Category: Uncategorized

In the past few issues of this newsletter I talked about different ways of considering using social media if you are a writer or creator:

• Social media is a tool, you get to decide if — and how — you use it
• Honor your connection to readers, not trends or algorithms
• Stop worrying about how many followers you have

One of the main point’s I’ve made is to stop thinking about social media as being just about growing how many followers you have. But today I want to talk about the opposite: why having followers on social media can matter to your goals as a writer. The context I’m talking about here is why could it possibly matter that you have 100, or 1,000, or 10,000 followers on a specific social media channel? What is the actual value in doing so, beyond just “big numbers are impressive?” (You all know how I feel about math.)

Let’s dig in…

Followers Can Provide Credibility

Having followers can help give you credibility. What is “credibility” in this case? Here’s one version: that you are a real person who writes about certain topics you care for deeply, and who is connecting with others in a professional manner. Let’s consider some simple use cases here. Let’s say you reach out to another author asking if they would consider writing a blurb for your book; or you pitch yourself as a guest on a podcast; or you query an agent; or you connect with an organizer of a local literary festival to see if you can speak on a panel. When you have followers, this is how it can help with establishing credibility:

• They an understand who you are on a human level and a professional level. That you are somehow active online and show up as a real person. You get to define that in manner that feels safe and comfortable to you, but a simple way to consider that is that they see you actually are a real person, and not some bot. Maybe they see your face, and that you love books and writing, and that care as deeply about certain themes in books as they do.
• They see that other people recognize and connect with you. This is a form of social proof that you are part of a community, and engaging with you is “safe” in this context.
• They can see how you engage with others. The frequency, the tone, the style, and the way others do so with you.

I always remembered advice about going on job interviews from decades ago, things such as: look the person in the eye when talking, give a firm handshake, sit up straight, dress professionally, send a thank you note, etc. All of these were other ways of illustrating that I was a viable candidate, and this type of stuff seemed to matter just as much as what was printed on the resume.

Sure, having followers can attempt to put a numeric value indicating how big your network is. But it can also illustrate credibility in other ways.

Followers Can Hint That You Have Access

Who you have access to is something that others may be attracted to. For instance, if they can see that you are a part of a certain circle of writers, or that you speak to a lot of book clubs, or you do a lot of school visits as an author. Having followers can hint that you have access. Sometimes this is merely for social reasons, someone wanting to feel a part of a community that you are a part of, or seeing that readers like you and therefore they want to be associated with you. But it can also apply to professional goals: a podcaster may more easily book you as a guest if they see you have a lot of followers because they make some quick assumptions in their head:

• This person is the real deal (see “credibility” above)
• This person has access to a lot of people, giving me the social proof I need to trust them
• This person can potentially share the podcast episode we record to their many followers, thereby making the episode a success, but also potentially helping my podcast grow

Sometimes people aren’t even consciously aware they are thinking these things when seeing how many followers you have. Other times they are. I’ve certainly heard of nonfiction or memoir writers who got a book deal very quickly because of how many followers they have. It was enough for a publisher to consider: “they have access to the exact right audience, this is a good business move for us.”

Followers Show You Have Reach

This is perhaps the most obvious thing that having followers shows: that you can reach a certain number of people. What is “reach”? That if you post something, it has a good chance of reaching X number of people. Years ago, this was very rare and highly valuable. One company I worked for had a (supposedly highly profitable) division that sold lists. What are “lists?” Lists of email addresses. So if you were a company that wanted to reach “C-suite executives in the refrigeration industry,” you would pay a lot of money to get a list of email addresses to reach them.

But now everyday I see individuals on Instagram and TikTok who post about books and reading, who have thousands of followers. That reach is still very valuable, and getting it is more accessible than ever before. In some ways, one could consider that having access to a large group of people has many benefits from a business standpoint, from a community standpoint, and a personal standpoint.

Reach can also indicate that you have the power to gather people. That if you held a meetup event for your followers, that people would be there. We can think of this in simple terms, like how back in the 1990s I would host parties with friends because each of us could invite 50 people, thereby guaranteeing that at the very least we would end up with dozens of people attending. The same holds true for hosting a book event with multiple authors, or doing an “in conversation” event, instead of just a book reading where you are the only author on stage. One is not better than the other. But the “reach” can be greater. Sometimes more is… well… more.

Followers Indicate You Can Sell Books or Monetize

Having followers can increase your chances of actually selling more books or otherwise monetizing your career as a writer. Now, I’m not saying “social media sells books,” because I have written about that in the past:

• Social media doesn’t sell books, but…
• Does social media sell books?

But having followers on social media can be a part of a larger ecosystem that can increase book sales. I mean, math can work here. We can math that if you post to social media with 100 followers that your book is on sale today, that you can get 2 sales, and that if you send that same message to 10,000 followers, you will get 200 sales at the same 2% conversion rate.

