“How do I sell more books?”
“How do I get an agent?”
“How do I get published?”

While these are fine questions, they are often asked too soon. There are OTHER questions you need to answer before you should ask those listed above.

For instance, before you ask “how do I get published” you need to ask questions such as:

“Is the work good enough?”

And before you answer “YES! I spent 3 years on it,” you have to consider the concept of empathy. In other words: if your path to publishing requires others to partner with you (an agent to sign you, a publisher to give you a deal, a bookstore to give you placement) you have to consider their goals and motivations.

I want to be clear here first: if you are writing this book SOLELY for yourself, then when you say it is “good enough,” it is 100% done. As I have said before, not everything needs to be shared. But if you REQUIRE partners in this process, you may need to consider how your goals align with theirs, better understanding their needs and motivations.

When an agent rejects a book, why is that? Well, let’s consider their motivation for signing an author (and this is a made up list by me, I’m not an agent, so I am just guessing here):

1. They LOVED the book. They got hooked, couldn’t stop reading, and it spoke to their heart.
2. The book perfectly aligns to a niche market they focus on, and they feel they won’t have a problem selling it or that it will find a readership.
3. You already have an audience, have established credibility and a platform with an existing audience. You are someone that people have already proven they want to hear from and would buy a book from.

There are likely many other reasons, and motivations would be different for each and every agent.

My friend (and client) Miranda Beverly-Whittemore shared a brutally honest post this week about FAILURE in her life as a writer. The list is astounding, and she was clear to point out that her upcoming release was rejected by everyone, before she revised it based on the feedback she received, and was able to sell it. In other words: even though she is a seasoned author and crafted a book she was proud of, she had to continue learning what would speak to the partners in her publishing process.

She even shared this exact process for her efforts writing her next novel:

“The powers that be have let me know that they think my next book isn’t exactly, 100% right, that maybe the vehicle by which its aboutness is delivered is off. It’s a funny thing, to go from writing in relative obscurity for years, to suddenly having people—professional people, like not my loving and supportive husband, for example—care what is coming next. A younger version of my self might have resisted such suggestions, but I’m older and wiser, and dammit, I want my publisher to be as in love with this next book as they are with BITTERSWEET.”

Another question I hear more often than I would like is: “I heard an agent/publisher say that they won’t consider signing a book unless the author has 10,000 followers on Twitter. Is that true?”

I always chuckle at that. But I also shiver, because it can easily send a writer down the wrong path – searching for a “magic number,” not the things that really matter: crafting good work, finding the right partners, and connecting with ideal readers in meaningful ways.

So what is the question you ask before “How do I get 10,000 Twitter followers?” Well, let’s dig back into empathy, and consider why would an agent or publisher ever say that? What are they really trying to say? My guess:

“Can you prove to me that their is an audience for this book, and for you as the author?”

Now this is a more simple straightforward question. And when you realize that, the Twitter number has a context, but more importantly: you become EMPOWERED to know how to ensure your goals and the agent’s goals align.

It allows you to ask questions such as:

• What would be a “win” for this agent? How do they define success, and how does that relate to what I offer them?
• What are her/his challenges in selling a book to a publisher?
• If they want to see there is an audience for my book, what OTHER metrics can we use? EG: a newsletter list with 1,000 people, a certain number of media mentions, affiliations with large organizations, previous book sales, speaking engagements, etc.

It gives you a wide range of options to work with, instead of one silly naked number: 10,000. Which really, you can’t do much with, and I would be willing to bet is not at all the magic number folks make it out to be.

I have been considering this idea of “asking the wrong questions first” in a variety of other contexts. One is the age-old question for runners and those who workout: DO YOU STRETCH BEFORE YOU RUN, OR AFTER? My friend Donna Flagg is a dancer and runs Lastics, which is all about the value of stretching. She wrote this article that put things into context: When to Stretch.

An oversimplification of the article: you have to ask different questions FIRST:

• Where you are on a continuum of flexibility?
• Have you been injured? Are some muscles naturally tighter than others?
• What type of workout activity will you be doing?
• How do you feel (when you workout and otherwise)?

Why ask these questions? Because everyone is different, and the answers help determine
how to provide the maximum benefit of stretching with your workout.

Another example about asking the right questions first is in how to brew a really good cup of coffee. This has been a little hobby of mine recently, and it is fascinating what I have learned. Too often, we focus on the wrong question first, which for coffee is about the brewing method. Everyone seems to have their favorite: Keurig, drip, french press, AeroPress, Chemex, etc. And because you have to buy that equipment, you tend to do this research first, and then validate that decision later on by saying things like “I LOVE MY FRENCH PRESS!”

But the brewing method is NOT the right first question! What are the right questions? Here are some:

• How fresh are your beans – when were they roasted?
• Tell me about how your beans were grown.
• How do you store your beans?
• How and when do you grind your beans?
• What is your water source?
• What ratio of water do you use?
• How long do you brew?

For the most part, these questions align to nearly ANY method of brewing. And they make a profound difference in the resulting cup of coffee. In other words: timing and balance matters more than the object you use in brewing.

