You can publish the most wonderful book in the world—but it won’t find its audience if nobody is aware of it. (If you publish an eBook in the forest and no one hears it, does it sell?) In today’s noisy world, the odds are seriously against your book. Building your platform is the best way to even the odds—and sell your book.
This is Part 2 of a 3-part series on book marketing and building your author platform:
Part 1 – Five Reasons You Can’t Build on Amazon, Facebook, or Google…
Part 2 – [You Are Here] – 5 Essentials for Building Your Author Platform
Part 3 – The 5 People Who Want to See Your Press Kit
5 ESSENTIAL STEPS TO BUILDING YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM OUTSIDE AMAZON, FACEBOOK, AND GOOGLE
Your author platform is one of the most powerful factors in your success as an author. This article will help you to understand more about your author platform—and how you can start building yours now.
WHEN DO I NEED A PLATFORM?
The simple answer is “now.” Right now. Even if you don’t yet have a book.
You might think a “platform” is only for an established author. Not so! As soon as you understand what your author brand represents, it’s time for you to begin establishing that brand to the world.
A brand is a promise. What do you promise your readers? The answer to that question is a major clue to your brand as an author: Your point-of-view, your expertise, your experiences. Whatever your books are about—or are going to be about—that’s your brand.
That promise is the foundation of your platform. If you know your promise to readers—today or in the future—then you’re ready to start building your platform.
And if you’ve already published a book? It’s never too late to get started.
WHY DO I NEED AN AUTHOR PLATFORM?
Ever had trouble getting someone’s attention at a noisy public place? Maybe you were at the airport, or a sporting event, or even a loud party.
Think how much easier it would’ve been if you had stood on a stage. Better yet–if you had been onstage with a microphone. That would have worked much better, wouldn’t it?
Well, when you’re trying to promote your book, you’re competing with a lot of noise—social media, live streaming, the 24-hour news cycle, and everything else. The competition for attention is more fierce than ever. It’s not enough to have a great message. Without a platform, you will never rise above the noise.
WHAT DOES AN AUTHOR PLATFORM DO FOR ME?
Your platform is where you build trust—with influencers in the media, with booksellers and libraries, and with your future readers. It builds demand for your book, and builds demand for what you offer as an expert or authority or celebrity or storyteller in your space.
Creating your author platform before your next book is published…
Gives you a head start on promoting and selling that book
Enable you to add to the conversation
Allows you to share with the world your point of view, or your story, or your ideas
Gives you the power to be an influencer
A platform enables you to rise above the noise and deliver your message or your story or your promise to your ideal readers. It makes it possible for everyone in that audience to hear what you have to say.
If you’re serious about taking your brand or your book to readers, you can’t make that happen without a platform.
WHO NEEDS A “PLATFORM”?
Anyone with something to share with readers. It can be a message. It can be a story. It can simply be you sharing what you’ve learned.
If you’re a romance writer
If you’re a how-to expert
If you write westerns
If you’re a business expert
If you write mysteries
If you’re a self-help writer
If you’re a health writer
No matter what you write or how you write it—if the world needs to read it, you need an author platform.
HOW DO I BUILD AN AUTHOR PLATFORM?
In the following section, I’ll explain the five essential steps in building your author platform:
You need your author hub.
You need to treat your other profiles as branch offices.
You need to build your list.
You need your press kit.
You need to build your authority.
Now, let’s go through the list one at a time and unpack what each item means to you…
#1) You need your author hub.
It is essential to have your own, personal space on the web. Your author website: Not a social media profile. Not a free blog. Not anything other than a page on the web with a URL that you control. And this website needs to serve as the central hub of all your online presence.
Some key points…
Build it on your own land: In the previous article in this series, I explained all kinds of reasons you can’t build your author platform on Amazon, Facebook, Google, or any of the other big companies. In that article, the angle was about how these companies are going to do what’s in their best interests.
