The Truth About Author Platforms

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A publisher’s or a literary agents’ first question she / he asks you: What is your platform? Editors and agents are for sure attracted to authors who have a “platform”. They are looking for someone with visibility and authority, who has a proven outreach to a target audience. Why? The short answer is: Money.
Publishing houses are everything but non-profit organizations, they want to earn as much money as possible from the manuscripts they buy. They can only sell a considerable amount of books and make money when lots of people know about the author and his or her work – provided the author is able to spread the word about the book to a huge audience.
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What is an Author Platform
…. which is not only important for authors who want to sell their manuscript to a trade publisher, but equally or even more important for independent writers who want to author-publish:

• Authority:
  What other articles or books, blogs or articles for newspapers or magazines have you written previously? What’s your credibility? What are your credentials?
• Proven reach:
  For example the size of your e-mail newsletter list, your website traffic, blog comments, high-profile reviews, testimonials or references for your writing from bestseller authors in your genre.
• Visibility:
  What communities are you a part of? Who knows you? Who is aware of your work? Where does your work regularly appear? How many people see it? Who do you influence?
• Target audience:
  Being visible to the right audience for the book you are publishing. For example, if you wrote a book how career women can combine work and parenthood, you should have a large target audience of parents, career women, mommy-bloggers, maybe even kindergarten teachers or psychologists.
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No Hard-Selling:
It’s not about hard selling or constant self-promotion.  And it is also not a one-time event or something you can create overnight or in a month. Creating your platform is a long-term project and it cannot be developed by posting “Follow me!” on Twitter or “Like me!” on Facebook… Compare it to opening a business or becoming self-employed: it takes many months, sometimes years, until a solid foundation is grown, one customer at a time.
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How Can You Grow Your Platform:
Publishing or distributing quality work online, on blogs, newsletters or websites, or articles in magazines and newspapers, taking part at social networks, producing pod casts, webinars or videos for your target audience. Speaking at and/or attending events where you meet new people and extend your network of contacts and your visibility.
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Don’t Give Up – it All Takes Time:
Write content and reach out: Building your author platform belongs to the same project as the book you write. Use your creativity , and again: write lots of content, such as guest posts, blogs and short stories for weblogs, websites, magazines, newspapers, and give speeches and presentations at writers conferences or at local libraries. Reach out to potential fans of your writing – one reader at a time.

Becoming an author-publisher is a long term commitment and requires hundreds of small steps on the path to success!  Read more about author platforms and how to establish them:

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/dont-give-up-it-just-takes-time/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/how-to-create-your-author-platform/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/a-new-way-of-book-marketing/

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $159 for three months! Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/
to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 970 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/

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Checklist: How to Organize Your Book Marketing

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Checklist for future success authors
Until you become a celebrity author, there are only TWO ways to market your book …

1. You can invest lots of money and pay “bestseller buyers”, buy ads / go on book signing tours / attend all national book fairs – or
2. You can invest time into building a platform and an authors brand through the use of social marketing and content marketing, plus you learn some fast and free tricks to spread the word about your book.

And then there is
a. the promotional, social part (content marketing, Social Media, book readings)
b. the “hard-selling” part for your book (bookstores, online retailers, book fairs)
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“Hard-Selling” will barely work if you have not laid out the foundation under a). Ask yourself:
Would you likely buy something from an unknown person, no matter if on- or off-line? Remember that your competition in published books is fierce and there are millions published every year. Readers have to be convinced to buy an unfamiliar book from a totally unknown author.
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First Things First – Prepare Your Books Success:

– Plan your publishing business – create a business plan/checklist
– Get your own ISBN number and register your copyright
– Register with Bowker to have your book worldwide listed (free)
– Choose the right genre (category) and keywords for your book (on/off-line retailers)
– Gather as many reviews as possible and write a compelling blurb
– Research media contacts and prepare Press Releases
– Write your “elevator pitch” and practice it for quick pitch
– Start spread sheets / lists with email addresses of potential readers / reviewers / media
– Create an email signature & use it for every email you send out
– Print business cards / book marks
– Start and write regularly (once or twice a week) blog posts
– Create your own – not a free! site – hosting is cheap now – author website
– Spruce up your website and blog for your book launch
– Write a compelling press release
– Invite more reviewers for your book
– Submit photos of your book cover image to Pinterest, Flickr…
– Create a slide show and/or video book trailer
– Send copies to book reviewers in various publications and to book bloggers
– Send review copies to book clubs with large distribution
– Have a professional! photographer taken a portrait to use for your avatar
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Offline Book Promotion:

