The Upshot of Being Small Potatoes

4 reasons to love having a small following

I think we’re all a little Texas at heart—we want things to be BIG. We may say we are content with quiet little lives and tending our tiny corners of the world, but we live in a culture that generally agrees bigger is always better—and by GOLLY, it’s hard not to lean into that.

I spent this whole last year working on growing a following, a platform, an audience. I did it because the publishing people say that bigger is better. They tell us writerly folk that unless we have numbers on our side, they don’t care what we have to say or how we say it. Small potatoes don’t sell.

Note: My small following (in terms of what agents & publishers want). Also note: My phone, always basically dead. Why can’t I remember to charge it?

But I feel something akin to defiance rising in my gut. Who ARE these people, with hands folded across chests, asking us to spread our metrics before them so they can judge whether we’re worthy to write?

A year ago, I put a book proposal in the drawer of my desk to let it marinate. Or die. I wasn’t really sure which. I only knew that I didn’t have the numbers to prove to publishers that I could be profitable to them. I cried about it on my office floor for a solid 20 minutes, and then I moved on. I started a podcast. I made reels. I did what the experts say to do, in order to grow.

To be completely honest? My metrics haven’t changed that much since last year. And I’m so very tired of trying to make myself grow. It feels like dismal, silly work.

A week or so ago, I was pleading with God for some gatekeeper to open some gate for me, so that I could do the one thing I’ve been wanting to do this whole time: WRITE THE BOOK. And do you know what he told me? He said, “Who’s stopping you? Go on and do it, then.”

I spluttered, of course. I prattled on about paltry Instagram numbers and what the publishing people want. But he made it very clear: he was not in the least bit concerned with the gatekeepers. Numbers are a non-issue in his book.

The thing is—God proves over and over and over again that his ways are simply not our ways. Bigger is not always better, and louder is not always best. Numbers as we know them don’t mean a thing to God; he can multiply or divide whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

And he’s been reminding me that there are some major benefits to being small potatoes, anyway. I can’t help but wonder whether being “small” is actually a protection, a kindness. It affords certain luxuries that the rich & famous & influential don’t have. I’ve made a little list below of the upsides of being small potatoes, for all of us wee folk who have ever been told we “don’t have the numbers.” So today, let’s luxuriate in the unique superpower of being small! Cheers!