This post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.
Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.
The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)
Help Your Readers to Share the Love
You’ve spent a lot of time creating powerful and meaningful content for your author website.
You’ve worked hard at establishing your credibility and authority as a writer both online and off.
You’ve even gone all out by forging and deepening connections with not only your fans, but with other writers and industry influencers as well.
Oh yeah, and you’ve been writing. Perfecting your prose and sharpening your manuscript.
What else can you do to kickstart the word-of-mouth marketing mechanism that will help to share your work exponentially with the world?
Make It Easy to Share
Why not make it easy for your collaborators–readers, peers, influencers and the media–to share what you have to offer?
Get creative and develop a media or press kit, a share page or even an infographic that highlights the talking points of your brand, your book and your message.
If you want to stand out (and you do!), don’t just stick to a an average author media kit. Look outside the industry to get some ideas that you can apply to make your share-ables really pop!
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Michael Hyatt’s media kit for his book, Platform: Michael has included everything from product info, photos and sales copy, to his bio, sample interview questions and fan resources. It’s simple, easy to find his contact information and clear that he is interested in helping you help promote his work.
Michael Stelzner’s new online magazine, My Kids’ Adventures, share page: This share page makes it super easy to share embeddable video, images, facts about the magazine and the people behind it, and even provides suggested Tweets and social media updates you can use.
Rachel Thompson’s Media Kit: Here is another example of a more traditional author media kit, in which Rachel shares information and resources for all three of her books. She includes a book summary, awards received and reader reviews, as well as numerous ways to reach her.
Seth Godin’s, The Domino Project: A beautiful, 10 page PDF that clearly defines what the project is about and who is behind it. Simple, but impactful, this media kit begs to be shared!
Natalie at The Busy Budgeting Mama media kit: Looking outside the writing industry at how other bloggers and businesses are creating their media kits can be quite enlightening. Natalie has created a downloadable PDF version of her media kit as well as created a clickable version on her blog. The design aesthetics of her media kit make it very appealing–particularly her use of colour and images to draw attention to the different sections of her kit.
You’ll notice the emphasis on ‘reach’ with the last example: social media numbers as well as monthly website visitors and page view stats are emphasized. Even target audiences are clarified.
This is important for bloggers looking for advertising and sponsors for their site, but it is also becoming more and more relevant in the publishing arena.
Although your platform is (or should be) primarily about engagement, your online reach can translate into influence and sales potential from the perspective of agents and publishers.
If your your social media numbers, email subscriber list and blog monthly visits are impressive, consider adding them to your media kit. If you’re just starting out, share the percent increases or state that monthly readership has doubled over the last 2 months, for example.
These are just a few examples of what you can do to make it super easy–and compelling–for your readers and other interested parties to share your projects. (For more on media kits, browse through the YWP Media Kit Pinterest board.)
Speaking of sharing, lets move on to the featured articles for this week’s wrap-up:
Featured Articles
You’re Not Good Enough to Be Disappointed Yet from James Clear at iDoneThis Blog
James makes an excellent point in this article about what you need to accomplish first before you’ve earned the right to feel discouraged by the results of your efforts.
13 Blog Post Blunders You Should Avoid (And What to Do Instead) from Kimberley Grabas at Your Writer Platform
In case you missed it, here’s a popular article to help you navigate the sometimes hidden obstacles in crafting a the ‘perfect’ blog post.
Brené Brown: Why Your Critics Aren’t the Ones Who Count from Brené Brown at 99U
A research professor and author, Brené offers an important insight into our vulnerabilities as creatives, and discusses how we can acknowledge critics and our own self-doubt, but not let it stop us from doing the work we were meant to do.
Why Successful Authors are Giving Their Book Away for Free from Simone Collins at Huff Post Books
The opportunity to ‘give your work away’ can offer a truckload of benefits, according to Simone: “authors who give their books away for free or at low costs frequently enjoy deeper customer relationships, more reviews, more sales of print books and increased sales of related books, products and services.” And more readers equals more profits down the road.
The Key To Growing Readership: Your ‘Writer’s Voice’ from Jonathan Gunson at Bestseller Labs
In this article, Jonathan encourages us to recognize the power of our unique voice, and how it can capture the hearts of our readers.
How to Build a Facebook Community in 10 Minutes a Day with Andrea Vahl from Liz Azyan at Digital Matchbox
Looking for a ‘how-to’ guide to get your Facebook marketing kickstarted with just a bit of focused effort each day? Here it is!
What You Don’t Know About Pie Just Might Kill Your Business from Gary Korisko at Reboot Authentic
Think that there is only so much to go around and that your opportunities are finite? In this post, Gary helps you reframe your thoughts and recognize that abundance–not scarcity–is the new name of the game.
How We Got 1,000+ Subscribers from a Single Blog Post in 24 Hours from Alex Turnbull at Groove
A simple walk through of the how to–and the value of–developing relationships with influencers first, so that you can grow your audience quickly and get feedback from ‘brilliant people’.
The Ultimate Guide for Leaving Comments on Blogs by Darren Rowse at Problogger
Darren shares the benefits of commenting on other blogs, the four different kinds of commenters and how to effectively leave comments on other blogs to attain the most benefit. It is advice from Day 20 in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook.
What is the Point of a Blog? from Catherine Ryan Howard at Catherine, Caffeinated
If you’ve ever asked yourself this question, then this post is for you. While I don’t agree with every point Catherine makes, if she can convince writers to start blogging, I’m all for it!
The Business Rusch: A Tale of Two Royalty Statements from Kristine Kathryn Rusch at KrisWrites.com
A great article, Kristine discusses her personal experience with the ins and outs of royalty statements, contracts, and what writers should demand from their royalty statement experiences. Definitely an eye-opener.
30 Tips For Creating Content that Gets Read, Shared and Talked About at Parties from Neil Patel at Quick Sprout
Learn some tips to getting your content read, shared and talked about with Neil’s super useful checklist of tactics.
How to Get a Guest Post: The Harsh Realities No One Talks About from Ramsay Taplin at Blog Tyrant
A video from Ramsay on how to overcome the problem of landing a guest post to help grow your new blog–when you’re a new blogger.
Just For Fun
Along my inter-web travels this week, I came across this very educational infographic created by Ryoko Iwata, a Japanese coffee-lover living in the US. Her site is aptly titled I Love Coffee.
Although Ryoko’s infographic pits beer vs coffee, a savvy commenter points out that if you can replace beer with whiskey and get the same results, a real Irish coffee (or four!) can have you speaking directly to the gods of creativity!
Some of you may have already done your own experiments and testing… 
(Infographic created by Ryoko Iwata at I Love Coffee)
So that concludes another issue of The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up. I hope you enjoyed it!
If you’ve developed a media kit or some form of share page for your work, please feel free to include a link to it in the comments, along with your tips and recommendations for other writers on your process.
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