Write Your Own Way: How Big Should Your Platform Be to Publish?

Last week in our Write Your Own Way blog series, we talked about how much writers “should” write in a day, and today we’re talking about another source of significant anxiety for aspiring authors: platform.

It’s no secret that authors need to be mindful of their online presence and that publishers do take into account the size of an author’s platform. But what a large platform means in terms of sales, and what a publisher will and will not take a chance on has evolved over the years. And it’s still evolving. 

So let’s address the question at hand: do you have to have a large platform if you want to be published?

Short answer? No.

Longer answer? It depends on what you’re looking to do with your writing career.

With that in mind, here are a few things to think about when building both your authorial platform and your writing career.

Remember What Your Platform Is Meant to Do

With so many social media outlets and the landscape of creating content on social media changing so fast, it can feel a bit foolish to spend any time considering platform growth. It’s very easy to dismiss social media content and platform building as nothing more than sponsored content and posed photographs for your Instagram grid.

Remember that building and growing your platform is more than amassing numbers. Agents and publishers don’t care about large platform numbers only because they value numbers. No, your platform is the direct avenue you have with your readers to sell books, receive feedback, and establish yourself as an authority in your chosen space.

Whether you choose to self-publish or traditionally publish, having a strong platform will help bolster your sales, give you a clear avenue to grow your network, and allow you to form a more loyal readership. In addition, it will help you set yourself up as an expert in your field. A question to ask oneself before writing a book is, “Why am I the person to write this book?” Your platform can be a great way to answer that question right off the bat.

What Do You Want to Write?

We harp on this a lot around here and let’s do it once more for good measure. Before fully embarking on your writing career, you need to make a plan for where you would like it to go. Knowing this will help you build a platform to support your goals. Are you planning on writing fiction, nonfiction, or both? Are you planning to write to one readership, or do you want to build a few unusual readerships for different projects? Do you want readers to be loyal to you, the author, or do you want them to be more interested in finding your books because they’re interested in the genre or subject area?

Once you know that, you can gather information. Where do those readers spend their time, both virtually and in real life? What social media platforms do they use? What websites do they frequent? What type of content do they consume outside of books? Podcasts? Vlogs? News? What voices do they trust when looking for information? 

Those are the places you want to explore, grow, and collaborate. If your platform is meant to bolster your credibility, you want to grow your platform where your audience spends their time and money.

How Can You Build an Interactive Space?

Back in the day, you used to be able to measure your social media success by the number of followers. It didn’t take long, however, for people to see the difference between big numbers and big interactions between a creator and their audience. People don’t just want to see a creator with a large audience, they want to see one with an engaged audience. An audience who’s quick to comment, to like, to subscribe, to purchase, and to follow links.

Why? Because when a creator, especially an aspiring author, has crafted that sort of online space, it will more readily translate to book sales. There is a large difference between liking someone, and consuming their content, keeping track of release dates, and hitting the “buy now” button when the time comes. 

In the early days of YouTube celebrities, some of the original, big-time YouTubers created a tidal wave of books. Publishers assumed each of those books would sell well because of their large subscriber counts. Some of those content creators, however, learned that there can be a big cavern between an audience who consumes content for free, and an audience who is willing to pay for it.

And so, when you’re building your platform, try to find a place where you can not only put out content that a lot of people will consume, but figure out ways to create a space where you can interact with your audience. That way you can get their feedback on the content they find most meaningful, and allow yourself to interact with your readers more directly, creating more loyalty.

Remember That Your Platform Doesn’t Have to Look Like Everyone Else’s

Although it’s always recommended for authors to snatch up as many URLs and social media handles as they can for themselves, remember that building your platform doesn’t simply mean making sure you’ve got a lot of followers on Twitter or a lot of subscribers on YouTube. While those tried-and-true methods are great places to start (especially if you’re unsure of what to explore first), don’t be afraid to get creative! Meaningful growth on your platform might come in more unusual ways, and that’s perfectly fine!

For instance, exploring things like Facebook groups, Discord servers, subscription services like Patreon, Substack, or even paid YouTube or Instagram subscriptions can be a great way to build a community. In addition, you might find it worthwhile to explore ways to build your platform that have nothing to do with social media. Writing articles for publications that your particular space values, appearing on podcasts, speaking at events and conferences, or contributing to an anthology can also be a way to not only get your name out there, but help newcomers discover you. Your platform has to support you, so don’t be afraid to try something new and get creative.

Be Nimble!

What a strong platform looks like is an ever-changing metric, so be ready to shift with the times and the needs of your readers.That doesn’t mean you have to be an expert in everything, but if you sense that a particular outlet isn’t working anymore (or if you’re using a social media service that is dying or being banned), sometimes the answer might be to keep pushing through the dry spell to make it work. It also might mean it’s time to explore other outlets.

Being willing to evolve, grow, and adapt is going to be key to building and maintaining a solid platform. So always be willing to learn more, adapt, and change as your readership does, and never be afraid of learning new ways to interact with your readers. That willingness to learn, change, and grow is going to be one of the most important parts of making sure your platform lasts longer than a fleeting trend or is destroyed because your pet social media site goes under. And most of all, remember you won’t be perfect at this. Part of being nimble is not only being willing to change, but allowing yourself the opportunity to fail, learn from that failure, and try again.

Of course, that can be a lot to work through on your own, so if you’d like to schedule a consultation to talk about your own platform, we’d love to chat! You can schedule a free consultation today to see if we might be able to collaborate to help you not only reach your publishing goals, but to build a solid platform to support it!