How to Keep Readers on Your Side
We’re all being told that we need to have a platform, that we need to grow our platform, and that we need to use our platform. Gah! Does anyone else want to throttle the word “platform” after hearing it for the fifty-bajillionth time?
The word diminishes the meaning of what a platform really is. Our platform isn’t made of robots, willing to follow orders. Our platform is made of people. People who spread the word about our work because they’ve decided we’re worth it.
And for writers, the people who make up our platform are our readers, those who read our stories, blogs, tweets, and status updates. Our readers decide which items they share with others.
I’m not saying anything we don’t already know, but sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves of who holds the power behind a platform. It’s not us. It’s our readers.
That means our ability to succeed isn’t dependent solely on the size of our platform, but also on the willingness of our platform to spread positive messages about us and our work. Ooo, positive messages. That’s important, isn’t it?
What would be worse, ten thousand followers on Twitter never talking about us, or a mere hundred followers spreading negative messages about us or our work? Yikes.
Today I’m at Susan Sipal’s blog, Harry Potter for Writers, sharing tips on how to prevent our readers from turning against us. It happens, even to JK Rowling.
If you’re not familiar with Harry Potter fandom, you might not have heard about Pottermore. The Pottermore website was announced last summer to great anticipation. JK Rowling was finally going to have ebooks? And she was partnering with Sony to have an online interactive website?
Fans salivated over the idea of an online Harry Potter world. Die-hard fans spent a month guessing how they were going to choose the lucky one million users invited to participate in the beta version. They stayed up all hours to figure out the clues during the invitation hours. They impatiently waited for their activation emails.
And then… You’ll have to click over to my guest post to find out what happened next with Pottermore and what lessons all writers can learn from it. *smile*
Does the talk of platform drive you crazy? Would you rather concentrate on the people who support us? Do you disagree with me about who holds the power? What would make you spread negative messages about an author?
Totally agree– readers are what’s important. I think where writers forget this the most is on Twitter, where you see writers acting like a spam bot and not interacting. I was at a meeting of writers the other day where we were talking about Twitter and how we didn’t get it at first, but now we love it and how much we love it and why (the interaction being the key reason in all the examples) and then this other writer chimed in late in the conversation saying “yeah, I love Twitter. I got Hootsuite and just set it up to automate my tweets.” and we all just looked at her in silence. No one said anything to her about what a bad idea it was (she just released a book this week) and I just met everyone, so I kept my mouth shut too.
I do want to concentrate on who support us and I think you state the reasons clearly. When I first started, I got all jumpy when ‘platform’ was bandied about, worried I was doing it wrong and would mess up. Now I still read the posts but I feel a little less jumpy and just try to concentrate on what someone might enjoy or find useful.
Hi Angela,
“Now I … concentrate on what someone might enjoy or find useful.”
Exactly! It really is an attitude of service to our readers rather than an attitude of “what can they do for me.” Those too approaches are so different I think it’s hard for some people to make the cognitive leap. Thanks for the comment!
My concentration is on readers. Ever since I began gaining readers it has always been important to me from day one to interact with them personally. In my humble opinion, being genuine and authentic will always go further than any sort of “platform” will.
Hi Christy,
Yes, I agree. Genuine interaction makes a much better impression than inauthentic sales pitches to the masses. Thanks for the comment!
First Jami, thank so much for your awesome guest post on my blog! You put into such eloquent words thoughts I’d had on my frustration with Pottermore for a while.
As you’ve done about platform as well. I started out thinking a lot about platform, and now, it’s not that I ignore it, but that I worry less with it. I think my worries have gone down as my comfort level with actually talking to people online has gone up. It’s hard for people who may be a bit introverted to reach out and connect. A lot of time with wonderful people like you that I’ve made through blogs and Twitter has changed that for me. 🙂
Hi Susan,
“I think my worries have gone down as my comfort level with actually talking to people online has gone up.”
That’s an interesting point! When we first start off, “platform” seems like this mysterious thing (Platform? What the heck is a platform?). So it’s natural to focus on the word. Then once we realize that platform just means the people we know who interact with us and might read our work and might tell others about it, we relax a bit (Hey, this talking-to-people-online thing isn’t too bad!). So it’s easier to make the shift to focusing on the people. Thanks for sharing the thought and for the comment!
You are absolutely right about the readers being the ones that hold the power. As far as negative, well I don’t do negative, except in one case. Plagiarism. Otherwise, I’ll just stop tweeting them, not interact, figure they aren’t my cup of coffee and move on without a thought. The reason, negative hurts the one giving it out as much or more then the one it is aimed at except in extreme cases that all can agree on.
Off to visit the other post, can’t wait to see the answer to the JK Sony question 🙂
Hi Gene,
Yes, I agree about the circumstances for being negative. It would have to be very extreme, as with plagiarism, for me to bash someone. As you said, negative often hurts the giver as well as the receiver. I’d much rather turn issues into lessons, like this Pottermore guest post or my Green Lantern posts. 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
Your guest post on Susan’s blog was great! And you’re totally right–a few hundred people spreading negative messages about you is erm…definitely something you want to avoid at all costs. Poor Pottermore.
Hi Ava,
Thanks! 🙂 Yes, I think if that happened to me, I’d just curl up in a ball. Here’s hoping it never happens to either of us. Thanks for the comment!
Amen to that!
🙂 Thanks for the comment!
[…] King, Queen and the rest of the Court. Jami Gold addresses this subject with two fantastic posts: How to Keep Readers on Your Side and When the Reader Becomes the Enemy: Lessons from Pottermore (written for Harry Potter for […]
Great post, Jami! I wish all the automated people would automate their stuff on StumbleUpon so we can see through the noise on Twitter. I bet the interaction would go up loads and it would be so much fun. I wonder if it takes the same time to have a quick chat on Twitter as it does to post a couple of links.
Hi Catherine,
Yes, it would be nice to get rid of the automated sales stuff on Twitter. *sigh* The spammers always have to stick their nose into things, and people hate that. That’s why it’s so important for us to not even come close to looking like a spammer. Thanks for the comment!
A fasinating topic and I found your guest post really enlightening. It is tough to meet reader expectations when they are on such high level as Rowling’s. But with her resources, you’d think she would have been able to do a better job with Pottermore (like do some marketing research about what expectations people do have).
As for the topic of this post, active readers who post reviews on Amazon website (and other eBook stores) have power to affect buying decisions, especially those of self-published writers. Amazon site might be the first place where the reader encountered the book. Some people are sadly targeting writers and posting negative things about all their books.
I have written only one negative review and it was for a 4th book of a fantasy series I dearly loved. I was really disappointed with the book plot wise and what it did to beloved characters and the direction it took them. Some of the disgruntlement was very subjective but it also wasn’t a very strong book. I was surprised that the writer even continued the story of those characters since book 3’s ending point tied their plots in quite satisfying way. But I would never diss the writer herself and her other books. I just won’t read any future books from her.
Hi Reetta,
One problem with anything JKR attempted is that even if she had done surveys to understand what people wanted, the expectations would have been sky-high for an immersive online gaming experience, which isn’t what she wanted to do. She saw Pottermore as a way to provide ebooks in an interesting way. And that’s it.
I think your approach for a negative review is valid. Everyone has the right to their opinion, and speaking about the book, the plot, and the characters are all legitimate points. As you said, it’s different when someone attacks the author directly. Thanks for the comment! 🙂