You have one thousand hours this year to invest in your author platform. You could spend them on social media. You could write a newsletter. You could do podcast interviews. You could speak at conferences. You could build community. You could write your next book. You could do all of these things a little bit, or you could do fewer things really well.

Most authors try to do everything a little bit. They maintain a presence on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and LinkedIn. They think about starting a newsletter but never quite commit. They say yes to podcast interviews when asked but do not actively pitch. They post sporadically on their website. They show up at some events but not consistently. The result is that they are visible everywhere but not meaningfully present anywhere. Their attention is so fragmented that none of their efforts compound.

This is the attention economy problem for authors. Your visibility, your time, your energy are finite resources. The question is not whether you should build an author platform. You should. The question is where you should concentrate your effort to get maximum return. Because every hour you spend on the wrong thing is an hour you are not spending on the right thing. And in a crowded market where attention is the scarcest resource, that matters enormously.

Why authors feel like they have to do everything

The pressure to do everything comes from several places. First, there is genuine uncertainty about where your audience actually is. Readers are on multiple platforms. Some are on BookTok, some are on Instagram, some are on email, some listen to podcasts, some attend events. If you do not know which platforms your specific audience prefers, it feels safer to be on all of them.

Second, there is fear of missing out. Every platform claims to be where authors are breaking through. "You have to be on TikTok" or "email is dead" or "podcasts are where it is at." Each of these claims contains some truth, but they also create pressure to chase every new platform.

Third, there is the comparison game. You see other authors with large followings on multiple platforms and assume you need to replicate that. But what you do not see is the years those authors invested before they had large followings, or the team they hired to manage platforms, or the fact that they went all-in on one or two platforms first before expanding.

Fourth, there is the publishing industry standard that says authors should have "platform." Publishers want to know you have followers, email subscribers, and visibility. That creates pressure to build presence everywhere as insurance that you have enough platform to satisfy a publisher or marketing team.

All of this creates a situation where authors feel obligated to maintain presence on every platform, create content constantly, and show up everywhere their audience might possibly be. The result is burnout and fragmented effort that never gains real traction anywhere.

The math of attention allocation

Here is the hard truth: you cannot build meaningful presence on every platform. The math does not work.

Building real presence on a platform requires consistency, quality, and time. Instagram requires regular posting and meaningful engagement. TikTok requires understanding the algorithm and posting frequently. Email requires writing thoughtful messages regularly. Podcasting requires recording, editing, and promoting. Speaking requires pitch, preparation, and execution. Community requires ongoing moderation and engagement.

Each of these platforms or activities requires a minimum investment to be worth doing at all. If you post to Instagram once a month, you are wasting your time. The algorithm will not prioritize your content. Your followers will forget about you. If you send an email newsletter once every three months, people will unsubscribe because they forgot they signed up. If you guest on a podcast once a year, you are not building visibility.

The minimum investment to make a platform work is roughly one hundred to two hundred hours per year. That might be one hour per week of content creation, posting, and engagement. For email, it might be four hours per month to write and send a thoughtful newsletter. For speaking, it might be fifty to one hundred hours per year to pitch, prepare, and execute talks. For community, it might be five to ten hours per week to moderate and engage.

Now do the math. You have roughly one thousand available hours per year to invest in your author platform. If each platform requires one hundred to two hundred hours minimum, you can realistically do five to ten platforms if you split your time evenly. But splitting your time evenly means no platform gets deep investment. You are present everywhere but nowhere.

Alternatively, you could concentrate that time. Put five hundred hours into email and direct audience building. Put three hundred hours into one other platform where your audience is. Put two hundred hours into speaking and events. That is one thousand hours, concentrated on three things instead of spread across ten. The result is that you actually build something that compounds on each platform instead of maintaining a thin presence everywhere.

Identifying where your audience actually is

The first step in allocating your attention strategically is understanding where your specific audience actually is. This requires research and testing, not assumption.

Start by asking your existing readers and community where they are. Send an email asking what platforms they use. Ask in your community what content formats they prefer. Look at your website analytics to see what traffic sources actually drive readers to you. Look at your email open rates to see if your subscribers are actually reading. Look at your social media engagement to see if your followers are actually interacting.

The answer is usually different from what you expect. You might assume your audience is on TikTok because TikTok is where publishing talks about books being discovered. But your actual audience might be on email and podcasts. You might think you need to be on LinkedIn because that is where business audiences are. But your audience might primarily be on email and your website.

This is why testing matters. Pick one platform and invest seriously for three months. Post regularly. Engage authentically. See what happens. If you build a real audience and see engagement, that platform is worth continued investment. If you post regularly and see crickets, that platform is not where your audience is. Move on.

The goal is not to be everywhere. The goal is to identify two or three platforms where your actual audience congregates and concentrate your effort there.

The core platforms almost every author should invest in

Some platforms are foundational and worth investment for almost every author. Email is one. Building an email list and sending regular newsletters is the highest-ROI author activity you can do. Every author should invest significantly in email.

Your author website is another. It does not have to be fancy, but it should be clear, updated regularly, and optimized so that people can easily find information about you and your books. Your website is where you own the relationship with readers. Every other platform should drive people back to your website, where you can capture their email address.

Beyond those two, the platforms worth investing in depend on your specific audience and your strengths. Some options:

Podcasting makes sense if you are comfortable with audio, if your audience prefers audio content, and if you have something substantive to say in a long-form format. A weekly or biweekly podcast is a significant time investment, but it can build a deeply engaged audience.

