on paper, or via software such as Freemind.
Create a circle in the middle and write your mission. Then create a line extending out and write one primary theme of it you will dig into. Draw a circle around that. For that specific theme, create sub-topics around it.
Step #3 Create an Editorial Calendar
Create a basic schedule to adhere to. Get out a paper calendar or use software such as Excel to create a basic editorial calendar. Plan to post to your blog at least once per week, if possible.
Take each of the themes from the mindmap, and begin to place each general theme on a given day or week. Plan 6-12 weeks out. You do not have to stick to a rigid schedule such as this, but I find that it is a useful organization tool, and prevents bloggers from feeling that they are starting from scratch each week.
Step #4: Consider Different Types of Posts You Can Create
Consider how each theme you write about can take a different form. Would your mission and the person you are writing for benefit from a long story, or a short how-to post? Would they prefer a video? Would a quote be useful? Do they need links and research? Would a drawing be most engaging to them?
Don’t feel trapped by “best practices” you read about the blog content that works best based on “industry trends.” Instead, focus intensely how your themes and mission can best connect with an actual person.
On your calendar, you can color-code these different content types. Blue can be a poem, red a short how-to post, yellow a long essay, green a diagram, etc.
Step #5: Capture Ideas
Your mission and themes will be a general guide, but I encourage you to have a place to capture ideas for specific blog posts. If you prefer paper, buy a small notebook that will fit in your pocket and an equally small pen. Jot down ideas as you have them.
If you prefer digital, download Evernote on your phone and computer so that you can capture ideas when you have them, or even just save a photo of something that inspires an idea.
Step #6: Process Your Ideas
Process those ideas weekly. Review your notes, and begin to outline how they would fit into specific blog posts.
Use a writing tool such as Scrivener where you can outline multiple blog posts in one place, or create a folder on Dropbox (so you can access them anywhere) where you can keep these ideas organized.
As ideas slowly turn into potential blog posts, brainstorm potential headlines early. Create an outline of what a final blog post may look like. This can consist of a few key phrases that gives the post a narrative arc. Consider how this post could delight the person you are writing it for.
If you have a file of outlines such as this, you never have to worry about writers block. When you sit down to write, you can choose the outline that is most interesting to you. This gives you a massive head start. You are FINISHING, not STARTING.
Step #7: Create a Writing Routine
Writing isn’t easy, and it can be an emotional process. Prepare for that by creating a routine that includes some of these steps:
Ideation
Outlining
Writing
Re-writing
Editing
Creating final headline
Formatting
Final proofing
You can even include these steps on an editorial calendar. Perhaps you want to focus on one post per week, and align each of these actions to a specific day. Or maybe you want to batch posts… outlining several at once, or writing several at once. Then processing them the next week through editing and formatting. It’s up to you.
Step #8: Find Collaborators
Consider if you need an accountability partner to keep you motivated. Or if you have a friend who will proofread posts. Or if you want to hire an illustrator on Fiverr.com to create diagrams for each post.
I have those things. I bounce ideas off of the people in my mastermind group every single day. I have hired someone to keep me accountable to certain aspects of my social media calendar. I have a friend I chat with once per week to talk about big picture plans, and keep me focused on item #1 above: the mission and who I write for.
I strongly encourage you to involve others in this process.
Step #9: Obsess About Engagement
Writing a blog is about sharing a message with someone. To do that most effectively, become more and more curious about who these people are, and what engages them. I wrote a whole book about audience research, and I suppose the short version is: care about those you hope to reach.
Give yourself a few months to experiment. Concern yourself with crafting the best blog posts you possibly can, and on meaningfully connecting it with others in a way that is welcome to them, not spammy.
Step #10: Celebrate
Throughout this process, you may feel uncertain. You may seek immediate validation of the work you post, and it may be difficult to receive that very quickly. You may hope for a lot of social media shares or page views, and you may be disappointed.
Keep going.
Celebrate what you do create each week. How your mission has become clearer. How you identified more ideas that inspire you. How you wrote more posts. How you connected with at least one person.
