The Perils of Personal Platforms

I broke my website last week. You probably didn’t notice because it was only broken behind the scenes, but it was broken nonetheless.

The irony of my site breaking last week is I had just spent some time being interviewed about publishing online, which, like most things I do, turned into a conversation about the importance of owning your platform. I have been touting this for some time, but running your own website can be a perilous journey.

The best example of this came from Molly White’s fantastic piece about being her own legal department, CPA, and editorial staff:

As an independent writer and publisher, I am the legal team. I am the fact-checking department. I am the editorial staff. I am the one responsible for triple-checking every single statement I make in the type of original reporting that I know carries a serious risk of baseless but ruinously expensive litigation regularly used to silence journalists, critics, and whistleblowers. I am the one deciding if that risk is worth taking, or if I should just shut up and write about something less risky. I am the one who ultimately could be financially ruined by such a lawsuit. I am the one in charge of weighing whether I should spring for the type of insurance that is standard fare for big outlets to protect themselves and their staff, but often prohibitively expensive for independent writers. I am the one putting on even more hats: risk manager, insurance broker, business consultant, CPA.

When you own your website, you wear all the hats. That means you sometimes try to update the site and completely break it instead. But let me remind you why this is important for me and why it might be important for you, too.

Publishing on platforms is easy to set up and maintain, but in return, you give them control over pretty much everything else, too.

You let their algorithms determine if your words get read. You let their policies determine what your words appear next to, even if you don’t support or agree with them. Worst of all, you allow the platforms to profit from you and give them a cut of any earnings for that right.

I’d rather occasionally break my website than be completely beholden to a platform.

Plus, owning my own website means I get to do cool things with it.

For the first time, you can now subscribe to my Write Now author interviews!

Almost every Wednesday for the last six years, I’ve interviewed a published author. From Andy Weir to Rebecca Yarros and from Pierce Brown to R.L. Stine, I’ve interviewed authors of all genres.

Each interview is available for free on my website for all email subscribers and new interviews are now available in your inbox! If you’re already subscribed to This Just In, visit your account settings and add Write Now. The next interview drops on February 19.

Sure, I could do this on a platform. After all, these interviews are all cross-posted to The Writing Cooperative on Medium. But, by having them live here on my website, I ensure these interviews will always be available no matter what happens to Medium, and I can control how they’re distributed. In this case, by adding them as a new email subscription.

Even though sending extra emails will cost me a bit more each month, offering this feature is 100% worth it to me. As with everything on the site, access is free, but you can become a paid member to support my work monthly or leave a one-time tip. It’s up to you.