Dan Blank, Author at WeGrowMedia - Dan Blank

The Dirty Secret of Author Platform (Hint: It’s Difficult)

My friend Jane Friedman shared a blog post encouraging newer fiction writers to forgo the idea of developing an author platform, in favor of focusing exclusively on the craft of writing.

One writer immediately responded by saying “hallelujah!” So today I want to talk about three things:

Why Jane is right. But why she may be misinterpreted.
Why writers are scared of the idea of author platform.
Why a platform is critical to your success.

Okay, let’s dig in…

Why Jane is right about author platform, but why she may be misinterpreted.
Jane is not saying author platform is unimportant, but rather, she is saying that the conversation around it needs to be elevated. This is a topic for serious authors who are ready to make a commitment to their writing career and establishing connections with readers. For those who are struggling to even find the time and focus to even write, it may be premature to fill up their days Tweeting and blogging.

I feel that Jane may be misinterpreted because authors are frustrated with all that is on their plate. If you only care about the sound byte of “author platform is dead,” then you are only doing yourself a disservice as a writer. You, as a writer, are not off the hook for understanding and developing your audience.

What I find again and again is that many writers are unable to tell an agent, a publisher, or even a friend the following:

What their comps are – what other books published in the past five years are like theirs.
What genre or topic the book would be categorized on a bookshelf at a store, or on Amazon.
Anything about readers beyond vague demographics. Instead of describing what their ideal audience already reads, and why, they opt for broad descriptions of who they hope their audience is. EG: “women between the ages of 13 and 65.” If you think your audience is potentially everyone, then you will not be able to take meaningful steps to actually reach anyone.

Even these three basic elements of describing one’s book stump many writers. And they are inherently tied to author platform – to helping others understand how your book fits into the world.

Why many writers resist the idea of author platform.
Let’s face it: writers are busy. They are likely juggling:

Their writing time
A day job
A family
Managing a home
Hobbies
Other responsibilities to their friends, community and personal life
The publishing process

Also, there is an emotional component to writing that Joanna Penn recently discussed on her blog: On Writing And The Fear Of Judgment.

So when the topic of author platform comes up, this is often the straw that broke the camel’s back (sorry for making the writer a camel in this metaphor.) And I have a great deal of empathy for that. My days are spent working with writers, and have have helped hundreds of writers find their audience. I live in the trenches with them, and don’t glamorize what it means to be a writer.

Because they are overwhelmed, many writers simplify the concept of author platform to mean surface level tactics such as Tweeting, or Pinning or spamming people on email.

This is an incorrect view of what author platform really is.

Oftentimes, writers put off developing a platform until it is too late to matter for their book. They mistakenly assume that a publisher can magically create a platform for them, or that the author themselves can craft a meaningful platform with readers in the narrow window of thee-months before their book is published.

But developing an author platform takes time. Here’s why…

Why a platform is critical to your success as a writer.
Whenever an author talks about their success, invariably, they talk about the many people who helped to create the book and ensure it found it’s way into readers’ hands.

When I define author platform, these are the two words I use to describe it:

Communication
Trust

That as a writer, your author platform is about learning how to best communicate the value of your book, and developing trusting relationships with those who will care about it.

In other words: it is about deep foundational things, not about flippant surface level tactics of promotion.

Jane told me this quote years ago, and to me, underscores the value of developing an author platform:

“The most disappointed writers I know are not unpublished writers, but those who have been published.”

The implication is that upon publication, no one bought their book, and no one cared about their book. They published into a vacuum of their own creation. They didn’t develop the communication channels or trusting relationships that they needed to ensure their book found readers.

No one is more motivated to communicate the value of your book more than you, the author. Why should you consider building an author platform now? Because it takes time to develop meaningful relationships and trust with others.

Should this only be pursued by serious writers? Yes, because this is hard work. Establishing an author platform is about ensuring your book is not just “published,” but finds readers and has an impact in their lives. It is about thinking about a book beyond just an object whose effect is measured by a publication date or a point of sale. That the book is something that lives in the hearts and minds of readers long after it is read.

This is what an author platform delivers.

Why do I feel this way? Because I spend my days working with writers to develop author platforms that truly built an audience for their books. One of the ways I do this is via a course I teach on the topic called “Build Your Author Platform,” where we demystify what an author platform really is. What I find again and again is that writers make breakthrough’s in areas that they have long resisted: understanding who their ideal readers really are, and how you can develop trusting relationships with them.

This type of work is not easy. But it does creates something that many writers dream about: not just having a book with their name on it, but a true connection to readers whose lives you have shaped.