More followers can move more product. It can also give others the belief that you can move more product, even if the reality is different. Which is the same reason why a billboard in Times Square costs more than a billboard in Howell, New Jersey. The advertiser can assume that if it is seen by more people, it has more potential to sell more product.

But monetization can take other forms as well. Having more followers can allow you to monetize in additional ways:

1. Creating a paid Substack newsletter
2. Creating a paid Patreon
3. Hosting a paid event (online or in-person)
4. Creating a paid subscription to Instagram
5. Selling related products
6. Being a paid speaker

I want to be clear here: you do not need to have a goal of having thousands of followers. All of these same points from above matter if you have 50 followers. Or 150. Or 350. Having those followers can all result in the same benefit of providing credibility, access, reach, and the ability to sell books. I want you to feel good about each connection you have with a follower. But I also don’t want to dismiss the value of having a following.

I spend my days working with writers to grow their platforms, reach their ideal readers, and prepare for book launches. And in many of these strategies we do indeed focus on follower growth, subscriber growth, and how how they can reach a larger audience in specific ways. But I always want to be clear about why these things matter, how you can craft an experience that matters deeply to you, and that they should be in the service of meaningful connections with like-minded readers.

Thanks.

-Dan

Maybe you have heard that if you are a writer, you need to grow your platform in order to develop a readership for your work, or attract agents or publishers. It’s common for me to hear author’s say, “I heard that I need to have 10,000 followers in order to get a publishing deal.”

I don’t think that’s true. So today I want to talk about something in very honest terms, and hopefully flip how you think about this work. To put it bluntly:

Stop worrying about how many followers you have. Stop worrying about how many subscribers you have.

These metrics aren’t the magic solution we tend to think they are. Instead, I want you to consider the experiences you want to create for yourself and your readers, and the specific actions that support your career as a writer.

Let’s dig in…

Stop Worrying About How Many

“More” is not usually the best way to solve your creative challenges or lead you to your creative goals. More followers, more subscribers, more likes, more more more. Can “more” be good. Sure. More connection. More understanding. More awareness. More empathy. More creativity. More fulfillment. “More” has so many great contexts in which it thrives as it relates to your goals as a writer. But more followers isn’t one of them. In fact, I tend to find that the striving for “more followers” can lead to lower levels of clarity and fulfillment as a writer.

Now, I don’t love math, but I’ll math here for a moment just to help illustrate this point. It’s easy to think of math as a solution: “If I had 100,000 followers, then if even 1% of them buy my book, that’s awesome!!!” Plus, if I had 100,000 followers, that means people would see that my words are important. It means agents and publishers would pay attention, that podcasters would book me as a guest in a heartbeat, and that I could get speaking engagements or invites to appear at literary festivals left and right!

This is totally logical: more people looking at you and your work means more possible people who buy your work and elevate your career. But…

What if you had just 290 followers? And 50% (145) of them saw everything you share? And 50% (72 ) of those people commented on your posts, giving you great conversations? And 50% (35) of those people actually read your writing and told their friends about it? And what if you grew this… slowly, maybe 20 new people a month? But in the process, you felt a part of something. And these people felt like they were a part of something with you?

Would that be so bad? To have readers who talk about your work? To be in conversation with like-minded readers and writers? To not always be vying for MORE (in all caps) and feeling less than because you don’t have a huge following?

It’s not uncommon for someone to tell me, “Ugh, I don’t have any following, just 300 people.” Which confounds me. So, 300 people are following you. And let’s just say that 12% of those people (the 35 people from above) actually read your writing and tell others about it. Do those people not exist? Is that not the absolute goal you say you want? But you are ignoring them? (Not you of course, the imaginary writer in this example.)

Another thing we don’t talk about enough is that, well, enough is never enough. I’ve interviewed artist Rebecca Green a few times, and one of her quotes always stuck in my brain. I asked her if she knew how she went from 225,000 Instagram followers to 258,000 a year later. Her reply was so honest with regards to how metrics like these can be confusing: “It’s funny, it seems like a jump from 225,000 – 258,000, but every day I look at it and think, ‘Well, I’m not at 300,000. I’m not at 550,000. I’m not at a million.’ That never stops. I remember when I was like, ‘I got 100 likes, OMG! I rule the world!’ Now, I’m like, OMG, I only got this many people… I try not to let it effect me emotionally. But I would not have a career without Instagram. The way that I grew it was meeting people face to face, moving to new places, and being in a lot of diff industries [such as magazines, books, retail, all sorts of collaborations.]”

That quote is from 2019. Here we are, three years later and Rebecca’s Instagram account currently has 278,000 followers. Which of course, is amazing. And it is still a driving force in her career. Yet… it is still not 300,000. The point is not if a certain number is “good” or “bad.” It is that you can’t assume that a sense of fulfillment will come when you reach a certain number.

