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Today I want to talk about how to reach your goals as a writer. That may be book sales, or book reviews, or appearances, or getting essays published, or developing a following, or so much else. I will cover four key areas from a marketing perspective:

• Proximity Matters
• Focus on Conversion
• Understand The Marketing Funnel
• Double Down

Okay, let’s dig in…

Proximity Matters

So I’m reading the autobiography from an actor. It’s not someone I care about one way or another, but I simply heard the book was good. It’s Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe.

Early in his life, he lived in Dayton, Ohio, and found it difficult to catch a break with acting or entertainment. His big accomplishment at the time was being part of a singing group called “Peanut Butter and Jelly.”

But then, his mom moved his family to Malibu, California, not for any reasons related to acting. Suddenly, we see how proximity matters:

• His neighborhood friends who he shot student movies with? Emilio Estevez, Sean Penn, Charlie Sheen, Chris Penn, and others who would find success later on. His house was 4 houses away from Martin Sheen.
• He was classmates with a young Robert Downey, Jr. and hung out with Tom Cruise before either were famous.
• The TV Show Charlie’s Angels recorded an episode at his brother’s school, so Rob showed up and asked advice from the people working on set. Someone told him, “Write a letter to Aaron Spelling, who produces this show.” Rob did, and got a reply back.
• At a Dodgers game, he met the head puppeteer on the Muppet Show, who invited him to visit the set and show him how the production works.
• At a different game, he also met someone who would later become his agent.
• His aunt and uncle worked special effects on Star Wars, and gave Rob an early visit to the studio during filming. He saw all the ships and costumes a full year before the rest of the world.

Did any of these specific connections lead to later success? Nope. But he was immersed in the industry, developing his network, and undoubtedly these experiences and connections helped in some way. He was able to understand the true inner workings of various aspects of the entertainment industry. He could see how a sound stage worked long before he was paid to set foot on one. He would have hundreds of conversations of the experiences of other actors and filmmakers, as he formed his own trajectory in the industry.

This reminds me of an interview I once heard with MTV VJ Martha Quinn, who shared the best advice she was ever given:

“Martha, you’ve got to get in the life. You’ve got to go where the life is happening that you want to be in.”

She concluded: “Be involved in whatever you want to be.” The context is this: Martha wanted to get into radio or journalism, and the result of that advice was that she moved to New York, where she got the gig to launch MTV.

This is why I encourage you to show up where your ideal readers are. Because even that prompt begs so many other questions for you to research: who are my ideal readers, what else do they read, what engages them, who do they follow, where do they show up, and on and on.

Proximity matters. If you are distant from your readers, if you don’t know who they are, where they show up or how to engage them, is it any surprise when they don’t magically appear when you release your next book?

Find your ideal readers. Then go to where they are. Get involved. Have conversations. Be a part of what they are a part of.

Focus on Conversion

People who succeed often focus on conversion. That is a sales term. A “conversion” is when someone goes from being a prospect to a customer. That is sometimes when money changes hands, but a conversion point can be many things: a subscriber, a follower, speaking at a book club, getting book reviews, etc. Consider: what is the one metrics that matters most to you?

The other day I was watching a video that showcased artist Zach Hsieh’s rise on YouTube. He now has 24 million subscribers. MILLION. And half of those he amassed in a single year. It’s astounding.

I hadn’t heard of him before, so when I went to his YouTube channel I saw this as his banner up top:

 

Here is someone who has more subscribers than any of us can imagine. The very first thing he asks? “Please subscribe.”

This is someone who is laser focused on the conversion point — the metric — that matters most to him and his business. To get that subscriber leads to various ways he can engage with a member of his audience. Which leads us to…

Understand The Marketing Funnel

So many writers and creators focus on the idea of getting a sale for their book, but they don’t understand the journey to that sale. The sale of your book is not the goal. It is part of a much longer process of someone becoming aware of your work. Considering it. Testing it out. Engaging with it. Then… finally… they buy your book.

But that isn’t the end.

Your hope is not just for $10 or $15 or $20, is it? No, it is for them to read the book. To appreciate the book. To have it move them. Perhaps then you hope they leave a review, or tell a friend, or support your work in some other way, or buy your next book. The book sale is only midway through the marketing funnel. This is a typical marketing funnel (from my book, Be the Gateway):

 

Conversion is only halfway through it. From there, you hope to develop true fans of your work, who will recommend your books to others and look forward to what you write next.

