Enough Measuring Up

How many subscribers do you have? How many people are your friends on Facebook, your followers on Instagram?

How do you measure up?

The world at large, including publishers and agents, demands that we deliver our statistics to prove our worthiness. We get caught up in counting our followers, our subscribers, our word count. We concern ourselves with how long our posts are.

I’ve seen countless clients and students (myself included) get caught up in this. We fret over how much, how many, how big.

But does it really get us anywhere? Sure, you may feel some satisfaction in knowing that you have 1,000 Facebook friends, 500 visitors to your blog each month and 1,400 subscribers to your newsletter.

But how does that actually help you do a great job of writing or making art?

Measuring has traditionally been important when we need to show others how great we are. Like name dropping, measuring allows us to flaunt our status. It’s the kind of social proof we need when we’re pitching our work, writing our book proposal, or asking for a review copy of a book.

These numbers can be useful to show the reach of our influence. The good news is things are shifting and isn’t as necessary as it has been. We can self-publish our books. We can write articles and post them on our blogs. We don’t need the approval of editors and publishers to get our words out.

If they’re powerful and you’re brave enough to share, your words will be read and people will be influenced.

Check your analytics, measure your numbers, then get back to the real work: focusing on creating the best work you can.

Give yourself a break from measuring up and just write. Join me in The Devoted Writer. The early registration discount ends today!