Become A Thought Leader: Grow As A Writer And Build Your Credibility

Dec 19

Women at table studying thought leadership

How to become a thought leader is likely one of the furthest ideas from authors’ minds today. For an aspiring author, becoming an influencer often feels like a more feasible way to reach their career goals.

But did you know that many first-time authors secure their first traditional publishing contract based on their platform? This is due to the fact that in publishing, credibility is often equated with a large following.

If this isn’t bad enough, the U.S. book industry made $25.93 billion in revenue in a single year. Just last year, book sales hit 825.7 million units. If you’re a writer and you want to get your book published, these numbers likely spark questions.

How do you get your book published for the first time if you don’t have a following? But at the same time, how do you build a following without publishing a book?

These are legitimate questions to ask. Today’s publishing industry can feel like a double-bind. So what does thought leadership have to do with writing for today’s market?

In this article, I cover three key aspects that can open up a new point of view and help you change the trajectory of your career:

What Contributes To Your Writing Career
How True Thought Leaders Build Credibility
Why Agents And Publishers Look For The Impossible

Thanks to TikTok, Instagram, and various other social platforms, influencers are on the rise. However, while publishers look for the numbers attached to your platform, I would argue that becoming a thought leader is more important to your writing career than collecting thousands of followers.

What Contributes To Your Writing Career

It may surprise you to discover that if you want to make a dent in the publishing world, improving your writing skills isn’t the only goal that should be at the top of your list. When you choose to publish a book traditionally, you will likely follow some form of the below path:

Write your book and edit it numerous times
Pitch agents online or at writing conferences
Sign with an agent (this is a big step)
Your agent shops your manuscript to acquiring editors
A publisher offers a contract and you accept

Moving through these phases is difficult for most writers, but there are specific choices you can make now that will contribute to your overall efficiency. While I can’t promise you a book deal, these two steps will help set you apart from other writers.

Embody Your Personal Brand

When someone talks about what they know and are passionate about, their energy lights up the room. This is because they embody the excitement that comes with their depth of knowledge. People love talking about what they know. Industry experts recognize this fact and encourage writers to build a personal brand through:

Growing a social media audience
Building a large email list
Speaking at events

While building a large fan base is a core part to creating a personal brand, embodying your brand is key. If you are not truly in love with what your brand represents, audiences will know.

This is where thought leadership comes in. Embodying your personal brand should start at the base level of what you love—what you are passionate about. When you build your brand around what you know and are familiar with, you both embody your brand and grow as a thought leader.

Establish Yourself As A Thought Leader

Defined simply, thought leadership is the expression of ideas that demonstrate you have expertise in a particular field, area, or topic. Individuals around the world have discovered that when they become a thought leader their career makes a shift up and to the right. Consider Brené Brown’s TEDx Talk launching her work into the spotlight or how people still reference Simon Sinek’s Start With Why.

Instead of being another voice in a saturated market, both of these individuals stepped forward as one of the world’s primary leaders in their niché. But why is becoming a thought leader important to a writer’s brand? How does being at the top of your field convince publishing companies to purchase your book?

How True Thought Leaders Build Credibility

With close to 4 million new titles published yearly, it can be overwhelming for readers to know whose voice to trust. The line between promotion for financial gain versus the good of followers is increasingly difficult to find. That said, time, consistency, and research work together to build your credibility.

Literary agents want to see that you are a credible source for the genre you write in. When they see that you are an up-and-coming thought leader on your topic, they can pitch your manuscript to publishing houses with confidence. Of course, it’s then up to the publisher to decide on your credibility.

#1 - Creating Content Is Not The End Goal

One area publishers focus on is the quality of your content. If they request your full manuscript, they want to see that from the first to last page you firmly grasp your topic. Why is this? Today, you can use your book to:

Build your business
Show your credibility
Create a larger following

Publishers know this, so they want to see that you wrote your manuscript primarily for the good of your readers, and secondarily for any personal gain. For example, influencers are known for going to the extremes for likes and comments. While hopefully you’ve never been called out online by your sibling, “do it for the gram” has become an all too common life motto.

Creative writing is about more than putting content into the world. Books can change lives. Sentences impact readers. A last page can be read through tears. When it comes to writing, the end goal is never to simply create more content, but to share your knowledge and inspire change.