Consider that progression to your conversion points. Where you create value, and where you have meaningful engagements with your ideal readers. Because your platform is not how many followers you have. It is how much trust a single reader has with you.

Double Down

You can’t half bake this. If you truly want to reach your goals as a writer, I encourage you to double down it on. To care about it more than anyone else will, because, well, that’s the reality.

Go beyond “best practices.” Why? Well, if pursue “best practices,” that means you are doing barely enough. A copy of a copy of a copy of what everyone else is doing. In the most minimal manner.

Recently I’ve been researching the career of Quentin Tarantino. Do I particularly like him as a person? Nope. Do I agree with all of his decisions? Nope. So what am I learning from his career? Well, it goes back to a quote from many years ago from Scott Johnson:

“Caring is a powerful business advantage.”

Quentin loves movies and is legendary for his research and obsession with them. It’s fascinating to listen to how he crafts a movie, the level of detail, to hear him talk about aspects of film I had never before considered, and hear from others who tell stories of his total obsession with film. Here is a photo of him before he became a filmmaker, of course, working at a VHS rental store. Everyone working in this store would say they love movies. But with Quentin, it went to a whole new level:

 

What resonates with me about people who succeed in their creative field is their depth of focus. Their ability to care more about this than anyone around them. A lot of times that just comes down to getting involved, having conversations and experiences. For Quentin that was simply spending thousands of hours… watching movie. Reading about movies. Experiencing movies.

I am listening to an hourlong podcast with Quentin where he lists every movie he saw in the theater in 1979. He was 16 years old that year. Let me ask you: how many movies did you watch when you were 16? Well, for Quentin, it was more than 65 movies. In the theater! But more than that, as he discussed them, he talked about who the directors were, who the cast was, he put each movie in context, but also honed in on details. And that’s just one year from his life. A typical comment from a listener of this episode:

“Being about year older than Tarantino I can totally relate to all of this…I’ve seen and heard of most of these films, but even NOW there are a few films mentioned here I’ve NEVER heard of until now haha…and I thought I was a fairly well-versed film buff, but Tarantino has me beat on that one by a country mile. He’s a virtual walking encyclopedia of film going back to the earliest Hollywood movies INCLUDING [international] films.”

Maybe you can’t move to the city you feel your career may thrive. But thankfully, because of the internet, you can email nearly anyone. You can show up to online groups and virtual events. You can follow and engage with like minded people through a variety of channels online. And you can share your voice. This is powerful, so much more powerful than we make out.

I’m sure if I walked into that video store in the 1980s, Quentin would have a powerful voice about what I should and shouldn’t watch. But when I left those walls, his voice would disappear.

Today, with newsletters and social media and email and video and so much else, your voice can move beyond the four walls where you sit. That is an opportunity in developing your author platform, if you want to take it.

How you share is a craft. Oftentimes your focus should not be on constantly following the latest trend, but going deeper into these strategies:

• Proximity Matters
• Focus on Conversion
• Understand The Marketing Funnel
• Double Down

Thanks.
-Dan

Join me on Wednesday May 25th for a free online event with Jennie Nash: “How to Get People to Care About Your Writing.” We will dig deep into the topic, plus celebrate the launch of her new book: Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book! Register here. Onto today’s message…

I said something in a workshop for writers recently that seemed to resonate with some of them. It was an offhand comment, but something I believe in deeply:

Creativity is work.

The context for this was to encourage the writers to show up for this work. To not wait until they have ample time and energy, when everyone around them has made it easy for them to be creative. You have to prioritize this time, even when others dismiss it. You have to create systems around it to do so. You have to mentally and emotionally prepare to work through your inner boundaries to get there. All this, just for the opportunity, to create. And the same goes for sharing what you create, which is the work I help writers do.

Should it always be that way? Gosh, I hope not. I genuinely hope you find creating easy. That it is magical. That it flows. That your life opens up to make room for it. And while I have had periods in my life where that has happened, it is not the norm. It is work, to show up for your creative vision.

