Creating a Literary Space vs. Building a Platform
By Ramola D
It’s no secret, this mantra we often hear from agents, publicists, publishers, about the need to “build a platform” to attract attention to one’s work—but how many of us are attracted to this idea? Pursuing solitude, distance, quiet, trying to immerse ourselves in language and story, supporting ourselves with teaching and editing jobs—many of us are far removed from the specter of the gregarious performing artist with a myriad of marketing tricks up her or his sleeve. Might it be possible there’s another way instead, of connecting with possible audiences while staying essentially true to ourselves as writers? Three fiction writers offer their takes on creating a meaningful literary space that attempts to do just that.
Tania Hershman, author of The White Road and Other Stories, and editor of The Short Review, says: “I do love the phrase “literary space” and that is a lovely way of thinking about it, because the word “platform” makes me distinctly uncomfortable, I would rather not think of myself as a commodity in that way. I began creating this literary space with my blog, TaniaWrites, which I started in 2006 because at the time I was living in Israel and didn’t have a community of writers with whom to share work and talk about writing. The blog was invaluable, it gave me a feeling of connection, a place to share not just the joys of writing but the lows, too, the pain of rejection. When I moved to the UK two years ago, things shifted, I now have a face-to-face community of writers and short story readers, and I began to receive invites to meet reading groups at libraries, writing groups, to do readings at live lit nights and as part of festivals.”
Robin Black, author of If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, writing teacher, and fiction editor of Inch Magazine as well as contributing editor of the Colorado Review, emphasizes the importance of such connections, as also the need to balance them. “I think it’s incredibly important for writers to have writing-related activities that bring them into contact with readers and with other writers; and equally if not more important to be sure to leave enough time and mental space for the writing itself. I am going to come down with the traditionalists who say that the best platform you can build is a great book. Writing-related activities I do that have absolutely nothing to do with selling books are teaching, occasionally for institutions (Bryn Mawr College, most recently) but also individually and in small workshops. I find that being part of helping other people determine what they want to achieve in their work and how best to achieve it helps my own work in a way that nothing else does. Long before my book was published I held literary evenings at my house – less pretentious than it sounds – at which a dozen or so of us would each read from our work for five minutes. I loved that, loved just having a window into what my friends were up to in their work. And also loved the affirmation we all felt in our writerly identities.”
Liam Callanan, author of All Saints and Cloud Atlas, and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, notes the distinction between a literary space and a public persona: “Currently, the most important “literary space” to me is a 5′ x 10′ windowless cubicle in the basement of my university’s library. It’s where I hide and write whenever I can, and it’s very literary — made so not so much by my typing but the company: right outside the door is that section of the library devoted to books about books — publishing memoirs and library administration books (some of the spines tempt me to stop, leaf through and procrastinate, others — like Selecting Library Furniture from Oryx Press — provoke the opposite reaction).
“But I’ve thought about this other notion of literary space — some way to maintain, even promote, a public persona (and thus an awareness of your work) through means that, unlike a lot of PR efforts, pay you back. For my first novel, I logged 25,000 miles of travel (a lot of that due to readings around Alaska), sat for a lot of interviews, and one time, stood — I was in a cemetery in Trenton, Missouri, where we’d come to visit my wife’s grandmother’s grave; when her old neighbor, an AM talk radio host from Des Moines, called my cell phone there, we all decided the spectral plane had clearly determined I was supposed to take the call and so I did.
“So I got a strange anecdote out of that, but not much writing. Opportunities that allow you to feed your literary self while simultaneously promoting it seem more rare. Blogs like this are one, and so is print journalism, but as my old teacher Richard Bausch used to say (and still says, on Facebook and, I assume, in the classroom), it’s all about the work. In other words, the best way to promote yourself is to write a terrific book.”
With the work itself as central, would editing/blogging have a place? Tania Hershman considers that question: “A huge part of my literary space is The Short Review, the journal I founded and edit, which reviews short story collections and interviews their authors. I founded TSR in Nov 2007 when I was still in shock about being offered a book deal for my first collection and wanted to do something for the short story. I had no idea it would grow the way it has nor that it would boost me personally, my whole plan was to publicize other people’s writing. But the contacts- -and friendships!— I have made through The Short Review, which my editors/reviewers and I do purely for the love of it, are invaluable to me, creating relationships with writers and publishers worldwide. And no less valuable is the exposure to new writers I get through the books we are offered for review, many of whom have become favorites and sources of inspiration. I also learn a lot about the writing of short stories from the close reading necessary for a reviewer. I have also judged short story competitions, chaired panels on short stories, and written guest blogs and articles (some paid) on short stories. To be honest, I am still finding it hard to balance my writing time with all these activities, although talking about short stories brings me such joy and I don’t want to say “no” to anything. My answer is to regularly go on some kind of writing “retreat” and spend that time concentrating on writing. I recently went to a Scottish castle for a month, where there was no Internet, and I was extremely productive! My blog has suffered — I write less and also, knowing that the blog is being read by more people than when I started, I am rather more inhibited about what I write about. But my needs have changed so this makes sense.”
