Category: Author platform

I spent this week with publishing folks in New York City at the Digital Book World conference. And I’m walking away with one big point: it’s not about the tech.

Yes, the technology enables. We need to know how to produce better ebooks; properly marked up XML files; new workflows for modern publishing; and provides smaller publishers new opportunities to scale.

But I want to talk about investment in PEOPLE. The employees within publishing houses – how are they being groomed and mentored to help build better companies and books that serve readers and writers?

And by natural extension, how are those in publishing supporting writers. And readers.

I ran a 3-hour workshop at Digital Book World titled “How to Create the Content Your Audience Desperate Wants, But Doesn’t Know to Ask For.” This was meant for anyone in the publishing process to leverage communication channels to find the right audience and engage with them in a meaningful way, not a promotional way. A key theme that kept coming up is this:

VOICE.

Voice is a uniquely human element of how we engage with ideas and form relationships. You can’t clone it and scale it, you can’t code it, you can’t mass produce it. The voice of an author can help readers not just understand a topic, but shape their identity.

How come we can have 1,000 books on a topic or type of story, yet only one will resonate with you?

More and more, I am looking for examples of voice that are engaging small audiences in deeply meaningful ways. In other words: how can we look beyond the example of Steve Jobs? How can we not judge the power of voice by revenue alone, but instead by effect – how one’s voice shapes the world for others. Too often, publishers and writers look at the point of sale of a book as the culmination of a relationship with writers & readers. But it is the effect of reading that book which builds the legacy they really hope for.

In my workshop, I provided lots of examples of voice. These were names and faces, and each represented larger ideals and identities. These people offered more than just a connection to one person, they represented a connection to an entire community. They are a gateway. For many this connection goes beyond the topic or content alone – they open up a whole new world.

In a crowded marketplace, voice is your differentiator. At the conference, a colleague said that sometimes they feel that with so many writers self-publishing and promoting their work, it is like standing in front of a massive wall of pay phones, and all of them ringing at once. Everyone is screaming for attention: “Buy my book!”

Which is why I focus on voice. Voice is not about HOW you scream for attention, it is about not needing to scream at all. It is about people preferring to sit down to a long conversation with you. Where they lean in when you whisper something because you no longer need to shout.

Voice aligns with Kevin Kelly’s idea of 1,000 true fans; that when you have an engaging voice that connects to the heart of the right audience, you no longer need a huge crowd to rally around you in order to succeed. You just need 1,000 of the RIGHT people, not 100,000 who don’t really engage with you.

How often have you gone to a concert at a massive stadium and felt an empty disconnect due to the distance, the size, the way your seat is sticky and uncomfortable because it was designed for faceless thousands, not for YOU. This is a commodity experience. Even if the band remembers that particular show, they certainly don’t remmeber you.

But at a small intimate show, you feel that you are a PART of a moment with the musicians. And they with you. You do contribute to aspects of the experience. Who you are and the way you effect the moment is aplified due to the scale. WHO is there matters more than how many.

Too often, people feel that online marketing and social media is about scale. About “going big.” About getting more followers. But the real value is the opposite. It is not broadening, but honing. It is about connecting more deeply with a smaller audience – exactly the RIGHT audience – not broadcasting your needs to a faceless crowd.

As I walk away from Digital Book World, I am reminded of the power of the individual to craft not only an amazing work – a book – but an amazing experience and connection to what matters, and to the community that supports these things.

One quote from Digital Book World presenter Peter Hildick-Smith was this: “Discovery without conversion has no impact.” He shared a ton of data about how readers interact with books. But I think we need to broaden what “conversion” means. Yes, it can include the sale of a book. But it can also mean access to a community, to ideas, and to crafting a meaningful identity as a READER.

If this type of thing is something that interests you, I am offering a free resource that talk more about how to develop an audience in a meaningful way, and it’s geared specifically to writers:

1. My 72 page PDF ebook: Author Platform Starter Kit

You can grab it here for free.

Thanks!
-Dan

The extraordinary is now expected. Kevin Kelly makes this timely observation, reflecting how digital media (especially YouTube) now delivers an endless stream of amazing things to us on a nearly minute by minute basis.

If you are someone trying to engage others online, your competition is now EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE. Your audience may appreciate your poem, your story, or your reflections on a topic; but they are also inundated with amazing images, videos, and stories being aggregated by blogs, colleagues and their friends on social media.

How do you compete? How do you compete with videos of people getting struck by lightning? With amazing highlight reels of human achievements? With amazing cake designs? With interview outtakes with your favorite celebrity? I dare not link to these things, out of fear you would click away.

This is how: voice.