I’m married to an (amazing) artist. Of course, inspiration fuels her. But I see her show up… every day… for her creative vision. I see her work.

My friends have always been creators. Dancers, visual artists, designers, writers, performers, and the like. We had this special wing of our high school for a performing arts program. I would see my friends show up for that work. A line of dancers along the wall… working. A group of students huddled over the video editing bay… working. The actors sprawled out in a hallway building sets… working.

When I was young, it seemed like so many people were talking about creative goals. Thirty years later, how many of them are still pursuing those goals, even as a small hobby? Whoever is, is working at it. And of course, this is how my days are spent with writers: showing up to do the work of developing their careers, of understanding who their audience is, forging meaningful connections with readers, and sharing their writing.

This doesn’t just happen. Not usually, anyway. You have to show up for that work.

Eight years ago Jennie Nash and I began meeting once a week to discuss creativity and business. We showed up for each other’s goals and challenges each week. The phone calls are not social, they are not chitchatty. They are us doing the work. We get on the phone, and one of us is immediately like, “YOU GO FIRST.” We each come prepared with specific challenges that we would like feedback on. We are never subtle. There is no “Oh, the week is fine, you know, just soooo busy.” It is always: “I’m losing sleep over this thing, let me present to you the decision I’m working on for this tiny aspect of my business (or creative work)…” Of course, we are incredibly supportive of each other, but we also call each other out on habits that need to change, on perspectives we are missing, and on flipping ideas entirely on their head.

Every. single. week.

Creativity is work. And you have to show up for it. So is how you share that work. Which is why Jennie and I are hosting the free event next week on “How to Get People to Care About Your Writing.” You see, Jennie is a book coach, and even established an entire company where she trains book coaches. More than 100 people have been certified as book coaches through her program. That’s amazing. To not just create, but empower others to do so as well.

Whether you intend this or not, I think that is what writers do through what you create. Whether fiction, memoir, nonfiction, poetry, or any kind of writing, you are creating a gateway for readers. You open up new worlds, new ideas, new experiences for readers. For many people, just to read a book can be work. How many books have you purchased that you never read? Or never got past the first chapter, even if you intended to? This is common. I was chatting with a writer just this week who told me, “I bought your book when it first came out. But I haven’t read it yet.” This happens all the time. I speak with writers who are shocked that their closest friends or family haven’t even bought or read their books. Of course we hope that they say, “I stayed up all night… I just could not put it down!” We hope for books to be a magical force, just as we hope creativity to be that as well. But that doesn’t always happen.

In the same way, your writing will not just magically get shared. People have to take that action. Yes, we hope that readers will love what you write, and feel compelled to share it. But as anyone who has ever published a book knows, that isn’t always true. It is work. Which is why I help people learn how to develop their identity as a writer, understand who their ideal readers are, and connect them with this writing in meaningful ways. Like, that is my whole career: to learn how to share what we create.

All of this is a craft. Of how we connect. How books bring us together. How what you create becomes part of who you are, and your daily experience in this world. Not as… “I created a product that you can buy in a retailer.” But as “My days are filled in creation and conversation around the ideas and themes I love, with people who think about them in a similar way that I do.”

Often writers view the goal of sharing their work as: “How do I grab people’s attention so that they see my book?” But that isn’t the goal. It’s how you can share what you create in a meaningful way with real people. How doing so leads them to be curious about the story you share. It’s about them loving it, and then, sharing it with others.

Jennie is doing that right now. She just published a new book, Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Big Idea:

Writing this book, publishing it, sharing it, that is all work she is doing in addition to so much else in her business. But this is her living her mission, constantly in conversation with writers and those who support them.

Likely, you don’t have any kind of business around what you create. You want to write and have people read it. I am simply encouraging you to show up for that work fully. To not shy away from doubling down on it and on the power your own voice. On sharing it like you feel it truly matters not just to you, but to others.

This week I shared my latest podcast interview with author Corie Adjmi. She shared how she grew up in a house full of athletes: “In the bookcase in my house, there were very few books, but a lot of trophies. But they always gave me the opportunity to take classes.” That support translated into a life of dance, art, and then… writing. In releasing her first book, she described her ethos of the launch process: “This is fun! How can I be creative in showing people my book, and sharing what’s inside, and what kind of great conversations can we have? And it has been amazing, a really busy two years.”