Because if you can make one person’s day better, you have changed their world.
This past week a writer shared with me a familiar challenge:
“Publishers and agents expect authors to have a strong social media presence. I’ve taken seminars and workshops about social media. I feel like I understand how to do it, but I just don’t enjoy it.”
Today I would like to explain why I feel that if you are an author or artist, you DO NOT need social media in order to have “a platform.” Plus: I’ll tell you exactly what will make agents and publishers happy, even if you never touch social media.
First, Write a Good Book
Okay, the first thing that agents and publishers want is for you to write a good book. So, start with craft. Write a book that an agent or publisher will fall in love with, or one that fits a need in the marketplace that is obvious.
For Platform, This What Agents and Publishers Really Want
When an agent or publisher says, “We want to see that you have a strong social media presence,” they could actually care less about social media. What they are saying is this:
“Hi. We like your book. But you see, it’s really difficult for us to ensure this book will reach an audience, garner enough sales, and not be a huge waste of our time and money. So what would be great is if you could help us out. Since you are the author, you know this work way better than we ever could. It would be wonderful if you could forge a connection with the folks most likely to want this book. Those most likely to seek it out. To buy it. To leave reviews for it. To tell a friend about it. To create conversations about it. To create buzz around it. Because we can try. We have wonderful sales people, distributors, publicists, editors, marketers and so much else. But these people are busy. We are publishing 10 other books this season. They will do their best to ensure each book is brought to market as best as possible. But with hundreds of books being published into the market this month by various publishers, plus the thousands others being self-published, we just can’t guarantee success. So what would be great is if you could PROVE TO US that you have a clear sense of who the target market is, and show a clear ability to actually get them to take action. Thanks.”
Again, all of this is packed into the shorthand “We want to see that you have a social media presence.” In summary, agents and publishers want you to:
Write a great book.
Have a sense of who may love it.
Have some way to reach them.
Have clear ways to try to get those people excited about the book, so much so that they take an action: buy it, review it, post a review, tell a friend.
Social media is not the only way for you to reach your audience or encourage book sales or word of mouth marketing. There are many other ways to do this, including plenty that are way more effective than social media.
How to Establish a Non-Social Media Platform
The idea of “platform” has nothing to do with social media. It is about two things:
Communication
Trust
If you have that with a group of people who may like your book, then you have a platform. Social media is not a requirement in this equation. Now, here is the kicker, the part that trips many people up:
Platform does not require social media, but it does require you to be social.
That can bring up all kinds of anxiety in each of us. I wrote about this in my book, Be the Gateway:
“That sounds scary, right? The idea that you have to seek out your audience, one person at a time, and engage with them. Think of it as being back in high school — the same social fears we had back then still exist within us today. Maybe you remember that feeling of walking into the lunch room on the first day of school. You are holding a tray of fish sticks, and as you look out across the lunch room for a seat, you don’t see any familiar faces. You panic, not knowing where to sit. If you sit in the wrong place, you could be rejected by others, or perhaps you will sit with the “wrong crowd” and forever be linked with them. Or worse, you sit alone, looking as though you have no friends as you dissect the fish sticks.”
“When it comes time to share our creative work, the high school fears rise up within us. It can feel like that first day all over again, where all of the security of friendships, sense of place, social standing, and validation are wiped away. We feel vulnerable because we are sharing something we care about with the world, and others can reject us. It is as if you walked into the lunch room, except instead of holding a tray of food, you are holding your creative work. As you look around the room, you are hoping for signs of someone noticing you and waving you over to their table — to be welcomed into a community of people who will appreciate what you have created.”
So, what are other ways to develop a platform for your book or art, without relying on creating a big social media following? What could you say to an agent or publisher that would get them excited about your platform, even with zero social media followers? Some ideas:
“I do nothing on social media, but I speak at 40 events per year that will reach 8,000 members of the target audience for this book. These people have access to a wider audience of about 40,000 people, nearly all of whom represent the target market for this book. I will be out there, on the road, hustling for this book, speaking to ideal readers, all year long.”