This applies to newsletter subscribers as well. So, I’ve sent out this weekly email newsletter for more than 15 years. That means every Friday for me is a deadline. I’m not going to lie, I love it. I love the creative spark that is encouraged by a weekly deadline. I don’t obsess about my newsletter metrics because it is a labor of love. But data does get thrown in my face when I log in. This is what I see for all of my newsletters:

• Last week’s newsletter: 6 unsubscribers
• The week before that: 4 unsubscribers
• The week before that: 4 unsubscribers
• The week before that: 8 unsubscribers
  
• The week before that: 5 unsubscribers
  
• The week before that: 1 unsubscribers
  
• The week before that: 2 unsubscribers
  
• The week before that: 6 unsubscribers
  
• The week before that: 6 unsubscribers
  
• The week before that: 4 unsubscribers
  

OMG, what am I doing wrong?! What did I mess up on the week where eight people unsubscribed?!? Why am I failing so much??!?!?!?

🙂

Well, I’m not doing anything wrong. Every week I write, every week I send, every week someone unsubscribes. Which is… GREAT! In fact, that is something to be honored and even celebrated. Someone is taking action to focus their attention on what matters most to them right now. I feel good about that.

Them unsubscribing is them choosing. It is not a reflection on me or my work, and if it is, I don’t have time to worry about it. I spend my week in conversation with writers. My work has me in the trenches with writers, not just sharing theory, but ideating and executing marketing campaigns. So I am always — always — listening to the needs of writers and creators. It’s my passion. I have a clear mission in my work, and I show up to it every day. If that doesn’t help someone through my newsletter, that’s fine. Oh, and it should be noted, each week I gain subscribers too.

As someone who runs a business around what they create, there is something I don’t see discussed enough: you can have a highly profitable business around your craft or art, with a small audience. That’s right, you don’t need 100,000 followers. Or 10,000. You can succeed with a few hundred followers and supporters. The key is this: that they are the supporters who buy your work and/or share it with others.

For some writers I work with who actively support the financial side of their career through their writing, we discuss this often. The concept of what encourages revenue goals, not just vague “follower” goals. That can often be a huge mindset shift, and a positive one.

Are there situations where “how many” can matter? Of course! When I’m working with clients, we will analyze this in terms of their goals, and we can use data to help define some strategic direction. But the point is that this metric shouldn’t overwhelm your sense of purpose or self-esteem. It is just one factor to consider, and rarely the most important.

So what happens when you stop worrying about “how many?” You can instead consider: “what experiences matter to me — and to readers — each week?”

Consider Experiences and Actions That Truly Matter

What is more fun that “followers”? Experiences! Moments! Connections! I mean, this is what life is made up of. I always remembered this 2009 blog post by Bronnie Ware, a palliative care worker who shared her list of the top five regrets of the dying:

1. “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
2. “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
3. “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”
4. “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
5. “I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

None of these are about “how many,” but rather, “how deeply.” How deeply we express who we are. How deeply we show up in our community. How deeply we connect with others. How deeply we are present in the moment.

For your experience of being a writer and sharing your work, how can you control that? By focusing on the actions that matter. By crafting the experiences that matter. Since I want this post to be practical in terms of how you can help grow your career as a writer, let’s talk about the marketing funnel for a bit. I know you may be thinking, “Marketing funnel, Dan? Really? Yuk.” But please bear with me. Here is one version of a marketing funnel:

 

So the theory here is that people become aware of you or your writing at the top of the funnel, then move down it. Over time, they become interested in your writing. They consider if they want to follow or subscribe or buy or read your work, or show up to an event you are speaking at. Then they “convert” which is a sales term where they (perhaps) buy your book. A lot of people think that is the end of the marketing funnel, but it’s just the midway point Beyond that is loyalty: them reading your book, reviewing it, looking for whatever else you create. And then… advocacy. Another way to say that is word-of-mouth marketing. They tell their friends how great your book is.

One way to think about the marketing funnel is math: “IF MORE PEOPLE ENTER THE TOP OF THE FUNNEL, IT WILL LEAD TO MORE BOOK SALES, YES?!?”

I mean, we can make the math work. But that isn’t the only way to view it, and definitely not the best way. Because the funnel is all about moments of human connection and and experience. It is about depth.

When someone chooses to follow you on social media, or subscribe to your newsletter, or buy your book, or read that book, or post a review for it, or tell their local librarian about it, or emails you to tell you they loved it — these are moments where your art has connected with someone’s experience of being alive. It touched them in some way. It is changing them in some way.

What would I love for you to focus on more than just getting more followers? Well, a few things:

• More creating! Yes, more writing.
• More connections with like-minded people who love the kind of stories, writing, or art that you do.
• More conversations around these things.
• More moments that comprise the life of someone who looks for inspiration, education, and connection around what they create.
• More actions that support your career as a writer, however you define those goals.