Thank you to Jane for sparking these ideas, and for talking about author platform with the seriousness that it deserves!
-Dan

How to Build the Relationships You Need to Become a Successful Author

To become a successful author, yes, you have to write an incredible book, one that speaks to the hearts and minds of your readers.

But there’s more.

Whenever you speak to a successful author, they will invariably talk about the people who helped make their success possible. It could be their editor, agent, or publicist; other writers and peers who helped provide guidance or make introductions; bookstore owners, librarians, and reviewers who spread the word; or the readers themselves who didn’t just buy the book, but connected with the author, each other, and helped turn the book into a conversation.

So when I work with writers, I focus on not just developing strategies and tactics to ensure they find readers for their books, but also develop relationships with some of the most amazing people I know in publishing.

On March 27th, I launch the next session of my 6-week online course: BUILD YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM. Built into the heart of the course is access to those with deep experience ensuring books get published and find raving fans. These are literary agents, publicists, authors, publishers, and those who have decades of experience ensuring books get read.

Here are the incredible bookish folks who have agreed to speak in the course:

Joanna Penn is a author, blogger, speaker and entrepreneur who helps writers learn how to best publish and sell their books. She knows the trends, and knows what works by speaking with hundreds of successful authors, and by publishing her own series of thrillers. She blogs at TheCreativePenn.com and you can find her on Twitter at @TheCreativePenn.

Jason Ashlock is the President of Movable Type Management. He manages more than 100 authors across categories, aiming to tell stories across platforms, devices, territories, and generations. You can find him on Twitter at @JasonAshlock.

Justine Musk is a writer of three traditionally published novels, who is currently working on an edgy psychological thriller called THE DECADENTS. She blogs about how to live a creative life at JustineMusk.com. You can find her on Twitter at @JustineMusk.

Joel Friedlander helps writers navigate the publishing process. He has an extensive experience in book design, and knows the ins and outs of how to take a book from a manuscript to a powerful connection between author and reader. You can find him at TheBookDesigner.com and on Twitter at @JFbookman.

Kathleen Schmidt owns the public relations firm KMSPR, and has worked in publicity roles at Simon and Schuster and Penguin. She spends every day working with writers to ensure people hear about their books. You can find her on Twitter at @bookgirl96.

Richard Nash Richard Nash is an independent publishing entrepreneur – VP of Community and Content of Small Demons, founder of Cursor, and Publisher of Red Lemonade. For most of the past decade, he ran the iconic indie Soft Skull Press for which work he was awarded the Association of American Publishers’ Miriam Bass Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing in 2005. You can find him on Twitter at @r_nash.

There is no doubt that I look at this list and feel a profound sense of gratefulness that not only do I have the pleasure of knowing these people, but that they are so generous.

If you are a writer looking to grow an audience of readers, and to connect your book with the world, consider signing up for my 6-week online course BUILD YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM. Everything gets started on March 27th.

You will be able to submit questions to ask to each of these guest experts listed above, plus you get:

6 career-shifting lessons that take you step by step through the process of how to develop your author platform.
Personalized feedback via weekly homework assignments, where I directly address your challenges and opportunities with advice to ensure you are on the right track.
The ability to ask questions 24/7 via our private online forum. Here, you can discuss key topics in developing your platform with myself and other students in the course.
6 Exclusive Insider Calls, where I get on the phone with the entire class and you can ask anything. Here you have a chance to brainstorm ideas; dig into specific challenges you are trying to move past; and build close relationships with myself and the other writers in the course. All Exclusive Insider Calls are recorded, so if you miss a call, you always have access to the recording.

To find out more, you can read the full course description here.

So many writers I speak to keep putting off connecting to those who have the power to not only get their books published, but ensure they find their way into readers’ hands. But true relationships take time to develop. Start building them now.

Thank you.
-Dan

What The Lincoln Memorial Taught Me About Success As A Writer

This week I visited the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and was blown away by how powerful of an experience it was. Today, I want to explore what I took away from it, and how I feel it applies to your journey as a writer.

Lincoln Memorial

Image by Florian Hirzinger

WHAT A WRITER ENABLES IN OTHERS
The Lincoln Memorial requires you to take a long walk to get to it. There is no easy access via subway and you can’t park close to it. When you arrive, there are not touchscreens or interactive elements, just marble and stone.

So here I am staring at a larger than life sculpture of one man whose actions had profound effects on millions to this very day. But I couldn’t help but consider the community around him that made his actions possible. That without so many others, there would likely be no monument.

For each of us, other people make our own achievements possible, either directly or indirectly, either within our time or before it. Sometimes these are positive actions from those we know well, such as a friend who reaches out to a bookstore to get you a book signing there. But oftentimes, it can be what seems like a negative action from those we barely know: the job that lays you off, setting into motion your reinvention from an accountant to a writer.

