Being an author without a platform is similar to being a musician without a fan base. Your platform is the foundation in which you will launch your career as an author. An author platform is evidence of your proven and multifaceted, active engagement with your book’s targeted readership. Writing and independently publishing a book without a solid platform will cost you precious time and is one of the most expensive mistakes self-published authors make.
Before you write another word or purchase another service take a few minutes to read this.
Establish your platform early. By implementing simple strategies months and even years prior to your books’ publication you can earn the attention and trust of your reader. Start early and use social media, write for blogs and lifestyle websites, participate in podcast interviews, and some virtual events to establish authority or to entertain your prospective readers. What would you write or talk about at your first book signing? Talk and write about those topics prior to publishing a book. Allow your audience to go behind the scenes in your writing process. You would be surprised to know that many avid readers have secret desires to write their own book, they would appreciate learning how the process works.
Start small: We Are Social in partnership with Hootsuite shared a report this year revealing there are more than 3.8 billion people using social media. The majority of voracious readers and writers started out with just a social media presence. You may not be on every platform so focus on building your audience on 1-2 preferred channels. Did you know that 1-3% of your social media audience would buy your book? This means that in order to have success in selling your book to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram followers you will need to grow your audience. Begin sharing your writing and thoughts on social where the potential for discoverability is greater and free of charge.
Show and Prove: When an author has an established platform they have proven authority and an established network, they are visible to their primary community, their qualifying experience is on display and they have proven online and in-person methods to reach book buyers and reviewers. The roadmap to optimizing your potential begins with sharing your voice.
Look ahead: Planning ahead can alleviate a lot of the debut author jitters. If you’re planning to release a book in Spring 2021, connect with beta readers, bookclubs, authors in your genre, bloggers and journalists who cover your topic, podcasters and event producers now. Invite them to be early reviewers. There is no pressure in introducing yourself early. Establish authentic relationships that you can leverage in the future.
Be of service: Even as a first-time, self-published author you have experiences that can be useful to someone who is considering making a move to write and publish a book. What hacks and tips can you share? What design and editing resources worked for you? What platforms are best for reviews or advertising? Be of service and share information with your community. Community sharing has helped many authors get their first 100 books sold.
Be accessible: Remember the key to platform building is creating and cultivating organic engagements. Your ideal reader has to be able to find and connect with you. If you aren’t ready for a full website consider a landing page or a Linktree page. At minimum select your preferred social media channels and begin there with a nice photo and a brief but informative bio.
Collaborate: Platform building does not have to be a solo mission. Connect with writers in your genre and create opportunities to work together. Interview one another, guest blog, co-write a byline article, etc. One of the great things about social media is that it’s easy to connect with people around the world. It’s not uncommon to reach out to someone and ask to collaborate on live social conversations. By collaborating you are introducing yourself to a new audience of readers. I’ve watched authors collaborate and triple their social numbers, reviews and mailing list in less than 6 months.
Study Others: Building a platform is not a reinvention of the wheel. Check out what has worked for some of the most successful authors in your genre—self-published and traditionally published. Read their interviews and see what they did to reach the level of success they have. The author of Black Girls Must Die Exhausted, Jayne Allen has teamed up with author Kim Collier to create a series of video interviews and teachings on her Instagram page addressing writing, publishing and the promotional process. Allen’s book sales and Amazon reviews have seen significant growth since the collaboration.
Automate: There will never be a 25th hour in the day, therefore automation is the key to getting more done with the time we do have. Consider platforms like Sprout Social or Hootsuite. Carve out a couple of hours a week to create and batch your content for 2-week intervals.
As a publicist, I believe that relationships should precede selling. Establishing an author platform means you have built a relationship with the ideal reader for your book, they follow your online content and conversations, listen to your podcast or radio show, respect your words, and trust you. They have gotten to know you before you have a book to offer them. It’s the courtship phase of the author-reader relationship.
The bigger the platform the more sales, reviews, and media you can expect to receive. Whether you are looking to self-publish or go the traditional route, a platform is vital to the success of your first book. It’s an on-going process so I suggest you get started now.