At least, that is what I have found so far after reading lots of articles, watching tons of YouTube videos, and of course, tasting lots of coffee at home and at different cafes. Your mileage may vary.

So how do you sell more books? Maybe these questions should come first:

• What narratives do you tell and align with?
• Exactly who do you hope to sell your books to? Like, name names. Give me examples.
• What other books does your ideal readership love? Obsess about those authors, those books, and how readers connected with them. Learn from those who have been before you.
• Tell me more about the entire scope of how a book and an author enters the lives of a reader. Too often we pretend that the goal is a single transaction whereby $10 changes hands, and someone walks away with your book. But that is merely a milestone in a larger process of how a book shapes someone’s life. The experience you create for readers goes beyond the book itself, and the road to connecting your book to readers is often longer than we pretend it to be.

What you are looking to do here is to not place an unreasonable burden on others – such as expecting MAGIC from Goodreads, Facebook ads, your literary agent, your publisher, or a publicist. All of these communities and individuals are partners in a larger process, one where you need to come to them with some answers before you ask these bigger questions.

For your career as a writer, it all begins with the source: your writing.

To connect that writing to others, it is about developing your ability to know, understand, and engage with the right audience, the good folks who have access to them.

-Dan

I am rereading The Lord of the Rings, so perhaps my mind is particularly focused on the value of the journey for creating the meaningful experiences in our lives.

Recently Rich Fahle shared this post: Marketing for the Long Haul: The Shifting Ground of Book PR in 2014. It’s a really nice piece that discusses the value of defining success by long-term goals. It also features a video interview with me on the topic:

“I am always looking at the qualitative differences, not just the quantitative. People too often are looking at social media, saying, how do I get more followers, how do I get more people to like my Facebook page. They are skipping the fact that often that data point is really ineffective of anyone buying your book or really becoming a fan.”

Check out the full post here, and the full video is also embedded here:

Thanks!
-Dan

To succeed as a writer, you do not need a Twitter account. Or a website. Or a newsletter. Or even an email address.

What you need is to create experiences for your readers. Not things. Last week, I talked about the value of small moments, and I have been reflecting a lot on the term “author platform” recently. This has become a polarizing term – and one that I have been using less and less, even if what it represents is as important as it ever has been.

So let’s start with the basics: for many writers, these are the two primary goals:

1. To craft meaningful work – to write.
2. To connect that writing to the right audience.

Sometimes we take for granted that the second item in that list is an OPTION. Not everything needs to be shared. You do not have to publish, share your work, or give a moment’s thought to finding readers. That is a choice, and one that you should make proactively. If you don’t want to publish, don’t want to figure out how your writing can find readers, then you don’t have to. Just keep writing, and do so for the deeply personal goals that are your own, not that of other people. I think we often get off track focusing on OTHER people’s goals and values, not our own.

But… if you DO want to share your writing, THEN we need to talk about the two things that I feel define the term “platform”

• Effective communication
• Developing trust with the right people

And that inherent in this process is to create meaningful connections. The goal of the platform is not itself, but rather to help ensure those first two goals happen: you are able to craft your writing, and that it finds an engaged readership. You don’t “have” a platform – it’s not a thing. Platform is a PROCESS of communication and trust. It is not social media, something such as Twitter is merely a channel that connects you to others, giving you the OPPORTUNITY to earn trust with others. Your voice is the thing that matters on a social channel, not the channel itself.

And what you hope to create with readers are experiences.

Your books are clearly the ultimate experience, that is the core of everything. Which is why you need to protect your writing time, evolve your craft, and learn how to best produce the highest quality work. In fact, a good platform for your life as a writer should have a primary focus of PROTECTING your writing time, ensuring that the writing comes first. I was chatting with a couple of authors I worked with recently, and both of them said a primary outcome of working together is that they now have more time to write. That was incredible to hear, because the creative process for one’s writing is the heart of everything.

Beyond your books and writing, there are other experiences you can create for readers:

• How you publish and share your writing. Is it accessible, and personal, and timely? Who have you partnered with that will resonate with your ideal readers?
• How you the author – the creator behind the work – shares your own worldview and voice with readers. No, this is not a requirement, but it does matter for many readers, and is an opportunity for any creative professional. This is where you can choose to bring in elements such as social media, newsletters, book readings and events, etc. into your life and the lives of those you hope to connect with – all focused on voice, communication, and trust.
• The experience that resonates in readers’ heads long after any of these things happen. After all, your legacy is written in the thoughts, attitudes, and actions of others.

What each of these experiences creates is an opportunity for you and your work to resonate with readers. And these moments tend to add up, affording you the likelihood that your NEXT book will build even deeper connections, and a broader audience.

So many writers I speak to are overwhelmed by the opportunities in front of them. There is simply too much they can be doing. Which is why it is so important to focus on a handful of specific actions, and eliminate all else. The life of a writer should not be creating the ability to juggle more stuff – but rather – honing and focusing. And yes, this does require a lot of difficult decisions along the way.

If you feel that you may want some help in this process, consider joining me and a group of writers for my 8-week online course which begins on January 27th: Get Read: Find Readers and Build Your Author Platform.