But here, I want to go back to the essential reason at its heart: You shouldn’t put all your eggs in baskets owned by other people.
So, if you were mesmerized by the size of the companies—that is, you don’t trust big companies because of their size—then you may have missed the fundamental point. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a massive company or some cute little start-up in your neighbor’s garage—anything you post on a “free” platform doesn’t belong to you.
Sure, they may promise they’ll never repurpose your content. They may promise they won’t disappear and delete all your content. They may promise they’ll never change their terms or their price or whatever else you liked about them.
If your platform is built on a URL you don’t own or on a platform you don’t pay for, there’s no guarantee the landowner won’t come back and say, “Sorry, I know I promised I wouldn’t do this, but…”
Tomorrow, Google might decide to pull the plug on its free Blogger platform. Tomorrow, Facebook could suddenly pull the plug on your author page. Tomorrow, Amazon could decide publishing companies are too much headache and just stop selling books altogether.
But if your platform is your own, all that other stuff can go away and you’ll still be able to reach readers.
Think of it as your online headquarters: Your website is the center for your author presence, with information about your books, and your publicity materials. Your website doesn’t need to be complicated—but it does need to be yours.
Everything else should point here: Your author website needs to be the center of all your online activity. Everything you do online should point to that one author website—and then your website points back out to all the other ways to find you online. Think your author website as the “home office”—and the links on your website point out to everything else.
#2) You need to treat your other profiles as branch offices.
If your author website is your home office, then all the other places to find you online should be treated as your “branch offices.” Just like the actual relationship between a company’s home office and its branch offices, the home office establishes the brand, and the branch offices are secondary locations that carry out the brand’s mission in different localities. As such, all your online presences need to be in line with your author website’s branding and mission.
Social media profiles: The great thing about your social media profiles is that they allow you to connect and engage with your readers out where they are. But never forget that each of those branch offices need to line up with the brand—and never confuse your social media following with being your reachable audience.
When you are over there connecting with people on social media, always look for opportunities to reinforce the brand as it appears on your author website. There should be continuity with your profile images across all your accounts, and all your profile bios should include information that reinforces your core author brand, and links pointing back to your author website.
However, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need a profile on every kind of social media. Be where you enjoy being, and be where your target readers are. If you can accomplish that with only one or two social media accounts, there’s no reason you should feel compelled to add to the list.
Retail sites: You want to maximize your opportunities with retailers—because these are the places where most people buy their books. But once again, always remember that if you can’t email someone, then you can’t consider them a part of your reachable audience. As such, do your best to make sure your books include branding consistent with your core brand and point readers back to your home office.
At this time, Amazon is the only retailer that offers you an author profile that you can update. Don’t waste this opportunity. Add your author photo and a bio that’s consistent with your brand and that points readers back to your site.
Your website should also point out to your book on all the relevant retail sites. If your book appears on these sites, link to them:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-a-Million
Kobo
IndieBound
Your local bookseller’s website
And other major retailer that carries your book online.
Be sure to link directly to your book as it appears on these sites. Don’t just send people to a site’s homepage and hope that will go to the trouble to hunt for your book.
If you have an Amazon affiliate account, resists the urge to link exclusively to Amazon. Many online customers already have their credit card information at their favorite bookseller site: An Amazon buyer will use your affiliate link. But a non-Amazon buyer is unlikely to make the switch because you demand it. Why risk losing the sale altogether?
Your content and appearances on other sites: As you build your platform, that’s going to include you appearing in various types of media. This can range from being the subject of an interview to writing a guest post for a fellow author’s blog. In all these cases, do what you can to be consistent with how your brand is represented on your author website—use the same author photo and author bio, for example. Whether or not you’ll be able to share the title of your website, when you post links on your website to that other appearance, then search engines will connect the dots for people who heard about you or read about you and are want to find more.
#3) You need to build your list.
