I’m often asked, “How much time should I spend on writing and how much on building my platform?”
It’s a difficult question to answer. After a very long preface, I attempt to offer guidelines over at my column on Writer Unboxed.
Should You Focus on Writing or Your Platform?
I hope you’ll take a look, and let me know in the comments (here or there) what you think belongs in the guidelines.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
Sorry Jane but the link is broken
Should be working now! Sorry about the glitch.
“It necessarily varies based on the author and the work in question.”
I find that to be the answer to many questions! Which is why I’m picky about who I follow and listen to; I derive little value from catch-all answers, and greatly appreciate people like you who take the time to sort through and articulate the it-depends-ness of an answer.
Hi Jane,
I really like the guidelines you’ve put forth. I fall into the “work on your writing” group, but have to give props to a debut author in town who needed to “work on her platform” so she formed a consortium of sorts to build a blog. I think group blogging is a very savvy way to strike a balance. With 8 writers and 2 posts weekly that comes out to one blog post/month which is far more doable and allows for more time to “work on your writing” no matter where you are on the career spectrum. Something others may want to consider.
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