“I don’t do social media, but I have close connections to these 10 people who do. Each of them have already read drafts of the book, and told me they will help me out. In total, their social media reach is about 400,000 people, and all of them have a following who would love this book. Let me take you through the specifics of what each of these 10 people will do to feature my book when it launches…”
“I don’t do social media, but I run a podcast that has 1,000 downloads a day. Over the past four years, I have shared more than 400 episodes, almost all of which focus on the topics from my book. In that process, I have established connections with about 120 people who are experts in this topic and who have strong credibility with my ideal audience. I’ll be reaching out to each of them with the following ideas…”
“I don’t do social media, but I volunteer for an event that caters to the exact readers for this book. In addition to those I reach directly with my work, I have a strong network of 400 other people who also reach the exact people who would love this book. I have constructed a campaign to work with them to help ensure this book gains traction. Let me tell you more about it…”
“I don’t do social media, but I own this amazing RV. I painted the side of it with the key message in my book, and have scheduled 100 stops across the country to meet with small groups of my ideal audience. I have called ahead to small organizations, bookstores, and events. I have created a marketing campaign that ties all of this together, and there is a charitable aspect to the work as well. In each stop, we will help highlight a cause that is central to the book’s theme. This has helped us get a lot of nonprofits involved too.”
“I don’t do social media, but I have already setup 20 interviews with people who my ideal audience really respects. These will be published as essays, and I have convinced a conference to share it with their attendees as a digital gift. In addition, half of these people agreed to share the interview with their network, and in total, that equals a reach of 8,000 people who love this topic.”
Now, some these examples are a little bit extreme. But they illustrate the gumption required to prove to people that you will adequately reach the ideal audience for the book. If you have concerns that agents or publishers are turning you down because you “don’t have a social media following,” then simply find another way to prove to them that you can reach the ideal audience for your book and encourage those people to buy it, review it, and talk about it.
In each of these examples, you find that communication and trust are key. That being social in some capacity, is required.
Why You Will Still Pursue Social Media as a Core Part of Your Platform
I’m sure that many of you are thrilled to learn that you do not need to use social media in order to establish a platform for your career as a writer.
But I want to be real with you, and give you an example of why you will likely continue to pursue social media anyway. I saw Jon Acuff share this recently:
Seeing this, a couple things came to mind:
What Candace, or more likely her publicist, did is within all of our reach: Physically create a fun package with our book, and mail it to someone we admire, who also happens to have a large social media following. Jon’s audience is likely filled with people who would resonate with Candace. The sticking point here? It costs quite a bit of money to create and mail that package. Those gloves costs $30, the copy of the book probably cost $3 to print, and shipping was probably $8. I’ll bet she printed up stationary, so all in we are talking about $50 to reach Jon Acuff with this package.
Now, are you more likely to spend $50 per person to attempt to reach someone influential? Or will you just send a Tweet, which is free?
Because these offline channels can become expensive in terms of not just money, but time and commitment. You can engage in social media while waiting in the pick up line at your kids school, but showing up to an in person event three towns away requires at least a two-hour commitment.
The image above is also a reminder of something: we all wouldn’t mind hitting the lottery. To find success as a writer or artist requires a lot of work. If you stick with it for ten years, and work really hard, you will likely find some level of success.
But wouldn’t it be nice to simply post a single video to the internet and suddenly find the validation and audience you always dreamed of? Just as Candace did:
Social media is difficult because the process of communication and trust is not easy to forge. It requires patience, caring, attention, and giving.
My point is this: there are many ways to forge those kinds of connections with other people. Many ways to establish a platform for your life as a writer or artist.
I want you to imagine something. That you take the unique creative vision that is inside of you, and you pursue it. You obsessively go “all in” with it.
You stop following the advice of the gurus out there, and you double down on honing your craft and sharing it with others.
