10 Things I’d Do Differently If I Started Over
…as someone working on making a living as a writer.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes as a writer.
It’s because I’m a bit of a magpie. I see something new and shiny, and I go flying after it. That new, shiny thing will solve all my problems, once I’ve stolen it back to my nest. That new, shiny thing’s what I’ve been missing all this time.
Ok, end of weird metaphor.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and there’re a lot of things I’d do differently as someone working on making a full-time living as a writer.
These are my top 10.
1. Spend less time checking stats
Stats are great, but boy are they distracting.
I dread to think how much time I’ve wasted over the last few years staring bug-eyed at my platform dashboards and analytics screens, waiting for the numbers to change.
It’s obviously helpful to know which type of content (yes, content, because a social media post is very different from a novel, but both are audience consumables) resonate with your online community. Once you know what your followers, readers and subscribers enjoy, you can create more of it. That’s what having a strategy looks like, and it’s why some creators succeed while others don’t.
But stats for the sake of stats are pretty meaningless when checked several times every day (or in my case, every few minutes). It’s best to keep away from those dashboards as long as possible and focus instead on producing things your audience want to read, watch or listen to, in the most basic terms.
2. More concentrated time on social media
I’ll use X/Twitter as an example here because that’s currently where my biggest social media following resides. For you, it could be Instagram, or LinkedIn, or even TikTok.
It doesn’t matter where your main following is, but it does matter how you spend your time amongst them.
Doom-scrolling is the best way to kill your productivity as a writer. If I was to do things differently on X/Twitter, I’d narrow my focus there by sharing my two cents on niche topics I’m interested in rather than simply trawling through random conversations and posting inane questions designed to boost engagement.
3. Forget Instagram and TikTok until I have a book to sell
Following on from that, if I was offered a do-over, I’d pretty much forget about the video-centric platforms until I have a physical book to sell.
I should be at that stage in the coming months once my debut novel The Soulburn Talisman is ready to go, and I’ll share everything I learn about marketing it as I go.
But until my book exists as something available for purchase, there’s little point in spending much time on those platforms. It’s best to build your following around the product by showcasing it and encouraging others to do the same.
Instagram and TikTok users won’t care as much about how the book gets to market because it’s not an especially visual process. But long-form readers will care (especially here on Medium), so that’s where the process should be documented.
4. Spend more time reading things I want to read on Medium and Substack
If I was starting again from scratch online, I would 100% spend more time reading what I actually want to read instead of just reading for reciprocity.
Facebook groups centred around Medium, for instance, seem like great places to find and connect with fellow writers, with whom you can establish reciprocal reading patterns (“I’ll read yours if you read mine”). It seems like a good way to boost your read-time earnings, and to some extent, it can work.
But looking back, I wasted so much time reading articles I had zero interest in, just because someone in a Facebook group said they’d read mine (there’s a good chance they didn’t). That time would’ve been far better spent reading for my personal edification and education.
I’d probably have a deeper understanding of various topics pertaining to how to write for a living by now if I’d read what I wanted to read instead of what I felt I should read, just to be polite.
5. Engage more on each platform
Similar to point 2, I wish I’d engaged more on each platform I was on instead of just lurking, liking or following.
Every comment you leave online is a little waymarker directing people to your profile. The more you leave (and the more valuable they are), the easier it is to build your own personal platform, generate interest in what you’re creating, and ultimately, make an income from it.
And that’s what we want, right?
6. Have zero reliance on AI while writing
In my early days on Medium, I got taken in by the ChatGPT hysteria and tried using AI to write some articles. I really didn’t know what I was doing — it just seemed like something I should do.
Of course, it was a mistake. ChatGPT’s a robot, so it writes like a robot, and it sounds awful. I’m firmly in the don’t-use-AI-in-your-writing camp.
However, I do think ChatGPT is extremely useful for other tasks around writing, and I wish I’d tried harder to master them in the beginning. It’s great for brainstorming ideas, developing strategies and creating frameworks — that’s where my focus should have been.
7. Build my newsletter audience from the start
Oh David, why didn’t you do this?
I spent about a year building a 16k-following on X/Twitter and at no point did I think to invite any of them to join a newsletter.
Something like 10% of your followers will see your posts on social media. Blink-and-you-miss-it sort’ve stuff. But 100% of your mailing list will receive your newsletter, and a good portion will open it if the subject line’s good.
Even if they don’t open it, you’ve still reminded them you exist, and that’s something.
My advice? Build your email audience alongside your social media following right from the get-go, and get good at crafting newsletters fast.
8. Write about what intrigues me rather than what I think people want to hear
There isn’t much more to this one.
I wasted a lot of time parroting the advice of more established online creators instead of sharing my actual opinions.
It bored me, it bored my readers, and I should’ve stopped doing it sooner.
9. Learn everything I can about book marketing instead of chasing agents
This is perhaps a little controversial, and I want you to hear me properly when I say it.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking the traditional route to publishing by pursuing representation. I had a literary agent for just under a year and it was a great experience. It may even have worked out splendidly for both of us if she hadn’t had to step back from the industry because of illness.
But no matter which path to publication you choose, they all end at one inescapable reality: you’ll have to market your own book.
I spent several months in 2022 querying literary agents. It’s a long, painful, rejection-filled process that consumes huge amounts of time and energy, and it often leads nowhere. If you’ve been in the query trenches, you’ll know what I mean.
In many ways, I wish I’d spent that time learning about book marketing instead. Even if you get an agent and your book eventually gets published, you’ll have to learn about marketing anyway. There’s only so much time in the day.
10. Don’t hold back on sharing
Finally, I wish I hadn’t been afraid to share with others what I’d learned, or was in the process of learning.
Imposter syndrome dictates that we keep things to ourselves, because how dare we think we have the right to share those thoughts with others? What makes us so special, eh?
The truth is, the more open we are about our struggles and aspirations (and about how we’re working through them), the more we’re able to help others. And the more we help others, the more we inadvertently help ourselves by becoming thought leaders in our industry.
Help others. Become reputable. Build trust. Generate income.
That all starts when we stop holding back.
If you were starting over as a writer, what would you do differently?
What would you focus on more, and what would you cut out?
Originally published in How to Write for a Living on Substack.