There is one more reason I want to encourage you to stop worrying about how many followers or subscribers you have. It’s because I care about you. I care about your mental health. I’m going to imagine you have a lot of responsibility in life. People you care for. Tasks on your to-do list. The more you add “worry about how many followers I have” to your list, the less likely you are to create. And the less likely you are to share. And the less likely you are to feel good about it. Or to feel good in general.

I want you to stop worrying so you can instead focus on what matters most. And only you can define that for yourself.

Thanks.

-Dan

I have seen so much discussion recently about social media and email newsletters. Today, I want to encourage something critical: Focus on your goals as a writer and the experiences you want to have with readers. I worry that focusing too much on what each social network provides (the trends, the algorithms, etc.), has us ignoring our own creative vision. And in the process, ignoring the moments that truly matter in living your life as someone who writes, who reads, and who is in conversation with others who write and read.

I’ll put my suggestions up front here, then dig into each more deeply below:

• “Own” your connection to people who support your work
• Yes, you can unfollow people
• Yes, you can talk about yourself
• Forge the path that makes sense for you

Okay, let’s dig in…

“Own” Your Connection to People Who Support Your Work

Should you leave a certain social network? Or all of them? Should you sign up for one newsletter service? Or another? Regardless of what you choose, I want to encourage you to own the ability to reach those you are connected This could be your professional connections, or writers you met at a retreat last summer, or who you met in a writing class six years ago, or a reader you met at a literary festival, or anyone who supports your work and cares about the themes you write about.

Can you develop your following on Instagram? On Substack? On LinkedIn? Sure. I’m not here to argue for one or the other, you can find endless debate on that elsewhere online. For whatever you choose, I encourage you to:

1. Work cross-channels. While you can focus primarily on one channel, give people other ways to connect with you as well.
2. Back up your connections. Don’t assume that some social network will preserve your profile or list of followers. You should have a copy of that.
3. Be proactive in attending to 1:1 relationships. Stop just looking at your follower count. Show up to engage with others as if they are real people. Because they are.

This week an artist I follow (Addie Best) shared something that was scary. You see, for several years now, she has shared her printmaking on Instagram, amassing 44,000 followers, and developing an entire business/career partly through Instagram. Here, let me show you here Instagram account:

 

Oh. Wait, that’s not good. That’s right, like many people earlier this week, her account got caught in a glitch, and it was deleted. All of her 700+ posts, all of her 44,000 subscribers, and the primary way she markets her prints. Luckily, her account was back within hours, and then she posted this:

 

What is she encouraging her followers to do? How is she diversifying the connection to her audience? A few things:

• The primary one is to encourage people to subscribe to her email newsletter. Why? Because that not only gives her permission to email them, but she “owns” access to their email address. She can use that on any email platform.
• Support her on Patreon. She has nearly 350 supporters there, and they pay $1 to $20 per month. I have to imagine many of them pay the $10 per month level because that is where you automatically get a block printed patch in the mail, which is one of her biggest sellers.
• She has an online shop where you can purchase her work, and she is very good about communicating when she will release new products to purchase.
• She mentioned her dream of being able to directly mail a physical catalog to her supporters. I can honestly see that becoming a reality for her. Again, that would be a direct connection, because she would “own” the right to send you something to your physical address. Which is different that, say, selling through Amazon where the creator doesn’t get the address of the buyer, only Amazon has access to that.

Now, perhaps you don’t have a full-time business like Addie. At the very least, I would encourage you to regularly download your data from any social network you are active on. Yes, all the major social networks allow you to download the content you shared, the information of people who follow you, links to who you follow, etc. I mean, just imagine the difference this makes if a specific social network every just randomly booted you off: having no record of who followed you vs. you having a clear list of those names and links to their accounts.

While you are at it, back up your writing, your photos, etc. I wrote a whole post about this back in March, which I highly recommend you check out: Preserve What You Create.

To me, this is honoring the connection you have with others. Whether they be readers, colleagues, friends, or others. Why offload something so important to some company? That is a responsibility that we should each show up for.

Yes, You Can Unfollow People

Back in 2021, I wrote about a social media reset I was doing. An excerpt: “To optimize my social media for a feeling of deep connection, I had to do something I have resisted for years: unfollow people. In some ways, this has been an arduous process.
So much of being on social media is about wanting to be liked. To hope that others care about what you share, and that in the process, you get to validate the work of others. To unfollow someone feels like the antithesis of all of these things.”

