Alright fam, this week’s video is here. I talk about how to actually sustainably grow your author platform. Here’s the link to the video, first of all:

For those who are in the TLDW camp, there’s two general methods to grow a platform. I had some extra thoughts about each of them, so, let’s get into it.

Method 1: Outreach

Seriously whenever people talk about growing their platform, nobody seems to actually discuss the most bare-bones, working-the-pavement way to grow the platform: outreach. Social media is the world’s biggest coffee shop, it’s free, and you can just walk in and strike up a conversation with anyone!

Everyone seems to want some shortcut to go viral and get 10,000 followers at once. That’s not how it works. The alternative to spending time to optimize the algorithm for eyeballs (there are three options: cat, dogs, or nude celebrities) or figuring out how to get more people to follow you is to instead go to them. Find people. Say hello. Have a meaningful interaction. Be sincere and help people, answer questions, strike up conversations.

This is, to be clear, like a real coffee shop. If you barge in, hand someone a business card and knock over their latte, they aren’t going to want to talk to you. If you sit down, don’t listen to them, and then just lean forward and say “So anyway yeah enough about that. Buy my book?” Don’t pull a Ron.

And I know I hear some people go “But Mike, I do that?” The vast majority of people who tell me they do that actually don’t. Are you systematically finding 3, 5, 10 people a day? Do you have time dedicated on your calendar to reach people? Most of the people who say they do that aren’t actually being that systematic about it and are just playing on social media. This kind of networking is WORK.

I could do an entire post about tactical tips on Outreach, but remember if you’re not being sincere or intentional, it won’t work.

Method 2: Content

Content is where you make stuff for people to find. They like it so much, it’s so helpful, they come back for more.

Look, literally the bulk of my platform is capital-C-Content. Youtube videos? Content. Website with blog posts like this and writing resources? Yup. More content. And I mean, technically being writers, your BOOKS are also content for people to find and discover. The reason folks suggest doing more content is that you can produce blog posts, videos, podcasts, much faster than you can write books.

One thing I do want to stress about capital-C-content that may not have come across entirely clear in the video: You do not have to position yourself as a Writing Expert.

A lot of people think, “Well, I write,” and so they start feeling like they have to give writing tips or speak as some sort of authority.

I know that’s what I did when I started my firstblog. Except didn’t actually have anything to SAY? I felt like I didn’t know shit about writing at the time. And look, there’s a LOT of people out there giving writing advice and tips. If you’re finishing your very first draft of your very first manuscript, jumping on the internet to give people advice…

So what can I Talk About?

To be clear, you absolutely can talk about and give writing tips. We learn from each other. But I want you to know you don’t HAVE to do that in order to build a platform. I certainly wasn’t comfortable doing that 5ish years ago.

But there’s a lot of other things you can talk about. Books! Movies! Shows! What’s your dayjob niche? Cooking food!

As long as the Content you are creating will overlap with your audience in some way, it’ll be fine.

Another thing you can do is instead of framing yourself as an Authority – if you’re not comfortable with that – just share your journey. Share where you are, how it is going. It can take some of the pressure off yourself to try and create anything with authority.

Trust yourself. Make something you feel like will be helpful.

So Mike, Why Do YOU feel like you can talk about Writing Advice now?

There’s a few reasons why. One is that I am about eightish books into my writing. I’m in the query trenches. I’ve done a lot of writing like I detailed here. I’ve read something like 40ish craft books or more. I’ve gotten more comfortable with my craft, and because of my education background I’m good at explaining it.

But that’s not just all. I also realized coming from a project management background, I have a pretty unique perspective on workflow and iteration, and how helpful that is for creatives. That wasn’t anything I was seeing people discuss anywhere. And iteration, I firmly believe, is one of the most important things you can do as a writer.

Lastly? I don’t just talk about writing. I work in marketing. Between YouTube and the dayjob, I’ve had to learn a lot of the basics about marketing. I won’t claim to be a 100% expert – there are certainly people who know way more than me – but it’s something I think about a lot and I realized I can help creatives get oriented in what is otherwise a big overwhelming topic.

In Parting

Remember if you take absolutely NOTHING ELSE from any of the blog posts or videos I have done about marketing, if you take NOTHING else, please please please please PLEASE take this one thing:

YOU MUST BE SINCERE.

YOU MUST BE SINCERE

****YOU MUST BE SINCERE*****