Robin Black’s blogging is also being tailored to her own needs: “As far as blogging goes, I have been lucky enough to be invited to join a group blog called Beyond the Margins. I like the sense of community of a group blog and the truth is that if I didn’t feel a responsibility to the group, if it were just me, I would never do it. (I blogged on my own website about 17 months ago – and never since.) And in fact, I have just recently cut my contribution from once every two weeks to once a month – because I need to tip my time commitments toward writing right now. I blog at all for mixed reasons. It certainly has something to do with selling books, just having my name “out there.” But again, I think being in conversation with other writers about writing is crucial – at all stages. Or anyway, it is for me.”
There is a value in blogging, suggest both writers. Tania Hershman says, “I would recommend aspiring authors set up their own website or blog, first and foremost to keep track of their own achievements. When I am feeling a little down about writing, I like to visit the page on my website which lists my published work, and that cheers me up immensely! Also, writing a blog does place you within an online writing community — if you visit others’ blogs and comment, they will visit yours — which has the potential to be both informative and supportive. You don’t need to share personal details if you are not comfortable. Also, having an online “platform” allows you to link to any work published online – – I also link to all the articles I wrote when I was a science journalist — it is a living resume, if you will. The first thing many people do when hearing about a new writer is to Google them, and if you want people to contact you, you need to make this easy.”
Tania’s blogging and tweeting experience has been extensive. “My “unique selling point” is fiction inspired by science so I straddle these two worlds and have running several workshops and events on using science as inspiration for fiction as well as workshops on writing flash fiction, including at the British Science Festival and at Jewish Book Week. I blog on the Bristol University Science Faculty blog too. I also created my own web site, which I update myself, and built a website for my book, which I have now, almost 3 years after publication, incorporated into my web site.
“I can’t say which aspects of this literary platform have contributed to the sales of my short story collection, I imagine it would be hard to tease it all apart. I see how many visitors to my website click on the link to my blog, which gets far more visitors, and as part of my vision of being “useful” to the writing community, I am keeping an ever-growing list of publications in the UK and Ireland that publish short stories, which gets many visitors. I really would rather promote others’ work, I am uncomfortable blowing my own trumpet. I imagine a lot of writers are. I used to be on Facebook but did not enjoy the aspect of “liking” what someone said or did. I left Facebook and am a great user of Twitter, which I feel is more about what you say than who you are. Those who only tweet about themselves tend not to be that popular on Twitter, it’s more about sharing and passing on interesting information, and I think Twitter – – with its brevity and focus — is a wonderful addition to my literary space. I believe that promoting the short story in general helps us all — and I will continue to do that loudly and enthusiastically!”
Tweeting, blogging, reading blogs, all enticing, but is there also an element of danger there? Robin Black says, “I worry about beginning writers who seem to put much more effort into Twitter etc. than they can possibly be putting into writing, given how many hours a day they’re on Twitter etc. And I speak from some experience with that as I write a second book with all those temptations out there. It’s all too easy to feel like tweeting and reading blogs and all of that is the same as writing, when it’s not. It may be a good complement to writing, but the actual work has to happen and that’s pretty much a solitary act.”
Ultimately, perhaps, it all comes down to a careful managing of your time. Robin Black notes the liveliness of her own schedule: “I just checked my calendar and see that I have 8 events scheduled – talks, readings, book club appearances, fund-raisers between September and November. None of these is paid and none is going to sell me a statistically noticeable number of books. So I am doing them for other reasons, chief among them that I simply enjoy being in the literary world, among writers and readers. But, as I say, the trick is to write the best book you can write and just be sure that the lure of platform building doesn’t leave you with nothing to show except a platform. And that goes for second books too, as I am finding out. I am eternally glad that the Internet wasn’t what it is today when I started writing in 2001.”
To echo which, here is the last word from Liam Callanan: “The funny thing is that, once upon a time, before the novels came along, I worked in PR. I know from this world. And I remember best of all that the best way to get your message across is to repeat it constantly. And so I tell myself: work on the book, work on the book, work on the book…”
No better advice yet, surely.