Note From KMW: If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know how often we circle back to the idea that story is, at its heart, about change.

Character arc, theme, plot—it’s all a study in transformation.

However, this transformation is not just about what happens on the page, but what happens in us as writers and readers.

I’m always interested in conversations that explore how we can approach that transformation consciously and purposefully, especially when it comes to using story to create positive change beyond the book itself.

Change the World One Book at a Time by Nina AmirM (affiliate link)

That’s why I’m glad to welcome Nina Amir back to the site with a new guest post. Nina contributed here years ago, and her work (including her new book Change the World One Book at a Time) has focused on what it means to write with intention and impact.

In today’s post, she talks about “writing for change” and how novelists can think about theme, character arc, and community-building as part of building an author platform for marketing a book.

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Most novelists understandably want to spend their days writing compelling stories. They don’t want to put their time, attention, or energy into anything related to building an “author platform,” something fiction writers are told is not as important as it is for nonfiction writers. However, if you want to write novels that inspire and motivate change, audience-building activities become essential.

If you aren’t sure how to write change-oriented fiction, find good models. For instance, these three change-related novels provide good examples:

• The Overstory by Richard Powers (environmental)
• Life’s Golden Ticket by Brendon Burchard (personal growth)
• Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman (social injustice)

Your storytelling can move readers toward change. Use theme and character arc to demonstrate the change you desire on a broader scale. The reader’s emotional and moral engagement with the story then sparks them to examine how they might pursue change in their lives or the world.

Your goal as an “Author of Change” revolves around using storytelling skill to weave themes related to change into your book’s plot. For example, your protagonist might be someone who initially cares little about healing the earth, but through the story’s turning points experiences character transformation, thus becoming an activist working to reduce greenhouse gases. Your intention is to inspire readers to find their own ways of healing the planet. That’s how you make a difference and write for change.

6 Reasons Authors of Change Need Engaged Communities

All authors benefit from a built-in readership for a book in their target market, otherwise known as an author platform. Having an author platform means someone—your audience—is paying attention when you promote your book. Plus, they are more likely to purchase your book.

However, to write for change, you need more than the average author platform—and more than just book sales. You need an engaged community of people eager to read your book and respond to your story with action in the real world.

Your novel will have a greater impact if you build an engaged community around your brand of change before it’s released. Your brand of change could be anything about which you personally feel passionate. For example, you might focus on attracting potential readers—an audience—interested in environmental issues because you are an environmental activist. You want to engage with people also interested in environmental change prior to releasing your book. Yes… they potentially are already activists, but they would read your book and potentially take new actions to heal the planet.

To create an engaged community, level up your pre-pub promotional activities. Reframe platform-building and promotional tasks as community-building. Community building is a purpose-driven activity that helps you find people who share your desire to create change in some aspect of their lives.

Let’s look more closely at why Authors of Change require an engaged community.

1. Early Promotion Builds Community

You’ve got a reason for writing for change—a purpose, calling, or mission. You want to make a difference.

When you promote your cause, mission, or movement—and novel—your intention is to attract followers and subscribers who want to be part of your community. They want to join your cause, mission, or movement. They want to stick around and help create change.

Your early promotion focuses on attracting a community of people interested in creating the change for which you advocate in your novels. Eventually, they will purchase your book. But having a community around you starts the ripple effect of change; the book turns those ripples into waves.

2. An Engaged Community Takes Action

Creating an engaged community is not just about getting people to buy your book; it’s about motivating them to help you make a difference. Books sold equate to books read, and books read mean more people adopting the book’s message of change. And yes, a novel can have a strong theme related to change; in fact, most novels have such a theme since the protagonist experiences transformation or the plot involves change on a broader scale.

As an Author of Change, you want to make a difference. Therefore, your goal is to sell books to readers so they get inspired. As a novelist, you don’t give them prescriptive advice or steps toward change; your theme, plot, and character development all speak to the change you desire to create in readers or the world.

An engaged community buys books and has decided in advance to read the book and act on your recommendations. Because they have been part of your circle, you have primed them to create change in themselves, their communities, or the world. That happens when your story moves them to action.

Promotion becomes key to fulfilling your purpose and your book’s purpose. Your community-building activities become a way to ensure you and your book motivate others to participate in creating change.

