Bad Advice for Good Writers: Platform
People say, in order to be a successful writer, you have to sit down, pour yourself two fingers of bourbon, light up a cigarette, and pluck at a typewriter until your fingers go numb. I’m here to tell you, when it comes to publishing with a major distributor, it’s just not the way things get done anymore.
But then again, like the title says, this is bad advice. Except for the cigarette part. That’s obviously, objectively bad. Otherwise, take all of the below with a grain of salt.
If you want to be a successful writer (note I said “successful” not “good”—there’s a difference), spending three months writing a masterpiece might be a complete waste of time. These days, you’re better off spending that upfront time on Twitter, building an audience.
See, publishers prioritize authors with a “platform”—that is, a built-in audience, to which they can market your book. If this sounds like publishers want you to do all their work for them, you’re right. That’s exactly what they want you to do.
Publishers prioritize authors with a “platform” — that is, a built-in audience, to which they can market your book.
The best and perhaps earliest example I can think of where an artist developed a platform and then capitalized on it, was Henry Rollins. Rollins is a poet, author, columnist and storyteller—but it wasn’t always that way. Henry Rollins came to notoriety first by way of the Southern California punk scene. He fronted the iconic punk band Black Flag, gaining attention as an important figure in what was then a niche genre.
However, it was his work as a writer and storyteller that made him a household name in the 1990s and beyond. As of this writing, Rollins’ has published over 14 books and won a Grammy for his 1995 memoir: Get in the Van.
His talent and productivity, combined with a well of real life source material from years on the road with an influential punk band, made it possible for Henry Rollins to pivot from a comparatively obscure musician to mainstream notoriety by leveraging his small, but serious platform, naturally, to tell a bigger story—his story.
The good news is, building an engaged (and real) audience online doesn’t require the effort and achievements of someone like Henry Rollins these days. Now, you can pretty much do it all on your own from the comfort of your couch, which is good because I’m lazy.
Highly active and supportive writing groups exist on virtually every social media platform, but none more than Twitter. Hash tags and search terms like #followforfollow and #teamfollow back are everywhere, but for writers, #writingcommunity and #writerlift are easy calling cards that often lead to fellow authors eager to help band together and amplify each other’s voice.
I’ve taken a lot of meetings with agents, publishers, and development producers in both streaming TV and film. While there are still opportunities to sell concepts through purely on pitch in these latter categories, when it comes to publishing, virtually every agent you talk to will require first time authors to come with some kind of following. There are exceptions for particularly newsworthy or momentous figures, but even the most brilliant writers seeking commercial success will need to offer some kind of marketing incentive to an agent before they’ll agree to representation. And who can blame them?
New Netflix, Disney, NBC, and Hulu content makes news every day. When was the last time you heard about a book that wasn’t some kind of new, self-help miracle breakthrough? The written word doesn’t sell like it used to. That’s not to say it doesn’t sell. It just doesn’t sell like it used to. If you don’t care about money, great! There are plenty of prestigious, scholarly journals eager to publish undiscovered authors—which is also a great path for commercial publication, if you can swing it, but very different from this one.
Otherwise, to get yourself in the game, here’s a quick to do-list:
- Create a Twitter account. If you already have one with followers you actually know, consider starting a new one dedicated to your writing career (you might not want to annoy your friends with all the thirst-follows to come in step #2)
- Write a good bio. Use #followback hashtags upfront and follow with information about yourself that others mind find useful. In my experience, at the earliest stages of audience building, it’s more what you can do for others than what they can do to you.
- Follow other writers. Look for posts and bios with #writerlift and #writingcommunity hashtags. Be consistent and pay it forward other writers promote you. When others follow you, follow them back. Don’t waste your time with famous authors. You’re looking for people in the same position as you. Profiles with 50–5,000 followers are ideal. Note that some people just pay for followers. (And Twitter knows this, so don’t do it.) Use your best judgement.
- Be active and participate in the community. Like other people’s posts, especially the “pinned” posts on their profile, which are often links to their books. Send messages thanking people for their follows. Comment on posts. Do it everyday. Twitter rewards consistent activity by driving traffic to you.
In my experience, at the earliest stages of audience building, it’s more what you can do for others than what they can do to you.
I also have an unsupported idea that Twitter rewards people for using innovations like Fleets. It just makes sense for them from a business perspective. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
If you follow the sequence above consistently, say, everyday for about a month, it should net a good, 500+ followers. At that point, you’ll be ready for the next stage of your audience development and the next piece of bad advice.
And you can do this without writing a word (yet). I’ll see you then.
