The State of the Empire #001
MAY23 // We all gotta start somewhere. Where we end up is another story.
Sorry for the double send today - I scheduled a draft and then started a fresh one, a rookie mistake, and I apologise for cluttering your inbox up with a messy draft.
This is my North Star
Empowering writers to build their own one-person storytelling empire.
That’s the reason for the tongue-in-cheek title for my progress reports.
There’s something inspiring, in a giggle-quietly kind of way, about building an empire.
Maybe it’s because we’re all worldbuilders.
Or megalomaniacs.
Either way, I’m using this phrase to focus my efforts.
Many writers I’ve casually slipped it into conversations have singled it out specifically.
So hopefully it inspires you as much as it’s helped me narrow my scope.
That’s A North Star Benefit
It’s a personal mission statement that helps you say “No”
and refocus all your energy on the right things.
This was the single biggest impact action I’ve taken recently.
It clarified my thinking and reduced distraction.
I now know I’m writing a newsletter-to-book.
I’ve said no to a research project I didn’t have time for.
I’ve cut at least 20 inputs (newsletters and podcasts) I can’t absorb anyway.
I’ve used it as a good reference to redevelop TRE’s brand.
Next week’s essay is on developing and using your own North Star.
I hope you find it just as useful.
I overthought this report a lot
I want to share progress, add accountability, build community and probably a hundred other things with a monthly progress report.
But sharing my humble numbers scared the crap out of me.
So I reached out to
, who’s been building (and growing steadily) in public for years. He helped me realise the point of it.Another reminder that community matters.
Having people to speak to really matters.
His advice combined with Simon Sinek's quote help me get over that fear hump and clarified what I’m trying to do here.
Start with Why
I want to pull back the curtain and show:
My progress and lessons
My thinking and plans
How I’m applying Design myself
This would help me step back and reflect.
The Snapshot
A high-level one-picture view of the current state of my one-person business.
Patreon
My subscribers joined mostly last year, although my highest-tier member joined in the last couple of months.
I’ve not promoted this at all really, as I’ve focused on getting to 20 chapters and building consistency.
I’ll then use Wattpad and Royal Road to promote when I can post 2-3 times a week as those readers are used to.
I use an Early Access model where patrons pay to read ahead of public access.
Community and networks matter at first: I know all my patrons personally.
Tasters do work: my highest-tier ($9) patron is a friend who loved my short story and wanted more of this world.
They’re mostly silent patrons but I poll them to direct what I do next.
They asked for more Lore instead of doubling the number of chapters a week.
This will make my model a hybrid of Early Access and Exclusive Content.
Follow Subscriptions for Authors to learn more about this.
I may move to Ream after testing out their platform (I’m doing a design review for them) which I’ll share as a platform comparison with Patreon.
Substack
This is for TRE only.
I plan on adding a serial fiction publication on Substack as well because their discovery works so well. I’ll then cross-post a lot to show the application.
Substack discovery is the biggest source of new free subscribers I have at the moment. But again I’m not promoting heavily yet.
I started with a content stretching tactic which resulted in this recent post being my top story with about an hour or so extra work. The article is coming soon.
Top Story: 228 Views
Biggest converter
Leading to two paid and one free subsciption.
The Others
Buy Me A Coffee is a legacy monetisation strategy I tried off the back of Microcosm.
It had more subscribers but I’m not focusing there as I don’t think it has legs.
They lost their Paypal support which made it hard for people to Tip or Subscribe.
Medium is a great source of data, but an endless treadmill when trying to earn on the platform. Especially for fiction.
I had to pour in hours and post daily to get anywhere.
I’ve since stopped and only post 5 times a month and still earn 60% of my max.
I have one referral that I include in the snapshot.
Writing Progress
I divide my writing and business work into these four stages.
Which are also in the newsletter menu and in the Knowledge Gardens.
They deserve their own essay on how they help frame writing and writing business.
Prepare
I’m learning by osmosis with my mini-courses on Microcosm, focusing on Hooks, Cliffhangers and revealing characters has made its way into my serial fiction.
I also managed a rapid outline with ChatGPT that’s worth another look.
I’ve found Bard quite handy, did you know it can summarise YouTube videos for you? Just paste a link in and ask it to summarise.
You can even ask Bard to apply those insights to a specific use case, like promoting a newsletter or building a fiction business.
Produce
I’m now halfway through my novel, and if I keep releasing one chapter a week I’ll finish it in five months or so.
Slow, but still incredible to me. 🏆 🐢
And when you've failed for ten years, it’s remarkable how slow and steady wins.
Package
My North Star is helping focus my efforts on a visual style (and settling on one), you’ll see those changes creep into the newsletter and find their way into an article series.
Promote
I’ve had success stretching content and repurposing on multiple platforms, and I’ll continue to do this as I start promoting more heavily.
Another benefit of a North Star is knowing what is you’re talking about, that it is worth sharing and who it really is aimed at.
The Gist
I’m focusing on “Building a one-person storytelling empire.”
And helping you do the same.
I’ve cut prompts but may combine them into a single monthly deep dive. I’m looking to reduce my total time spent on this but still keep helping Microcosm writers.
‘s feedback was really helpful here.Ask your readers what they want. Doing Lore and keeping a steady pace with my chapters has reduced a lot of potential self-imposed pressure.
The best tip I got from a call with Michael Evans, the Ream founder, is to spend 60% of time your writing, 20% on your business and 20% on creative recovery.
Again focus matters to get the results you want. Zero in on what matters to you and your readers and you’ll get a 1000 times more done and feel better about it too.
Thank you as always for reading and your support.
Until next time — happy writing! 🚀
Zane
If you found this helpful or insightful please share it with fellow writers.
It’s one of the best ways we can grow.
This is great! Lovely start to building in public. I think the funnel is informative - more please 🤓