Author: Dan Blank

In the past few weeks, I’ve been observing the book launches of Jessica Lahey, Laila Tarraf, Jasmin Darznik, as well as others. Jessica published nonfiction, Laila memoir, and Jasmin a novel.

I happen to know each of those authors, but even if you don’t know an author, you can watch their book launch in real-time, just by following the author on social media. It’s a great way to reverse engineer some aspects of the launch process. But there is a side that the public doesn’t always get to see. When I speak to writers via phone, or interview them in my podcast, they often share what you don’t see on social media: all of the ideas and efforts that didn’t pan out.

When I observe how successful authors share, I find that they show up again and again for their ideal audience. They try new things, and through these thousands of tiny efforts, comes a career.

This, of course, doesn’t just apply to book launches. I recently saw this series of Instagram Stories from author and podcaster Emma Gannon:

Here she is encouraging people to sign up for a newsletter that is about to go out. Then the next day she shares the newsletter itself, and then a reminder to subscribe if you want to see future issues. Why do this? So many reasons:

• To communicate about what she is creating and sharing this week
• To encourage you to join others in her readership and not miss out
• To give you an opportunity to engage with her around her writing

I love the before/during/after of the three images above because they illustrate how the many opportunities we have to share our work.

Perhaps you look at authors I’ve mentioned here and think, “Sure Dan, but these people already have established audiences, that’s why they can do this. I’ll share like Emma does when I have an audience.”

But how do you think you get an audience?

You show up and find new ways to communicate about what you create and why. You experiment, you engage, you repeat as you learn what feels authentic to you, and what truly connects with readers. What I have found is that you have to learn these skills as early in your career as possible. For a writer, this means don’t wait until you are ready for a book launch, start years earlier if you can. What you want time to learn is:

• How to talk about what you create and why
• How to reach out to people you don’t know and ask them questions
• How to find sharable moments in your creative process
• How to not be shy about showing up even when you feel you have nothing to promote
• Through experimentation and repetition, learn what gets attention with your ideal readers.

What I find again and again is that in order to find success, even the smartest and most talented people have to keep trying again and again to hit upon the ideas that truly work. I want to share two examples of creators doing this outside of the writing world.

I follow a lot of guitarists YouTube, and one of them, Steve Onotera, shared video talking about his path to becoming a full-time guitarist on YouTube. He is an amazing player, and it may be easy to look at his incredible skill and think, “Well of course he is successful, he’s got so much talent and skill. He would succeed regardless.” But of course, the reality is always much more complex. He joined YouTube in 2014, now has more than 750,000 subscribers, and this platform is how he earns a living. Along the way, these are the music industry job ideas that he tried and “failed” at (that’s the word he used):

1. A session musician for live events. That didn’t offer sustainable opportunities or income.
2. Anything inside the music industry — he applied for jobs at music stores, record labels, and teaching guitar. The only job he could get turned out to be an unpaid internship. So he moved back home to live with parents.
3. Staff songwriting, with the goal of getting a publishing deal and writing music down in Nashville. He couldn’t get his foot in the door.
4. He started a music/sound production company with a friend of his. They didn’t earn a penny from this, and the company folded.
5. He tried becoming the co-leader of a mainstream country band with his friend, again with the goal of making a permanent move to Nashville. This too didn’t work out.

What did work? Well, as a part of trying to get attention for that band, he started a YouTube channel. It turns out those videos he created began to catch on. So this thing that was never the goal — YouTube — somehow because an enormous opportunity for him.

In my research, I come across versions of this again and again. This year I have been listening to a series of interviews with Leonard Nimoy. Whether or not you care about Star Trek, you likely know of Spock, the role that Nimoy played in the original 1960s TV series.

In watching hours of interviews and profiles on Nimoy, it was astounding to hear about his path to success.

He arrived to work as an actor in Hollywood in 1950. Yet he says, “Prior to Star Trek, I never had a job that lasted more than two weeks.” Star Trek went into production in 1965. That means for 15 years, all of his acting work offered him little security or sustainability in a specific show or role.

