BY BUNNY MINER
Blogging and Your Author’s Platform
Ok, sound off about how you did with your challenge from my last blog. (crickets chirping). Come on, you can do it. Put yourself out there and add something in the comments after this post on how starting your blog, regulating when you post on your blog or looking for similar blogs to comment on has worked for you this past month.
I’ll admit right here in the actual blog post that I’m not great at keeping up on my own author blog and guess what. I don’t really have any followers! Now I have a friend who posts regularly and she’s fun and quirky and you really never know what she’s going to blog about because she’s a bit scatter-brained and gets easily sidetracked (Squirrel!). But it works for her! People check back regularly to find out what actually comes out of her keyboard and onto the blog.
That being said, it’s a really well done blog. She puts time and thought into it, but her ideas come from everywhere. She’s also eclectic in her writing so she’s able to pull in readers from many different genres.
So what does this have to do with your author platform? Well, here’s the thing. Your author platform is all up to you. Nobody’s going to put in the time to research or the work to make it happen. Being an author is hard work. Don’t want to discourage anyone, but your job doesn’t begin when the book is published or end there. It’s really a mid-point for you. You need to build a following before you publish your book and you need to nurture those relationships afterwards.
Here’s everything you need to know about an author’s platform: . . . Ok, not really but kind of some of it, anyway.
A platform is something you stand on; an idea you work around but not something physical like a train platform. With the Platform 9¾ in mind, though, this is more of an author’s platform. Who doesn’t know what this refers to? J.K. Rowling hasn’t created just an author platform, she’s created a complete movement! So, millions of people around the world know who J.K. Rowling is and who Harry Potter is. Here’s some of what she did right:
She created Visibility. People know who she is, they’re aware of her work and where to find it. She knows how many people see her work. She’s part of the communities that would read her book and she influences those people in those communities.
Then she became an Authority. She built credibility and became the queen of middle grade fantasy. She was able to show she had Proven reach. It’s not enough to say you have visibility, you have to show where you make an impact and give proof.
Some ways you can do this is by showing the size of your email newsletter list or website traffic. Also, and here’s the blog thing again, if you get a lot of comments on your blog, that shows your proven reach as well. So help out others: comment on their blogs and invite people to comment on yours!
Finally, J.K. knew her Targetaudience. You absolutely need to be known and visible to the people who are going to buy your books. Posting and commenting on blogs that have romance followers, won’t help you sell your children’s book.
So research the blogs you comment or guest post on if you want them to buy your books. If you just like romance and want to comment, of course you should, but know that isn’t going to build your platform.
Having the above four bases covered with help you build your platform. But blogging isn’t the only way to build your platform. It’s only part of the puzzle. Next time I’ll talk about other things you can do to build your platform.
Until then, though, here’s another challenge for you! I want you to pin down your target audience so you know when and where to do those other things (gain visibility, become an authority and being able to prove your reach).
Cyber-see ya, next time!
Bunny
Bunny Miner joined Xchyler Publishing in May 2014. As our point of contact for bloggers and reviewers, she spends much time on the web looking for her next victims…er, um, assistants.
Bloggers and reviewers are an integral part of our marketing team and is very grateful to them for all the work they do on behalf of our authors. If you’d be interested in being a blogger or reviewer for Xchyler Publishing, please contact Bunny at BunnyMiner@XchylerPublishing.com.