Corie and I worked together awhile back, and it feels great to share her perspective on sharing her work as fun.

 

Pease join me on Wednesday May 25th, for my event with Jennie nash: “How to Get People to Care About Your Writing.” We will dig deep into the topic, plus celebrate the launch of her new book. Register here.

Thanks.
-Dan

“Upon retirement she embarked on a new adventure as an author…” This is when I met Kathy Pooler. I met her “after.” After she raised her kids. After she retired from her career in healthcare. I met Kathy when she was 65, when everything was just beginning for her as a writer.

Kathy passed away on Thursday May 5th after a long illness. (Her full obituary is here.)

When I started my company 12 years ago, an amazing community of writers came together around what I was teaching. One of the first was Kathy. She had been working on writing a memoir for years, and upon retirement was doubling down on her new life. Life as an author.

She published her first memoir in 2014, and her second in 2019.

Kathy joined many of my programs, was an incredible supporter of my work, and that of so many other writers. I know she forged lifelong friendships with the writers she met in my programs. She kept showing up, kept writing, kept connecting.

She often shared my work on her Twitter account, including two in April. In the past decade, she shared 27,400 Tweets, each a word of support or a connection to someone. They remain, as did the good will created in how she supported other writers. She shared her life in her blog, including her post from January: “Still Above Ground and Fighting.” There are hundreds of posts here, where she shares her voice and amplifies others.

That this is part of why we write. Part of why we share. The impact of these actions last long beyond what we can imagine.

Last week I shared a photo of my 5 year old watching Mister Rogers for the first time:

It’s the first show we are letting him watch, and I started with the very first episodes in the series. So here we are in 2022, with my son watching a black and white TV show filmed in 1968. He was immediately immersed in it as if it was happening live right now.

Those rudimentary puppets? You know, the ones where the mouths don’t even move, and some of the voices are obviously Mister Rogers himself? They are totally magical to my son. They are alive.

50+ years later, Mister Rogers message resonates as it did the day it first aired. Even if the show looks dated to adult eyes, to someone who has never experienced it before, it is alive. It is vital. It is a gateway to incredible things. This is what writing does as well. What books do. This is why we create. And why we share.

But that isn’t always easy. Success as a writer is not a straight path. In 2016, I interviewed children’s book author Stacy McAnulty. She recently published her 29th book. I mean, can you imagine that? Just look at some of them:

Her most popular book has more than 2,000 reviews. Many others have hundreds of reviews. In releasing her newest book, she decided to hold a local event:

Sounds amazing right? She prepared to get a crowed: “I was determined to make it work. I sent 160 letters to local educators—every science and English middle school teacher in the county. (Not the cheapest way to communicate. Stamps are $$$)”

Well, the result was what authors have nightmares about. This is the crowd 10 minutes after the event started:

She described her preparation for the event: “This wasn’t just a reading. It was fun trivia that I spent hours creating. I also had prizes and snacks.”

But then…

A reader showed up!

Stacy shares:

“But then, at about 4:15, a young reader came in with his mom and sister. He was clutching a worn copy of THE MISCALCULATIONS OF LIGHTNING GIRL. He said that he loved my books. His mom bought him the new book as a birthday gift. The three of them played trivia with me. They got all the prizes and snacks. We had a BLAST! His mom told me he begged to come. She was late because she had to drive carpool and she also had a meeting later in the evening. She almost said no, but her son begged. After it was over, the bookseller said that I made that reader’s day. Maybe but he certainly made mine. To show my appreciation, I bought him a copy of MILLIONAIRES, as a birthday present.“

How did this moment happen? Well, remember all those letters that Stacy sent out? She says, “I asked the young reader how he knew about this event. (The family didn’t come to downtown WS often, and I think it was his first time at the store.) He said his Language Arts teacher told him. He had the letter and swag I’d sent to educators. The teacher connected us.”

So I ask you: was this worth it? Worth it for Stacy to impact the life of one reader with all this effort?

Each of us may answer that differently. But it’s what I think about when I see my son watch a 50+ year old episode of Mister Rogers. And it is what I think about when I consider Kathy Pooler’s books. The work not only remains, but it grows inside of people.