Yet, in those years, he was in more than 60 different movies and TV shows, usually in a small non-recurring role. To support his family, he worked many odd jobs outside of film, such as working in a pet store.

When he got the role on Star Trek, he said it was the first role he landed in 15 years where the name on the door of his dressing room wasn’t written in chalk — meaning it would be easily wiped away the next day to be replaced with the name of another actor.

When Nimoy was filming an early episode of Star Trek a childhood friend who was an actor came to visit him on set. After watching him film a scene, his friend pulled Nimoy aside and said, “No matter what you do, you have to get out of this as soon as you possibly can. This is a treadmill to oblivion.”

That kind of story always sticks with me. We don’t know what will work. This is exactly the reason that I encourage writers to share early and often, to learn what feel authentic to them, who their readers may be, and what engages them.

This is why we show up to create.

I work with writers everyday on book launches, platform building, and integrating creativity and sharing into their daily lives. If this work seems difficult to you, that is because it is. Because it asks you to stand up for who you are. For the vision of what you want to create. And to connect it with the lives of others.

That isn’t easy. But it is worthwhile.

Thanks!

-Dan

I have been helping writers develop their strategies to become guests on podcasts, which has proven to be a very effective way to sell books and grow their platforms. Today I want to talk about why this works, and how you can use the process yourself. Let’s dig in…

Why Podcasts?

Being a guest on some else’s podcast is a great way to make people aware of what you write, why you write it, and forge an authentic connection with your voice. These will often be interviews, where the host spends 20-60 minutes asking you questions and exploring topics together.

Podcasts have all of the ingredients that are necessary for what I call Human-Centered Marketing:

• Effectively communicating to those you hope to reach. This is not just a quick sales pitch, but a meaningful conversation with another person that listeners get to be a part of.
• Interviews, especially long-form interviews that podcasts specialize in, can cover a range of emotions, themes, and contexts. It gives you a greater chance to share, but also tap into something that will engage a reader. They are also good at building a sense of trust with your audience.
• Regardless of the size of the podcast audience, one of the best parts of the podcast experience is the connection you make with the host. This is someone who would likely have spent some time researching your writing or your story, and is coming to the conversation with inspiration and curiosity.

This can happen at any point in your writing career. The most obvious time writers consider this is during a book launch, but you can be a podcast outside of that timeframe, even years before (or after) the launch of a book. Why do this? Because it is not only essential work to understand and connect with your ideal audience, but it allows you to develop your voice and the professional relationships you will need along the way.

If you are wondering, “Isn’t selling my book the entire point?! Why else do this?” I would just say that selling books isn’t like selling inner tubes to someone with a flat tire, a transaction that happens quickly and neatly. Marketing is about growing awareness of your writing, of who you are, and having people connecting with these themes in deeper ways. It is about communication and trust.

If you held a book launch party, would you walk in and yell, “Everyone, buy my book. Okay, goodbye.” and leave? No, you would engage in conversations, share stories, read from the book, do a signing, answer questions, serve food and beverages. You would engage in a range of human emotions. Yes, you want to sell books. But you also want it to be an enjoyable experience where people can find their connection to your writing. That takes time. Being a guest on podcasts is similar.

How to be a Good Podcast Guest

You may be thinking already, “Dan, I’m not an expert on anything, I have almost no platform, and I don’t have a book to promote, I can’t be a podcast guest.” But I disagree. If I consider some of the most engaging podcast episodes I have heard, they aren’t because that person had credentials or was famous. Instead, they are people who have an engaging message, share meaningful stories, or who help or provide inspiration.

I’ve hosted a podcast for years, interviewing dozens and dozens of guests. Some of the most memorable conversations I’ve had were not from the “famous” people I’ve interviewed. In fact, there are conversations that have stuck with me from interviews with people who had the absolute smallest platform. As I consider the guests I want to have in the future, I am focused so much more on who the person is, not what they have accomplished on their resume.

