Shortcomings of A Publisher
By: Arunima Basu
Tags: Publishing, Blog, Growth, Authors, Writer

via Makematic

When I decided to start my personal blog, A Rebel’s Diary (it’s my Insta handle too) it was more about vent outs! I had a lot of opinions about my life. As an introvert person, I was never comfortable with the idea of sharing my stories on the social media walls. Back then, I thought Linkedin was just a job searching platform! My profile existed, but I had no idea how Linkedin worked! I shared my blogs relentlessly on my personal circle. I wanted feedback and reactions, but I wanted some sensible audience or readers to think about how they treat people.

I started experimenting with a handful of readers and creating contents. Sometimes, the contents were written explicitly for them. Well, I think old habits don’t die after all! We used to write notes, poems and songs for each other during our middle school days to communicate and connect deeply with each other. Many of my blogs were tributes to the people who helped me fill the pages of my diary with happy and sad memories!

When my writing got better, I moved to larger platforms and connected with lots of bloggers. I transformed faster. This was just what I needed- fellow bloggers, like-minded people! My stories resonated with most of my readers. Sometimes I shared them with the junior writers who worked for me. I figured out my niche and my target audience!

Then I encouraged the junior writers, and they started writing and sharing too, but just with me! They were too afraid of sharing them with the world! Fortunately, I never had this dilemma as a writer.

So, I decided to start my publishing platform, when I felt I had a solid network of writers, who deserved a platform. They were not confident about starting their blogs or creating their brands. It amazes me, how I connected with these amateur writers, who were beginning their journeys. I started sharing my lessons and exchanged a lot of feedback, and we got more confident.

Within a short span, they turned into incredible storytellers. But, they had to be proofreaders, copywriters and editors too! A versatile writer needs all those hats! But, it’s not always easy for every writer to adapt so fast. As a writer, I felt their pain. So, I tried to help them a bit with my experiences. Guess what?

They all became great authors over time, and most of them remained a part of my team of contributors.

They always had a choice because I never knew how to pressurize a creative person. I wanted to be that one person, who inspired them to write; and they never abandoned me completely, because they know we are a family-a larger one! We are the writers! The most underpaid, underrated and overworked group of people, and we must stick together and help each other with our knowledge and ideas exchange.

I wanted to open the platform for more people. Well, we have at least ten different ideas or opinions in a three girls team! And most of them make sense (in most cases, except when we take our Moon trips by setting up unrealistic goals and start daydreaming). So, I wanted to have many opinions on various subjects, but I decided on the categories.

As a publisher, this has been my shortfall that I have been focusing primarily on my readers or target audience! I completely forgot that if I am inviting ten writers to contribute to my publication, they all have different audiences. Why did I restrict them from connecting with their readers by setting up rules that mostly apply to my target audience? I learned from my mistake, and I opened up more categories after discussion, and I asked them to pitch their ideas!

via Freepik

Now, we are in this together, and we have a broader target audience!

#protip: If you are a budding writer or a newbie, you should definitely try to leverage Linkedin, because it’s more than a job searching platform! You will quickly get sensible readers who care about your stories and become a part of your lifelong journey!

If you want to contribute in our publication or be a part of our amazing creative network, shoot an email at connect.filmspeak@gmail.com.