12 Agents Looking for Your Books About Family
Where to Query This Week (01.15.25) | Plus why you should develop an author platform while you are querying
Welcome to Sub Club’s Where to Query This Week!
I’m excited to share this essay from our guest,
! Dan helps writers develop a human-centered approach to marketing and reaching their readers through his Substack, and his company, WeGrowMedia. He is also an author and has been a coach for creatives for over 14 years! I love reading his newsletter and was particularly thrilled when he agreed to share some knowledge with us here.In Dan’s piece below, he encourages writers in the querying stage to use the waiting period to develop their author platform by building authentic communication and trust with readers. And before you roll your eyes, groan, and think, “No more talk about platforms, please!” Dan’s aim is to make this super easy to digest, offering tips on making meaningful connections with an audience that can support you and your work in the future. It’s a must-read.
Why (and How) to Develop an Author Platform While You Query Agents
If you find yourself in that liminal space as you query agents—excited at the next step in your journey as a writer but feeling as though you are waiting on eggshells to hear back—I want to encourage you to consider developing your author platform.
Do this, even if you don’t yet have a book or any news on its path to publication. Even if you feel as though you are in total publishing limbo.
I know that your life is incredibly busy and that the time you spend waiting to hear from agents isn’t “downtime.” You are almost certainly attending to the many responsibilities in your life. But from a strategic standpoint, this period is actually a wonderful time to work on developing your platform as a writer. Today, I want to talk about why that is and how to navigate it without feeling overwhelmed.
What Is an Author Platform, Really?
Too often, one’s author platform is talked about in terms of how many social media followers they have. But that is not how I would define it. Instead, your platform as a writer is comprised of two things:
Communication: Your ability to effectively communicate what you write and why with your ideal readers, colleagues, and those who may support your writing.
Trust: To create a sense of connection with you and your work, where people want to hear from you and feel like they’re a part of your journey.
This is a process of learning how to talk about why you write and to have conversations with like-minded people. Honestly, this is a skill that takes time to develop. Give yourself that time by starting the learning process early.
Learn how to talk about why you write, what you are curious about, and what you love exploring as a writer.
Do One Thing Really Well
Writers can feel so much pressure to be everywhere online, creating and managing multiple social media accounts. But you don’t have to. Instead, focus on a single way to connect with your network and ideal readers. This can mean focusing on a single channel (such as one social network), or on doing one thing really well and ignoring everything else. There are so many benefits to focusing on just doing one thing really well, including:
When you focus your time and energy on one thing, you will learn more in the process. You can later take those lessons to other places you may go.
You will focus your audience’s attention on the one place where you truly show up.
You can also ignore social media if you like. One option is to focus on developing an email newsletter. I have sent out an email newsletter every week for 20 years. Directly emailing your biggest supporters is a powerful way to develop connections and support your goals as a writer. Substack is one platform that has helped people not only create newsletters but also find subscribers. In a world where social media keeps changing, email newsletters have remained a powerful way to connect with your readers.
Alternatively, you can consistently reach out directly to other writers and those who support work similar to yours via email or direct messages. You can also host events, focus on advocating for other writers, or find another way of building a platform around communication and trust.
Focus on People and Relationships, Not Technology
A phrase I focus on in my work with writers is: Human-Centered Marketing. What I mean by this is to honor the importance of people and relationships over technology and trends.
As you develop your platform, measure each week not by how many followers you get or whether you found a way to game some social network to get more likes. Instead, focus on how many conversations and meaningful moments you have with readers or writers. This can happen online, but it can also be a real-life conversation, a text message, an email, or so much else.
Bring People on the Journey with You
So many writers worry that they have nothing they can possibly share at this moment. They view their public platform as a writer as being focused on important announcements, like signing with an agent and/or publisher, having a publication date, etc. But I encourage you to bring people on your journey.
From a reader's perspective, this helps them feel a part of something as you turn a dream into reality. But even for your publishing partners (that agent and publisher you are hoping to sign with), it shows them a sense of momentum already, and that you are a great partner in the process who is already doing the work to show up for your ideal readers.
This work of developing your author platform is not only strategic. It can be incredibly meaningful to fill your weeks sharing a sense of authenticity and creating meaningful moments with those who support and inspire you.
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12 Agents Looking for Your Books About Family
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