Before that time, and after, I have had periods where I have unfollowed people. It is always — always — something I hesitate to do. But I do it for important reasons:

1. To respect my own creative goals. I am a big believer in getting clarity on what you create and why, of where you can put your attention, energy, and time. Limits help me focus my day for the moments and experience that fill me up.
2. To respect others. There is a reality that I simply can’t pay attention to as many people as I would genuinely like to in a day. Years ago, I remember reading about “Dunbar’s Number,” which “suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships.” (via Wikipedia.) Even for the people I don’t follow, I want to show them respect. I don’t want to follow them in order to pretend I am paying attention, when I’m not. Because that would be like saying, “Oh, I LOVED your book,” when you haven’t read it at all.
3. To manage my own mental health. I am unbelievably lucky, but I’m also going to be very honest: running a business, raising my 5 year old and 12 year old, showing up for my wife and our home, and attending to my health is a lot. With my limited energy and attention, I can’t do everything I dream of. I have to focus on the things things each day that matter most to me. I can’t “do it all,” and I don’t want to drive myself over an edge trying to.
4. As I mentioned last week, I feel that limits are powerful drivers to creativity and connection. The idea of “what if I followed only 300 people — or only 100 people — or only 10 people” is a compelling prompt for me to consider in terms of depth of connection, not just breadth. Too often when we discuss social media, we only talk about quantity, not quality. But I’m curious about where limits can take connections that are rare and meaningful.

The other day I was reading an interview in Melinda Wenner Moyer’s newsletter. Author and clinical psychologist Yael Schonbrun introduced this concept builds upon the work of Leidy Klotz of the value of subtraction in our lives. Of focusing on less, not more.

“What the science shows us in terms of the cognitive piece is that we have a hard time doing the action of subtracting, and it’s because it often doesn’t occur to us. We engage in what’s called subtraction neglect. We don’t even think about it. What’s more, when we are overwhelmed, that tendency to neglect subtraction grows stronger. So the busier you are, the less likely you are to take something off your plate, which is really unfortunate.”

It reminded me of a discussion I saw online where one author noticed that another author had unfollowed them, and they weren’t happy about it. A long conversation followed where people commented about the motivation of the author who unfollowed. I don’t know the history of these relationships, but it was fascinating to see how quickly people assigned the act of unfollowing as “obviously” petty, and fueled by a negative intention. Perhaps that was the case in that instance, I have no idea. But I know it’s something people struggle with this, concept of clarity and focus in how they engage. So I simply wanted to encourage you that you can unfollow people. And that it can be a positive act.

Yes, You Can Talk About Yourself

Over the years, I have heard this repeated countless times as people describe what the “best” strategy for using social media is: “Talk about others 90% of time, and yourself 10% of the time.” Of course, I appreciate the place this comes from: the idea that generosity is a critical part of being a part of a community, and that lifting up others prevents social media from becoming a festival of self-promotion.

But the other day I saw this Tweet the other day from Skeme Richards:

 

Now, maybe you agree or maybe you don’t. But it got me thinking.

In conversations I have with writers and creators, something comes up pretty often: a fear of being seen. Sometimes it is expressed as a deep-seated feeling that “I was raised to not talk about myself.” That to not talk about yourself is somehow noble and honorable. And those who talk about themselves are… bad. Bad bad bad people. Other times, that feeling of not wanting to be seen comes up a different way, like how I referenced above, as a strategy for “social media best practices.”

Yet something I was considering as I thought about Skeme’s words is that the people who I love following, spend a lot of time taking about their work, their process, and why they create. People like:

• Skeme Richards himself
• Debbie Ridpath Ohi
• Kelli Anderson
• Janae Marks
• Meera Lee Patel
• Betsy and Dan at Foggy Blossom Farm
• Nikki Grimes
• Rebecca Green
• Megan Carty
• Marcía Lynn Paul
• Colby Sharp
• Jason Reynolds

Do they also talk about others in the process? Yes! All the time! But it is in service of creative work and themes that resonate and sharing their life with me. So, why do they talk about themselves? Because they are:

Doing. The. Work.

Day in and day out, they are showing up for their craft. They are in conversation with people. They are making new connections. They are pushing themselves past creative boundaries. They are sharing the sometimes difficult reality of the creative life, not just the highlight reels. This means they are showing the struggles, the nuance, the process, and so much more.

I have done the work I do full-time for 12 years because I deeply admire writers and creators. I get emotional just writing that. For someone to have a creative vision. To take the risk to create. Then, to share. That is what fuels my heart.

So… yes, you can talk about yourself. Because in doing so, you are doing so much more. You are sharing reality of the creative work. You are sharing themes that matter most to you. In doing so, you are giving others permission to share and engage on these same topics that you explore. You are opening up possibility for connections.

Forge the Path That Makes Sense for You

In my book, Be the Gateway, I talk about ignoring best practices. Not that they can’t be useful, but too often, people try to use them as shortcuts, when the reality is that they deliver a fraction of the value they did years ago. I encourage you to find the path for how you share that feels right to you. And sometimes that means you have to see things that others can’t. Even the experts.