Speaking and events make sense if you are comfortable in front of audiences, if your work lends itself to live conversation, and if your audience is the kind that attends events. This is less about reach and more about building relationships and credibility with concentrated groups of people.

One social platform makes sense if you are comfortable with that platform's culture, if your audience is there, and if you enjoy the format. Pick one—Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, whatever makes sense—and invest. Ignore the others.

A community makes sense if your audience wants to connect with each other, if you have the capacity to moderate and engage, and if your work naturally creates community. This can be Discord, Facebook, Slack, or any platform where people gather. But communities require ongoing investment and attention.

What does not make sense for most authors: maintaining a thin presence on every platform. That dilutes your effort and does not build real traction anywhere.

The opportunity cost of the wrong platforms

Every hour you spend on the wrong platform is an hour you are not spending on the right one. That opportunity cost compounds.

Imagine you spend five hours per week on Instagram because you feel like you should be there, even though your audience is not very engaged. That is two hundred and sixty hours per year. That same two hundred and sixty hours invested in email could generate hundreds of new subscribers and thousands of dollars in direct revenue from your audience. Or that time could be invested in your next book, which could be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

The math is stark. Two hundred and sixty hours on Instagram with low engagement might generate ten new followers per month and minimal revenue. Two hundred and sixty hours on email could generate fifty new subscribers per month and thousands in direct sales. The opportunity cost of being on the wrong platform is real and substantial.

This is why saying no to platforms and opportunities is not a luxury. It is a necessity. You cannot do everything. You have to choose. And every platform you maintain requires saying no to something else.

The attention allocation framework

Here is a framework for thinking strategically about where to invest your attention as an author:

Start with core platforms. Email and your website should get significant investment from every author. These are your owned channels where you control the relationship with your audience. Everything else should drive people back to these core platforms.

Identify where your audience actually is. Do research. Ask your readers. Test platforms. See where you get actual engagement and response. Pick one or two platforms beyond email where your audience congregates and concentrate your effort there.

Invest deeply in those platforms. Pick a posting schedule you can sustain. Engage authentically. Build relationships. Invest in quality. Do not try to be everywhere. Be meaningful somewhere.

Set a time budget. Decide how many hours per week you can realistically invest in your platform. Then allocate that time across your chosen platforms. Email might get four hours per week. Your chosen social platform might get three hours per week. Speaking might get two hours per week. Do not exceed your total budget.

Review quarterly. Every three months, assess what is working. Are you seeing growth and engagement on your chosen platforms? Are you building your email list? Are you getting the return you expected? If something is not working, do not invest more time trying to fix it. Stop doing it and redirect that time to what is working.

Say no to new opportunities. As you build visibility, you will get offers. Opportunities to guest post. Requests to be on podcasts. Invitations to events. A new platform that claims to be where your audience is. Say no to most of them. Only say yes to opportunities that align with your chosen platforms and your time budget.

The compound effect of concentrated effort

When you concentrate your attention on a few platforms instead of spreading it across many, something shifts. Your effort starts to compound.

On email, consistency builds trust. Each newsletter your subscribers receive makes them more likely to open the next one. That consistency makes it more likely they will buy your next book or support your work in other ways. Over a year, consistent email builds a strong, engaged audience.

On your chosen social platform, consistency builds visibility. Regular, authentic posts build followers. Engagement with your community builds loyalty. Over time, a consistent presence on one platform builds real influence.

In your speaking and events, repeated appearances build authority. Each event you speak at establishes you as an expert and builds your credibility. That credibility attracts more speaking opportunities.

When effort concentrates instead of spreading, it compounds. You are not competing for attention across ten platforms where you are weak everywhere. You are building real strength on a few platforms where you show up consistently and meaningfully.

The authors with the most sustainable and powerful author platforms are not the ones trying to be everywhere. They are the ones who identified where their audience is and where their strengths align, then invested deeply in those few channels. Everything else is secondary.

Attention allocation over time

Your attention allocation will change as your platform grows and your circumstances change. Early in your career, you might invest heavily in social media to build initial visibility. As your email list grows, you might shift more time to email and less to social. As your speaking opportunities increase, you might shift time toward speaking and less toward content creation.

That is fine. Your allocation should evolve based on what is working, what your audience responds to, and what you have capacity for. The key is being intentional about those shifts instead of just reacting to whatever opportunity comes next.

Some authors reach a point where their email list is large enough and engaged enough that they can step back from social media almost entirely. They focus on email, their website, and speaking. Other authors find that their audience prefers video content and they shift heavily into YouTube or TikTok. The specifics depend on your audience and your work.

But the principle remains: allocate your finite attention strategically to the platforms and activities where you get the best return, not across every platform equally.

Your next step

Audit how you are currently spending your author platform time. Track it for a week. How many hours per week are you spending on email? Social media? Speaking? Events? Community? Your website? Writing? Add it all up.

Then look at what is actually working. Which platforms are generating the most engagement? Which are driving readers to your books? Which are building your email list? Which feel like you are shouting into the void?

Finally, make a decision. Cut at least one platform or activity entirely. Redirect that time to what is working. Commit to that reallocation for three months. See what happens when you concentrate your effort instead of spreading it thin.

Your attention is your most finite resource. Protect it. Invest it wisely. Concentrate it where it compounds rather than spreading it where it dissipates. That discipline is what separates authors who build real platforms from authors who maintain thin presence everywhere and never break through anywhere.