After awhile, people notice. In a big way. Then, in a couple short years, you are so successful that you are earning tens of millions of dollars a year because of what you create.
That is what happened to a hero of mine, and he and I had the chance to chat for an hour this week. When I asked him about the journey from playing his guitar in an alcove in college, to earning all that money, this was his description of what happened:
“If you begin something that is inspired entirely by heart. You are not chasing something that is indicated in the current market to be viable. Because of the love of it, you are willing to do something whether it has economic potential or not. That it is something you love. In so doing, you end up being a unique thing, that happens to hit the world between the eyes.”
Can you imagine this? Not following trends, not constantly checking social media, not worrying about gaining followers, but instead: following your heart. Focusing on your craft. Becoming MORE LIKE YOURSELF, and less like others.
The person I spoke with is Will Ackerman. You likely haven’t heard of him, but he looms large in my life. This is why:
He is a guitarist who has recorded GORGEOUS music. I’ve spent hundreds of hours listening to his albums. Have a listen.
He founded a music label, Windham Hill Records that released dozens and dozens of albums of beautiful music, often instrumentals.
He pretty much discovered George Winston, the A-MAZ-ING pianist. And Michael Hedges. And so many others. I mean, without Will, the world would truly have missed out on some of the most beautiful music ever recorded.
That is the “what” of Will Ackerman. But the “how” is what fascinates me. How on earth did he do this? In my hour-long interview with Will, I was kind of blown away by his message. Will took me through each step of his career with incredible honesty. What he shared is so instructive for any writer or artist who hope to share their work with the world.
Will also opened up about something very important: coping with depression, and how he found his way through it. For Will, who had spent a decade helming a label which was earning tens of millions of dollars a year, his solution was simple: remember who you are. He sold the label, bought about 1,000 acres of wilderness in Vermont, and went back to his first love: building. He said to me, “I easily spend 20x more time with a chainsaw in my hand, than I do with a guitar.”
Today, he produces about 15-20 albums for others in his studio, and he recently played Carnegie Hall with a new group he formed called Flow.
I hung up this quote on the wall of my studio this week:
So many writers and artists I speak to are crushed by the weight of all the things they are told they “must do” in order to succeed. They are drowning in information. There is a constant barrage of webinars, courses, Facebook ads, and free downloads that become a source of feeling inadequate and overwhelmed.
For instance, just this week, I received email offers with subject lines that read:
“72 Hour Bundle Sale…”
“4 Hours Left…”
The first offered 9 different courses for a total of $97. Each course has multiple modules, resources, etc.
The second had, I kid you not, 75 digital downloads from 75 unique people. This too was priced at $97.
If you are like me, you can feel two sides screaming at each other in your brain:
SIDE 1: “OMG, WHAT A DEAL!!! WHERE IS THE LINK TO BUY THIS?!”
SIDE 2: “Um, 9 entire courses? 75 ebooks? How is this mishmash going to help me truly make progress. I’m going to drown in information, alone.”
In other words: these offers are too compelling to pass up, yet too overwhelming to truly take advantage of. So what does work? A writer asked me the other day, “Dan, if you had a book coming out a year from now, where would you focus your efforts? It would be growing a newsletter list, right?”
My answer: “Nope.”
If you want to develop an audience for your work, I suggest you do this: FOCUS ON CONNECTION WITH REAL PEOPLE, NOT CREATING “CONTENT” OR “FOLLOWERS.”
I say this because when you launch your book, when you do a reading, when you release your art, when you want to get hired, I want you to truly reach people who love your work. I have simply seen too many people pursue hacks to grow their email list, their follower count on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or come up with a clever giveaway, only to have it translate to a MEAGER bump in actual sales. In other words: these writers hoped that big numbers of followers would lead to real fans and real sales, but they didn’t.
The problem? They went “a mile wide and an inch deep.” In other words: they had broad reach, but not real depth of connection with those people.
