When I signed a contract to write two books for Revell back in December 2009, I had one magazine article to my name. And that was it. I did not have an agent (and I still don’t have one, by the way). I had about 1300 subscribers to my blog. That alone wasn’t very impressive to a publisher. Build your platform. That’s what they tell us. I’ve heard literary agents say you need to have at least 5000 subscribers to your blog before you will be considered for representation. I’ve walked out of sessions at writing conferences feeling defeated, discouraged, and nearly beat up. If you are a writer who has a blog and would like to pursue traditional publication, I’m sure you can relate. Here’s a comment I received on yesterday’s post.
“As a writer who loves to blog AND wants to pursue publication, how do you reconcile the whole concept of ‘don’t worry about the numbers’ when publishers only CARE about the numbers??? I mean, in the end, numbers=people. They aren’t just numbers. They represent the number of readers who are impacted by your message. For a publisher, they represent the number of people who will likely buy your new book. So, really…numbers DO matter.”
I don’t know that publishers only care about the numbers. If that were true, I never would have gotten a contract. But agents and publishers do talk about platform. And platform is important. But it can be endlessly frustrating for a writer because it seems like you can’t have a book until you have a platform, and you can’t have a platform without a book. There is no formula, and I can’t tell you exactly why Revell took a chance on an unpublished blogger with a meager platform. But they did, and here is one thing I did that I think helped.
I focused on building a bench, not a platform. Several of the families who live in our cul-de-sac have been there for over 40 years. Their children are grown with children of their own, and I watch as these women walk slow to their mailbox, chat with one another in the street, and go back inside. They can’t stand there for long.
Last spring, we bought some benches to put in the grassy area of the cul-de-sac so we could sit and watch while the kids ride their bikes. But something else happened with those benches when we weren’t around.
One afternoon, I noticed two of my neighbors leave their house at the same time and shuffle towards the benches just before dinner. I went outside to check the mail and entered into the conversation with them for a while. They spoke of children and grandchildren, aging siblings and friends, the weather. They enjoyed the breeze and waved at the occasional passing car. They lingered. I made my way back to the kitchen to finish up dinner but kept my eye on them. They stayed out for nearly an hour. I’ve not seen them do that before. It isn’t that they didn’t want to be together, but before it wasn’t so easy. Now, they had a bench to sit on. And the bench made all the difference.
The bench didn’t give them something to talk about. It gave them a place to do it. People want to talk about things. They want to relate and live in community and converse and be together. Sometimes they just need a bench. They need a place to get the conversation started, a platform that allows them to linger and find one another.
A platform is a stage with the spotlight on you. A bench is a community with no spotlight at all. Build your bench.
I love how Sandy says numbers are people. And people do matter. People need benches, a place to relate and connect and identify with one another. When I wrote my book proposal, I didn’t have impressive numbers to show them. Instead, I focused on the reader, the girl who would come and sit on my bench if only they would help me show her where it was. Because you can build the most beautiful, relevant bench in North America but if no one knows it exists, they can’t come sit on it.
And so in addition to building a bench with quality content and a clear message, we need to have the confidence to talk about it. It’s not about me, it’s about you. It’s not about a massive audience, it’s about being a part of a community. It’s not about self-promotion, it’s about believing in your message enough to share it. Not because of you, but because of them.
What about you? Can you relate with Sandy and this sometimes frustrating dilemma of building a platform?
Oh my goodness! I SO needed to read this blog today! I am soaking it in and absorbing it but I wanted to thank you for speaking to my heart something I have been struggling with. It’s not a platform but a bench I need to build and put there for people to sit and chat and stay awhile. Bloggers are building communities, not stages.
Wow.
Emily, this is great. Love the concept of building a bench. I work and work as a nonfiction writer to build a platform, yet it never seems good enough. I know at time I worry too much about the numbers and not enough about the content. It always ends up about people and about love, doesn’t it? thanks for the great image and reminder
Thank you, Emily. This perspective resonates with me. I have difficulty embracing the work of “platform”, because its [unintended?] consequence is a heavy focus on the author. In reality, as a writer, I am content with a bit of anonymity, a few comfortable degrees removed from the limelight, a laser beam on the message. It presents a paradox. Your revisioning “platform” as “bench” is freeing.