This is why we write. This is why we share.

Thanks.
-Dan

I want to invite you to an online workshop with me next Friday May 13th at 1pm ET . We will discuss finding joy and purpose in how you share. Register here. Okay, onto today’s message:

So many writers I speak to (including two writers I met this week) tell me about how overwhelmed they are with all they are doing, and all they are told they must do in order to share their work with readers. Today I want to encourage you to do something different:

Do less.

Consider this: what if you just focused on one or two things. But did them really really well? In the recent workshop I ran on book launches, I talked a little about this. When I work with a writer to prepare for their book launch, typically we will craft one to three marketing campaigns. Part of this process is to choose what they will do, but also what they won’t do. I find that this choice is empowering, to let go of the guilt of not “doing it all.”

I would rather you focus on two things in the process for what you share around your writing:

1. Optimizing for joy. To ensure the experience is fulfilling to you.
2. Creating meaningful moments for your readers.

Everything else kinda gets in the way. So for a certain writer, that may mean skipping applying for awards, avoiding doing giveaways, not worrying about optimizing for SEO, skipping an ad strategy, and so much else. But instead, they focus that energy on one thing that will truly feel good in how they share their work.

Does that sound unprofessional? As if we are skipping some kind of industry “must do”? I’m fine with that. I’ve just seen too many writers run themselves into the ground because they are told to do a million things, and end up feeling burned out and bitter. I want you to feel a sense of joy and purpose in how you share your writing. I want it to be a part of a your journey as a creator, where one book launch leads to the next, as you grow as a person, and have meaningful experiences with readers.

To illustrate this, I want to talk about… doughnuts.

In 2001 I was renting an apartment in a house, when a woman moved in next door. We met on my front lawn one day, and now we’ve been married for more than 18 years. Three blocks away was this little shop that sold bread called The Bread Company. It had strange early morning hours, so it was rarely open when I walked by it. At the time, the street it was located was a sleepy little corner of town.

That shop closed and in its place Rachel Wyman​ established a new business: Montclair Bread Company. Soon after she moved the bakery across the street to this huge building that used to house a motor vehicle inspection station. Their stature just grew and grew.

I’ve never been to this store. I’ve never tasted their food. I have never met the owner. But they make baked goods, which I love, so I follow them on social media. I mean, who doesn’t want to see more baked goods?!

Yesterday I saw they made a huge announcement. Instead of selling pastries and breakfast food and pizza and bread and lunch sandwiches and cookies…. they will only be selling doughnuts. For years, doughnuts were their speciality, but they also offered a wider menu. I imagine this gave them an expansive customer base, and had them thriving not just in selling baked goods, but having a breakfast crowd, a lunch crowd, etc. So this means a lot of changes:

• A brand new company name
• A total change in their menu
• A new business model
• A second location in upstate New York
• I get the sense they may open more locations across the country
• Expanding their mail order business
• New product lines
• Expansion of wholesale, etc.

The owner has chosen to focus on her true passion. This, of course, is not out of the blue. She wrote a book on doughnuts that was published last year, and doughnuts have clearly been their biggest seller awhile now. She is doubling down on what matters most to her, to her customers, and the future she wants to create.

I mean, why be just another bakery that also sells lunch, which has to master 100 crafts, when you can become a world-famous doughnut shop that can continue to innovate in one area?

I find that we tend to resist making polarizing choices because we worry it will limit our possibilities. We only see the limitations as: “If I only do this one thing, that means I can’t also follow this trend and that trend, and do that thing I heard about in a podcast, and that other thing I read in a blog, and do the thing someone mentioned on social media the other day…” Of course, I love the idea of possibility. Having grown up as an artist and spending all of my time with writers and creators, possibility is baked into why we do this.

But choosing is where the magic happens.

This is why I focus so much in my work on encouraging you to focus on individual readers. To create moments and connections that will truly matter. To consider how your writing can bring joy and purpose to someone’s life. Where you put your focus — on choosing to do less (but do it really well) — is part of that.

Please join me Friday May 13th at 1pm ET where we will discuss finding joy and purpose in how you share. Register here.

