And why does it matter?

• Fiction/Non-Fiction, Genres
• One-off, series, career?

When I first started writing, I knew what I was going to write about—my 20 year career in corporate America. It was going to be non-fiction, because it was based on my life experiences. What I didn’t understand was that there is more than one type of non-fiction and I was just dabbling in one of the categories.

My way of learning something new is to leverage the existing knowledge on the topic. I went to many literary events the first couple years I was engaged in this business. Some of these events were small—a few people—and some were large—literary conventions of hundreds of people. From my corporate marketing background, I knew about market segmentation, and I had managed products and markets. I just hadn’t applied that knowledge to my writing life.

First and foremost, writing is a business. OK, it may not seem like it, maybe because we do it for the joy of writing, or because we have stories simmering in our brains. And many of the most famous writers would be the first to proclaim they are not business people. But if you want to get your work out in the world, you have to look at it as a business proposition. If you don’t have the business skills, you might have to outsource it.

It’s important to know what you want to write, because each genre has different audiences and channels of distribution. For example, in my own journey, I wanted to write and publish the story of the early years of my business career. It was not fiction, it wasn’t a how-to non-fiction. It was a memoir, which falls into non-fiction, but can be written like a novel.

So what? you may ask. I asked the same question. Those early months of writing, I took a lot of classes through The Loft Literary Center (theloft.org) based in Minneapolis. The Loft is a consortium of writers, publishers, and affiliated writing support services that offers classes to writers. It was important for me to know what kind of writing I wanted to do so that I could narrow the search for relevant classes. I took classes pertaining to writing, writing non-fiction memoirs, and poetry. I took classes about how to lure an agent. It taught me that when I was searching for agents, it was important to know that I was pitching a memoir to zero in on agents who specialize in memoirs and non-fiction—some get minutely specific in their practice. Likewise, publishers.

And what you write also determines how you might reach your intended audience. This is referred to in business as channels of distribution. In my Loft classes, the agents pressed hard on what kind of “platform” I had. “Platform”? I knew what it meant to be on a pedestal, but platform was a different animal! In this world, the platform they wanted was the social media platform. They were interested in how large a social media presence I had. The larger the platform, the larger the reach, and the less work the agent would have to do to establish me as a writer and to promote my book. If you are writing a book on butterflies, it would behoove you to be known in the world of butterflies either as an expert, an enthusiast, or as one of a community. The larger, more impactful your social presence, the more people out there you can present your book to and ultimately sell to.

For many, writing an autobiography, biography, memoir, or family history is their dream. In many cases, the audience for this type of work is the immediate circle impacted by the work. Distribution isn’t as complex as trying to get into bookstores—often it is the address of each family member. But even in this example, where the audience is well defined, the method of writing and the scope of the work can vary significantly. The first draft of a story I wrote based on my mother’s diaries was about 200 pages long. I sent the draft to a niece and nephew, both members of my audience and people who should have had a vested interest in the work. They couldn’t get past page 50. Ouch. I changed the story arc from chronological to hero’s journey, and the work became much more digestible.

I have always wanted to have broader distribution than my immediate family (although I do have a big family). Six years ago when I started, I didn’t have much of a platform other than LinkedIn, Facebook and the beginnings of a website. Today I am on those, plus Instagram, Tiktok and Substack. I have about 2250 followers on all five platforms which is tiny compared to real social influencers. I had heard that having 1000 followers could generate enough income to make a living. That hasn’t held true for me, but it gave me a target to shoot for initially.

I have decided to write fiction, historical fiction and essays. I also want to share what I have been learning with anyone who has a similar dream. And most importantly, my measurement for success is selling books, not just the intrinsic value of seeing a book in print.

What do you want to write? If you are like me, that answer may change over time. What are your measures of success? They don’t have to be like mine. They should be yours, owned by you.

I used to facilitate the Total Quality Process at businesses around the country. One of the axioms I taught was “What gets measured, gets done.” I measure the number of titles I have on Amazon and the $$ I generate. Neither are enough yet!!

I am still on the writer’s journey, and know I have a long road ahead of me. There are lots of moving parts. Come explore with me!

Tell me your thoughts on what I have covered, and what else you might like to read about.