You need to be able to reach people who want to hear from you. If you don’t have access to your readers, you don’t have a platform. The best way to make sure you can reach someone is to get his or her email address. It’s not a perfect system—but it is way more efficient than trying to connect with all your followers through social media or some other method you can’t control.
Whenever you have something new to share—you’re running a sale on a new book; you were interviewed by a podcast; you were the subject of a feature article in a newspaper; you posted a great article on your website—it helps you leverage that media attention when you share it. The more people who see that appearance or article of yours, the more likely that another media outlet will find it as well (and then want to cover you, to).
To build that leverage, you need an email list of engaged readers, followers, and fans. A small list that’s engaged is more powerful than a bloated list of people who don’t understand how they ended up on your list in the first place.
Some authors pay out hundreds or even thousands of dollars in hopes of reaching someone else’s audience. But if you build your own list—of dedicated, interested, engaged readers who want to know about you and the exact kind of thing you write—you’re going to get so much further.
So, how do you build your email list?
Get an email service provider: The most inexpensive options include MailChimp, Aweber, and Vertical Measures. As your list grows or as your needs become more complicated, you might move on to some of the more powerful or business-centric email services.
Build your list on your website: The first place to start gathering emails of your readers is on your author website. (This is your home office, remember?) You need two things to make this work:
1) An opt-in box
For someone to give you his or her email address, there needs to a box to type in that address. There are different ways to include this on your website—including a box in the sidebar, a box at the end of your blog articles, or a box that pops up. Most email service providers offer a way to create one of these, which you can then add to your website. You can also put one of these boxes on your Facebook profile.
2) A lead magnet
A “lead magnet” is something you offer for free in exchange for email addresses. It needs to be something relevant to your brand, so that the only people who want that free thing are your prospective readers. (As much as possible, avoid bloating your email subscription base with freeloaders who don’t even care about your topic or brand.)
A lead magnet doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, experts suggest that the simpler you can make your free offer, the better. Some suggestions include: a free article or short story; an eBook; a checklist or a chart; or free training delivered through a series of emails or videos.
Build your list in other places: Once you have your email service provider and your opt-in sequence in place, be sure to create an opt-in form on a dedicated landing page that you can link to from other places. That way, you can link to that page and invite your followers over from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or any of your other branch offices. You can also include a link from inside your books.
Try to make the landing page URL as simple as possible—something like YourWebsite.com/Gift or YourWebsite.com /Free. The simpler the URL, the easier it is to say it out loud, the easier it is for someone to remember, and the easier it is for them to type it into their browser.
Once your landing page and opt-in sequence is in place, be sure to mention it
In your book’s back matter
In podcast appearances
In your bio when you write guest articles
And everywhere else you appear online and have the ability to speak or share a link.
Once you begin to build you list, you can keep in touch with your readers. Depending on what is consistent with your brand, you can email out reviews of books that you enjoyed; send out recipes; send out a newsletter; or simply collect the email addresses and wait until it’s time to announce your next book when it’s ready for pre-order.
#4) You need your press kit.
It would be difficult to overstate the value of a quality press kit on your website. It can make all the difference in growing your author platform. This is going to build bridges between you and the media between you and booksellers and libraries and even between you and your future readers.
When any of these people come to your author website you only have a matter of seconds to show them what they’re looking for—who you are as an author, what you write, and why you write it—before that person just bounces off your website and goes to find another author instead.
Most people won’t go to the trouble of contacting you for more information. They don’t have time to waste tracking down the simple details you should’ve posted on your website.
A good author press kit positions you with the media, with retailers, and with readers. It establishes your credibility. It explains who you are as an author, what you write, and why you write it. It convinces them that you are worth interviewing, worth writing about, worth carrying on their shelves, worth reading.
So, what are the most important elements of an author press kit? First, you need to create a series of materials explaining who you are. Second, you need to create a series of materials explaining your book and why it’s important. The third category is images: At least one strong author photo, and an image of your book cover.