If you are still wondering what on earth you would talk about, consider this:

1. Get clear on the themes you write about. Identify what do people who write in this same topic or genre love talking about? What readers mention in book reviews? What sessions would they attend at a conference on this theme? What do they talk to authors about at book signings?
2. Identify stories you have on these themes, and how they may align to who you think your ideal audience is.
3. Brainstorm everything you could talk about, even if it is way outside of what you write about. For instance, I’ve been a guest on parenting podcasts, and entrepreneurship podcasts, neither of which is a topic I otherwise write about.

When I do this work with writers, we make prioritized lists of ideas, and identify how this expands their possible reach to more podcasts, and of course, potential listeners/readers. It is not uncommon early in the marketing strategy process for a writer to tell me that there are just a handful of places who would possibly talk about their book or interview them. In our work together, we open this up to find dozens and dozens more places where they can possibly reach their ideal readers.

This is why I encourage you to start early in this process. That aligns to my advice in general on when to build your author platform: start now, before you need it. Do it when you aren’t desperate to pitch a book, when every connection you make isn’t overshadowed by the fact that you need for this person to promote something you are selling.

Platform takes time. Build your competence and find your public voice before you need it as part of a launch.

How to Conduct Podcast Research

Once we brainstorm all of the themes and topics a writer can talk about, we begin researching podcasts that may be a good fit. I create and manage a spreadsheet so that we can prioritize and track this process, as well as the pitches themselves.

If you have no idea where to start, then you can go to a search engine, type in the name of a topic, add the word “podcast” and then see what comes up. You can also go to a podcast player and do searches there, such as Apple Podcasts, overcast.fm, listennotes.com, player.fm, castro.fm, podchaser.com, stitcher.com, or many others.

If you already know of at least one podcast or podcaster on a certain topic, you can start there. Look up that podcast in a podcast player, and then see if they recommend similar podcasts, categories this podcast is categorized within, or related podcasts that subscribers also enjoyed.

When you do find potential podcasts that you think may be a fit, read the podcast titles and descriptions to see how they promote each episode. Likewise, listen to an episode or more to get a sense of the focus and style. If you worry you don’t have time for listening, consider using headphones while doing some other task, such as walking or folding laundry (this is when I listen to podcasts!)

Note whether you enjoy the podcast and if the host is someone you would enjoy chatting with. Don’t think of this as a transaction, where you are only drawn to shows that feel popular to you. Focus on the conversation, the kinds of stories, and not only what they would ask you, but what you would ask them. Focus on the experience you want to create for the two of you, and the listeners.

How to Write a Podcast Pitch Email

If you find a podcast that you feel you would be a good fit for, go to their website and see if they have instructions on how to request to be a guest. Often, you can email the host.

Keep the email short and to the point. Make sure that your “ask” is clear — that you would like to be a guest on their podcast, and why you think this would be a good fit. If you are concerned that you somehow don’t have some kind of credential they may be looking for, instead focus on the stories you can share and why they would enjoy a conversation with you. Only ask one thing in the email, don’t make it a menu such as “I could be a guest on your podcast, or we could do a giveaway on social media, or I could write a blog for you, or…”

And of course, share a bit about who you are, and any applicable links.

If you want my help in pursuing this or any other strategy to reach your readers, you can read more about how I work with writers here.

Thanks!

-Dan

I have been helping quite a few authors with their websites recently, and have been making updates to my own. Today I would like to share some lessons and advice that I’ve been thinking about in this process. If you are a writer or creator who wants to establish or improve your website, this may be helpful.

Let’s dig in…

Focus Your Reader

Don’t make your website a mile wide and an inch deep. Too many websites offer a too many links, a crowded website navigation, and unclear direction. Yet when you do arrive on a specific page, they are all really short.

Do the opposite.

Have a clear sense of who your ideal readers is, consider why the are there, and how you can lead them. Whenever possible, have the fewest links you can in your navigation bar. Every time you ask your reader to choose, you are giving them a problem.

For instance, if your “Books” link in the navigation goes to a dropdown listing 4 book titles; well, now the reader has to try to figure out which book to choose. Is the first one in the list the most recent? Are they all in the same genre? Then, they have to click back and forth to go into one page, then back out of it and into the next.

