Tag: building an author platform

Start with the basics and don’t overwhelm yourself by joining every author/writing platform known to man.

We’ll go into more specifics about each of these topics over the next few weeks.

An author website is essential to building an author platform. It serves as a one-stop platform for information about you and your books. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive, but it should be aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.

An email list is a critical component of building your platform because it creates a ready and interested audience you can reach directly. Start building your list as early as possible, even if you aren’t published yet.

Set up 1-3 social media accounts as an author. For Facebook, this means setting up a PAGE, not using your personal PROFILE. You can get in trouble for using your personal profile to promote your business. Which social media accounts are best depend on what tends to work best for authors/artists and which ones you enjoy using and/or find easy to use.

Setting up profiles on retailer and book-related sites give you more avenues to make your work visible, participate in promotions, and collect followers. Many of these sites require little to no engagement once your are set up, but can provide exposure and promotion benefits.

Setting up the basic parts of an author profile can be time consuming, but it is important to have an online presence where readers and industry professionals can easily find and contact you. For most of these, with the exception of social media, require only occasional updates to maintain, so the time cost to get them set up pays you back over time. Social media does require regular engagement to be effective, but can also provide community and support along with advertising opportunities.

For a more detailed breakdown of each of these topics, stop back by over the next few weeks!