A string press kit on your website benefits you in these ways:
You control the message: By creating your publicity materials before the media comes calling, it means you’ve figured out the best way to explain who you are as an author, what you write, and why your book is important. If you’ve already documented a clear and concise explanation of who you are and what you write, the odds are much better that the media will then communicate that message to their audience correctly. If you don’t have the press materials on your website, that means either you are scrambling (not good), or they’ll just make up something (even worse). But if you have your publicity materials on your website, it helps you control the message. It doesn’t give you absolute control—once the information is in the hands of the media, they’ll do what they will—but giving them the right information right out of the gate will go so much better for you.
Backs up your media pitches: When you pitch your feature angle or your news hook to that media outlet, you want to be able to point that producer or editor or interviewer back to the press kit on your website. Your pitch needs to be brief and to the point—which means they come to your website for your press materials, for your press release, your author photo, your book cover, etc.
There when you’re asleep: Another reason the complete press kit needs to appear on your website is because some members of the media will be swinging by your website at all hours of the day or night, and they need what they need now. They don’t have time to wait for you to check your email or to get home from that trip or to reply to a message. Your press kit needs to be complete and on your website and available for their use now. It’s like insurance—if you wait until you need it, you’re too late.
Free Press Kit Checklist
Download your copy of ‘The Essential Indie Author Press Kit Checklist.’
Follow this simple checklist to develop your author media kit before reaching out to broadcasters, reporters, columnists, podcasters, and anyone else with an audience.
Click here to get your free download!
#5) You need to build your authority.
Once your foundation is in place—your author website; the ability to collect reader emails; and the press kit to establish your author brand—the next stage in building your author platform is to grow the number of people who want to visit your website, and the number of people who want to sign up for your list, and the number of people who want to see your press kit.
People need to learn about you. What’s the most efficient, most cost-effective way to do that? You need to appear on other people’s platforms so that you can speak to their audiences. There are three primary ways to make this happen: Being covered by influencers in the media, creating your own media content, and creating media content for others.
MEDIA COVERAGE
Today, the modern media landscape offers more opportunities—and more access—than ever before. Gone are the days when the “media” was like a fortified castle, owned by only the rich and powerful few. Nowadays, there are more media influencers than ever before. Maybe they don’t have the broad reach of the old days, but this actually works in your favor. Now, you can find media influencers—broadcasters, reporters, columnists, podcasters, bloggers, and more—who target your ideal readers more effectively than the old media monoliths ever did.
There are three great benefits of media coverage:
Spreads your message: A well-placed interview, spotlight, or interview puts your book and your ideas and your words in front of many more potential readers than you ever could yourself. When one of those readers, listeners, or viewers likes what they learn about you, what are they going to do? Look for your website.
Offers social proof: Your appearance in a media outlet carries far more weight than any advertisement or even any of your peers. These media influencers have built trust with their audiences—issue by issue, episode by episode, story by story. When you are positioned closely with those influencers in a positive light that reflects well on you. When they feature you in some way that means they’ve endorsed you.
Leads to more media appearances: Another benefit of one appearance in the media is that it leads to your next appearances in other media. (Ever noticed those guests who suddenly seem to show up everywhere?) When you show up in that media outlet—that magazine, that show, that website, or whatever—there are other media influencers in that audience who will learn about your for the first time. If one or more of them thinks, “This author would be great for my audience, too,” they’re going look up your author website—and check out your author press kit.
YOUR CONTENT
You attention in the media brings validation from trusted brands—but one of the great benefits of the level playing field of the Internet is that you are also the media! No, you don’t have the enormous audience of those other influencers, but the fact is you can begin to create content that engages and builds your own audience.
There are all kinds of ways to approach this. The learning modalities of the audience include reading, listening, and watching—so think about ways to create content they can read, listen to, and watch. You can write blog posts and articles. You can record audio lessons and podcast episodes. You can create video tutorials and even start a show.
