Do You Need a Strong Web Following To Get a Publishing Deal?

Making it as an author has changed dramatically in the digital age. Today, building your personal brand online is almost as important as your ability to wordsmith a syntactically sophisticated sentence or write a strong narrative hook.

Big-name authors like Cassandra Clare and Brandon Sanderson can even leverage their hefty followings online when looking to land a new publishing deal.

But building a substantial following online can be tricky. BookTok and author-Twitter are competitive digital spaces and publishers are unlikely to be swayed by single-digit follower counts.

So, before starting up a Twitter page or a Reddit sub, you need to decide whether the effort is worth the reward.

Do You Need a Web Presence?

There’s no doubt that social media is a great place to build your personal brand. However, authors have been making do for centuries without fretting about 280-character limits or photo filters for Instagram.

Even today, popular contemporary authors like Sally Rooney and Zadie Smith eschew the Twitter-verse and turn their backs on Book-Tok. Instead, these authors lean on the strength of their prose and let their publishers do the branding for them.

Turning your nose up on Twitter may just give you the time and mental energy you need to craft your next best-seller, too. Rooney, the author of Normal People, is famous for spending hundreds of hours alone in the New York Public Library while researching an upcoming novel. It’s hard to imagine that she had time to shoot a TikTok video or join a Twitter debate while deep in Marxist theory.

Similarly, Zadie Smith — author of White Teeth — feels that the burden of instant analysis that social media provides would threaten her writing process. Smith says that she “began to really dislike the tone of voice of Twitter,” and that tweeting put her in a position that undermined her “right to be wrong.”

Benefits of Digital Followings

Building a loyal digital following is demanding. You need to post original content on a near-daily basis and have to regularly engage with your followers to build your following. However, if you do build a significant following, you’ll be able to leverage your loyal supporters when looking to land your first publishing deal.

A digital following can supplement your income, too. As an author, you’re a trusted source on all things literary. You can even use your wordsmithing skills and rhetorical savvy to make a living from blogging. A digital side hustle is a great way to earn some extra income, and the ability to self-promote will earn you bonus points when working with publishers.

Generate more income while waiting for your first publishing deal by choosing a niche for your blog. A strong niche like classic book reviews or short-form poetry will draw more people to your blog and will help you build a loyal following. Choose a name and a content management system that suits your personal brand and organize your main pages so folks can quickly find the information they’re looking for.

Growing your digital following can be useful if you plan on circumventing traditional publishing houses. Self-publishing is a fast-growing avenue for newcomers to the literary scene, as many author brands already have a presence in the book world. As a book influencer, you’ll already have an audience eager to read your new work, and you won’t have to worry about jumping through the convoluted hurdles that traditional publishing presents.

A strong following online gives you the chance to self-publish — but that doesn’t mean you should. If you believe in your writing and want to land a publishing deal, use your online following to show that you have the “it” factor. A strong digital brand shows that you already know what your readers want and have the skills necessary to deliver on audience expectations.

How to Build a Brand Online

A strong digital following can be a real ace up your sleeve during the publishing process. However, garnering the attention of book-ish followers can be tricky.

Start building your online brand presence by following the authors you know and love. What kind of content do they post? What insights resonate with you? Which posts do you scroll past without paying much attention?

Use your favorite authors as a guide. This will help better understand your brand’s positioning in the book industry. Try to emulate their content but add a twist that authentically represents you, too. This shows that you are aware of market trends but can provide a unique reading experience that stands out from the competition. Don’t be afraid to show the “behind the scenes” of your work day and use your social presence to build an authorial identity that you can be proud of.

Conclusion

A strong web following can be a useful bargaining chip when working with an agent. However, you’ll still need to jump through all the usual hoops if you want to get published via traditional venues. Make the process much easier by refining your niche via a blog and following authors in your sub-genre to better understand your audience’s expectations.

Amanda Winstead is a writer from the Portland area with a background in communications and a passion for telling stories. Along with writing she enjoys traveling, reading, working out, and going to concerts. If you want to follow her writing journey, or even just say hi you can find her on Twitter.