Finders Keepers, for your Loyal Readers: Tips on growing your audience as a new writer.

Being a writer in this era is possibly the most tiring work you can create for yourself. Right off the bat you will need thiccc skin. Yes, I meant to spell it with three C’s. On top of the thiccc skin, you will need resilience. When the older writers started back in 2010’s, there wasn’t much scrutiny. I built a page with a following of over 20k, twice, with horrible grammatical errors, words that are used out of context, punctuation errors and typos. I shrivel to dust when I read my old work. Pure embarrassment leaks out of my pores. Yet, I grew to those numbers.

Back then, people read what they could find. There was a short supply and it fed those with a craving. As we grew, our craft grew. Those with a passion for the pen stayed and perfected their art growing to crazy numbers. Some of us left the writing world. Some of us returned with a vengeance carried by demons. So today, I want to give a few pointers on how to grow your audience as a new writer. 

1: Be consistent and provide quality work

It is so hard to balance work and/or school already. Piling another 2 hours minimum of creative work is exhausting. Create a schedule that suits YOU. Your tribe will stick to that. If you know you can only write two chapters, make that your weekly target. Tip: When life is less busy and you are feeling up to it, write a bonus to thank your people.

You can no longer get away with bad grammar. It’s 2024 now. You have so many tools. ‘Grammarly’ being one of them. Check on Google for what you can use to help you spell check your work. Google anything you want. I promise no one will smack you.

Research your work. You can’t know everything. If you’re unsure, quick type on Google. Check the definition of words. Check synonyms and adjectives to make your chapter juicy. Read articles. Read. Read. Read. You will learn so much from just researching. You’ll be able to have conversations with people from all different walks of life.

 

2: You don’t need a niche when you start

I’ve been writing on and off about 10 years and its only this year I realized my niche is Romantasy. Sometimes just romance. Rich black love. Love and m/billionaires are usually involved. Only this year, I’m starting to climb out of that box and explore other genres. Write what you feel. To help you write, brainstorm what you want the story to be about. In high school, they used to encourage us to start brainstorming and using a mind map for our essays. Crazy how that still helps me. From the mind map, I can bullet point a timeline for what happens why and when. From there, it’s Christmas. What will you be doing for Christmas this year? Comment below.

 

3: Create relatable characters

I never used to do this but I’ve since developed bad memory and it helps to write down things in my old age. Have a personality for each of your characters. Make it brief because with every story there must be character development and a gasp. Character development will always be up to you as a writer but a gasp is very necessary. I beg of you. Three base points for your character to follow a guideline. Have two aligning personality traits and one trait that is specific to them usually odd. It might make them loveable or frustrating; either way it will keep readers invested. Cue in the gasp. Once your readers are well oiled in this machine of knowing you, allow that character to do a different thing far from what would be thought of them. It is like crack. For example; the sadistic, moody, grump that has a nightly skincare routine. That makes him interesting. All he cares about is his radiant skin. Nothing else. You know him to be ruthless and uncaring. Then one day out of the blue, he donates a part of his liver because he visited the hospital one day to finish someone off and came across a man needing a liver.

Side Note: I learned from research that the liver has the ability to regenerate. You can donate a portion of your liver, and it will grow back over time, restoring its full function. Isn’t that fascinating information to know for no particular reason—until you need to donate, of course?

4: Engage with branding

Branding is everything. Back in the day - yes I’ll keep referring don’t roll your eyes at me – we rolled off our own steam. Our work was shared, our pages mentioned. There was no real need to actively advertise. Therefore, our page names could be quite random. Now, you’d find a page name “Stories by...” or perhaps “Novels by...” and mine currently “Written by...” This is what branding is. When you read that name, you already know this page writes stories and you click in. When you comment; engaging with other stories, your name sticks out. To the writer, to the reader. When you give valuable insight, others are intrigued and want to see what you’re about. (Please don’t advertise yourself under another writer’s work unless they give permission.)

 

5: Thiccc skin

It’s going to be tough but remember why you started writing. You wanted to share a story. You wanted to explore your imagination. Whatever reason it may be. Take time out from counting likes and count growth. Your page has analytics. Share those screenshots(safely) and gives thanks. Encourage those likes though, those comments. At the end of every chapter, ask for comments. This helps if you’re at least 10 chapters in by now your readers are acquainted with the storyline and characters. Even I still have difficulty with reaching targets these days and that is attributed to a whole lot of factors. PDFs are preferred by some readers and they want them free of charge. People are busy and kind of forget to check your page(this is why sticking to a schedule helps). Others read much later on and are too shy to comment on old chapters. There are so many factors. Don’t let this affect your craft, I know I’m one to talk, but be better than me. Allow readers to have opinions far different from yours. It will irritate you to hell but that opinion counts as engagement. Broaden your community. Don’t focus on one group or platform. There are groups or pages that share writers work.

 

Enjoy the journey with your followers/readers. A young reminder in the day about how crazy your most hated character can be. Remind them of a scene from a previous chapter that can either make them giggle or quake with rage. Don’t use the word ‘irregardless’ even if Satan threatens you. Happy writing.