The Online Presence That’s a Natural Extension of Who You Are and What You Do. (Is It Just Fantasy?)
By Jane Friedman | November 24, 2014 |
I’ve been reading with interest (and sympathy) the comments on Porter Anderson’s Unboxed post last week, where we see the familiar Sturm und Drang of writers grappling with the demands of online marketing—or how to be publicly communicative and chummy when it’s against our nature, perhaps even against our work.
This has remained a problem for a long time now, hasn’t it?
One of my favorite thinkers is Alan Watts, who once said, “Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.” [To be properly introduced to Alan Watts, check out this post from Maria Popova.]
To begin to inspect this problem—and a beginning is all that’s possible for this blog post—I’ll discuss a few writers who exhibit the following qualities:
- Their writing work is clearly central to everything they do. Or think of it as: writing as guiding star (as it should be).
- Their voice, online or off, is authentic.
- Their online presence and engagement is unique to them and, at least from my POV, sustainable and meaningful.
Roxane Gay
If you’re active on Twitter, you’ve probably seen Roxane Gay in action, even if you don’t follow her. She’s funny, sharp, personal, challenging, and unstoppable.
Most of us could never do what she does. She live-tweets Ina Garten in the afternoon, battles sexism and racism in the evening, and rebuffs trolls on the hour. She’s approaching 100,000 tweets. (For comparison, I haven’t even reached 15,000.)
Gay released two books this year (a literary novel and a book of essays on feminism), and she’s been out there writing for a long time. I met her in person at the Midwest Writers Workshop, and she is a shy introvert like many writers I know. We sat together on a publishing panel, and she knew what writers needed to hear: Just calm down and write, okay?
In a blog post after the conference, she wrote:
You will hear a lot of mumbo jumbo about being a writer and maintaining an online presence. Do it if you want, don’t if you don’t. There are successful writers who have little to no online presence, though I don’t recommend going that route.
John Green
If you don’t already know him, he’s the bestselling YA author of The Fault in Our Stars. I’ve been following his career ever since a colleague (thanks, Alice!) brought my attention to his YouTube channel, the Vlog Brothers. It started in January 2007, based on the premise that John would cease all text-based communication with his brother, Hank, for one year, and instead converse via video blog. After one year passed (quite successfully), they continued the vlogging.
Why? Because they enjoy it. These guys were made to be on camera. At least the YouTube-style one. They have millions of followers.
As for John Green’s more traditional efforts, he’s written six books, a range of short stories, as well as some other fiction. The Wall Street Journal said, “Some credit him with ushering in a new golden era for contemporary, realistic, literary teen fiction.”
His advice for writers?
Every single day, I get emails from aspiring writers asking my advice about how to become a writer, and here is the only advice I can give: Don’t make stuff because you want to make money—it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous—because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people—and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts.
L.L. Barkat
I came to know poet and publisher Laura Barkat through commenting on her blog. She’s one of the most gracious online personalities I know (see this for evidence), but also one of the more private. For instance, you won’t find a photo of her online, though you might find a picture of her clean laundry.
Through her website, Tweetspeak Poetry, Barkat champions the role of poetry in our lives, which is no easy thing in a digitally distracted world that’s not inclined to slow down for poetry. Her latest initiative is The Mischief Café, which has become a touring event, but is also a book and a welcoming entry point at her website.
In an interview last year, she said:
As an author, I realized that blogging was not selling books the way writing for larger outlets was. That’s partly because I didn’t run my blogs like a business. … I was also watching many other authors who don’t prefer to run their blogs like hard-core businesses, watching them exhaust themselves, to serve maybe 300 readers per month, or less, hoping this would somehow further their careers. I had quit blogging and seen my book sales actually increase. … Our highest-selling titles are all by authors who either have no blog or rarely blog. Instead, they have strong speaking and teaching platforms, or they travel and visit their fans at book clubs, or they write for big publications like The Atlantic.
Currently, aside from running Tweetspeak, Barkat is a books blogger at The Huffington Post.
Andrew Shaffer
I first became aware of Shaffer through his Twitter alter ego, @EvilWylie, in 2010 (and so did many others in the publishing world). At the time, he was a full-time writer and reviewer for RT Book Reviews, and was under contract for his first book with Harper Perennial.
Before he scored that first book contract, he had been an aspiring literary fiction writer, but eventually gave up and started writing and selling greeting cards, which landed him onto The Colbert Report and Fox News. That publicity eventually helped him land an agent and a deal for Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love.