Let me give you an example: let’s say you are a writer with a book coming out in 6 months. You have heard that growing your email list is critical. So you decide to give away a free iPad, and to enter, people have to sign up for your email list. Quickly, you jump from a list of 100 real fans to a list of 1,000 people, 900 of whom signed up because of the giveaway. You feel great. A friend of yours who works in marketing tells you that the “acquisition cost is 50 cents per lead, which is way better than industry average.” You feel smart and professional, like you finally cracked this this whole marketing thing. You begin doing math… if you give away one iPad a month for a year… how many subscribers you will have. Then you start making assumptions: if 10% of that list buys my book, and most of them leave reviews on Amazon…
But a week later, you send out a newsletter, and your open rates tank. Your unsubscribes shoot up. You get 5 people responding to you that you have to stop spamming them.
Suddenly, you don’t feel so good.
Now, I help lots of clients and people in my masterminds to run giveaways that work, to grow their email subscribers and grow their followers. I’m not “against” these things. But if we go back to the question above: what would I do if I had a book coming out in a year, I want to dig into that more. I would focus on two aspects of connection:
#1 Develop meaningful connections with your core readers
I would rather have a deep connection to 60 people, than a shallow connection to 600. I think that leads to a better outcome for a book. Having 60 people who love your work means they may actually buy it, may actually leave a review for it on Amazon, may actually tell their friends, may actually show up to a book reading.
Part of you may be saying, “60 people Dan? That is pathetic. How can I make a living as a writer with 60 fans? I’m about to go onto a webinar from someone who is promising me 1,000 new subscribers to my email list this week.”
But I would ask you to think about it this way: how would you feel if 60 people showed up to your book reading? Here is a book reading author Jon Acuff recently did with about 90 people:
What if 60 people emailed you a heart-felt note of congratulations when your book was released?
What if 60 people each told 3 other people about your book?
What if 60 people each bought 10 copies of your book?
What if 60 people were staunch untiring advocates for your work?
This is why my first recommendation to prepare for your book launch is to focus on deep meaningful connections with those who would deeply align with your work. Too many books die in silence. I don’t want that to happen to your work.
#2 Develop connections to those who reach your ideal audience
If you don’t have colleagues, do you really have a career as a professional? Whenever I talk to a creative professional and they can’t tell me about other authors who write in the same topic or genre, I worry. If they can’t tell me who their ideal audience loves, I worry.
Why? Because you can’t succeed alone. You need colleagues. You need relationships with those who reach your audience. Not transactional relationships where you are using them to sell something. But true professional relationships as two people who care about the same things.
This is what I find with nearly every creative professional I interview in my podcast. Professionals rely on these relationships. Yet when I talk to someone who is just starting out and suggest it, they may guffaw at me. “Who has time for that, Dan? My art speaks for itself.”
Get clear about who your ideal audience is. Talk to them. Find out what events they go to. Who else’s creative work (art, music, books) they love. Identify what podcasts they love, blogs they read.
All of these — these connections — should be a journey of discovery. I recently interviewed musician Will Ackerman (podcast coming soon!) When Will plays, his eyes are closed, and he is lost in the music:
“I think that at my best in performance, I am recreating the time of writing. I’m feeling that same sense of discovery. I feel I’m exploring things in terms of dynamics to a degree and subtlety that I had never even known existed before. That always helps me get back to the wondrous time of discovery.”
Why do I encourage you to focus on forging meaningful connections, not amping up hollow email list and social media numbers? Because your creative work is a process of discovery, and the path to connecting it to others should feel as deeply meaningful as well. It is a process of discovery to connect your work to the hearts and minds of others.
These are the things I explore every single day with the small group of people I work with in my mastermind. It is the work I explore for my own writing at 5:30am each day.
This is a collaborative process of improving one’s craft, and improving how it truly connects to people in the world. This is about people, not “content.”
If you are curious about more details on how to do the things I mention above, please check out my book Be the Gateway. That is where I walk you through the process step by step.
If you wondered about the reality of what it takes to find true success with your craft, I beg of you to listen to my interview with children’s book author Stacy McAnulty.
