on Jane Friedman site:

This is a little embarrassing. I’m a historian who values logic and evidence, but sometimes I can’t help but believe in a little bit of magic—especially when it comes to building an author platform.

Maybe you’ve felt the same way. Platform-building is full of mysteries that can make even the most rational person start to wonder about magical solutions. Questions like, “What’s my brand?” “Which social media should I use?” “How do I grow my audience?” are just the start. To me, building a platform feels like trying to create something out of nothing. On one hand, we’re told that we need a large audience to get published. On the other hand, we need to get published to build that audience. How do you attract readers if you haven’t yet established yourself? And how do you establish yourself without readers?

It feels like spontaneous generation: the old belief that life could just appear from lifeless matter. For most of history, people thought that living critters—little ones especially—could just materialize into being. It wasn’t until the 17th century that Francesco Redi, an early scientist, began to challenge this idea. He showed that if you kept flies away from rotting meat, no maggots would appear.