A Truth You Might Not Want to Read

There is no right way to build a platform, to write a book or to get a book published.

After working in publishing for nearly 20 years, I know that every single book, every single book deal, every single proposal and every single author platform is different.

Are there commonalities? Of course.

Are there general rules of thumb and guidelines to follow? Sure.

Do we as an industry have commonly accepted standards and expectations? Definitely.

But there’s not a singular roadmap to follow.

Recently, one of our clients got frustrated and quit.

Before she decided to part ways, she showed up to a meeting and said: “I just want someone to tell me what the right thing to do is!”

Unfortunately, there is no “right” thing because what’s “right” is subjective.

In this client’s case, she was getting all sorts of information about the “right” way to grow her social media following. She was hearing from us; from her future book publishing team; from a content strategist who specialized in growing Instagram; and from a community of fellow online entrepreneurs, each of whom has their own businesses and standards. When everyone told her something different, this particular client became frustrated by…