Using Your Author Platform The Smart Way
Published a book? Well done. You started months ago building a twitter base of followers, collecting facebook likes, feverishly writing blog posts. Now is the time to unleash your creation upon the world. You send facebook updates, participate in blog tours, plaster your book details onto Twitter, and organize giveaways on Goodreads.
But why is this so hard? You should be laughing all the way to the bank, but the sales aren’t as copious as you’d hoped. What are you doing wrong?
Clearly, there could be any number of reasons. Perhaps your book doesn’t strike a nerve. Maybe that’s the way things go for new authors.
Or maybe you’re sabotaging yourself.
What is this thing we call promotion?
Promotion isn’t about selling. Selling is what Amazon and Barnes & Noble do. Promotion is about communication. Dialogue. A two-way exchange of communication.
So stop shouting already! You’re annoying people. Hasn’t your momma taught you manners?
If you shout, no one is going to hear you. Try talking to people. Starting with why a reader should buy your book. Because you’re loud? Because you’ve written it? Uh-uh. Not gonna happen.
The crucial issue in promotion is that it takes the participation of two parties. This applies not just to writers, by the way.
I helped a couple of authors increase their fan base, and ultimately sales, with what I learned in my one-year marketing course combined with a dash of good old common sense. There’s no telling what you can achieve by following the same simple rules.
So, what do you do?
First of all, have you picked the correct partner to engage? Buying 20,000 followers on Twitter means nothing if they aren’t readers. Does your blog address readers or fellow authors? If you mainly feature writing advice, don’t panic. Writers are avid readers, so all is not lost. But don’t forget which side of their personality you’re appealing to.
Of course you need a platform. A stable base where people can find out about you, about your book, about what makes you tick. Which social media outlet is best? Your Twitter profile is not that place. Facebook? Better. Amazon and Goodreads author pages? Great. But the best platform is your website. Let me try it this way. Your website is the link, or the interface, between your readers’ individual space shuttles and the mothership (i.e. the seller of your book). Occasionally you might redirect the link to a cargo ship, like a review site or your Facebook page, but only as a means to ultimately guide the shuttles safely to the mothership’s hangar bays.
So, how have you set up your interface? Is it easy to learn more about you? Are your posts attractive to the right sort of reader? Are your Amazon/B&N links, Facebook like button, newsletter sign-up and follow fields at the top of the page, or does the reader have to wade through lines and lines of old blog posts and affiliated websites?
Next come the channels of communication. Twitter is a rubbish way to sell anything. But it’s fantastically suited for informing. Inform your followers of the release of your book. Let them know about this fantastic post you’ve written or your guest appearance on someone’s website. Facebook, in turn, is a great place for genuinely engaging with readers. Have fun with them. Find out about them. Listen to them. You must know your readers to understand how to communicate with them. Too many writers regard this as a waste of time. It’s not. The key is to invite readers to join you, not to damage their eardrums by yelling them into compliance.
A word of warning. You might gain Facebook likes, but the rate of engagement will be low until you’ve “made it.” Yes, until you’ve joined the big-ish leagues, people won’t give two cents about you. Engaging takes time, and people’s engagement is focused on the big names. Of course it is. Wouldn’t you rather be sitting with the Heathers than with the weirdo new guy? But your effort will not be in vain. Because at some point, your likes will reach a number where you become interesting. The book(s) will take off. This is not the time to act like a spoiled brat and reject those that used to ignore you. No, this is when all your earlier efforts pay off. This is when your early followers start their word-of-mouth campaign. After all, they’ve been with you from the start.
How about the frequency of your promotion activities? Well, at what point do phone calls stop being fun and begin being the acts of a stalker? You’ve written a book? Great. Pick the correct time, ideally after work and toward the weekend, and send your followers a tweet. Perhaps another one a week later. But let’s be honest, everyone’s Twitter feed is filled to the brim with book reviews and self-promos. Be different. Shake things up. Share some cool lines from your book, and someone might be intrigued enough to investigate. Tweet about a cool blog post, and someone might follow the link, like your views and your writing, and check out your book.
Want to find out more?
Here a few websites I’ve found useful.
Your Writer Platform
Writer’s Digest
The Book Designer
In other words…
It’s not rocket science. Promotion is tough, and you’re probably doing many things right. Just…don’t sabotage your efforts. Okay?
I mean, if you’re an author, you’re also a reader. What tweets do you react to? What makes you buy books? Share with us. We can all do with a little help.