I was listening to an interview this week where Matt Damon described a conversation he had with Tom Cruise. You can watch it here, but this is the gist of it:

• Matt asks Tom how he did a stunt in a Mission Impossible movie, one where he is running along the side of a building at 1,700 feet above the ground, just on a tether.
• Tom talked about how he had the vision for this stunt for 15 years.
• When production began, Tom met with the safety guy on the set and described what he wanted to do.
• The safety guy says, “You can’t do that. That’s too dangerous.”
• Then Tom continues the story, “So I get another safety guy…”

Meaning: Tom had to find a collaborator who shared his vision for what was possible, even if it broke standard assumptions for what was possible. Now, you may not like Tom Cruise, or this kind of stunt, or these kinds of movies. But I want to encourage you to find a path that does feel right to you. Where you can open up your creativity and connection with others in ways that feel deeply meaningful to you.

Forge a path that honors your connection with readers and other creators. That should be the foundation for how you create and share.

Thanks.

-Dan

I am often in conversation with writers and creators about their mixed feelings about social media, or their downright dislike of it. In some ways, it feels like we are at a crossroads with social media. Relying on it for some important things, constantly distracted by it, and repulsed by it for different reasons.

Each month, we find new reasons to become worried about it. I hear people verbalize these fears all the time: “I heard Twitter has a new owner, I wonder how that social network change? Did Instagram’s algorithm just change for the worse? What information is TikTok collecting about me? Is it unethical to use Facebook because of some decision they made about ads they accept? Do I join Discord, or is that just for video game streamers? I hear a lot about Patreon, but I don’t understand it.”

For the writers and creators I work with who struggle with these questions, they feel boxed in by two competing intentions:

1. “I just want to feel calm, focused, and attend to what matters most to me, including my writing. Social media triggers me in 1,000 ways. I always feel like I’m failing on it, and I’m not sure it’s even a positive place to be.”
2. “But I love what I create and want to share it with others. Not using social media feels like I’m closing off the channels to reach my readers. Like I’m turning off the internet, removing any way for people to connect with me, and throwing my phone in a lake — and that doing so means I am no longer part of conversations and communities that matter to me. Plus, now I have no meaningful way to develop a platform around my writing.”

One way to view social media is as a tool. You get to decide if you use it. How you use it. When you use it. Let me explain…

This week I gave my 5 year old something that is a milestone in every kids life in 2022. I mean, you’ve probably read countless articles about how it’s the “hot” item this holiday season, already sold out everywhere, and now resellers are price gouging. Yep, of course, it’s a 1940s typewriter:

 

I hear a lot of people describe how “kids today are different” and they “need to have things flashing on a screen in order to hold their interest.” Yet, can I just tell you that this 5yo is OBSESSED with this typewriter. To him, it is a magical tool that is both infinitely complex, and totally accessible. He’s writing on it, having lengthy conversations with grandma about it, and learning the mechanics of it.

The typewriter I gave him came from my collection of typewriters:

 

A typewriter is beautiful object, but it is also a tool. It has a purpose, and like any tool, is has a longer life when it is used, not just displayed.

Surrounding myself with typewriters has me meditating on something all the time: our tools do not define us, but they should empower us. They need not be perfect. They can set limits upon us that incite our creative instincts.

I feel limits are essential to making great art. Whether that is limit of time, of resources, of tools, or something else. I spend loads of time every week researching how great art was made, and there are always stories of the extreme limits in which a great work was created. When we think about how we share, I try to keep in mind the same thing.

Can you give up social media today? Yes. You can literally delete all the apps, close your accounts, and walk away. Seriously. You have permission (not that you need it from me.) Go ahead.

And if you did that, how would you achieve your creative goals of sharing what you create? Well, let’s just consider why sharing with potential readers matters:

1. You want people to become aware of your work
2. You want to be present in the places where meaningful connections happen between readers and writers
3. You hope to have meaningful experiences, and ideally, conversations with others
4. Over time, it would be nice if this lead to meaningful actions that support and grow your career as a writer or creator

Does social media check off some of these boxes? Sure. But is it the only way? Nope. You get to choose how you share. When you share. Where you share. You get to choose the way you become a part of communities. How you develop connections to readers and other creators.

Just for fun, let’s just brainstorm another way for you to achieve these goals that doesn’t require you to share on social media. I am not being ironic when I make this suggestion: why not buy a typewriter? Okay, bear with me here as I explain this…

So maybe you get a good solid typewriter, like a 1949 Smith Corona Sterling series. I believe this is the one that Tom Hanks recommend people start with. Need a new ribbon for it? Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy are loaded with them, usually under $15.

Then, type up a gratitude letter to people you admire. Fellow authors. Podcasters. Literary festival organizers. In the envelope, include a Polaroid of yourself and the typewriter, being sure to tell the person this is the typewriter you used to type their letter on.

Now, wouldn’t that be an amazing thing to receive in the mail? A real hand-typed letter that says you are awesome? Wouldn’t that be a nice way to seed a professional connection? I like to think so.

You may be thinking: “Dan, this sounds like a lot of work.” And you would be correct. Which is why so many of us default back to social media. Not because it is perfect, but because it is so immediate. Because it offers the possibility to reach many more people with much less effort.

