By Brendan O’Meara
So often I see people on social media doing all they can to get attention in some capacity. A lot of time is wasted on what the person says they want to do: write.
They might be begging for advice, or complaining about what to put on their website, or otherwise shouting frustratingly into the void hoping the algorithm will place them in front of readers and suddenly they will be famous and make a living from writing … books? Blog posts? Who the hell knows?! (I’m particularly sensitive to this because I was very much like this in the 2012-era.)
Here’s the TLDR version of this blog (!) post:
1. Start a permission-based newsletter available from your website
2. Write for as many publications as possible with your signature pointing people back to your website/newsletter
3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2
But you want more detail, right? Read on, friend.
1. Start a permission-based newsletter available from your website
Emphasis on “permission-based.” Never under any circumstance should you add people’s emails to your own list without their permission. This violates the central tenet of newsletters: trust.
I won’t belabor the newsletter platform worth choosing. They all have their costs and benefits. Choose wisely.
I will say that you need something with a point of view and you must be offering value to your readers. It can’t be (OK, it can be this, but unless you’re famous, few people will care) merely “what’s going on in your life.” Or, “here’s a link to my latest essay!” Or, “Here are my tour dates!” (I mean, fine, but you have to earn all of this. But, for my taste, best to avoid it.)
Here’s an exercise. You can start by filling in the blank: People will come to me/search for me for _____.
Maybe you’re a book proposal wizard, or a query queen, or you break down sentences, or you know publicity tips. Maybe you’re a marketing maven.
These are Trojan Horse-topics. People will come to you for _____, but over time, as you earn trust, you can share other things, but I know when I get Austin Kleon’s email every Friday, it’ll be a bunch of cool links on creativity. When I receive James Clear’s newsletter, it’ll be about habits and staying focused.
Above all, the best newsletters are outwardly focused. There’s a service quality to them. As the publisher of your own newsletter, you get to choose! Who do you want to serve and how will you serve them?
My newsletter is called “Rage Against the Algorithm” and it deals with ways to be more intentional about the art we make in the face of a raging social media monolith that wants all of our attention while giving the illusion of utility. Then I offer a bunch of recommendations that I think people will like to explore (four books, and seven other random things. Do the math: It goes up to 11!). I plan on offering more insights into book research and writing because most of my readers want to be published, or more published.
Once you settle on a POV (and this can change over time!), settle on a frequency that’s doable and repeatable. Kleon’s newsletter is weekly. Mine is monthly. Whatever you choose, whenever you choose, stick to it.
2. Write for as many publications as possible with your signature pointing people back to your website/newsletter
Now do what you want to do in the first place: write! Make many pitches. Write in tiny markets, medium markets, HUGE markets. Write about craft, love, dogs, notebooks, sex, pencils, whatever!
And always be sure that your byline or signature at the end of the piece links to your newsletter signup page or your website, ideally both.
Two things are happening here. You’re writing for publications, which gives you credibility. By virtue of this new cred, people are more likely to “buy into” what you do. They will, in theory, be more inclined to sign up for your newsletter.
And the newsletter is you’re own turf! You own that list. Musk doesn’t control it. Zuck doesn’t control it. So while they pull the levers on the algorithm, you’re divorced from it. When you send out your email, it hits your readers chronologically in their inboxes every time.
But isn’t this a lot of work? Could I just post a tweet or a thread to drive traffic? Yeah, well, maybe, but how has that worked for you? Plus, you’re getting sucked into the vortex of a platform that doesn’t want to kick people off of it, so they bury your post.
I’d also counter with this question: Don’t you want to write? Isn’t that the point? So this logic frees you from the attention-devouring maw of Instagram and instead allows you to focus on a dynamite essay for Writer’s Digest. Then, one hopes (and there is a bit of hope involved), people will dig you, visit your website, and sign up for your not-annoying newsletter.
And you do this over and over and over. You build trust and authority. And even an email list with 900 people is a LOT of people who actively want to hear from you. Compared to 900 social media followers, give me the newsletter audience 10 out of 10 times.
3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2
Repeating Step 1 just means keep cultivating and honing the skill of writing a newsletter that is “of use.” Some people put out myopic newsletters that are no more than announcing what’s going on in their life. How does that help YOU get where you want to go? Unless that person is famously interesting that you’re like, oh, sure, I’d love to hear their thoughts no matter the topic.
Then you keep finding cool essays and articles to write for guest blogs (maybe Jane Friedman’s blog), magazines, newspapers, trade websites, or literary journals, and you find ways to drive those readers who made it to the end of your amazing piece back to your newsletter.
People try to hack their way to an audience on social media. It’s a waste of time and people get frustrated and they vent and complain and they get like one or two “likes” and they feel good for a moment. All that time could have been spent working on a great essay, or a blog post that’ll showcase your authority.
And I always go back this: You want to write, right? As Kleon writes in Keep Going, “Lots of people want to be the noun without doing the verb. They want the job title without the work. Let go of the thing that you’re trying to be (the noun) and focus on the actual work you need to be doing (the verb). Doing the verb will take you someplace further and far more interesting.” People want to be writers without writing. If your’e head is on straight, you want to write.
So write.
Like in Field of Dreams, build it and he will come.
If you write great essays that serve readers, the audience will come your way.
It’s a slog.
It’s not easy.
Nobody said it was.
But it’s time better spent than doom scrolling your time away and wishing. Take agency and do the thing.
