From Page to Platform: The Hidden Life of a Writer’s Content

When I first became a writer, I thought I was a content creator. And I was—original content, the written word, the story itself. The book was the content. Simple. Pure. Mine.

But no one tells you that once you publish, the content creation doesn’t end there. In fact, it multiplies.

A busy desk, computer, headphones, microphone

To get your book into the hands of readers who will love it, you have to learn a whole new language: the language of social media content. That means posts, reels, captions and photos. You become a visual storyteller, a marketer, a strategist. You create cinematic trailers, carousels of hooks and photos of your book’s settings—mine are drawn from my own life, so the line between fiction and reality blurs beautifully.

🎙️ And then there’s the podcast. Because I didn’t just want to share the stories—I wanted to share the stories behind the stories. So I learned how to record, edit and produce episodes. I created intros and outros, layered in music and shaped the narrative arc of each episode like I would a scene in a novel. More content. More learning.

🌐 Then came the website. The blog. The newsletter. The SEO. The platforms—Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Amazon, and beyond. Each one with its own rhythm, its own rules, its own audience. And all of it built around the original content: the book.

And while Ben will tell you my language is colourful when I’m wrangling new tech or troubleshooting a stubborn layout, I’m loving it. I’m a natural inquisitor, and this world of multi-format storytelling is a playground. I get to be creative in new ways and I get to stretch my brain mastering the tools that bring my stories to life across mediums.

✍️ Writing a book is no longer just about the words on the page. It’s about the ecosystem of content that surrounds it. It’s about creating a bridge between the story and the reader—one reel, one caption, one podcast episode at a time.

And tomorrow? I’ll be back at it. Dreaming up the next book. And the next wave of content that will carry it into the world.

Have a great week,

Love Helen x