This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Most advice from literary agents and publishers includes the tried and tested ‘write a good book’. But many now also suggest that you have an established author platform behind you. But just what kind of a platform should you build and how do you build it?
I’m lucky in that I get to write this column on Novelicious, which I am sure has helped me with sales of my ebook. I also maintain a website, a Twitter feed and a Facebook page. You might be thinking that seems to be a pretty solid platform that I’d built, but you’d be wrong.
Whilst my Twitter feed has almost 900 followers, my Facebook page has a grand total of 6 likes! The reason being that whilst I’m a prolific Facebook user in my personal life, I very rarely use my author one. I’m lucky if I remember to post links of my Novelicious columns.
Right there, I’ve got an ineffective platform. What if a potential agent/publisher wasn’t a massive tweeter and thought it was all about Facebook? I’d be doing myself a big disservice. There must also be a lot of people who don’t use Twitter but are Facebook users, and again I’m missing out on an audience.
I also have a blog on my website. I last updated it on the 6th August. Another huge fail. Anyone looking at my website would think that I just couldn’t be bothered.
Whilst on the surface I can tick all the right boxes; I maintain a Twitter feed/website/Facebook page. But really, is it worse to have the platforms and not maintain them?
I’ve also started to look at just who exactly my social networking audience are. When analysing my twitter feed using Social Bro I noticed that I mainly followed/was followed by fellow aspiring authors and editors/publishers and agents. There isn’t anything wrong with that – they are, after all, what interests me. But as a self-published author, if I want to build an effective platform, where are my readers?
I’ve started to run twitter searches for my book title, and most weeks there are people tweeting that they’ve either bought or finished my books (I love Kindle social networking). I’m then having a look to see just who it is that buys/reads my books. I also have started adding those people on twitter who tweet with me about my books. Having looked at what I’m projecting to the world via social networking I’ve realised I’ve got to devote more time to it. I’ve got to actually post to Facebook, and not just links to my Novelicious column! I’ve also got to maintain my blog and make sure I’m more active at keeping the information up to date too. I’ve got to plan social networking time into my daily routine.
The great thing about these platforms is that there are more opportunities than ever for people to find you. But there are more opportunities for you to fail if you don’t effectively build and maintain your platform.
Am I getting it wrong? Do you not need to build a platform over so many sites and focus on just one place to put all of your information? I’d be really interested to know how other aspiring authors are building their platforms…
How do you do it? Do you have any tips to share?
(Also If you’d like to ‘Like’ me on Facebook so that I have more than six likes my page is here! Thank you!)