Thanks.
-Dan

In the past couple weeks in this newsletter, I have explored defining your creative voice and creating a sharing system. Today I want to focus on how to prepare for launching your work a year (or more) ahead of time.

A year? Yep.

This is the work that too few authors consider. Instead, they wait until they feel their book is about to launch before they take action. The problem with that? They launch unprepared. They haven’t laid the groundwork they need, they don’t have a plan, and they are stuck doing what they didn’t want: shouting on social media that their book is launching. The result is that their entire book launch feels more like a crap shoot, and they throw their hands up and say, “Well, whatever happens happens. What else can I do about it?”

While luck plays a factor in success, preparation does as well. I want to frame this within three scenarios:

• Scenario #1: You are and writer who feels you have no established platform. Maybe you have a website you haven’t updated in years, maybe you kinda share on social media, but it’s haphazard and unfocused.
• Scenario #2: You are a writer who feels you have a platform, but it isn’t working. Here you feel you have some accomplishments you can be proud of, maybe it’s a consistent blog, or you have some followers on social media, but you feel it isn’t aligned to how you want to be known, and worry it won’t convert to book sales.
• Scenario #3: You are a writer who feels you have a decent platform, but worry it is not at all focused on your next book. You look at your website, social media profiles, newsletter, and other efforts, and worry if they need to be overhauled. Equally, you are concerned about focusing them on the next book too soon. So you are stuck in limbo of being overwhelmed by what you feel needs to be done, and hesitant to mess it up by doing the work too soon.

Below is my advice for each scenario. And if you feel you don’t fit into any of these, I think all of this still applies to how you can best prepare for launching your book a year or more from now. Let’s dig in…

Scenario #1: “Ack! I don’t have a platform!”

Okay, breathe. Most people don’t have any kind of “platform” they hope for. So, you aren’t alone. And I’ve found that many people who you may think have this amazing platform, stay up at night worried that they don’t. Likely, you have more of a platform than you think.

So your book is launching in a year or two, and you don’t have a platform, and you don’t know what to do? Cool. Here are a few things I think you should consider. Is this list comprehensive? Nope. For that, I tend to work directly with people for months at a time, personalizing a comprehensive plan. (Learn more about that collaboration here.) But there is so much you can do right now to shift your mindset and take clear and reasonable actions. If you feel you don’t have a platform at all, this is what I would recommend:

• Consider what people will find if they Google your name. If you are brave, you can go ahead and actually Google your name to see what comes up. If possible, use an incognito browser window so that you are less likely to see Google results that are tailored to your past behavior. Why do this? Well consider how word-of-mouth marketing works. A friend tells their sister about you and your writing. They write down your name, and then, a few days later, Google you. What do they find? Do you have a website? Do you have a LinkedIn profile last updated 8 years ago? Are you on social media? Use this exercise to consider what the most basic elements of your platform should be: where you show up online and what you say about what you create and why. Then, step by step, craft each element.
• Consider where your ideal readers are. And what they like to talk about. If you are like many writers, this question will terrify you because you aren’t sure where to look. So to make this easier, look for landmarks. What other books are they reading? What podcasts do they listen to? What content would they see on Instagram that would get them to stop scrolling? What do they look up on YouTube. Consider them as real people. Don’t worry about pitching them. Just consider a situation where one person turns to another and says, “I have to tell you about this book I read.” Imagine that is your book. Who are these people? Do you have to make a lot of assumptions in this process? Sure. But that is just a starting point. Become obsessed with understanding who your ideal reader may be. Then show up where they are. Be pleasant. And listen. Focus first on being curious about readers, not pitching them.
• Quick: tell me about what you write and why. Feel pressured? Not sure where to begin? Yep, it’s a difficult question to be confronted with, and often it happens when you least expect it. We like to imagine that it happens when we are fully prepared, with someone who we feel will really “get” the impetus behind why you write. But instead it happens at odd times. Maybe you are at work and you are leaving a meeting and you are thinking, “Hmmm, I wonder if that cheese danish is still in the kitchen,” (this is me in the scenario, by the way, I love cheese danish), and then suddenly a colleague says really loudly, “So Dan… how’s that book coming along?” You look up and suddenly 8 eyeballs are on you. “Ummmm…. book… Oh yea… um….” This is why I encourage to to know how to talk about what you create and why. Not just an elevator pitch, but a conversation. Consider not how you describe a thing, but how you craft a conversation around the themes and ideas you love to write about.