3. A Community Creates Change Before the Published Book

Without an engaged community, you have to wait until you’ve attracted that audience to make your difference. Marketing expert Seth Godin says,

Start today to build the platform that you will be able to use three years from now.

Indeed, you need to begin building your community prior to releasing a book. Based on my experience and that of my clients, I suggest you start when you get the idea for a book or theme—if not earlier. That’s the time to begin engaging with and gathering your potential audience.

Share your message and your purpose on a grassroots level. Then, people get excited about the change you want to create. Grassroots promotion can include:

• getting involved in organizations or groups focused on the type of change you want to inspire
• speaking
• writing articles for publications
• pursuing traditional media appearances
• blogging
• posting a newsletter on Substack
• being active on social media sites by sharing your posts and those of others that speak to the change you desire
• podcasting
• vlogging
• publishing videos on YouTube

Anything you do that gets your name and message in front of your ideal audience helps build community. And your community members will read your novel and feel inspired by the theme and plot.

4. An Engaged Community Helps You Become a Role Model

Your book marketing and promotion efforts, including those meant to build an engaged community, don’t have to be heavy-handed sales pitches. Instead, focus your efforts on being of service.

When you serve your potential readers and contribute to your community’s well-being, people begin to trust that you are a serious, honest change agent. They stop questioning your expert status and intentions and begin seeing you as a role model.

Role models are people you look up to and want to emulate. Plus, you listen to them because you believe what they say is true or important. You act on their recommendations because they are influential in your life. You trust them.

Focus your community building on contribution and service. For example:

• Write blog posts that discuss efforts to implement change.
• Post social media updates meant to inspire your followers to get involved in a cause or movement.
• Send a weekly email to subscribers that shares related news from around the world.
• Tell stories about your involvement in a cause.
• Build your mailing list by offering interviews with those involved in the area of change that most interests you.
• Create a LinkedIn or Facebook group where you share related news articles, tips, strategies, success stories, or your experiences implementing change.

These activities focus on contributing value to your audience. Yet, each one builds your community and demonstrates your involvement in a specific area of change that interests you—and about which you write. In this way, you’ll attract even more community members ready to adopt the change described in your novels—before and after your book is published.

5. Your Engaged Community Develops a Culture of Change

Don’t invite everyone to your community. It’s not a numbers game. Invite like-minded people with whom you would enjoy interacting. Within the community, create a culture of change.

In an interview for Darling Magazine, Godin said “[Revolution] only happens from a small group of people, and it’s totally possible. We need to understand where the needle is if we want to move it. Where the needle is in one simple sentence: ‘People like me do things like this.'”

Your community—your readers—will develop a culture. According to Godin, “[Culture] is which group we think we’re a part of and how we think that group behaves in a situation ‘like this.'”

“This” is the action you want those in your community to take so they create change within themselves or in the world. Your stories also speak to this message. For instance, your theme and character and story arc might illustrate that, “People like us support equal rights for all” or “People like us look for ways to reduce greenhouse gases.”

6. An Engaged Community Allows You to Lead

Every cause, mission, or movement has a leader or leaders. Many writers—especially novelists—don’t perceive themselves as leaders, but to write for change, you must step into a leadership role and lead your movement.

When you put yourself in the community with your members, you become a leader who is the same as them. You show them that you want the same things, you’ve struggled with similar issues, and you share their aspirations. Like them, you want change.

You can tell stories about your efforts toward change. Let them “see” that you are like them and that you are working toward change.

When you act like a leader—role modeling the change you want to see in the world, as well as writing novels that allow readers to experience that change through your storytelling—you contribute in ways that inspire and motivate change. Then, people will follow your lead. You can begin leading without followers and develop a following as you go.

Build an Engaged Community Now… Not Later

Don’t wait to build community until you feel you are a good enough speaker, comfortable on video, know how to write a blog post, understand social media, or have completed three fiction manuscripts. And don’t wait until your change-inspiring book is published to start building an engaged community around your work and your cause. Start now. Begin where you are and grow from there.

Be the message and the messenger. Role-model the change you desire for your community members and for the world. And let your novels be the tide that “lifts all boats.” Do that, and you’ll easily attract an engaged community that ensures your efforts to write for change reap powerful results.