Typewriters are a tool. Social media can be seen as a tool as well (among other things.) They should be used where they create experiences that matter to you. I simply want to encourage you to choose the tools that feel right to you, and for you to learn to use that tool as a craft. To show up to make meaningful connections with others by using it.

I’ve written related posts about this topic of social media in the past, and these are all still relevant today:

• The Most Effective Marketing is Old-Fashioned
• Leaving Social Media
• Can You Have a Platform Without Social Media? Yes.
• The Cure for Social Media Overwhelm
• Social Media Doesn’t Sell Books, But…
• Making Social Media Fun Again
• Does Social Media Sell Books?
• Is Being on Social Media Worth it for Writers?
• What Does “just be authentic” on Social Media Mean?

Thanks.

-Dan

Many writers I speak with are surprised at how difficult it can be to get reviews for their books — even from friends, family, or colleagues. Today I want to talk about some reasons why that might be, and I’ll share advice on how you can get more reviews. Let’s dig in…

Why Reviews Matter

For the sake of simplicity, let’s limit the conversation here to you getting reviews for your book on Amazon.com, since it is a huge online marketplace for books. You can certainly apply the lessons discussed below elsewhere.

Why do book reviews from readers matter? Because they offer social proof. Imagine seeing two books online. One has 56 reviews, and the other has 2. Even just with the numbers that may tell you something about the impact this book has had with readers. It’s not hard to jump to the conclusion that the one with 56 reviews may be the one to check out first. Does that mean it is “better?” Nope. Does that mean it is the right choice for your taste or needs? Nope. But it can be a factor in how someone discovers a book or considers purchasing it.

Reviews also give you more context and information about the book. What did readers like about it? Not like about it? What phrases come up again and again that tell you about the experience of reading the book? When considering a purchase, social proof is a huge factor that can help someone make a decision.

This isn’t always about the cost of the book either. Books can be incredibly inexpensive for the value they bring to someone’s life. Often what someone may be factoring in is not just how to spend their money, but their time and attention. When I buy a book, I’m deciding how to spend hours of my time. I’m considering if it will hold my attention, or help lead me to an experience I want to have. That is why reading book reviews can matter so much, potential readers are buying an experience. Social proof extends beyond the point-of-sale, of course, into social media and word-of-mouth marketing.

The 10-Step Process to Post a Book Review

So if reviews are so important, why is it so difficult to get readers to share them? Let’s analyze the entire process of posting a book review on Amazon. Why? Because too often we seem to pretend posting a book review is like the simple click of a button. It’s not. It is a multi-step process, and sometimes a much deeper dive into identity, taste, and being seen. Below are the steps of the process, which I feel fall into three distinct phases:

The Pre-Review Phase

1. You need to have a copy of the book.
   
2. You need to have started reading the book. How many books have you purchased, you are excited about, you see others talking about it and want to be part of that conversation, you want to support the book and the author, but… you just haven’t had the time to start reading?
   
3. You need to have spent 5-8 hours reading the book. We don’t talk about this enough, how much time and focus it takes to actually read a book.
   
4. You need to feel you have an informed opinion enough to post a review of the book. We assume everyone just has clear opinions about everything on the tips of our tongues. But sometimes people don’t. Reading can be a very personal experience. Sometimes it can impact us, but we don’t have a clear way to talk about the book to others that expresses that.
   
5. You have to feel comfortable with the very concept of posting your opinion online for others to see.

The Finding Phase

1. To begin posting the review, you have to go to amazon.com.
   
2. You need to log in if you aren’t logged in already. Here we are already assuming you have an account, but if someone didn’t, that is a long list of additional steps to take. Amazon can seem so pervasive at times. But does everyone have an account? Even if they do, do they like using it?
   
3. You need to find the book. Someone may use the search box to do this. Or they may click on their “Returns and Orders” tab, then scroll to find the book purchase.
   
4. When you find the book, you have to click on the title or look for an area to review it.Then you have to identify the specific area to post a review. It’s not easy to find, you have to scroll to the book review section, then look to the left where it says “Review this product.” Some people may convince themselves that the place to find this is in their order history, and get frustrated when the option to review the book isn’t listed there. Years ago I did usability testing for websites. I can’t even express to you how common it is for you to think you are asking people to do something so obvious, and for them to take actions that are unexpected, and them feeling frustrated in the process.
5. Yay! You are now on the “Create a Review” page. That only took like… 5-10 steps.

The Ideation and Writing Phase

1. Amazon asks you several ways for you to share your opinion of the book. The first is to rate the book on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. I can see how this can trip someone up, asking them to consider what their own rating scale would be for a book in general. What is a 5 star book? What is a 3 star book? Then, is the book I’m reviewing one of the best books I’ve ever read, thereby rating it 5 stars? Of course, I’ve spoken to many writers who hope that if a reader liked a book in general, that they simply post a 5 star review. But the question can be more complicated to the reader than we may initially imagine. The rating scale can come to represent their own taste and identity as a reader.
   