The satirical Twitter accounts he created about agent Andrew Wylie and Random House weren’t started as marketing tools. In an interview with MediaBistro, he said:
I didn’t actually tell anybody that I had created these for a week. I didn’t tell my agent. I didn’t tell my editors. I was just playing around on Twitter. I really hadn’t found any real use for Twitter. My own Twitter account had failed horribly to take off and attract any followers. I felt I was being “too nice” maybe, if that makes sense. I wanted an outlet where I could be as much of a smartass as I wanted to be. Not really in an entirely snarky way I guess; I think there’s a difference between being a smartass and just snarking off. So, my agenda with it at first was just to do a purely comedic thing and I had no intentions of revealing myself to anyone, ever.
Shaffer’s latest work is How to Survive a Sharknado, which made it onto the New York Times bestseller list this fall.
Jeanne Bowerman
Those of you who’ve been reading me for years now have probably heard my Jeanne Bowerman story. We first connected on Twitter (exchanging comments about tequila and bourbon) and later met in person at a Writer’s Digest event, where I gave her a paying assignment for the magazine.
At the time, Bowerman was an aspiring screenwriter who had started ScriptChat, a weekly Twitter chat that has since become a strong community for writers in the TV and film industry. When I interviewed her recently and asked how she got great people to read her stuff as an unknown scriptwriter outside of Los Angeles, she said, “To put it in a nutshell: I have a blog.” She started blogging on her own personal site, attracted the attention of the editor of Script Magazine through ScriptChat, and was invited to do a column. She continued:
So once I got the column, that’s how people started noticing me. They were reading me, realizing this girl can tell a story. So this made them curious to read the script. I didn’t ask them to read it, they asked me. Screenwriters really need a website and a way to get their voice out there. If you can write a good personal essay, they know you can tell a story.
I hope one thing you noticed about these five stories is how they can offer conflicting or paradoxical principles. Good. That gets us to the point I’d like to make.
We’ve set up the question of online activities or online presence as a problem to be solved. Is it a problem? Yes, mainly because it is discussed and portrayed as this intractable problem, rather than as something to be approached with, as Benjamin Zander might say, the art of possibility—something that could serve our own creative needs and purposes.
All of the authors I mentioned—who are quite different in terms of their success, genre, and personalities—are able to focus on their writing and maintain an online presence, while appearing to remain whole. Each has found the right approach based on their strengths and goals, and you can do the same.
If you found this post helpful, and you’re interested in learning more about how to use social media effectively, check out my 12-week course starting in January 2015.
Jane Friedman has more than 20 years in the publishing industry, with expertise in digital media and the future of authorship. She’s the co-founder and editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential industry newsletter for authors. You can find out more about her consulting services and online classes at her website, JaneFriedman.com.
My teen-age son introduced me to John Green long before he became a household name for The Fault In Our Stars. He told me I had to watch Green’s Crash Course videos on world history. At the time I was introduced to him, I had no idea Green was a writer. I liked the way he made the dry subject of history interesting and accessible to young people. Then my son gave me a copy of Looking for Alaska and I was hooked. The keys to an effective online presence, as you state so well, are to possess a voice and content that are unique, meaningful, and sustainable. And I would add one more thing–your personality has to show. By that I don’t mean a writer should reveal too much personal information, but provide a glimpse into what the writer cares about, her values and what makes her tick. Thanks for another thoughtful post, Jane.
Such a great point about personality! Yes. Sometimes I think it can be hard to be “ourselves” online because we feel a bit (or very) vulnerable.
I call it “being a character.” When I write for my online presence, I like to consider my life and myself from a writer’s pov and think “what makes this character interesting?” And a reader’s pov “What part of this story would I want to read?”
Right now Im working on a humorous personal essay and I thought it was almost ready so I read it out loud to my husband. I was halfway through and hadnt reached a punchline. I realized that the personal details in the beginning of the story bogged it down so I had to go back and cut cut cut.
Same with our online presence: give em the goods, keep the rest.
This is a great observation, Jane. The most important factor involved with procuring an online presence–or, frankly, the most important thing to evolving as an individual in this world–is to be true and authentic to your own voice, style, and process, all of which will determine which path we choose as writers and/or authorpreneurs. I enjoyed how you contrasted the many paths above. On one hand, it might make one feel at a loss as to which way to go, on the other hand it’s very comforting to think all we need to do is BE OURSELVES and WORK HARD and continue to grow, and finally LOVE what we do. Creeds I try to live by daily.
Indeed, the burden of choice! To figure out what’s right for us. I find it a rewarding process.
Thank you, Jane. xo
Jane,
A very timely, meaningful post for me as I struggle with developing a presence. Writing the blog feels like whispering in the wind; you know you’ve said something but does anyone hear it? So, I worry and fret about platform, wondering if perhaps I should be looking at other media. I wonder and worry about changing the direction of content. Wonder and worry…and neglect my writing. I like seeing the varying approaches listed here. To thine own self be true. Now, if I just had a handle firm handle on who I am. :0)
Rose – To the extent you’re able, just focus on the writing, as that helps reveals who you are. :) Anything platform/media related should grow naturally from that. (Don’s comment about playing might offer reassurance on that front.)
