It’s not about the number of friends or fans you have.
It’s not about yelling the loudest.
It’s not about biting your lip and engaging in self-promotion.
Audience development is about finding meaningful ways to find and connect with your readers, over the span of your career.
In my lunch talk at the 2013 Midwest Writers Workshop (20 minutes), I discuss my personal story of growing my readership, then share principles I follow to make it an enjoyable and sustainable process.
A fun place to start is about 4:20, where I show how much traffic my website received after I first launched it. To get straight to some practical tips, start at 13:00.
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.
Jane – your speech to the Midwestern Writers’ Conference was superb – very helpful to me. In October I will launch a self-published novel about horseback riders who run into the backlash from Hurricane Camille in August of 1969, that
dumped 29 inches of rain in five hours on Nelson County, VA. David Moody and Chris Read are helping me go from 0 to 60 with social media, and everything you say confirms the legitimacy of finding the kernel and expanding from there.
Thank You,
Mary Buford Hitz
Excellent! Congrats on taking the next step with your project.
[…] Friedman: Audience Development for Writers: Your Life-Long Career Investment. Excerpt: “In my lunch talk at the 2013 Midwest Writers Workshop (20 minutes), I discuss my […]
Jane,
It’s really great that you share so much of your experience. I have no idea how I originally found you, but your posts are some of the few that I do look forward to. Your content is always fresh and real. It must be hard, though, to keep that up and have a life too.
Thanks, Jennifer. During the Q&A (which I should’ve taped, but didn’t), one of the questions was how much time I spend online or “plugged in,” and I said that after my work day is over (6-7p), unless I’m on a hard deadline, I try to remain offline until the next morning. I think that was encouraging to people. The offline time is important for me to keep a clear head, and I’m always looking for more ways to be more efficient—and more offline.
What a great set of principles for growing audience engagement, Jane. I know you write about electric speed, but what I like about your suggestions is that they are about learning at human speed. It’s important to get those lightning strikes, but even more important to settle in for a long-term investment of time and effort.
Spot on.
Thank you Jane. This was helpful in showing that success isn’t instant, but gained slowly–and earned. How nice to know the process can also be enjoyed!
Indeed, I think enjoyment is key to sticking with it long enough to see a tangible benefit (readers).
That is a great talk. Thanks very much for sharing. I’ve struggled with having a domain but never actually developing it also. I finally completed 3 of my books and now attempting to balance the web site dev / marketing (required work) with the writing (the work I really want to do). Thanks again.
You might consider using WordPress.com as a way to quickly get a basic site up at very little cost (<$20); I didn't have this option in 2005-2007, or else that probably would've been my path! You can have WordPress.com use the domain name you bought—that's actually where the only cost comes into play.
Another good option for an easy start: http://about.me
I loved this speech, Jane. I think it’s so helpful to people to hear how others who are ahead of them on the path have succeeded. It provides mentoring.
I loved your five audience development steps, in particular the “incremental improvements.” I tend to beat myself up when I discover I haven’t done something on my blog that I know I should be doing. :~0 But my blogs continue to be a work in progress. I know a lot but don’t always have the time to implement. So I take baby steps, which is what I tell others to do (and what you have recommended). Any step is better than no step.
I’m also a firm believer in putting out feelers in many areas to see what happens and so more people can find you. I loved that advice as well, but I do think choosing one social network is probably good advice as far as focusing time. I’ve yet to really find one that I feel works best for me–maybe Facebook, but it seems Google+ is gaining steam and SEO power.
By the way, Michael Hyatt gave me a big boost as well when he 2-3 times mentioned my book, as did the excerpt of my book that ran on your blog.:~)
Anyway…thanks for this video. I enjoyed listening to the whole thing.
Thanks, Nina. Yes, I agree that it’s good to focus. For my part, I focus on Facebook & Twitter, with my eye on Google+ as a potential replacement for FB at some point.
Excellent speech, Jane. Thank you for sharing your pathway to audience development. Such practical and solid advice about how our platform should be an extension of who we and what brings us enjoyment. You show how being “passive and patient” and having fun pay off. I’m sharing this all over as so many feel so pressured to be everywhere and make “it” happen overnight.
Thanks, Kathy! Yes, definitely not an overnight process, but a long-term and organic one. Appreciate you spreading the word!
My favorite part of the video is when you advise others to build around an activity they enjoy. People often give this advice, but you really live it. In fact, what stood out the most about getting to know you, Jane, is how well you segue from work to play. Because you enjoy what you do, the transition was invisible to me.
🙂
Thanks for sharing this speech. Love the bubbles as they do show that every writer is unique in what they are about. I finally got my blog turned into a webpage (with a blog). Better for landing where my books are while sharing what I love — history. I enjoy Twitter and find it very helpful in finding articles on publishing, agents and writing. I started following you at your website then twitter, now here at Google+. Try to not let it consume me while I write.
Yes, an important takeaway, that uniqueness. There’s no formula to follow; on the other hand, having no formula means it takes more time to figure things out. But it’s a valuable process. Thanks for the comment!