#2 - Build Relationships Based On Your Writing Journey

As a writer hoping to become a thought leader, you gain the privilege of sharing your hard-earned knowledge with your online audience. Because of this, when you choose to show up on a continual basis, you begin to build relationships with your followers.

Relationships established around your writing journey bring so much more impact than a follow-for-follow on Twitter or joining an Instagram pod. Yes, we should be aware of algorithms and how to work with them, but building relationships based on a mutual love for creativity will create a much more lasting impact.

Additionally, the more you share your progress with your followers, you create space for two changes:

Your audience begins to see you as credible because you allow them to follow the highs and lows of your journey
You build meaningful, lasting relationships with them due to habitually creating quality content

Growing your platform in this format may take longer. However, when you become this type of leader, you gain the privilege of building relationships with others based on your passion. There’s a high possibility your audience will turn into devoted readers.

#3 - You Build Trust By Niching Down

The more your readers recognize how much you know about your specific genre, the more likely they are to trust your next release. Early on, it can be helpful to focus on establishing yourself in one niché in order to build this credibility with your readers.

For example, if you write historical fiction, spend quality time in research and mastering the voice of your time period. Your readers will come to trust you as a top author in your genre. When you release quality books every single time, you show yourself to be a thought leader in your genre.

If you haven’t published a book yet, you can follow the same format for blog posts: Stick to one category on your website and create standout content on a regular basis.

Why Agents And Publishers Look For The Impossible

There are countless books on the topic of writing, how to write well, and what to do to overcome writing challenges. However, at the beginning of this article, I asked the following two questions:

How do you get your book published for the first time if you don’t have a following?
How do you build a following without publishing a book?

This issue seems unending and is perhaps the biggest challenge writers face. No matter how well-written your query letters, you often need a platform to earn a contract. Similarly, to build a platform you need a book. Consider these two viewpoints:

#1 - The Publishing Industry Is A Business

For publishers to take your book from draft to published copy, there is a large up-front investment. Publishing is a business, and to create a book that meets industry standards, publishers must:

Pay an acquiring editor to vet the book
Invest time in a publishing board meeting (where the board votes on whether or not to take on the project)
If accepted, pay an editor, graphic design team, and marketing team
Create physical copies of the book and place them in stores

Like any business, publishers want to know they will break even, if not make a sizable return on their investment. The more followers you have, the more books you are likely to sell. (Of course, follow-for-follow, purchased followers, or other means of falsely portraying your platform will not equal sales.)

#2 - Publishers’ Passion Is Books

Finally, remember that if an individual works for a publisher, they are passionate about books. The same can be said, and likely stated even more emphatically, for the presidents of publishing houses.

Every individual on the publication board wants to see your book succeed. From cover designer to final editor, the team recognizes the power of books to change lives. Their acceptance of your project means they believe your book can be part of inspiring change.

For this reason, publishers want to work with readers who are truly capable of creating great stories. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, a publisher wants to offer only the best books to their customers. This leads us to the final answer of how to become a thought leader, establish your credibility, and grow your writing career.

Join Other Published Authors: Write What You Know

If you want to become a thought leader in your industry, follow a 21-time, New York Times bestselling author’s advice: Think reader first. The best thought leaders and authors put their followers first.

One of the best ways to do so is to establish yourself as a credible writer: Write what you know. This builds trust between you and your readers and credibility for you as an author. Writing with this mindset is crucial, particularly early on in your career.

Focusing on your specific genre allows you to stay in your writing comfort zone and reveal how much you know about your topic. When you repeatedly share your knowledge, you establish yourself as a thought leader.

One of the bonuses of building an audience in this way is that when you commit to the slow growth of becoming a thought leader, you simultaneously create a rock solid foundation for your future career:

You learn to embody your brand
Put your readers first
Build relationships with your audience
Write what you know over what’s trending
Meet publishers’ hopes by being both passionate and credible

At first, thought leaders may not reach as many people statistically. Follow-for-follow methods allow you to grow your platform, and fast. However, thought leaders often create higher levels of credibility. Because of their credibility, the content they create isn’t just a one and done online release, but can create a lasting legacy.

If you want to grow as a writer, commit to the process of becoming a thought leader. Decide to write what you know, what you’re credible in. Go after excellence for the good of your readers. Recognize that slow progress often creates lasting change.