Thanks Jane. It did. I enjoy it, so its not lost time at all. I like that perspective. In truth, I like all of the perspectives presented. No “one size fits all” works just fine for me.
Jane, do you think some of the writers who are prolific posters and tweeters hire social media companies or maybe a trusted ghost to do their social media for them? I often wonder about this. Thanks!
I think some bestselling authors (who make their living through book sales alone) have assistants or PR companies who may assist them on a continual basis or during specific campaigns. (Think: James Patterson.) But the people I mentioned above? No.
Jane-
I too have been thinking about this “problem”. Your observation about Gay, Green, Barkat, Shafffer and Bowerman is illuminating. They’re not working at their online presence. They are playing. Which is to say they are writing.
To put it as they did, what makes an online presence effective are the same things that make writing effective. Be strong and authentic and online you will shine. Conversely, treat it as a chore and it will be a chore to read.
And that is, I think, is perhaps why creating an online presence becomes a problem. If you write to escape, writing online will feel like imprisonment. If you write to get published, writing online will feel cheap. If you struggle with low self-esteem as a writer, writing online will not lift you up because you do not already feel empowered.
Thus, the solution to the problem, seems to me, is to find joy in the writing itself–no matter what you write. Speaking for myself when I merely comment here on WU I get as much pleasure composing my disposable remarks as I do when I’m working on a draft of a book under contract.
I don’t care that my comments last a nanosecond in internet time. I’m writing and that’s all the reward I need.
Ah, but a great comment – heck, even a good, thoughtful comment – can last much longer than a nanosecond – even by interweb standards. Some find the right chord with the right readers at just the right moment, and become a tiny part of that reader’s worldview or system of self-analysis. Hence, a comment on a single post on a daily blog, among millions of blogs, can last a lifetime.
I know. You’ve supplied those kind of resonant comments for this reader, Don (I can cite examples from memory if I need to prove it). So thanks for thoughtfully composing your so-called “disposable remarks.”
Thanks, Vaughn.
Exactly. Sublime third paragraph.
I love to think of them as playing, yes! An excellent definition. Thank you.
Yes, Donald, yes. I too enjoy the art and sincerity of crafting responses. I feel the same way about greeting cards. If I’m going to send one, two things must be true: all the sentiments inside must speak what I feel, and what I write in addition to them must come from my heart. Otherwise, why bother.
Yes! Just as our protagonist must shift her perception to resolve her dilemma, so must we, as writers, explore our relationship to this “problem” of the online presence to find our truth within it. This whole article resonates with me. Thank you for such enlightening thoughts.
Jane, your title says it all for me. I’ve not ever felt pressured to be involved in social media so I only do what I enjoy — I like blogging, interacting with writers on WU and on the Blueboards and that’s about it. I don’t do FB or twitter or other platforms, but I have a couple of close writing friends with whom I share letters/emails. There’s a natural ebb and flow to how much I want to interact with people, so I go with the flow. I don’t view my online time as a waste or my online writing buddies as somehow less than my face-to-face friends. As Don and others have put it, it’s the writing, creating, that brings its own reward, no matter the medium.
That said, I know many writers who talk about blogging as a chore or commenting as a time-suck, and when I ask why they don’t stop, they feel as they should be doing it, to increase book sales. Thud! I’ve not seen a systematic study correlating book sales with any type of author activity, so my advice has always been, do what you enjoy and toss the rest.
Going with the flow—a wonderful principle—as well as focusing on what you enjoy. That’s really key in my experience. Thank you for sharing!
Your article is probably the best piece of advice I’ve read on online platforms, Jane. :) Sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the different tips, or I wonder how authors can make time for so many different social media sites without sacrificing their work. The best thing to do, however, is to not overextend yourself online; just do what you can as time allows and what feels comfortable to you. I’m happy and busy enough with my platform right now, and I don’t plan to join more sites unless I have the time and energy. This article is validation of that idea, so thank you for sharing it!
Happy to provide validation in this area! :)
Jane, yes! Loved this post. Loved it!
I’ve never been one to keep up with the Dynamic Dans or Super Sallys. I blog, I tweet, have a FB page, and hop on LinkedIn on occasion… BUT that being said, I don’t feel the need to be on every social media outlet known to man. I do what I’m comfortable with and happier for it, I think. (I mean, if folks can do it ALL, more power to them. I’d like to know though–when do they write???)
I adore people, and for me, it truly is all about the connection rather than a “numbers” game.
One of the trends we’re seeing more frequently is one that disturbs me the most–folks following others and ratcheting up massive followers, then of course dropping those who’ve followed them back after a few weeks. I enjoy connecting with like-minded, interesting, and creative people. I’m not that impressed when I’m one of 299,000 followers. …But color me happy if she lists me and THEN interacts.
