I’m not any good at building a virtual community. I’m not sure why. My Twitter account hovers around 230 followers, usually fewer. My YouTube page is at about 250 subscribers. My Patreon has five dedicated and amazing Penguinators (Thank you!). The only reason I have over 1,000 Facebook friends is because I played a game called Castle Age for four years and I needed friends to get prizes (DfA!).

However, a virtual community is what I need to build to survive as a writer. I need a group of individuals who will interact with my webpage and social media. People who will share penguin posts and buy books and penguins. A core group of active fans, who can help get the word out and keep my TV series on the air for another season (figuratively speaking), would be amazing.

Taylor Swift has her Swifties. Haley Reinhart has her Haliens. Firefly has its Browncoats. Justin Bieber has his Beliebers. What’s the name of J.K. Rowling’s fans? These fans are there to support and protect their chosen artists, and just such a fan base is what every creator needs.

I’ve seen examples of fan-building, but I don’t know how to use my personality to do it. All I know is that I need to figure it out and quickly. Change is coming, and when it does, I’m going to need a lot of support and a lot of change.

How would you build a virtual community?