Digital Minimalism For Authors

On Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism and what authors can learn from it.

A while ago, I read Cal Newport’s book Digital Minimalism and it got me thinking about my own relationship with digital media. Because I work with authors a lot, I also found myself thinking about what authors can take away from that book.  

Most authors I work with hate the following two words: social media. There’s so much anxiety about author platforms in general, but social media especially is a beast of its own.  

A lot of people in publishing will tell you that you need to be on social media in some capacity. I’m not here to debate whether you need to be on social media— that’s a discussion for another day. What I do want to talk about instead is ways of being online and some things that I think are useful for authors to think about when it comes to social media presence. 

I’ve always believed that everything is great in moderation. But after reading Digital Minimalism, I do think there’s an argument to be made for Newport’s definition of minimalism. Or at least a version of it. 

what is digital minimalism?

In his book, Cal Newport defines digital minimalism as: 

“a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” 

a digitalism that aligns with your values

I find Newport’s focus on “optimized activities that strongly support things you value” particularly interesting. Newport points out that social media apps are a business, something I think we often forget. Social media is part of our daily lives now. We connect with friends, family, colleagues, and people who we look up to, whether those are authors, artists, celebrities, politicians, or influencers. We’re on social media so often that we forget that these apps have invested billions of dollars to keep us on their sites, that they try to optimize their “stickiness,” that they actively invest in our investment in the apps: we want to stick around for the next like, the next comment, and the next post that goes viral. We want to see the signs of social approval, which is something our species has learned to be biologically attuned for survival. Newport points out that that’s what these apps capitalize on: our very need for social approval, or our biological instinct to look for signs of what’s socially acceptable and what isn’t. 

I don’t want to bash social media, though. There’s a lot of good that comes from social media. I love social media. It connects me with people I know, people I aspire to be like, and people who inspire me. I’m the last person to advise you to leave social media, because I think a lot of benefits can come from it to move units and connect with your readers (though it doesn’t replace your publisher’s job!). However, what I do advise you to think about is Newport’s point on how social media apps are designed to keep you addicted, because that’s how these companies make money. 

I know that there’s a question that’s lingering here: is social media good or bad? I don’t know. It’s likely both. Most of us know this, so this isn’t news. What was news to me, reading Digital Minimalism,  was the idea of looking at social media from a new perspective, analyzing its value to me and identifying what my goals are by being on it. And I firmly believe that this is so important to think about as an author. 

We often think about what value we can bring to social media communities. In publishing, that’s asking: What can we offer our readers? What can we offer our followers? 

But what Newport suggests is inverting these questions: What value is social media bringing us? As an author, what value is it adding to you? What are your business values as an author/ brand, and what role can social media play to help you practice these values?  

I’ll talk about myself as a literary agent on social media to give you an example. One of my values as an agent, and one of my goals in publishing, beyond just signing great clients and selling great books, is creating more transparency in publishing and providing educational resources to authors. In my case, social media is a tool that allows me to do that in digital places that are easily accessible for authors of any background. Any resources or insight I share is right there at everyone’s fingertips, as long as they can access wifi and a digital device, which nowadays is extremely accessible. For my values and goals, I find Instagram (and sometimes TikTok) the most efficient app where I can do that and also not absolutely hate my time online. Which brings us to the next point!

you don’t have to be on all the apps

It’s so overwhelming and distracting to be on ALL the apps. The truth is, you don’t have to be on all the apps. 

Plus, there’s a new app every other day, which makes it really difficult to keep up. In the last year or two, the book and publishing community went from Twitter/X to Bluesky to Mastadon to Threads. Now, it seems that a lot of the book community is now divided between X and Threads. I personally found the whole thing overwhelming. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for authors feeling like they have to keep up with all these apps in addition to the ones that have remained somewhat consistent (TikTok and Instagram)— though there’s debate on whether TikTok will get banned in the US. That’s just too much pressure. It’s anxiety-inducing! And it’s too much time on your phone, too much time away from your actual writing work. 

So instead, a healthier way of approaching social media is to figure out which of these apps works for you best, as an author. Do you prefer text-based posts and do these align with what your social media values are? Maybe X and Threads are the way to go for you. Do you prefer creating video content and publicly speaking? Or hopping onto trends to engage with your community? Or making humorous posts? Maybe Instagram or TikTok is for you. Or maybe you want a mix of text-forward and visual-forward apps. Whatever it is, make sure it aligns with what you want to be doing on the internet. 

Each social media app offers its pros and cons. Being on them all is a full-time job. Unless you’re a digital pro or a social media manager, it’s better to do one (or a few) things well than everything not so well. Your followers will appreciate you more on the apps you are most comfortable using, the ones you engage with most.

for the chronically online, interact with content outside of the publishing world

If the idea of digital minimalism isn’t landing, or if you just know you’ll want to be on every app all the time, then I return again to one of Newport’s points and ask you to consider it differently. Newport makes the argument that digital minimalism is better for you, and it can free up your time for things that matter to you or are more productive for you. He specifically mentions high-quality leisure activities (activities that require skill or brain work). That sounds amazing… but some of us aren’t quite ready yet to put down the phone and learn a brand new skill… and I like being realistic!  

So for the chronically online, what you can do is find a way to step away from your social media without actually stepping away from social media. What I mean by that is finding opportunities to interact with accounts and content that have absolutely nothing to do with books or publishing. Watch some thrift flips or pottery videos or read about gardening. Maybe create a second account where you don’t follow any authors or publishers or book influencers and instead follow accounts you find fun and entertaining in other ways. Find a corner of the internet that is fun for you and doesn’t involve comparing yourself to other authors, working your author brain, or focusing on branding in some capacity. Diversifying your feed is good for your mental health. It gives you a break from the publishing world, while still being on your phone or tablet. There’s so much content out there to engage with, and a huge big world that exists outside of publishing that sometimes those of us in publishing forget about.

I highly recommend Cal Newport’s book. Even if you don’t agree with his approach or all his points, I do think there’s some food for thought there on our relationship with digital media and ideas on how to reshape that relationship in a way that serves us better. I focused on social media in this blog post, but the book looks at digital media as a whole. As always, with these types of books, take from them what you can and what aligns with you.