The Writer's Cardinal Rule

The Writer’s Cardinal Rule

 

This is something that so many authors do backwards in the beginning. I have seen countless blogs out there and countless twitter accounts by writers, artists, poets, novelists and more. Some these blogs look good (and some don’t.) They have quite a lot of content, and they update them consistently. But there is a major problem that too many writers make, and it’s one that can keep a career from ever getting started. This because they do not follow the cardinal rule all writers of the 21^st century need to follow if they are going to build a fan base.

Lead with the content first.

Apple Jack’s Poetry Vlog!

Big Mamma’s Novel Corner

Joe Nobodies Twitter Account.

 

See the problem with all of these? (Other than the obvious.) That’s right—you don’t know who the heck they are. More importantly you don’t have any idea what it is they are writing about. Now on the one hand you can’t blame people for being confused about how this works. After all, everyone has seen pop stars crammed down their throats, books on the shelves of stores with the author name in bold and the title in small font on the bottom, radios chanting the same name after name after name. The difference is—these advertising companies have all the time in the world and all the means in the world to repeat the names day after day week after week and play their songs on the radio, put their books in your face and generally get them familiar enough in your mindset where they feel like old friends by the time they render your credit card 40 bucks lighter. The problem with us smaller time folk is that we don’t have that luxury.

“But then how are rags to riches stories made?”

They are made by a different formula. And usually by following the cardinal rule of writing in the 21^st century: lead with your content, not your name.

Apple Jack’s Poetry Vlog as a title probably won’t pick up many new listeners on the fly—but “Sweet Love Poems” might. “My Job Sucks Poetry Corner” might. “Funny Quotes” twitter feed could.

No matter what genre you write in—fiction, non fiction, poetry, plays, movie scripts, the material is about SOMETHING. How specific the something is determines where your fans come from—finding the niche community that would find what you are writing about appealing is a major, major factor.

For example, a book of poetry from a first time poet with no overall theme would have a hard time getting picked up by a publisher—if a poet chose to put it out themselves odds are a few friends and family members might buy it, but that’s it. Take this same poet, organize the first book around a specific theme, and then market the book to those people who are interested in the theme and odds are the sales will do MUCH better. That same poet’s first book that could have been a flop could turn into a regional best seller when coupled with a theme like “poetry of breakup.” Not to mention that when you get to the online component of search engines—no one will be searching for an author’s name unless they already know the author. Subject matter on the other hand is a different story.

So when thinking about what to put out next—poetry, fiction, non-fiction or whatever—figure out what the themes are—and push those themes. If done well enough—eventually people will start to associate a name with the theme—and that’s when the fans start to trickle in rapidly.