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Most working writers have some kind of online presence, including a website or Substack or social media account, but they don’t have a clue what it means to develop a cohesive, smart strategy that integrates them all, in a way that makes a difference to their books or to their readership.

Complicating matters, how can you manage an effective online presence when all the tools and platforms keep changing?

Working on this challenge is often called “platform development.” Author platform is one of the most difficult concepts to explain in publishing, partly because everyone defines it a little differently. But by far the easiest explanation of platform is: visibility to your target readership—which translates into an ability to sell your work.

For writers who want to grow their platform as efficiently as possible, you’ll need to adopt high-level and strategic thinking about who that writing is meant to reach and who you want to attract over the long term.

This 4-hour workshop with Jane Friedman will look at key strategies and principles for using your website, online writing (including blogging), email, and social media in concert with each other to better reach and engage readers, new and old. The good news: It doesn’t require a publisher’s help (or a large bankroll) to encourage growth.

There is an inherent challenge here that can’t be overstated: building a meaningful author platform to support your book or your career isn’t an overnight process, one-time event, or A-to-B process. You don’t wake up one day and have a sufficient platform that checks all the boxes. Thus, this workshop is not an ending point, the last thing you’ll ever have to learn about platform, but a starting point that will help eliminate much of the confusion and mixed messages you have likely heard about what’s important for your career and book sales. (Is social media dead or not? Is Substack best for email? But wait, is email dead too? Does all this apply equally to fiction and nonfiction? And who has time for this anyway?)

Here’s the good news: The answers to platform development often lie in your longtime life experience: the schools attended or degrees earned, the companies or institutions you’ve served or belong to, the relationships you’ve cultivated in person and online, the strengths you’ve relied on your entire life. Your platform is holistic: the sum of everything you are and have done as a writer with the intention to be read and heard. Platform represents potential and it can grow meaningfully once you get your ships sailing in the same direction. Sometimes it can grow very fast, especially if you have focus and discipline—if you know who you want to reach, if you know what you want to say, and if you know what you stand for.

Jane will help you assess your platform strengths, help brainstorm solutions to your challenges, and leave aside your weaknesses (or turn those weaknesses into your unique approach). We’ll cover the following issues together:

• Your overarching mission or message, and how you express that (or not) through your online presence (and if you can’t come up with an overarching message, how you might figure that out)
• Constructive critique and discussion of your websites/blogs, newsletters, social media, and anything else we decide is important to your platform today
• Where to look for quick wins that can help bolster any pitching or querying you plan to do
• If you want to spend time on social, how to do it effectively and what will make a difference (it’s not about increasing your numbers), with frank discussion of any fears and anxieties that can hold you back
• Next steps, for you personally, on growing your platform

We’ll work together as a group on how you can adopt a cohesive, smart approach that integrates all the activities in your professional writer life (and possibly your personal life, if you’re open to that). For writers who want to see their marketing and promotion activity pay off, or see community investment lead to results, we’ll apply strategic thinking about who your writing is meant to reach and who you want to attract over the long term.

This session will help you start where you are, and grow in the year (and years) ahead. If desired by those attending, Jane will set up a private online channel for students to connect and stay in touch after the workshop.

Tentative schedule

• 6:00–7:45 p.m.: Lecture/presentation by Jane with Q&A throughout
• 7:45 p.m.–8:00 p.m.: Break
• 8:00 p.m.–9:45 p.m.: Critique and group discussion of your platform
• 9:45–10:00 p.m.: Q&A and open discussion

How you’ll prepare

• While a laptop or mobile device isn’t required for this workshop, it will be extremely helpful. Jane can potentially help you on the spot with your website, blog, Substack, newsletter, social media, etc. You can make changes in real time!
• About 1 week prior to class, Jane will send all participants a brief form to complete, asking about goals, current writing and publishing activities, and platform assets (e.g., website, blog, email newsletter, social accounts).

Who should take this class

• Authors at early or mid-career stage who seek informed guidance and assessment of their platform strength today, and actively seek ways to improve and bolster their efforts, especially online
• Authors seeking to specifically improve their author website/blog, email newsletter or Substack, and overall online presence including social media
• Authors of any genre or category: Jane’s guidance will take into account differences among fiction, nonfiction, and children’s writers
• Traditional, hybrid, or self-published authors (platform strength helps you regardless of how you publish)

This class might not be for

• Writers who do not have a website, newsletter, or any kind of online presence. You can join, listen and learn, but there might not be much for Jane to offer concrete feedback on, especially if you aren’t actively writing and publishing.
• Anyone who’s cynical or resistant about the role of platform in an author’s career. It’s important to come to this workshop with a mindset that’s open to the possibility that platform work could be interesting, energizing, and valuable to you. (If you believe otherwise, it might be because you’ve internalized some terrible advice or guidance from publishing professionals! This workshop will help address that, if it’s true for you.)
• Authors writing and publishing just for themselves or a small circle of people, who fear or resist reaching a wider audience of people they don’t know. Jane can help address the psychological challenges, but ultimately you need the courage and confidence to reach out beyond the people you know to build platform. (And to fake it ’til you make it as needed.)

When and where the in-person class will be held

• Friday, Nov. 3, 2023
• Time: 6:00–10:00 p.m.
• Place: District Hall Boston, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA

Sorry, but virtual attendance is not possible. This workshop will not be recorded by Jane or available in any digital form. However, in-person participants are welcome to audio record the session for personal use only.

Refund policy

Registration fees are non-refundable. However, with approval from Jane, you can sell or transfer your registration to someone else if you wish. Alternatively, if the event sells out, your registration will be refunded if your spot can be filled by someone on the waiting list.

Parking options

You can use the parking application LAZGO to reserve and pay for spaces online at the following garages/lots:

• Watermark Seaport
• NEMA
• 321 Congress Street

All students receive the following

• Access to the in-person workshop. This event will take place over four hours at District Hall Boston. There will be a 15-minute break midway through class.
• Presentation slides. All participants receive a copy of Jane’s presentation materials.

What about food and drink?

• To keep the price for this event reasonable, food and drink are not provided. Jane recommends you have dinner prior to arriving. However, if desired, students can purchase food and drink for themselves on-site at Gather.

Event Attendance & Anti-Harassment Policy

We strive to provide an environment where all present—whether attendee or presenter—can feel supported. In order to ensure a welcoming event, here is what we expect from all who participate.

• That the presenter and the presenter’s work be treated with respect by attendees and that all attendees treat each other with respect and a generosity of spirit.
• That attendees will refrain from harassment of any sort including (but not limited to) comments or questions of a racist, homophobic, sexist/sexual, or threatening nature. This includes actions that disrupt or interfere with anyone’s ability to participate. Offenders will be asked to leave the live event and will not be refunded.