Here’s what you want to happen:
• You begin to appear in other media
• Members of those audiences visit your website
• Offering your own content gives them a reason to stick around—and come back
As long as you practice the same principles in your own media content—serve the audience first—you can find yourself on the way to becoming your own trusted brand and influencer. There are three ways that this kind of content—on your own platform—can build your author brand.
Demonstrates your expertise: What is your area of expertise? Teach us about your genre or category. Teach us about other books or authors in your space. Share what you’ve learned in your research. Show us how to do something. As you add this kind of content, you aren’t just telling us you’re an authority in your category, you’re actually giving us a demonstration to prove it.
Attracts people to your website or blog: Adding this kind of content to your own website or blog—the kind of content that’s not about you, but about related topics—you’re going to begin attracting readers or listeners or viewers who are genuinely interested in the kind of books that you write. You are building the perfect audience for your own work. As such, think of your efforts as creating the perfect magazine or show that you’d want to be a guest on—what kinds of topics does it cover? What kinds of articles or segments does it feature?
Builds trust with your audience: If your content on your own site serves the members of your audience, then you are building trust with that audience. You are becoming an influencer. When earn the right to say, “I have a book,” they are way more likely to be interested in buying it.
YOUR GUEST CONTENT
Here’s a method that combines the audience-grabbing power of media exposure with the authority-building power of creating your own media content: You create articles and then become a guest contributor for prominent blogs, magazines, and newspapers. Or you can create articles that are then syndicated through press distribution services. (This strategy works primarily with print and online media.)
Here’s why you may want to include this in your promotional plans…
Puts you in front of more readers: When your article is presented in front of that audience—this is your chance to stand on stage and demonstrate your authority in your area of expertise.
Carries all the value of social proof: Although this isn’t that outlet spotlighting you—that is, you’re not the subject of the article or blog post—this is still you appearing in that media. Even though you created the content yourself, you still were read in that magazine, or in that newspaper, or on that blog. You’re now associated with that influencer or that brand.
Gets you into more doors: When you appear in the media, it leads to more media appearances. If you write a great article, which is now a clip for your media file, that becomes something you can leverage to get more appearances or more opportunities to be a guest contributor.
Sends people your way: Guest articles are often accompanied by a mention of your credentials and how to find you online. Even better, guest articles posted online will link to your website. This is great for two reasons: 1) when a reader is impressed with your article, your website is only a click away; 2) search engines catalog that link to your website (it’s sometimes called a “backlink”), which leads to the search engines determining that you are important and should start sending people to your website.
WHAT ALL THIS MEANS YOU AS AN AUTHOR
By this point, you should understand the value of building a library of content that demonstrates your authority, builds your credibility, and brings brand-new readers into your orbit. The three pillars of this strategy are:
• Be interviewed or spotlighted by media influencers
• Generate valuable content for your own website
• Offer valuable content to other media outlets
As you include these three into your ongoing promotional campaign, you will build social proof, build authority, and build credibility, and most importantly, build an audience for your author platform.
Assuming you have your homebase–your author website–what’s the next step?
YOU NEED AN AUTHOR PRESS KIT
Before you start attracting the attention of broadcasters, reporters, producers, news editors, and other members of the media—as well as booksellers, libraries, and readers—it is critical to your author platform for there to be a solid author press kit on your website. In the final article in this three-part series, I’ll list for you the five different kinds of people who will be looking for your press kit—and why it’s important to you that they find it.
Free Press Kit Checklist
Download your copy of ‘The Essential Indie Author Press Kit Checklist.’
Follow this simple checklist to develop your author media kit before reaching out to broadcasters, reporters, columnists, podcasters, and anyone else with an audience.
Click here to get your free download!
Coming next:
Part 3 – The 5 People Who Want to See Your Press Kit
Have you been able to leverage media influencers to draw attention to your own author platform? Post your experiences—and any tips you want to pass along—below!
The post 5 Essentials for Building Your Author Platform (#2 of 3) appeared first on DIY Author.