The nudge to start building my second author platform

Chad S. White on July 14, 2025

A shoutout to Jane Friedman. Her book The Business of Being a Writer gave me the final nudge I needed to start building my author platform for my upcoming debut novel, even though it’s probably a couple of years away from being published. In addition to joining Substack this weekend, I also joined Instagram and launched my website, chadswhite.com.

It sort of feels like when I had my second son—yes, it’s starting over and, yes, I know it will be hard, but I’ve done it before, so I’m confident I can do it again. In this case, my first son is my nonfiction book, Email Marketing Rules. For that book, which is in its fourth edition, I built a well-rounded website with a blog and newsletter, and grew my LinkedIn audience to more than 11,000 and my X/Twitter following to more than 17,000.

But building a platform for my novel means joining new communities and engaging in new ways. As of today, I have zero Substack subscribers and 3 Instagram followers, which means there’s lots of upside potential. Time to start making some new connections. I’m ready to learn. I’m ready to do this!

Chad S. White holding a copy of Jane Friedman's "The Business of Being a Writer"
The Business of Being a Writer (2nd Ed.) by Jane Friedman

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Join me on my writer’s journey from nonfiction to fiction

Chad S. White on July 13, 2025

Hello, everyone! I’m an aspiring novelist looking to connect with avid readers and other writers, especially in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. On this blog, I’ll discuss writing and publishing, and share the ups and downs of my writer’s journey to get my first novel published.

A little about my debut in-progress novel: I’ve made things extra hard on myself by making my first effort a 3-book dystopian sci-fi series set in a war-torn near future. My two heroes are new adults (18 and 19 years old) and the story revolves around them finding their places in a world where the two global superpowers are in an uneasy peace. The story also revolves around our two heroes finding each other and coming to terms with their broken families.

A little about me: I’m a tech industry veteran and former journalist who’s written five non-fiction books about digital marketing. As part of my day job, I’ve also written nearly 4,000 blog posts and articles about marketing, AI, and other topics. I’ll occasionally talk about my non-fiction book writing experiences, as those have given me the confidence to take on novel writing.

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