Again… amen and pass the chocolate!
Thanks, Cynthia!
One of the tricky things with any thing involving numbers (or comparison of numbers might be more accurate) is that there are so many case uses. Some people are broadcasters on social media, others are conversationalists. Some are community builders, other are information sources. While social media’s value tends to be centered on relationship building, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and burdened if you feel you owe something to every person you follow, or every person who follows. So much depends on the channel, the specific message, the intent …
What I hope is that any kind of online writing/engagement opens up opportunities rather than obligations to be met.
Thank you for this article, Jane. I especially like John Green’s advice to aspiring authors.
I began blogging because I wanted to develop my craft. I continue to blog to develop my craft, build community and promote reading.
Excellent blogging goals. :)
Thank you, Jane. I especially appreciated the quote from John Green about making gifts for people. That seems to be missing in a lot of writing and blogging today.
Thank you!
Hey Jane – Just in time! I was in the midst of studying the new Facebook pages algorithm and how to create content the algorithm likes. Thanks for saving me.
Awesome post, Jane, as always. I have been teaching platform to writers since 2007, so I’ve seen how the concept has evolved from “Let’s all just hang out online and act like we are really nice all the time” to “Let’s see if we can actually make something happen.” Honestly, I prefer platform the way it is today, but I am not sure that most writers seeking platform development today have realized that a platform IS a business. A bunch are still thinking of platform as something that sells a book, as though the BOOK is the business. They don’t realize that the WRITER is the business, not the book. I think each of your stories profiles a writer who is awake to the idea that they are the business, they make things happen (or not happen), and if they put themselves out in the world with purpose, they can make an impact. There are so many things I love about platform for writers, but I think the most exciting is that focused, purposeful people can make a difference in the world, especially over time. Thank you for choosing such great examples. And Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
I like the distinction you make, Christina, between using a platform to stand on as a writer (as a person!) versus using a platform as a way to sell books. This is an important frame to put around the concept of an author’s platform.
(FYI, your Udemy course link on your website isn’t linking – I found it through Udemy but thought you’d want to know! :))
Thanks so much, Jane! I have had little success with Twitter but more results with my blog. Sometimes it IS hard work. And it takes time. But, if you don’t reach out to others, it’s not easy to gain a following. For me, it’s been a slow, steady, and longer-than-I’d like process. My success has been with blog comments, but that requires thoughtful and appreciative responses to the ones left for me. Still so much to learn! Thanks for the insight.
Blogging from Ecuador,
Kathy
I realized I was spending far too much time working a job (blogging/social media) that, at best, was minimum wage while spending less time doing what I’m highly skilled at (writing novels), for which the gains or potential gains are far greater. It’s simple: write a kick-ass book. The rest is only worthwhile if it’s not taking away from that.
Hi Eileen — Excellent point. I wonder if you’d be open to sharing: When you’ve finished a book and it’s time to release it, what do you find to be the most efficient and/or effective way to spread the word to your readers, so you can get back to more writing?
Excellent breakdown, Jane. I like what Christina commented as well – we are our own business (or brand, if you like), and books are our product.
It’s taken me the better half of a year to really come to grips with it – but the bottom line is there are no hard and fast rules, and this blog post reinforces that idea perfectly!
This post speaks to my heart. It would be no easier for me to create a fake persona that it would be to cut off my nose to spite my face.
The writers I most enjoy wind up feeling like people I could sit down and have coffee with—not that they reveal all the intimate details of their life (though they might), but that either through writing that touches me and how they interact with the people/world around them, I learn and grow and fly. For the moments I am in their (albeit cyber or paper) presence, I am improved, stretched or deepened.
Reading this piece, for example, felt sincere; as if you were in the room—as if you cared enough about the time I would take to read this, to make it meaningful.
Lovely comment, Britton. Thanks so much.
I am inspired by Jane Friedman. And I too love the wisdom of Alan Watts. Thanks for being awesome, Jane!
I started blogging in 2004, long before I had finished my first novel, long before I had even heard of the word ‘platform’ in relation to a fiction writer, long before I published my first novel (in 2012). I started blogging because I had always kept a journal, going back to my pre-teen years and keeping a blog felt a lot like the discipline of regular journaling.
The blog is my online free-writing home. It’s where I post my reactions to things that amuse me, irritate me, or delight me. Sometimes I post poetry. Sometimes photos of strange signs or my dogs. I do talk about my writing process, too.
But I’ve never treated it as anything other than an extension of who I am or as any kind of marketing tool. I do it because I like to. So, for me, I don’t see any conflict between my writing self and my blogging self. It’s all about just being my authentic self.
10+ years in, I have well over 1000 posts, so that averages 2-3 posts/week, every week, for a decade.