Audience Development for Writers: Your Life-Long Career Investment

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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… Read more »

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 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.

Great speech, Jane. I found you on Twitter and love your posts. It was nice to ‘see’ you in person! As you say here, ultimately it’s the quality of the content that attracts and KEEPS readers. Your posts are intelligent, relevant, current and – most importantly – your authenticity shines through. It’s not all about self-promotion. You genuinely want to help, to share your knowledge and insights with others. I, for one, thank you! I like the idea of the kernel and will put some thought into what that is for me. Also, really appreciate your advice to only contact… Read more »

That makes total sense. I started thinking that it was going to be a process long ago and that if I just made sure I continued putting out new content, eventually, it will all work out properly. Thanks for the reinforcement of that thought.

Seems the male species is somewhat under-represented as it pertains to the comments and accolades for your lovely speech 😀 I’m a budding writer, working on my first novel and ran across your website… Just wanted to say that I enjoyed it much and appreciate the information – and loved the delivery too! I already have a website etc. but ZERO traffic and so have let it slip away without adding any content to the first flush of posts! I really did enjoy writing and also posting photographs (I’m a photographer) but just ran out of motivation. Your little talk… Read more »