Thanks for reminding us that the spotlight isn’t necessarily the most import place for us to be. Lovely story and analogy about the bench.
oops – typo – correct import to important – thanks!
I’ve been thinking about these things a lot lately. My blog hasn’t grown a lot over the past year, and for a long time I refused to believe the problem was my writing. But, the problem was my writing. I wasn’t putting enough effort in it, I was writing for myself, I was writing about ME (which is fun to do) (as this comment attests).
So I’m trying to write in a way that connects people, I’m trying to write about things that matter to me, and I’m trying to be less selfish. It’s not that I wanted to be a star in the first place, it’s just that I was writing for myself. It’s fine to do that, but one shouldn’t get mad about numbers if it’s all about you. I totally get this post.
I really like this series. I don’t have a footstool, much less a bench or a platform…but I have this feeling that someday I’ll end up with at least a dining room table. It makes the journey exciting, you know? Plus I’m having fun. I’m looking forward to my ottoman days.
I’ll stop now.
P.S. I can’t believe you cancelled on June.
I was out of town! She knew it was coming. That June
Love her.
And I love what you say here. I hear people say all the time that they write for themselves, but then they worry about numbers. You can’t always have both, exactly. There is a delicate dance, and it sounds like you are recognizing the steps quite well.
I whole heartily agree. Great advice, Emily. Thank you.
Emily, I love this idea, your metaphor, the other-centeredness of this. Thank you!
Very eye opening. I have more of a 4×4 piece of pressed wood. With my name on it. Not much of an attraction, I’m afraid. This series has really challenged me to look at my blog/writing differently. Thank you … time to think about growing that 4×4 into something more … for my readers.
Wonderful word picture! It also gives a perspective of servant rather than people pleaser. Of being a blesser and a vessel of His grace rather than the one who meets the needs of all. Now for application. Praying. Thank you.
What a wonderful way of looking at it ‘a servant rather than a people pleaser’. Love that.
I’m so glad you’re sharing your heart for platform-building this week. It’s such an important topic and such a stress point for people. I also got the “build your platform” comment from an editor last year at a conference, and so I did. But what I discovered was this: platforms are only successful when, as you pointed out, they are actually benches that serve a need in others, and when we use our individual strengths to build them. Which means we have to understand our own strengths to do “platform/bench development” well.
It’s amazing the freedom that comes for people I work with who learn what they’re great at, then build social media and other strategies from those strengths… they’re not stressed, they’re seeing huge growth, they’re enjoying it, and, even more importantly, they’re reaching a lot more people in their ministries because they work from the freedom of their strengths! My prayer for everyone who resonates with this particular post is that God would reveal to them their unique strengths and that they’d grow confident and joy-filled in platform/bench-building from that place!
I love what you have shared about creating a bench. Honestly, if I think too much about the numbers…well, I don’t know whether I would laugh, cry, or a little bit of both!
Here I am feeling pretty good because I am finally only 1 follower away from 100. lol. Then I see that publishers like 5,000! Ummmmm…wow. 
Thanks for the encouragement. And the reminder that we are building community and not polishing up our spotlight. And I LOVE the picture of your sweet neighbors sitting together. Makes me smile.
Blessings,
K
Emily, Thanks for that beautiful and graphic picture. Makes perfect sense. Blessings to you!
Love this post, especially the message behind the analogy about the bench. You inspire me with your message.
Love the bench analogy. I needed to read this. Thanks for building a bench that I can sit on and learn and be ministered to in this space in blog land.
I think I’m having a hard time figuring out exactly what that would look like on a blog.
I’m feeling a bit like the class dummy here.
Reading the comments helped: everyone else seems to get it, after all.