Thanks!
-Dan

Reading the top 5 regrets of the dying was powerful for me – it aligned with much of what I have heard over the years from those older than me – folks who were often well past age 70.

There is this odd pressure in our culture to focus on some milestone, some end result. Some examples for creative professionals:

• Publishing a book
• Becoming a bestseller
• Having a gallery show
• Booking a concert tour

Clearly – there are some wonderful outcomes of these achievements, from quantifiable things such as revenue and exposure, to a deep sense of validation and accomplishment. You know, the stuff that feels like the underpinnings of one’s creative legacy.

But today I want to talk about something else: not the big milestones and accomplishments, but the small moments:

To value not the diploma, but the process of learning;
Not publication day, but the process of creating and sharing one’s work;
Not receiving an award, but in connecting with readers and fans.

For instance, let’s consider some counter examples to those above – a series of small moments instead of huge milestones:

• Sharing short stories one at a time by self-publishing to Kindle or even just on a blog.
• Selling 500 copies each of 10 different stories you write. (5,000 copies sold total.)
• Having 100 followers view 100 images you share on Instagram over the course of three months. (10,000 views from a strictly quantifiable metric.)
• Posting one video to YouTube each week for a month, seen by 1,000 people.

Each of these things are small accessible actions you can take, and the cumulative exposure to others are small private moments. In none of these situations, do you get the visceral gratification of standing on stage and seeing hundreds of people with looks of adoration on their faces.

Yet, the effect is the same, in terms of both validation for your work, and in your ability to truly connect to the hearts and minds of others.

Small moments as opposed to big milestones.

I have written before about the idea of being a success without being a bestseller, and want to explore that further here.

DEVELOPING A PROCESS

When you focus on the small moments I provided examples for above, you are developing a skill set, one that is replicateable. It is about establishing a PROCESS for connecting with others, not just shooting for some vague destination such as “becoming a bestseller.” The problem with that goal? It is too big, too far away, and affected by so much that is out of your control.

We make too many assumptions about what “becoming a bestseller” means. We assume the milestone of hitting that list comes attached with so many other things that make life easy: money, fame, access, validation, and momentum. And you know what? Becoming a bestseller promises none of those things. In fact, most of the bestselling authors I have spoken to work incredible hard each and every day to make success continue to happen – they never got a “free pass” after becoming a bestseller.

Which brings me to a lovely quote from actor Jim Carrey:

“I hope everybody could get rich and famous and will have everything they ever dreamed of, so they will know that its not the answer.”

When you become a bestseller, you often don’t know why, which specific actions triggered success, nor can they easily replicate it. The achievement is often a wonderful mix of effort, a team, luck, timing, and so on. This is part of why Miranda Beverly-Whittemore are sharing our year-long process of launching her next novel. Because after the launch, we would be tempted to create a simple narrative for success or failure. And the reality is much more complex than that. (note: I have never heard Miranda mention “becoming a bestseller” as a goal.)

Becoming a bestseller is indeed a very cool goal, and one worth having. The problem I see in it is that it doesn’t always provide a useful sense of process and achievement day-to-day. And, though most people may not admit this, having that goal sets you up for a sense of inadequacy.

MAKING THE TRANSITION

I teach a lot of online courses, and had hundreds writers in my courses this past year. Whenever I ask “Why are you taking this course?” the answer I hear most frequently is “I am in a transition.” Sometimes these are career transitions, other times personal, and the specifics are always different.

What I find is that the same advice applies to those in transition: focus on small moments, not big goals. For instance:

• On making a new friendship with someone in the industry you want to break into, not getting a job that will take you 5 years to develop qualifications for, find, and then go through the hiring process with.
• Getting 10 people to read a blog post – the right people – not a three year goal to have the blog be big enough to get a book deal from.

My friend Cali Williams Yost wrote a book that talks a bit about this process called: Tweak It, Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day.
Well worth checking out.

STOP TRYING TO GROW YOUR “FOLLOWERS”

I hear phrases like this all too often: “I ONLY HAVE 100 FOLLOWERS” on Twitter. In other words: they are bemoaning the fact that only 100 people follow them, not 1,000 or 100,000. I hate this, mostly because it takes for granted the wonderful reality (and opportunity) that 100 individuals care enough about you to stay connected on a daily basis.

There is a perception that you need to have tens of thousands of followers to have a “REAL AUDIENCE,” (you don’t.)

Instead of reaching for more and more followers, treat the folks who do connect with you as the most important people on the planet. On an individual basis – not in aggregate. If you have 100 followers, don’t worry about getting follower number 101; instead, worry about making those 100 people love you 1% more.

These 100 people are something to cherish, to encourage, to give back to. Not to judge as being insignificant because there aren’t more of them. Not to play into the your fears of inadequacy or need for constant validation.

So much of what I talk about here is about focusing on the basic thing that tie us to each other: COMMUNICATION and TRUST.

Thank you.
-Dan

Over on WriterUnboxed.com, I shared a post that covers two simple steps for how a writer can stay connected with readers, especially a writer who is overwhelmed with all that life throws at them. Here are the two steps:

1. Be clear about your messaging.
2. Make it easy to stay connected with you.

Read the full post here.

Thanks!
-Dan