My friend Kelly, co-directory of Publishers and Writers of Las Vegas, attended the 2013 ASCAP Expo two weeks ago in Los Angeles and shared important metrics gleaned from three days listening to music executives describe the music acts they'll consider signing:
In a world already filled with music, the acts that get their attention have a minimum 2,500 email subscribers and at least 1,000 social media connections.
Think about those numbers. That takes some work and means you are popular.
The panelists stressed that it mattered less which social media outlet was being used just as long as it was at least 1,000 connections. It got me wondering whether we in publishing would settle on similar metrics considering the two industries are so similar and music was the first to experience the effects of digital media disintermediation. After all, there are only so many E.L. James', Amanda Hockings and Hugh Howeys, right?
The days of hoping to be signed by a major publisher simply on the merits of your writing are over. For one thing the publishers are going to have less money to offer as an advance. That's because the big names are turning to self-publishing thereby denying the publishers an ROI on the careers they've nurtured to stardom.
You need great writing AND an addressable audience to get noticed
Unless the goal for your book is more consulting engagements, or posterity, you need to be building your addressable audience. I've talked about it before but your addressable audience are all the people you can reach via an announcement.
The first group are subscribers. These people signed-up; they asked you to contact them; they gave you permission: Mailing list subscribers (email or snail mail), RSS subscribers and Meetup members are good examples.
Social media connections are the next level. With this class of connections you can announce something but they need to be paying attention or they'll never see it. A good way to distinguish these connections from subscribers is that it is unlikely you will know when your message is seen unless someone comments. These include: blog readers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, YouTube viewers, Pinterest followers and Google + friends.
These are just examples, but when you add up all the contacts you can reach through your various lists and social network connections, how many names do you get? This would be your addressable audience.
When people talk about creating a platform this is a critical element. How are you building your lists? What tools make the most sense for your genre or personal goals? That's our specialty—give me a call and I can quickly tell you if you are on the right track and whether or not I can help you.