I am a huge believer in community, and in loving and reaching out to others. I hope that the things I have to say are relevant to my readers: that they give voice to feelings common to others. That they provide people with a different perspective, or that they propel them forward toward their Father in heaven with just a gentle nudge.
I installed a new comment system that allows me to better reply to specific comments, so that I COULD interact with my readers.
Maybe it’s because I don’t know you well enough and haven’t got a long enough history of hanging around your blog to have spotted your bench, and to see how it works.
Maybe I’m being too concrete a thinker, here, but I really need you to be more specific in regard to this bench concept: what do you mean, exactly, and how have you done this?
Also, while I am subscribed to your blog, is there a button I can click so I can stay subscribed to these comments? I’m afraid you’re going to answer me, and I will have moved on, and I’ll never know that you came to sit down on the bench with me to talk to me, because I’ll forget to check back here to see if you did. I have 59 other blogs to read today. Seriously!
I suppose the bench analogy is simply to get people to think about relating with people and not worrying so much about building numbers. I think when you’re writing, wether it’s a blog or a book, thinking of a bench helps me consider the reader rather than considering myself so much. I suppose it isn’t as much about comments back and forth, although that is certainly part of it. It’s more of a feeling when you come into a space – a feeling that the focus isn’t on ME AND MY BIG SELF, but it’s on you, the reader.
hope that helps some. Of course, it certainly won’t help everyone.
First off, I received an email notification that you had replied to me, so, no need to subscribe to comments as there is on many blogs, so that’s a really, really nice feature that you have on your blog! Love that!
Second, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down on the bench and explain to me more specifically what you mean! I really appreciate it!
It looks like everyone else in the comments immediately got exactly what you were saying. I feel a little silly to have asked, but I guess I was just trying to make sure that there wasn’t something more to what you were saying that I might be missing.
But in a way, I still found it helpful to have you clarify, even more. It’s a change of focus, for sure. Because very often, the focus of my blog IS about ME AND MY BIG SELF. That can be the very nature of blogging. And it was, in fact, the dangerous trap that I saw that held me back from ever starting a blog. It seems so “un-Christ-like” to me, to focus so much on my own thoughts.
And now that I do blog, it’s a trap I fall into regularly, to be quite honest.
So the challenge is: how do I share what very clearly are, after all, MY THOUGHTS, without becoming the focus of my writing?
Thanks for nudging ME to re-think.
I love what you say here, Susan. I don’t think it was a silly question at all, actually. My writing tends to be less hands-on-practical and more head and heart. So I can understand you wanting to know more.
I take great delight in helping people see things differently, to think a bit differently. A platform screams PREACHY! A bench speaks of love, friendship, and grace. At least, that’s how it is for me.
Okay, discovering this post and this series of comments about a year and a half late. But… Just had to say that it is awesome. Particularly this exchange between you and Susan. She articulates my frustratingly under-the-surface questions so well and your responses are SO helpful to me. Thank you for linking to this post today.
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I am so thankful you wrote this. Just yesterday I was talking to a friend about what was driving me with blogging. There is a piece I’m sitting on right now because of my uncertainty of the direction I want to go in.
Why do I write; What do I hope to achieve; why do I try so hard? All of these questions came up. I write all day long, and sometimes the words and stories make it to the page. But I hear the words all day long. I write because I cannot, not write.
I’m not sure that I have a clear platform, or even a sturdy bench to sit on and chat with others. I don’t know if this will lead to where I’d love to be. All I know for sure, is that when I write and put photographs to the words, my soul soars!
I just want to say thank you. I’m a mom who loves to write and who wants to write and who’d love to be published someday. I write my blog – but my passion is in fiction. I’m devouring all I can to learn how to elbow my way into the world of “being published” commercially. I have yet to attend a conference, because I don’t have a polished manuscript ready. Until recently I’ve felt I’m in the sea all alone – I have a boat with oars, but I need sails (direction and power). At least now I feel I’m not alone out here, I have others who are trodden down the same beat up path, willing to give a sister a hand. Thank you!
