more chemistry please

Two weeks ago, Morgan left this comment on my midlist pyramid theory post, and no one replied—so I will!

Morgan is asking for examples of writers who are also content creators. What authors are creating content in addition to publishing books/freelance articles/poems/short stories/etc.?

A gazillion writers are on social media, posting little self-deprecating jokes about the writing life and linking to their upcoming writing workshops and poetry readings, but I don’t consider this valuable “content.” I also don’t think non-writers care to look “behind the scenes” at your process as much as writers think they do. This is digital water-cooler chat with other writers. And if your follower count has plateaued, this could explain why.

If you are trying to grow your audience—meaning convert total strangers into followers and readers (!)—you have to post content that’s meaningful/valuable/thought-provoking/or entertaining to strangers.

The reels in my autofanfic campaign on Instagram, for example, have been viewed over a million times in the last six weeks, and I’ve gained 2,000 followers on that platform. I’ve sold more copies of Self Care, and I’ve gotten several speaking requests because of what I’m doing on Instagram.

I judge the effectiveness of writers’ content on social media by whether it’s engaging to a total stranger.

The next time you see something on the internet and you have the impulse to share it with the group chat, or send it in a DM to your sister, register that impulse! What made you want to share it?

Before you post anything, ask yourself: why would someone share this?

Let’s look at an example:

pierceabernathy

A post shared by @pierceabernathy

Rachel Karten

shared this in her Substack: it’s a cookbook author named Jess Damuck promoting her new cookbook by doing a “guest spot” (a collaboration) with a cooking influencer named Pierce Abernathy. I hadn’t heard of either of these people before I saw this video—but Jess is using a strategy that

Kathleen Schmidt

wrote about this week in her Substack: the digital surrogate.

Why have I watched this video multiple times?

Chemistry! 🔥

That video is like a setup for an Emily Henry novel. (“I like your kitchen stance”???!)

We’re creative writers—why aren’t we having more fun, and taking more pleasure, in what we post for an audience?

To answer Morgan’s original question, here are some writers and book publishing and media professionals who are creating digital content:

• Joyce Carol Oates posting non-stop cat content on Twitter (sorry I couldn’t resist!!)

• Bestselling essayist Samantha Irby on Instagram

• The literary agent (and debut novelist) Betsy Lerner is sharing her old diaries on TikTok

• The NPR Morning Edition producer Claire Murashima is on TikTok

• The former lawyer and future memoirist Cece Xie on TikTok

• The short story writer George Saunders is on Substack

• The hilarious memoirist Shalom Auslander in response to George Saunders’s Substack

• Patti Smith is on Substack

• The novelists Becca Freeman and Olivia Muenter co-host the Bad on Paper podcast

• The memoirist Nora McInerny is on Instagram

• The poet

  Lyndsay Rush
  is on Instagram as Mary Oliver’s Drunk Cousin

• The poet Bianca Stone makes poetry memes on Instagram

• Former book editor / bestselling author

  Sarah Knight
  is on Substack

🔥 Leave your own recommendations in the comments please! 🔥

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I watched the two-part Steve Martin doc on AppleTV and I highly recommend it. I love stories of extremely successsful talented people failing—it cheers me up. At one point Steve says he made forty films, so he could get five good ones (!). I’ve written previously about how much I enjoyed learning about Nora Ephron’s failures.

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Get my feedback on your TikTok strategy

In case you missed it, I’m auctioning off a lunch with me (in NYC or CT), and a Zoom consult on your TikTok strategy, to raise money for my cousin Bea’s workforce development nonprofit. The lunch with me is now the most bidded-upon item in the auction (whoa!!! thank you!)

Here are some other auction items you might be interested in:

• A “get unstuck” coaching call and mini tarot reading with

  Sarah Lyn Rogers
  , who edited my poetry collection What To Miss When

• An original poem by internet-famous poet

  Lyndsay Rush
  AKA Mary Oliver’s Drunk Cousin on Instagram

• A portrait of your pet by New Yorker cartoonist

  Dana Jeri Maier

By Dana Jeri Maier

• Gift cards and fine dining experiences at Le Bernadin, Shukette, Socarrat Chelsea, Eli’s Table, Mermaid Inn, Magnolia Bakery, Tacombi, Glace S’mores, and La Grande Boucherie

Check out the full auction here