BY VEENA KASHYAP
My name is Veena Kashyap. I support marketing efforts for Xchyler Publishing, specifically building out the blogger and reviewer platform. By day, I work in Information Technology, helping to develop and implement on-line banking services. But at night, when wife and mommy duties are done (are they ever really done?) and everyone is settled in for dream time, I don my cape and set out to conquer the world of books, writing, reading, reviewing, blogging, searching, promoting—you get the idea.
My love for books started at a young age and has only grown by leaps and bounds. I am passionate about supporting authors fulfill their dreams. This year, I embarked on that passion by launching my site, The Author Visits, a unique publicity platform for traditionally, indie and self-published authors. The Author Visits serves as singular blog tour, showcasing a new author each week through interviews, guest posts and trailer reveals. We also participate in larger blog tours but are very selective about who we work with. Finally, my team and I also review books, specifically paranormal, fantasy, young adult, romance and science-fiction.
Actually, that is how Penny Freeman, editor-in-chief of Xchyler Publishing, found me. Marketing ran across my site and asked if I’d be interested in reviewing J. M. Salyards’ Shadow of the Last Men. (What? You haven’t read the book? The book received five-stars from yours truly and it is one of my top ten picks for 2014.)
My relationship with Xchyler grew from there and I am so lucky to be part of this incredibly talented and dedicated team of editors, artists, publicists and marketers who work tirelessly to publish incredible books from a stellar roster of authors. Our catalog of books continues to grow and I am thrilled to be a part of this venture.
So it makes sense, as part of the marketing team, my first post has everything to do with selling your brand. As a writer myself, I understand the importance of a platform. Every agent or editor I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to or working with has always emphasized the criticality of having a presence. You cannot have a presence without a platform and there is no time like the present to consider building a following even if your book isn’t due out anytime soon. And if your book is out and you do not have a platform, hop to it, you are behind the curve!
So what is a platform anyway? Merriam-Webster describes a platform as “a place or opportunity for public discussion.” Exactly! An author platform is in simple terms, how you connect with and create buzz about you and your work.
Now let’s talk a little bit about what a platform offers. Think visibility, reach, and engagement with your targeted readership. A successful platform should extend your audience and solidify your following. It also provides agents and editors an opportunity to assess you as a writer and how you present yourself and your work. Think about relevance: your platform helps create and stake your claim in the big bad world of books as an author!
You must be wondering about the basics of a building your platform. Let me say this: your social media following does not encompass your platform. It is one component of many that makes up your platform.
In the first of a series of posts, I’ll talk about the author platform. The next several posts will break down each component into its lowest common denominator and provide tools to get you started. Today, let’s talk overview of an author platform and what that entails.
The key components of a solid author platform include the following:
- Sound writing and valuable content (books, blog posts, newsletters)
- Social media
- Website
- Frequent publication
- Membership and participation in networks
- Event appearances, interviews and speaking engagements
- Connections to other authors
You should note, you can implement many of the components before you publish your first book in order to build a following, then extend that reach after your first book is published, and continue building and growing the platform.
Next post, we’ll talk more about the first component, sound writing and valuable content and why that is the true crux of your platform.
In the meantime, keep writing and reading!
Cheers!
Veena
Veena’s love affair with reading began in the fifth grade when she read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Somewhere around that time, she started writing stories that transported her to worlds created by her vivid imagination and knew one day, she wanted nothing more than to write for a living.
Veena continues to read, the owner of way too many e-readers and is notorious for having shelves imploding with books and has resorted to lining her bedroom floor with even more. Currently, she is working on a YA paranormal romance series in between her day job as a geek managing tech projects while running an author publicity site and helping out Xchyler as a book reviewer and blogger specialist