Oh you are so smart with this analogy. I love it! And it gives me a lot to think about as I have felt God whispering about some {maybe} future things. My platform is tiny and I’ve always been fine with that. My goal was not money or fame or publishing; it was just a place to write and share. And it still is. But I get e-mails and facebook messages and comments here and there from women who have been encouraged, who can relate, who want me to keep writing. I share things with women I know and realness begins to transpire among us. And I love that. I’m still figuring out how to foster more community within my blog. I’m longing for a new design and blog platform; it is just not in the cards for now. But I think your bench analogy is so helpful as I think about the tone and focus of my writing.
Thank you for all of this. All of these posts have been so helpful.
Hmmm.
Interesting that lots of your posts make me say “hmmm” as I’m finishing. I love the way you think and the way you make me think!
Your bench analogy is a good and useful one. Want to think about that one awhile.
Right now I’m thinking that, even if I had a platform, people might not necessarily listen to what I said as I shouted from it. A bench, though–folks trust a bench. They’ll approach; they’ll sit down; they’ll take a load off and linger. I can sit there with them. And, if need be, we could both get down and use the bench as a kneeler. Together.
That’s quite a picture. Thank you for painting it.
I so appreciate your gentle, giving heart, Emily. It is beautiful how you give away what you have been given. I am grateful. Thank you! And I so love the picture of your sweet neighbors on the bench! You are such a blessing to these hearts He brings to your bench!
Excellent article today! Thanks so much for sharing it!
For those of you writing fiction, take heart. The blog numbers don’t matter so much. What does matter is having an online presence of some sort, whether its a blog, website, or some sort of social networking. While all agents and editors are different, the general feeling is that blog following isn’t as necessary for fiction because there isn’t a need to build an area-of-expertise sort of platform but a place for people to find you and get to know you.
Within the fiction world, there’s more talk about “author brand.” This can mean anything from writing the same types of books so you’ll be known for your genre and style to the way you present yourself online and the things you share — what people come to expect of you. Emily, you’ve done a beautiful job with your brand, I think: not only do you have a similar book slated for next year (yes?), your consistent, encouraging content is familiar to and loved by your readers. You’ve got it, sister!
Ok, that bench idea rocks.
Both the real bench in your neighborhood, and the bench we hope to provide for our readers.
Love it love it love it!!!!! A bench is so friendly. A platform- Just the word makes my knees knock! I really do not care about numbers. Really my blog was just started as a place to connect with friends and family that cared about Grace with a capital G, then God showed up and there is this new little person in my life that is teaching me so much more about grace with a little g. So I love what you have to say, only because I am right now running toward it instead of away from it…. this grace you speak of. I am seeing that what I have to share is important published or not. It is all about Him and how he is changing me…… from the inside out. Grace with a little g healing the hurts and all that “in between” stuff that gets in the way if we arent careful. Keep sharing Emily. Its a beautiful message that needs a voice.
Thank you, Emily. I love this perspective. I’m launching a blog on Monday – big step of faith – and honestly I’ve been wondering if it’s prideful to believe I have something valuable to say, something that will benefit my reader. Am I arrogant, or am I simply obeying the call to share what God is placing on my heart? I’m banking on obedience, trying not to let the fear of appearing self-serving block me from putting my words out there. Your post has encouraged me today!
I love your blog! Can’t wait for the book to ship, too.
These words are so helpful to me, giving me fresh perspective in blogging. Thanks so much, Emily, for sharing this analogy of building a bench. I want to think on this, and let it soak into my mind and heart. It reminds me of what we read in God’s Word, about serving others, loving others as we love ourselves, loving as He loves us. And this is what our gracious God does for us – creates a safe, loving place for us to come with everything that is on our hearts. Thanks for your thoughts that have given us a practical picture of what this can look like in blogging.