Too often, we try to be “professional.” We try to prove we are the authority on something. But really, do you know what makes you unique? Special? It’s not just what you know; it’s who you are.

In a world of commodity information, your voice is unique.

This enables you to connect with others on a level of feeling, not just the rational. That you can reach people in ways that are unexpected, just by being you. I was recently interviewed for a Publishers Weekly article, and one of the quotes fits here:

“An author would be better off finding three people and having an extensive e-mail correspondence or even an in-person lunch with them, rather than adding 200 new fans on Goodreads or Facebook.”

I have worked with authors who have seen great “results” with Facebook ads, adding hundreds or thousands of “Likes” to their Page in a very short amount of time. But the problem is engagement: clicking a “Like” button did not mean people were making any kind of commitment to engage with you.

While I love Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and so many other social networks, I am constantly reminded that a relationship is not a button.

What I love about the opportunities we have today to reach others is that what worked 100 years ago still matters. A relationship. A conversation. Yes, social media can be a powerful part of it, but it does not REPLACE what is at the core: a human connection. If you feel the pressure to shout louder to get people’s attention, try the reverse in stead: whisper to a few select people.

If this type of thing is something that interests you, I am offering a free resource that talks more about how to develop an audience in a meaningful way, and it’s geared specifically to writers: My 72 page PDF ebook: Author Platform Starter Kit.

You can grab it here here for free.

Thanks!
-Dan

Do you want to develop your brand as an author and build an audience? You need an author platform. I am teaching a 6-week online course starting January 23, but to help you get started, I am offering two FREE resources:

1. A 30 minute webcast video: How to Create An Engaging Author Platform
2. A 72 page PDF ebook: Author Platform Starter Kit

To receive these two free resources, sign up here:

(Update: No longer available.)

You will receive a private link to the 35 minute webinar, plus the 70+ page ebook, all completely FREE.

This webcast is only available for a limited time, so if you are interested, grab it right now. At the end of the webcast, I provide a peek into the advanced strategies I teach via my 6-week online course BUILD YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM. I’ll also send you updates on the author platform course. You can, of course, unsubscribe at anytime, and I NEVER share your email address with anyone.

Thanks!
-Dan

There are so many great ideas out there. To ensure yours doesn’t fall flat, consider how you can develop a great audience, not just a great idea.

“I was told by everyone that my ideas for it were so bad.”

Listening to the commentary track by director Francis Ford Coppola on his film The Godfather, I was astounded. What is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, Francis tells story after story about how:

• So many of his ideas were met with disapproval and rejection. Casting, time-period, location, shooting style, music, and nearly every other aspect of what it means to be a director.
• The studio kept threatening to fire him.
• No one envisioned this movie as anything but a small budget film.
• The studio rejected his ideas for casting. It’s almost unbelievable to consider, but the head of Columbia Pictures actually said this to Francis while casting: “As president of Columbia Pictures, I am telling you: Marlon Brando will not appear in this film.” They also didn’t want Al Pacino to play Michael Corleone, and they had other ideas for who should play Tom Hagan. Of course today, you almost can’t imagine anyone but Robert Duvall playing that character.
• Many of what would become famous scenes from the movie were criticized by the studio and reshoots were called for.
• Overall, there was a pervasive sense that no one believed in his ideas. He felt he was hired because he was young, and thus could make the movie quickly, under budget, and that the studio felt they could control him due to his inexperience.

Many of these decisions by the studio were meant to find popularity; the studio wanted modern popular music, not music that would be from the Sicilian countryside; actors who were easy to deal with, not an artist such as Brando; a setting in modern times of the early 1970s, not a period piece from the 1940s; more action, even when it didn’t serve the story. These were often decisions reaching for easy popularity, not integrity and vision.

As the last 40 years since the film’s release have illustrated to us, Francis was correct in sticking to his creative vision. That, regardless of what the world tells you, you have to know when to ignore others and move forward with your own vision.

It is worth noting that at the time, Francis had a young family and very little money. He was not in the situation to just “risk it all” because he was young and single and able to throw caution to the wind. He felt the same pressure that you or I may feel: that we want to create meaningful work while still living up to the obligations of life.

Now, I often train writers to do lots of research and listen to their audience to help shape their platform. So what is the difference here? Why was it right for Francis to ignore the feedback of others? Because for The Godfather, others were making decisions based on a financial budget, not on creative vision. THIS is when you ignore others. When the goal of the decision-making is focused on short-term thinking only.

What Francis created inspired so many others, and to this day, the movie is just breathtaking. He turned what was intended to be a throwaway film into a touchstone for a generation.

As a writer, you need to have courage. The ideas you will be made fun of for now may well be what you are admired for 40 years later.

Thanks.
-Dan