For those who have been through the publishing process, they understand that success as a writer is not about the greatness of one person. It is often built on the shoulders of others, a group project where the writer is works with many others: publishers, agents, editors, spouses, friends, and of course: readers.

#1 New York Times Bestselling author John Green has talked about this in a video I saw recently, but can’t seem to find right now. He wrote out an entire list of other people who co-created his bestselling book The Fault in Our Stars. He was open that some of it was written or rewritten or edited or contributed to by his wife, his editor, his friends, and inspired by so many others. Then there are small things such as this:

The nice people at Penguin have made a web site just to help you make TFiOS your next book club pick. johngreenbookclub.com

— John Green (@realjohngreen) March 12, 2013

Likewise, the success of a book is not just about celebration of one person, but a world they have created and empowered. When I stand in the Lincoln Memorial, I am reflecting upon not the person of who Abraham Lincoln was, but the powerful effects of his life. What he now represents beyond just being a single person.

WORDS CREATE BEGINNINGS, NOT ENDINGS
Flanking the statue of Lincoln in two massive rooms are inscriptions of Lincoln’s most famous speeches, The Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address. Reading them, carved into stone, in a font that is half a foot tall, the power of these words is overwhelming.

Look at how tiny my son is compared to these words:

Lincoln Memorial

Too often, writers focus on the goal of publishing their book, and beyond that, book sales. They see the process of writing as one of endings: finishing a manuscript, getting the book published, making a sale.

Lincoln Memorial

But really, writing is about beginnings. About the power of words, and what it starts in others.

Our words are ways we extend our reach, the ways we funnel our experience and ideas and knowledge into something that can reach others in powerful ways. And also extend our voice far into the future.

And of course, there are obvious connections here: this very platform of the Lincoln Memorial became the place that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered other amazing words that reshaped a generation with his “I Have a Dream” speech.

The point of the stone monuments is to try to ensure these ideas last. And that is the the point of writing and sharing and publishing for many writers. To spread an idea, a story, or knowledge. To help ensure it lasts.

You likely aren’t working with a chisel and stone to create your words, but rather a pen or a keyboard. Perhaps your words will not reshape a nation, but they can very well reshape the potential in one person’s life. One word at a time, you are creating a connection within a reader. And who knows to what amazing things that can lead.

I try to keep this in mine for my own work, and in the courses I teach for writers such as Build Your Author Platform, or my new ebook: A Writer’s Guide to Blogging. The goal is to help ensure writers focus not just getting their work published, but that it has an impact on people’s lives.

Standing in the Lincoln Memorial, I am reminded that what we create today has the potential to outlive us by generations. And while I won’t pretend that my work has even the tiniest resonance of what Abraham Lincoln has achieved, it won’t diminish my willingness to try anyway.
-Dan

How Do We Open The Door For Success As Writers? By Shipping.

Successful writers often share the same advice to others as to how to find success:

Read a lot.
Write a lot.

Each of these actions develops habits, builds experience, and provides more context for you – the writer – to pull from. Yes, success is ultimately defined on a qualitative basis, but quantity plays a part in that journey.

This year, I have set a goal for myself of publishing one ebook per month for at least the next six months. That means write, edit, format and publish an ebook every 30 days or so. I shared the first one, A Writer’s Guide to Blogging, a little over a week ago, and have had wonderful feedback on it so far. I am now well into writing the next book, and on track to release it before the end of March.

A 30 day creation & release schedule adds something else to that list of advice to writers I often hear:

Read a lot.
Write a lot.
Ship a lot.

“Ship” means to release something to the world. To publish. To make the leap from something being an idea in your head, or a file on your hard drive, to putting it in other people’s hands. It invite’s judgement, but also opens the door for success.

There are a lot of variations on this advice. Seth Godin is who I first heard “ship” from; Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hours of work you need to put in order to find achievement; and lots of writers say (I believe I remember Bob Mayer saying stuff like this): “butt in chair” as a means to encourage other writers to not wait for the muse, but to do the work necessary to finish a book.

I recently talked to someone who worked on a major political campaign, and their office motto for creating initiatives to reach voters was “F*** It, Ship It.” Meaning: if they obsess over every detail, they will never get anything into potential donors’ hands; they will never raise enough money to fund the campaign. (Note: they won the election.)

In other words: it’s good enough. It’s more important to put it out in the world, get over their fear, learn from the experience and, move on to creating then next thing. That your skills grow through the series of projects you create, not obsessing madly over just one for years and years.

