Trendspotting: How Do You Grow an Audience? Find Your “Friends”

When new publishing imprints are announced these days, influencers or celebrities are often involved to give the books some built-in “friends” to support the launch. See Zibby Books, Zando, and most recently Parea for examples of this strategy. While I find it frustrating that publishers continue to rely on celebrities and big-name authors to engineer success, if those publishers are committed to bringing debut authors to the market, the friends-in-high-places approach feels more sensible than the have-the-author-do-more-social-media approach.

I was reminded of this recently while listening to a recent podcast-marketing discussion that offered some wonderful insights applicable to any situation in which an author seeks to grow their readership or get attention for their work. To everyone’s detriment, much of marketing and promotion these days gets reduced to social media, and while social media is powerful, especially as a market research tool, it can disappoint in its sales efficacy for many reasons. Most authors’ own social media activity doesn’t move the needle unless they’re already successful or have a dual career as an online creator or influencer themselves. When social media does drive sales, it’s often because readers are talking about and recommending the book (especially, for now, on BookTok).

So how do you grow an audience from scratch, especially if the publisher is missing in action? Podcasters find themselves in just this situation: The market is flooded with all kinds of podcasts, it is hard to get discovered, and most podcasts don’t have a marketing and publicity team (or a publisher). The Women’s Media Group hosted a conversation last week with Golda Arthur, an award-winning podcast producer and showrunner, and podcast marketing consultant Lauren Passell, former Big Five publishing staffer and the founder of Tink Media.

Discoverability is not the problem, Passell says. Everyone is trying to increase discoverability, but Passel argues we need to change how we think about this challenge. The audience is out there. “We just have to be able to tell the right story and find the right people,” she says. “It’s not podcast discovery. It’s audience discovery.”

Here’s what doesn’t work very well for growth, yet still consumes time and energy, Passell says: securing media, being featured by popular platforms, placing advertising, and (of course) using social media. Those are all valid tools, she says, but they’re her least favorite ways to grow. Any of those four things may cause a spike in listeners, but those people might not stick. She bluntly says that social media doesn’t do anything in her experience, and there are even people who get interviewed in The New York Times who see no increase at all in their numbers: “It’s very cool to be in The New York Times,” she says, “but if you’re worried about growth,” that’s not where to look.

One thing that does work: Partnerships with others. Passell considers who a podcast should be “friends” with (people, shows, or organizations with whom they likely share an audience), then tries to set up a mutually beneficial relationship, like promo swaps or guest appearances. Still, these things might not cause an immediate spike in audience. Rather, it’s the sort of activity that one must engage in consistently over time. Ideally, you form friendships with a range of partners, and, because you have that friendship, you can re-engage and go back to each other repeatedly.

Interestingly, Passell says that when she sees a spike in growth for a single episode of a podcast, it can be a sign something is amiss with the podcaster’s relationship with their audience. “From a marketing perspective, you want the listener trusting you so much they’re going to come in for every episode.” Listeners won’t care if it’s a topic or a person they don’t like or recognize; rather, there’s trust that the episode will be worth their time because of the host. She also says podcasts that feel less secure in their audience relationship will often write promo copy with very long descriptions of everything discussed on the show, hoping to convince people to listen.

So how do you find your “friends”? Passell suggested search tools, such as Rephonic and Listen Notes, that are specific to podcasting. She also runs Google searches like “best food podcasts player fm” to help brainstorm ideas via Player FM. “Find a show that’s similar to you, that’s inspired you, that had a guest you’re hoping to have on,” she suggests.

Authors can also look for podcast friends (even if you don’t podcast) for potential opportunities. Consider the following:

• Go to Substack and search for newsletters that discuss your comp authors, comp books, or whatever your book is about.
• Go to Google News and input your comp authors, topic keywords, or anything that describes what you do. See what writers and publications surface. What friendships or partnerships might be there?
• Go to SparkToro and repeat the above searches on the free plan. Consider upgrading for deeper results.
• Go to Google and search for events in your city or region to uncover organizations, hosts, and venues that could be friends. (Example: Cincinnati poetry events)

For a concrete example of partnership-forming, check out the Tall Poppy Writers collective of women’s fiction authors (which is in itself a form of finding your friends) and its list of partners.

Bottom line: Every author wants to jumpstart growth from a small or nonexistent audience, but there is no shortcut or one-stop shop for overnight success, as any established author could tell you. Passell readily acknowledged that her methods rarely lead to big audience spikes. But, over time, her strategy leads to steady, constant growth: gaining the best audience, who will spread the word about what you do. Unfortunately, in the publishing industry, agents and publishers muddy the waters with undiscerning demands for follower numbers. Going after followers just for followers doesn’t mean you’re finding the people who are interested in your work. Passell’s method is more meaningful and long lasting but requires patience and commitment that authors and publishers sometimes lack.