Instead, give them one link — Books — and a page that lead them into what you write and information on each book.

Why do writers create too many links in their website? Their intentions are good. Often, they are hoping to appeal to the widest possible audience, and worry that someone will come looking for something that is hidden. So they crowd the website navigation and give all of the options.

For years, I have been trying to reduce the number of links on my own website at wegrowmedia.com. I recently removed a huge section of my website in order to get the navigation down to four links:

• About
• Work with Me
• Blog & Podcast
• Contact

To get to this point has required me to make tough choices about who my reader is likely to be, and how I can best help them.I could easily feel justified in expanding the navigation:

• About
• Work with Me
• Book
• Programs
• Blog
• Podcast
• Newsletter
• Testimonials
• Resources
• Start here
• Contact

Every single one of those options would be filled with meaningful things I have created over the years. But I’m guessing that when people arrive on my site, they don’t want a table of contents of my entire life. It is my job in building the website to lead them to the best resources I have, and to make it easier for them to see who I am and what I do.

For your website, consider what are the three things you would most like a new reader to know about you. Can you focus only on that?

Go Deep With What You Share

For what you do choose to share, go deep. Don’t just share the bare minimum about what you write or why. If someone has come to your website, they want to know more.

Make your About page long. Yes, you can have a short third person bio at the top, because that is what some people want. But then, say “If you would like to know more, keep reading…” and share a deeper look at your writing, your inspiration, your background — all written in first person.

For your Book page, don’t just share a short description if you also have a wonderful backstory about the book too. If you want an example of an amazing Book page, check out Jasmin Darznik’s website and the page for her new book, The Bohemians. She and I worked together recently, and it was amazing to see how she kept making this page better and better.

Your website is how you present your writing to the world. Don’t hide it. This is the place to go deep and open people up to your creative vision.

Review Every Word, Every Link, Once a Year

Several months ago I shared how I have been going through a creative reset. I do this the last quarter of every year, but sometimes the work that comes out of it takes months to complete. I am still working through a long list of changes that are the result of that work. One of those is to update my website.

I’ve had a website for 15 years, and my company site is now 10 years old. Yet, I’m always having to update it, going through it again with a fine-tooth comb. I’m surprised at how I missed some obvious updates that need to happen. If you have a website, regularly go through it and reread every word, check every link, go to every page. Consider what is outdated, what need to be updated, and what is missing entirely.

For my own site, I realized that my homepage was promoting a program I no longer offer. That my newsletter sign up box barely mentioned the newsletter itself. That there were dated photos that I could easily update.

I’m also looking at the site with fresh eyes. At the top of the homepage, I mention Human-Centered Marketing, yet I never fully explain it. So now I’m building out a new section to give people a proper introduction to it. I’ve also been creating new sections for core aspects of my work that were previously hidden, such as my Clarity Cards process, the Creative Success Pyramid, and more.

On an author website, you may be surprised how often links to buy an author’s books books are missing, or the homepage has language such as “Pre-order my new book now — coming in September 2017!” But there are likely smaller updates you can make about what you write, why, and how the reader can engage with you.

This is a work in progress, which is why I recommend you review your website once a year.

And I need to follow my own advice! The page on my website for my book has to be updated. It is way too ‘thin’ given how much has happened with the book in the past three years. So I’m adding that to the list of things to update.

Show Up as a Person

On so many websites, I can’t see the person behind html. They don’t really share much on what they write, why, or what drives them as a creator. Consider the lessons social media has taught us. Instead of worrying about your website being “professional,” which sometimes translates to something cold and distant, instead focus on making a meaningful connection with the reader. You can do this by showing up as who you are.

Write in first person, address the reader directly. If you are comfortable with it, share photos of yourself on your About page. On your contact page, provide an actual email address, don’t use a contact form.

Here are three other recent posts I’ve shared that may be useful:

• Two ways to create an effective author website
• What Makes a Great Author Website
• Conduct an audit of your author platform

Thanks!

-Dan