When I first met the founder of Tarweed, I was intrigued by the “business” model of helping writers engage with readers in a different, innovative and fun way. The old publishing model is on its head. Have you noticed? You can’t get an agent, you can’t get a publisher to look at your work unless you have already done the tough work of building your brand, developing a following and creating your writer’s platform—something publishing companies of old used to do as a matter of course for their writers.
Do you have 50,000 followers on your blog? That’s what I was asked at a conference? You need to construct your writers platform first and then do a rapid release — a new book every two months to launch a successful online campaign so that you stay ever present in the minds of your adoring fans, until you zero in on your target market and establish your “empire.” Rapid release? Online campaign? Targets? Empire? Is this war? It is. You have to fight for fans. It’s dog eat dog out there.
Build your writer’s platform! Go for it! That’s a challenge to anyone, especially for anyone who has a job, children or a sick parent to care for. These are legitimate excuses. These are very real demands on our time. You must not want it bad enough if you can’t overcome these obstacles, I was told. Great! More guilt! I already feel bad enough. Pile it on.
What if I do want it bad enough? How do I build my platform? How do I get 50,000 fans? Or better yet and more to the point, where can I host my work where someone might find it and connect with it? That’s what I really want. Not a platform or 50,000 fans per se. I want someone to read my work and feel something, find something meaningful in it that speaks to them.
I heard from a self-help guru that money is the manifestation of your self-worth. The more self-worth you have, the more money will come to you! Apparently it just jumps in your pocket! So that’s why I’m routinely short of funds. I lack self-worth! What’s more, I’m delusional because I thought self-worth was the one thing I had plenty of!
What I know I have in great abundance are good media skills that I’m excited to use in service to an organization that is on track to help writers like me: writers who aren’t the bravest souls in the world, who spend what little extra precious time they do have writing, who struggle to navigate the commercial literary playing field. Tarweed seeks to incubate new writers and strengthen established authors by giving them direct access to potential readers in a new paradigm. I’m excited to join Tarweed. Rather than build a solitary platform for myself, I can be part of a crew building a platform for writers like me.
