Eye on the Prize: Go Public

Why Creating the Story Behind Your Story Begins Now

Dan Blank

Commitment is a terrifying thing. The choice to write your novel is no less of a commitment than any other relationship in your life. It is, perhaps, the most delicate and insidious commitment of all. So much of the work happens in your head that you can easily become your own unreliable narrator.

Perhaps a writer’s greatest fear, after being termed a hack, is to become that spammy self-promoter who shamelessly plugs her work in a desperate attempt to find a readership. Still, I would encourage you to make a public commitment to your book as soon as possible and share your intentions with the world. Why? Because it is difficult to find a readership for your book, and a strategic audience development plan can work wonders.

TALK ABOUT IT—NOW

Too many authors wait to talk about their books until they’re published. Their intentions are good; they want to bring their story into the world with grace and elegance. They hope that it naturally finds a fit in the literary landscape and that those who find the story share it with others as one shares an heirloom between generations.

But doing so wastes months of opportunities when you might be seeding knowledge of your upcoming book in the minds of potential readers. Seasoned marketers know that it takes repeated exposure to a product before a potential customer remembers it. Yet too many authors rely on the few short weeks during the book launch to develop a sizable customer base. Then, suddenly, we feel we have one shot: the launch. We hope that word-of-mouth marketing takes hold before we have to do any promotion ourselves. We pray for buzz.

That rarely happens. I want to encourage you—today—to publicly share your writing process before the book is published.

COMMIT ALL THE WAY

What does it mean to commit all the way? When you make a commitment to your novel, you do the following:

• Proclaim it publicly. This can be via a blog post, an announcement on your website, or a Facebook status update, but it can also be through conversations you have with others in the many facets of your life. Too often we compartmentalize our identities (e.g., day worker, night writer, soccer mom, choir member), perhaps thinking that each “audience” is unique, that the people who know us at work are wholly separate from potential readers, when in fact they are the same people.
• Provide updates. Don’t view your professional life as a series of press releases cataloging big milestones. Don’t announce your book and then go silent for months because you feel there is no use in talking about a book that no one can buy yet. People value what they co-create, and sharing your journey brings your audience along and allows them to buy in early.
• Share your “why.” Simon Sinek made the phrase “share your ‘why’” famous in his book Start with Why, and I think it applies here. So many authors remain mute through the months and years it takes to develop a book, and they never get around to sharing the “why” behind a creation. Because of this, would-be readers don’t see their evolving and lasting passion for a story or character, only the slick sales pitch that arrives at the launch.
• Show how the sausage is made. How a book is made can be a very interesting process to other writers, but readers also find it fascinating. This is an entirely different way to have your readers learn about, understand, and care about what you’re creating.
• Find collaborators. All books are group efforts, period. Don’t isolate yourself as a means of protection. Involve others as soon as you possibly can. This can take shape in a variety of ways, from accountability groups that will keep you honest about your writing goals to building a future fan base from your first readers and those who already know you.

DON’T LET THIS BOOK DEFINE YOU

Look, chances are this one book is not going to fulfill all of your dreams. Rather, it will be a stepping-stone to help you develop your craft and understand the process of publishing while establishing a small base of readers.

In all likelihood, your debut won’t be a bestseller. You won’t get three hundred reviews on Amazon. You won’t appear on television or radio shows or see a review in a huge national publication. You won’t win any awards.

I can’t even tell you how many authors I’ve talked with who are wildly disappointed in the results of publishing their first novel. Ask yourself: Will disappointments crush you? Will you use them as justification to stop writing, to avoid the topic in conversation, to justify how someone screwed you over in the process, robbing you of “your big shot”?

If the answer is yes, try to focus on the experience you want to create.

Have you ever gone to an author reading and been blown away by how the author engaged the audience? She made you laugh and cry. She told stories, used props, or interacted with the audience rather than remaining at the speaker’s podium. This author focused on crafting a wide range of experiences for readers. The impact of her work might be measured in decades, not just the weeks around a single book launch.

Too often, we count the success of a book with these numbers and highlights:

• book sales
• the number of reviews on Amazon
• Amazon ranking
• prominent blurbs
• prominent media attention
• speaking events
• awards

There are ways to optimize the success of your book, and you may be surprised to learn that you can do many of them before your book comes out. Consider:

• The number of people you connect with who like books similar to yours. Homework: How aware are you of the places readers congregate, both in person and online? How present are you in these communities? This is a number you can control, based on your own habits.
• The number of colleagues you develop in the months and years prior to publication. Homework: Get to know your fellow authors, librarians, booksellers, media members, and anyone else who supports books.
• Successful authors whose work is similar to your own. Homework: Study other book launches, and ask other authors about theirs. Take the useful advice, and adjust your own plans accordingly.
• A list of things to celebrate. Homework: Capture every kind word and mini-milestone.
• A list of people who know about your book and support it. Homework: Consider your personal address book and your social media influence. Social media is not about getting more followers but about organizing those who support your work so they feel connected to it and can take action when the time is right.

Writing a book is terrifying. Not only is it an enormous and complex task, but it inherently gets wrapped up in our sense of identity and self-worth. This creates a minefield of emotional triggers. The result is that we often try to protect ourselves. We tell ourselves that quality takes time. That we have writer’s block. We avoid accountability because we feel it sets ourselves up for failure. We lean too heavily on proclamations of being an introvert. We romanticize “how it used to be,” among false perceptions of how it used to be. (Writers in the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties schmoozed just as much as writers do today; it was simply limited to a tiny group of exclusive people who had access to those who could connect writers to an audience.)

If you seek a traditional publishing deal, you may tell yourself to wait for the publisher’s announcement before saying anything to the world.

Stop.

Take authority not just in crafting your novel but in shepherding it into being. Commit now to learning how to communicate what this book is and why a reader should care. That will take time. The sooner you go public, the more powerful all of your launch efforts will be down the road.