Scenario #2: “Well Dan, my platform exists, but it’s pathetic.”

Okay, so you have some elements of a platform, but you feel it isn’t really working. Maybe you blogged for a year, send out a monthly-ish newsletter, or you’ve Tweeted a lot in the past few years… but you feel that like 10% of it was about your writing, and even that felt difficult. If you feel you have something of a platform, but it isn’t really working for your writing aspirations, this is what I would recommend:

• Have clearer goals. Consider the actions you would love people to take. Is it to buy your book? Pre-order it? Tell a friend? Subscribe to your newsletter? Talk about a certain topic? Get clear about the ideal actions you would like people to take, and then reframe your platform around those. Not in a promotional way, but by crafting experiences that lead to these things. Let’s take a simple example. Maybe you want people to talk about your book on Instagram when it is released. Well, then why not develop an audience of people who love hearing about books and talking about them. Maybe a year ahead of book launch you start a new feature on your Instagram where you engage readers with simple questions around book recommendations. You slowly develop this around your platform, and learn how to get people chatting about books. A year from now when it’s your book, you will be an expert in what gets conversation going. Clear goals leads to a clear actions.
• Share more frequently. So many people barely show up in the lives of their ideal audience, so they aren’t able to build a sense of communication about what they create and why. No, I don’t want you stuck on a hamster wheel of “content creation,” but in working with writers, I nearly always find that sharing more leads to more connections with readers. The first step here is to analyze what may be holding you back from sharing besides a lack of time. Do you have any internal narratives about not having permission to share? What are those? How do others navigate these challenges? Then find 5 people who you love to follow online. You feel they are authentic and helpful and just awesome. Use their behavior as a guide to sharing more often in whatever channels make the most sense for you. It’s difficult to share when you don’t give yourself permission to do so.
• Have colleagues. The surest way for your book to be released to crickets is if you are in total isolation. Publishing a book is a professional action, even if you consider it a hobby. You should have colleagues. Other people who create who have some kind of professional connection with. Not trading favors, but an actual colleague who you can email, text, or call to chat about the journey of being an author. I always remembered a story Miranda Beverly-Whittemore shared when she was in a poetry class. They would regularly have well-known writers as guest speakers. But the instructor encouraged the class to not worry as much about networking with the guest speakers, and instead to look around themselves at the other students, encouraging them to build connections and stay connected. That in 10 years, these connections will feel meaningful, and perhaps even helpful in their careers. So if you feel you don’t have colleagues, don’t do a calculus in your head of trying to find an “influencer” to befriend. Writers are everywhere. Just talk to them.

Scenario #3: “My platform is great, but a bit dated.”

You worked hard to create a platform, but when you look at it, you worry it that it is not in line with your next book. You want to be strategic and move into “pre-launch” mode, but you also don’t want to mess up what is already working, or start promoting the next book way too soon. So you feel stuck between knowing there is a lot to do, but not sure when to do it. This is what I recommend if you need to re-align your platform for a launch:

• Prepare to pivot. Reassess all of your messaging and all of the channels you are present on. Then, make simple changes one by one. Don’t worry about doing a complete website overhaul. Instead, make one thing on the homepage better. Then next week, make one more thing better. Slowly just simplify your platform and make sure it is aligned to your next book.
• Make every action a social action. For anything you share, consider how others can engage with it. Even consider if you can involve people in how your content is created. Also, don’t just focus on content, focus on connection. Sometimes it is way more valuable not to post something online, but instead to send out emails to reconnect with people, or establish a new connection.
• Test your big launch ideas way before you think you need them. Meaning, if you have thought up a specific way you will promote your book around launch, don’t wait to execute it. Do a test first. So if you are going to pitch podcasts, then do a test a year ahead of time by pitching 10 smaller podcasts. If you are going to do an interview series on Instagram, test it by doing a micro-version of it months and months before launch.

Is there more you can do? Yep. This is the work I do day in and day out with writers. But all of my advice above is meant to be a starting point.

Thanks.
-Dan