2. Then you are asked to write a headline for your review. As someone who has posted blogs and sent newsletters for more than 15 years, I can tell you that writing a headline or subject line can be the most difficult part. To know how to summarize your thoughts succinctly, but also make it feel a little clever so that someone is curious enough to read the full post.
   
3. You are then given the option to post a photo or video with your review. From what I can tell, most people just ignore this, but it could be another stumbling block for a reviewer. Maybe 5% of people get to this point and assume a photo is required, so the abandon the review. I don’t know, I’m just trying to consider all of the ways this form raise unexpected questions for a potential reviewer.
   
4. Here we are, finally at the place to write your review. It’s just a big empty field. What’s wonderful about this is that it gives you an opportunity to write about the book in your own words, and choosing the length you want. But I’ve written long enough to know how that can cause someone to freeze. Perhaps some people want prompts to help them out, or maybe they begin writing, then feel unsure, then want more time to write. I can see a lot of people potentially bailing on this page here, promising to come back once they have spent more time thinking about the best review to write.
   
5. At this point, I imagine you would read through your review at least one time and go through a round of light editing.
   
6. Then you have that button to submit your review. This is a huge action for someone to take. To commit to sharing their thoughts publicly, and not knowing if they can later edit or remove them.

Some of these steps are debatable, so to be safe, let’s just call it a 10-step process overall. Let’s think about that for a moment. When I ask someone: “Hey, can you just post a review for my book online?” I’m making quite a few assumptions here:

• That they read the book (5-10 hours of their time.)
• That they can successfully navigate a 10-step process all on their own.
• That they can move through the social anxiety to write a short book report that they are comfortable posting publicly.

Let’s talk more about the social anxiety aspect…

The Social Anxiety of Posting a Book Review

What are we really asking someone to do when we ask them to post a book review? To illustrate their taste. To summarize a book in a paragraph. To recommend it to others. To be seen online.

Do you remember back in grade school when you were asked to write a book report? I do. It was kinda terrifying. I can’t remember too many friends liking the process. Now here we are asking adults to do that, but we are making it even harder. Why? Because this isn’t just a book review that will be seen by one teacher, it will be one posted to the world. I’ve sent out a weekly email newsletter (and blog) for more than 15 years. I’ve posted 30,000 updates to Twitter. I’ve shared hundreds of photos of myself online, as well as hundreds of videos. Yet even I sometimes pause at the process of posting a review online.

Most people haven’t shared as often as I have online. So I can easily imagine they have hesitation to publishing their thoughts on Amazon for others to see, and for it to remain for years there. This act of posting a review can feel inherently social, which is part of why it is so valuable to the writer and other readers. But that can come with its own anxiety. I mean, do you want bump into someone at your local cafe, and have they ask, “Hey, can you do me a favor? Can you give a toast in my honor in the meeting I’m about to walk into?” Being asked to write a review can sometimes trigger the same kind of anxiety you feel when asked to give an impromptu speech.

Asking to post a review is asking someone to consider so many questions about their own taste, their own identity, their own judgement:

• What rating scale do I use?!
• How to create a headline?!
• How long does it have to be?!
• What do I say?!?
• How will others react to what I say?!?
• Did I miss anything?!?

There may even be concerns that people have which aren’t answered on that Amazon page to post your review, such as whether your full legal name will appear next to your review. Then there is always the chance that after someone does post a review, that Amazon’s algorithm will choose not to post the review to their site. That happens.

How to Encourage More Book Reviews

It is entirely possible that I am overthinking all of this. Regardless, if anything above resonates, here are some ways that you can encourage people to post reviews for your books that may make it easier for them:

• Have a plan for encouraging people to post a review for your book. Don’t just assume it happens magically on it’s own. Sure, sometimes it does. But consider who you would ask. When you would ask them. How you can provide information to them that helps make the process easier.
• Ask people to post reviews. I put this as separate step because I think every single time someone asks, it can be difficult. Asking people to do this doesn’t just help you, it helps other readers learn about this book and how it may impact their lives in a positive way.
• Create a script that you can use to ask. This way it is easier for you to ask this without feeling self-conscious.
• Have a link to where to post the review, and maybe even brief step-by-step instructions.
• Prepare people ahead of time so they aren’t stunned at the review screen. This could be vague suggestions (“It can just be a sentence!”), or encouraging them to respond to a prompt in their review (“Just write about the one thing you loved most about the book.”) Of course, you may feel you don’t want to influence their review at all, so you can say “Just be honest.”
• Provide examples of reviews, just so they can see what makes a useful review, or even to lower expectations. Not every book review needs to be a thesis paper.

Of course, your experiences here may be different. I simply wanted to take an empathetic view at what we are asking readers to do when we ask them to post a review, and consider how that help make the process easier for people.

Thanks.

-Dan