What a beautiful way to look at it — a bench. That’s my heart’s desire that my book becomes a bench for people to talk about friendships, the fun parts, the blessings and the hard stuff. I don’t want to be the center — I just want to start the conversation.
Thanks for such a great post.
Love this, thank you!
Emily,
Thank you for taking a big ole part of your “bench” and devoting it to answering my question. I am so honored. What you say makes sense. And though I wouldn’t have framed it as beautifully as you did, that’s exactly what I’ve tried to do on my blog. Write for my reader. Create a place where they can learn, laugh and respond.
And I just want to clarify…I realize that publishers don’t “only” care about the numbers (though I apparently said that in my comment)
. I know they want to someone who can actually write and who has a relevant message, too.
It’s the frustration of hearing, “The problem is NOT your writing/book idea/message, the problem is your platform.”
Literally, I’m attending a conference in Colorado where the workshop teacher is saying, “Don’t focus on the numbers” and an hour later, a literary agent is telling me, “Come back when you have 10,000 subscribers.”
That’s the frustration. I don’t WANT to focus on the numbers…except to the extent that the numbers equal people. So, in a sense, I want to focus on the numbers. MUST focus on the numbers.
But you understood all of that. And you addressed it stunningly. You are a blessing. Thank you.
Sandy
I’m so glad I didn’t miss this one, Emily — the whole numbers/platform discussion is very close to my heart (and head) these days.
I totally love your bench/community metaphor. For a time I “turned off” comments on my blog, mainly because of the huge guilt I felt in not responding to everyone and visiting every blog to reciprocate. What shocked me was that a great many readers were disappointed that they couldn’t comment. They actually emailed to kindly tell me so! They didn’t consider it a burden — they actually wanted to commune. There I was, assuming I was letting them (and myself) off the hook, when in fact, I just created a chasm in the community. I ended up turning the comments back on after about a month or so — turns out, I missed the community, too! I ended up feeling like I was blogging in a great big black hole without the give and take of relationship-building that happens, at least in part, in the comments.
The other thing to consider in this whole platform building operation is that there is much contradiction out there amongst the professionals. I had one prospective agent seem like he was interested in my writing, and then tell me later that I needed 10,000 subscribers, a syndicated newspaper column, and to be speaking to audiences of 500+ people. I nearly threw in the towel at that point, considering I’m not Oprah after all!
In the end, I did get an agent (and I still have not hit 1,000 subscribers), and although that’s not a guarantee at all that my book will be published, it still gives me hope that it’s not all about the numbers.
Love, love, love the bench word picture. And your blog is the most reader-centric thing I’ve ever read. It’s like a little gift every day.
I discovered this whole huge culture of the blog world last fall when you all did those 31 Days series. Interesting content, but it felt like I had landed on a new planet where people claim best friendships with others they have never met. Confusing!
My husband and I left our home of 27 years in 2002 to work in an orphanage in Nairobi. We left behind friends whom we met regularly for coffee or lunch or Bible study, times of great rambling discussions. While we lived in Nairobi, Saturday morning breakfast with colleagues and Bible study with new Kenyan friends were routine. Bench-times. When we moved home to the U.S. to care for my mother, it seemed that the world had changed. People were too busy with their families and their work and their ministries and even their blogs to have time for face-to-face friendships forged over coffee and shared passions.
For the first time, reading your blog over the weekend, and your interaction with those who comment, I see that blogging can be conversation– real community. What a great image– chatting on a park bench . . . chatting over coffee . . . sharing life.
I’m not so interested in building an audience. I write when God gives me words and when He does, I trust that He also provides the audience He wants to hear or to read those words (Isn’t that truly how your book gained attention?). But I am interested in the exchange of ideas. Maybe, maybe this strange new blogging world will open that opportunity– a new park bench . . . a new coffee shop . . . a new place to make friends.
Jane – I hear you! I have to tell you, the women I did 31 Days with last year ARE my friends in real life! Some of them I met online first and then met in person, but several of them I knew first in real life from church. But all of them I have spent time with face to face.