For many who care about craft, there is a resistance to this type of thinking. I imagine many of you already thinking, “There is so much stuff out there (blog posts, Tweets, books, magazines, TV shows, etc), what the world does NOT need is people publishing more stuff that is anything less than amazing.”

I certainly understand this point of view because we both live in the same crowded world. My day is spent among piles of books, seemingly infinite social media feeds, and thousands of songs to listen to.

But…

In my life, I have found that when I shared something, I became better at my craft. When I created something and never released it, its value dissipated. Its potential was hidden by fear of shipping.

I used to manage a bookstore cafe in the 1990’s. The store was a thriving center for local poets, writers, artists, musicians and other creative folks. We were open from 11am – 11pm, and I one day proposed to the owner the idea of throwing midnight parties in the space once per week.

What was born was one of the most creatively charged seasons of my life. For three months, I held weekly midnight parties, each with an entirely different theme, decorations, menu and entertainment.

Every 7 days, I had to conceive a concept, build props, cook food, create and deliver 100 custom print invitations, and often craft some form of art in that week. For instance: one week I shot and produced an entire short film; another was a costume party; another had a band playing.

It was amazing to learn from this process, to go FROM IDEA TO EXPERIENCE in so many quick iterations. To judge the value of the idea not in a vacuum, but by sharing it, and seeing what it contributed to others’ lives.

There are plenty of things I have not shipped in my lifetime. I have hundreds of hours of music and songs I wrote and recorded that have never seen the light of day. Likewise with poems, short films, a series of pop up books I created, photos, ideas for large scale sculptures and many other artistic endeavors.

Yes, I became a better person for having worked on these projects. But I could have learned so much more if I chose to share them with others. If I shipped. But I didn’t.

For the books I am creating this year, I am excited about the monthly cycles of ideation, outlining, writing, layout, formatting, editing, and publishing. I will focus on core topics first, which I have written about and taught for years, and more slowly developing larger topics that require more research.

I have had the absolute privilege of spending most of my life around creative people: writers, artists, musicians, photographers, designers, and others. As I look back at middle age (I turn 40 today), and see which of these people still engage in their art and their craft, I often find that those who shipped are those who are still engaged in their creative work. The others who wouldn’t release their work for one excuse or another, only seem to look back fondly on their art and craft, instead of looking to the future at what else they can create. They never developed the habit and skill of shipping.

This is not to say that creativity is only for the young. Some of my biggest inspirations are those who began writing and creating when they were older – 40, 50, 60, 70 and beyond. As I consider what this year will mean for me, it is very much about shipping.

My days feel not only more creative, but unbelievably filled with amazing writers and other folks who are building things that are meaningful to them.

At 40, I have never felt more vibrant or alive.
Thank you for being here with me.

-Dan

New eBook: A Writer’s Guide to Blogging

I am so excited to announce a brand new resource to assist writers in connecting with readers, my new ebook: A Writer’s Guide to Blogging.

One of the most powerful ways to develop your platform as a writer is by blogging. After working with hundreds of writers to help them develop their blogs, I am now offering my best advice in an ebook that will jumpstart your blogging efforts, whether you are new to blogging, or trying to revitalize your existing blog.

In this ebook, I focus on helping you:

Craft a blog that attracts readers, not just other writers
Identify who your ideal audience is and how to craft content that engages them
Create a blog that showcases your voice and expertise

For a limited time, I am offering two bonuses if you purchase the ebook today:

Blog Planning Worksheets to help you create and manage your blog.
Blogging Basics video tutorial of my best advice from the ebook.

All of this is included in the price of the ebook: $29.99. To get the ebook and these bonuses, grab them today:

A Writer’s Guide to Blogging covers the topics that I have found to be most critical to authors today. Here is a look at the table of contents:

Blogging eBook TOC

This ebook, the bonus worksheets and video are guaranteed to supercharge your blog. If you aren’t completely satisfied within 30 days, I am offering a 100% money-back guarantee. There is literally no risk.

To get the ebook, plus the bonus worksheets and video, grab them here now for $29.99:

What you receive:

73 page A Writer’s Guide to Blogging ebook
Bonus: 18 page Blog Planning Worksheets
Bonus: 18 minute Blogging Basics video

ABOUT ME:
My name is Dan Blank, and I help writers build their platforms, and work with publishers to grow their online communities. I have worked with hundreds of writers to help them develop the skills they need to build and engage their audiences. I have taught courses for Writer’s Digest and Mediabistro, and spoken at many of the major publishing and writing conferences. For my full background, please check out my bio and LinkedIn profile.

Brands I have worked with:

Events I have spoken at: