Do I need an author platform?
Yes.
What is an author platform?
Read on, and I will tell you, my confused little chicken.
What is an author platform?
An author platform is basically a landing pad
for all your author information
all over the internet.
As in, if I was trying to look you up on the internet, where can I find you?
- Do you have a website?
- A blog?
- A facebook?
- A twitter?
- Does your publisher have an author bio (biography) on their website that I can read about you, and your list of published books/
- Do you have any press release materials on your books online?
- Where on the internet are people talking about you?
Why are author platforms important?
Because your readers will want to know more about your stories, characters, your background as a writer, where & when you are coming out with the next book in the series, etc.
People are fickle and hop onto the hottest products out there. As a self-publisher, you are required to keep updating this info, and provide continuous service to your readers customers. Yes, self-publishing is essentially running your own home based business. Keep posting, and keep reminding people you are still selling books.
It's important not to discourage or turn away your readership. Keep posting notices, reviews, and news on your books and any other writings you do.
If you have a traditional publisher, they usually spend money setting this up for you, if they are not a tiny imprint publisher with a limited budget. The bigger they are, the more of these costly services they do to market your brand. They do however, take it from your future earnings, so keep that in mind.
So! Either your publisher has this info up on the world wide web, or you do.
If you are self publishing, you must do the leg work. Yes, you must open all of these accounts yourself.
Start small. Let me tell you how.
Start small. Let me tell you how.
Get A Free Blog
Start with a FREE blog, like blogger.com or wix.com or wordpress.com (don't confuse with wordpress.org which is NOT FREE)
There is also weebly but I've never used them, so I cannot tell you about their effectiveness, sorry.
There is also weebly but I've never used them, so I cannot tell you about their effectiveness, sorry.
Use YouTube videos and look up some tutorials to help you set it up easily.
There are full shop services that do all of the setup for you. I cannot vouch for them, but feel free to check them out.
Here's an example of one: https://www.stormhillmedia.com/about-us/
What is a blog?
If you don't know what a blog is, you have not been paying attention since the late 1990's. Blog is short 'web log'. It's a computer version of dated journal entries.
A website is a fully functional online site. Websites contain data you fill it with, like photos, excerpts, links, videos, and anything else.
Websites have three basic $$ annual costs $$ (yes, you pay these every year except the template, just swap that out for a new one when you wanna give the site a facelift):
Websites have three basic $$ annual costs $$ (yes, you pay these every year except the template, just swap that out for a new one when you wanna give the site a facelift):
- Domain name (which is the name you purchase to register, so you can get your custom author name on it, and .com or .net attached at the end)
- Website templates (the look of your website, which is always customizable)
- Web hosting (which is renting space on a business server; servers hold all of your website data, so people can look at it from around the world at various time zones, it remains active and running while you turn on and shut off your home computer) Services like Bluehost or Squarespace offer webhosting
Keep it simple.
Either your website or your blog will become your home-base for all of your books and writings. You can make it link out to your social media like Facebook or Twitter.
Either your website or your blog will become your home-base for all of your books and writings. You can make it link out to your social media like Facebook or Twitter.
What is analytics, and why do I need it?
After you get your blog or website up and running, go immediately to Google Analytics and sign up. You need to apply analytics to your web or blog address, stat.
Analytics offers pie charts and graphs of information as to where the traffic comes from on the internet, that goes to your blog/website. This is important. This will help figure out where to advertise more, and where to not advertise so frequently.
I just clicked on my stats for today, and these are some of what came up:
Because this service is free, it doesn't give detailed stats, just generalized results, but there are services like Kissmetrics that offer comprehensive data analytics for a premium.
As a writer, what do I put on my blog?
But instead of writing your feelings into each dated entry like some teenage girl, you, as a writer, are going to use it to journal your experiences with the following:
- self-publishing,
- meeting other writers at that writing convention,
- famous author signed your copy of new book, (and here's a photo of that!)
- going to a writer's retreat,
- your next book launch date,
- you are dropping the price on that beloved book everybody's been asking about,
- you are starting a new book series,
- just found out kindle changed their criteria! And maybe it's a bummer/relief
- or the printers you hired screwed up your book order run
- which book convention you will be attending coming up
- where you plan to do your next book signing
- basically anything related to writing
At base minimum, this is what you need to put on your blog or website:
You put up your author bio and keep it brief. (describe yourself; where you live, what type of fiction do you write, how many dogs you have)
List if you are currently a member of any writing guilds, or if you have won writing awards.
List your social media accounts where fans can look you up. (skip ahead to the section that shows you how to set up Facebook for authors)
MOST IMPORTANT: List your entire bibliography of published books, including a link to where people can purchase them (like Nook, Kobo, Kindle, your publisher's website, etc.)
- Your contact info; email address/ business phone number/ fax number (if applicable)
And that's pretty much it.
Where Can I Set Up My Author Platform Without A Blog Website
 |
| BookLikes.com |
There are many other places people set up this info without having their own website. It's professional to use a website or blog as your homebase, and use the following to link back to your homebase. This creates very important backlinks all over the internet, that search engines like Google use to index, then mine the data from those users. In other words, it raises the clout on your visibility as an author.
I'm gonna list them all here, so you don't have to spend hours and hours looking for this crap, as your eyeballs melt out of your sockets. You're welcome ;-)
I will be updating this section over time, so stay tuned.
- Amazon Author Central
- BookBub Author Profiles
- Goodreads Author Program
- Penblock
- BookLikes
- BookLife
- BookHub
- FanShelf
- AuthorsDB
- BookLuver
- Society Of Authors (membership dues; also for freelancers and unestablished writers)
- Wattpad
- Skrawl
- About.me (this is an intermediary that connects all of your profiles together, and very simple to set up)
How To Create A Facebook Account For Writers Authors
A little warning first.
Some authors use their personal facebook instead of creating a separate author facebook, this is a NO-NO. Doesn't matter if your books have your author pseudonym on them, if your Facebook profile uses your real name and links to those books. Remember people on the internet are weird stalkers and you don't want any of them finding out your private info, because they saw you have a daughter in your friends list, on account you both have the same last name. She hasn't set her profile to PRIVATE, so they 'Friend' her. Now they can access all of her photos, where she went to college, where she works, who her mom & dad are in her photo list. Your daughter posts everything on her Facebook profile, including your real name. Now this person knows you like going to Chipotle off the highway in Albuquerque. Since there's only one in town, now they can hang out incessantly, until you show up.
Some authors use their personal facebook instead of creating a separate author facebook, this is a NO-NO. Doesn't matter if your books have your author pseudonym on them, if your Facebook profile uses your real name and links to those books. Remember people on the internet are weird stalkers and you don't want any of them finding out your private info, because they saw you have a daughter in your friends list, on account you both have the same last name. She hasn't set her profile to PRIVATE, so they 'Friend' her. Now they can access all of her photos, where she went to college, where she works, who her mom & dad are in her photo list. Your daughter posts everything on her Facebook profile, including your real name. Now this person knows you like going to Chipotle off the highway in Albuquerque. Since there's only one in town, now they can hang out incessantly, until you show up.
CREEEEEEPYY!!!
How To Remedy This
Facebook allows you to create another profile parallel to your real one, and you can keep one private and away from the other, using the same login. Or, go through the steps of making a business Facebook page, with an alternate email address, so Facebook doesn't associate your personal profile with this one.
- Go to facebook and at the bottom right, where it says Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business. Go ahead and click on that,
- Click on Business or Brand
- It takes you to a few options, and you want to click on the dropdown menu, and choose Author, then go from there
- Begin customizing your Facebook Page
What Are Social Media Accounts?
Being in the year 2020 you should already know this by now, unless you are over the age of 70, then I will cut you some slack. Your social media presence accounts for maybe a third of your overall marketable presence in the world of writing.
Social media includes the following, and not order specific:
- Instagram (this only works in tablets or smartphones, so download the app through the Google Play store, or iTunes store)
- Snapchat (only on smartphones or tablet devices; download the app)
- TikTok (only on smartphones or tablet devices; download the app)
- Meerkat (only on smartphones or tablet devices; download the app)
- Periscope (only on smartphones or tablet devices; download the app)
Which social media do I need to be an author?
The first three should suffice for now, as you will be posting book ads on them, and buying additional ad space on these.
You can purchase an ad on Facebook Ads and it offers an option to deliver that ad onto Instagram, even if you don't have any Instagram profiles up, but I'd have both just to park your author name on the Instagram platform. Because if you don't, someone else will start an account with that name, your name, and Instagram won't hand it over so easy.
Make sure you take out accounts with the same author name, whatever name you plan on putting on those book covers (your real name or pseudonym) and do it at the same time. People can take up popular names on social media as new accounts for no reason, as these are not reserved parking spots and there is no rule about this. Then they try to sell it back to you. It's scummy but not illegal, though it may break terms of service with that platform. You can contest it after the fact, but results are not guaranteed. So just take care of it in the beginning.
You can leverage Pinterest as an author, if you learn how, but that's another tutorial for another day.
The rest are for presenting live author Q & A sessions, or broadcasting live from a location like a writing awards ceremony, a writing retreat, or a live feed of the Book Con tradeshow if you're into that.
What else do I need to beef up my author platform?
Post all of your hard earned accolades on your blog/website.
Post significant book reviews in quotes, your Kindle Top 100 seller's badge screenshot, a screenshot of the first time you made it to a top seller list like the USA Today bestseller list, any writing awards, any newspaper interviews, any podcast interviews, etc.
So that's pretty much it. Make it real easy for people to find your written works on the internet and you are good to go.