I love how this blogging community doesn’t have to be separate from ‘real life.’ We are all people, and my some of my friends have blogs and some do not. Either way, it’s still community. It isn’t that one is more real than another, right?
I hope this blog world does show you a new park bench and a new place to make friends. After blogging for 5 years, I have friends from all over the country – women I have met in real life, had coffee with, prayed for, grieved with, laughed with and sought. They know me and I know them. We are true friends.
Probably the best thing I’ve ever read about why community and connections will trump platform every time. Yes, this, in real life. You know I’m a believer!
So many pearls of wisdom in all of these posts, Emily. I’m so thankful for the gift of words and writing. I love what you said about building a bench. I’ve got a nice bench, but like the ones at the end of your street, only a small number know about my cozy little bench. And the crazy thing: I’m wildly content with the small crowd He has gathered! If I focused on numbers, my blog bench would’ve collapsed by now. But even for a few, the Lord upholds and encourages those who come. To Him, every ONE matters infinitely. I believe that people are our greatest incestments: the only investment that we’ll see in Heaven!
For me, blogging is about extending that investment. If God decides I need a bigger bench (more people), I’ll say “Yes, Lord.” But for today, I say yes to where He has me: sharing words, sharing beauty and connecting hearts with exactly who He has gathered. And loving it!
May He bless your words beyond anything you can imagine, sweet Emily! (Eph. 3:20)
Love and hugs,
Linsey
I can’t tell you how much this freed me up today – I know there’s nothing wrong with working on the proverbial platform, but I don’t want to miss out on authentic times of connection with the people God’s blessed my surroundings with. I love the bench idea and we have a cul de sac – I’m thinking this needs to happen. Plus, there are a few friends I owe some time – will be making those calls today.
Even though I wrote a tome comment last night, I had to come back to offer this link to a similar topic on Kristen Lamb’s blog — you two are on the same page, and your thoughts are helping me process all this A LOT. Thank you!
http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/spam-toad-vs-author-brand/
I enjoy your post so much and I agree with what you have writtin. I do not want the spotlight on me it is not about me but about the women I am trying to reach. Thank you for giving me a new way of thinking. God Bless you.
So well put!!! Love the analogy you used, after all aren’t we called to community? A bench provides a safe place for that community to happen.
I love this fresh perspective on this topic. It truly is about the one and not the multitude. Sometimes I think we forget this and what you have done is masterfully encouraged me and others to focus on why we do what we do.
Goodness gracious, heaven sakes-us! This is FABULOUS!!! I’ve begun to LOATHE the word “platform” but this is BEAUTIFUL. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Emily!!!
Oh my goodness… this is soooo good, so perfectly articulated!!! Right now, I feel like I am sitting in the middle of all kinds of books, papers, notes, information just strewn all around me about how to do this, how to do that, what i *should* be doing and what I shouldn’t…I drowning in that without anyway to get out!! This helped me at least gather up some of the clutter– put some the information in perspective! Thank you so much!
Kathie
Hi Emily,
Your words about the bench and building community really spoke to me tonight. Our church is graciously supporting us in an attempt to build community in a literal way this week. If you think of it, please pray for us, we will be having a Block Party and Backyard Bible Club in our townhome community this week. We have been in this community for a few years and we are hoping to share the gospel and strengthen the community here. Prayers for open doors and open hearts. Benches would be an awesome addition. Good stuff. You always challenge me. Thank you for putting yourself out there. God is blessing your words and touching hearts!
Read this blog post months ago, and I still think of it when I’m getting stressed about “platform.” Thank you for giving me such a great image to aspire to.
I want to know how you get all those readers? I think I have 14 and I know them all personally.
Diane
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Thank you so much for your post! I can relate to the comment from Sandy and loved hearing your response. Thank you for pointing out that we need to create a bench. Loved it!
Thank you so much for this post, I so needed it. I have been praying about my blog lately, it’s not about me, I want it to be a place where others can come together and share and talk about their lives knowing they have support. Thanks.
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