– Book Signings (bookstores / Malls / Airports before X-Mas)
– Readings at libraries & book clubs or Meetup
– Writing newspaper / magazine articles (content marketing)
– Plan and create an email campaign to potential readers
– Get customer orders for special (price) pre-launch sale
– Join HARO (Help a Reporter out) to make yourself a name as an expert in your field
– Participate in Writing Contests
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Online Book Promotion:
For both, fiction or non-fiction: The foundation for your books’ success is in building a community, a social environment and a platform to introduce yourself and your work to readers. How can you accomplish this, even before your book is finished? It takes at least ONE year to make yourself known in the book community, so start early in order to have a successful book launch.

IMPORTANT:
Choose the “right” followers and post ONLY things that are interesting and useful for your readers, such as publishing news, humor / quotes, valuable tips etc.  Don’t use Social Media as a bill board for your book!
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What you can do before your book is ready to go to the beta-reader, copy-editor and final editor:

– Create a list of tweets / posts for your Social Media sites
– Sign up with free scheduling services (Hootsuite, Futuretweets etc.)
– Choose the “right” followers: READERS / REVIEWERS / BOOK BLOGGERS
– Get to know and introduce yourself to potential readers, sign up at Google+
(good for SEO), Goodreads, Twitter, FB, Pinterest, Flickr
– Join forums in your field, especially if you write non-fiction
– Send blog articles to newspapers / magazines and even to e-Zines
– Write guest blogs for other bloggers to get your name out
– Comment on other bloggers posts (esp. book bloggers and reviewers)
– Invite several thousand! people as followers and friends on your social media sites
– Join book communities at #1 Goodreads (has 20,000+ communities) #2 Wattpad, #3 KindleBoards, BookTalk, Scribd…
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Once your book is edited, has an appealing cover, is professionally converted (e-book), or got a perfect layout (print) and is ready to launch:

IMPORTANT:
Automate submissions between your blog/website and all your Social Networks – and among all your social media sites. This saves you lots of time!  For example: Every blog post you write is automatically transferred to your Amazon author page and to your Goodreads page. When you schedule your tweets on Hootsuite, they are automatically posted on all your Twitter accounts, on Facebook and Google+.  Your post on Pinterest shows up on Twitter. This way, everything you post on Google+ appears on Facebook, Twitter and all your Google+ communities.

– Place your book into the right category / genre and sub-genre (important for its success!)
– Create a second, separate BOOK PAGE on Amazon, Goodreads, Google+ and FB
– Set up a media press kit on your website with a link to your book trailer
– Start a Goodreads Giveaway a month before book launch (print book only)
– Write a blog post about the upcoming launch
– Ask friends to list your book under “Listmania” on Amazon & to LIKE your author page
– Exchange books for book shelves with your friends on Goodreads
– Participate in “Carnival of the Indies” blog carnival to promote your blog URL
– Send your books’ cover to cover contests (e.g. http://www.thebookdesigner.com)
– Submit your blogs including a bio and URL link to even more e-Zines

– Offer interviews at Radio (www.blogtalkradio.com) / local or national TV stations
– Make arrangements for interviews in newspapers or on book blogger’s sites

– Try to set you up to become a desirable guest expert on a talk or morning show
– Befriend influential book bloggers for even more reviews and articles
– Gather writing friends for cross-promotions and blog tours
– Add press clippings and articles, already published, to your website
– Get a new business card with images of all your books and sales links
– Place the books’ cover image & description daily on your Google+ stream
– Announce your book launch or book signing on Google+ for FREE
– Get even more friends, followers and people in your circles on social media sites
as you need lots of audience to spread the word about your new book!
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What else can you do to increase your books’ success:
Write your next book! Readers want to get more of your writing. Only authors with several books will be top sellers. The first book is always the hardest – to write and to sell.

– Become a guest speaker at writers conferences or business seminars
– Sell your book to libraries (find out how the library orders)
– Let your book translate in other languages or sell foreign rights
– Split your (non-fiction) book in pieces and sell single articles to magazines
– Participate in writing contests and book awards
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Hope this list keeps you busy : ) and if you have more tips, please send us a comment! You will find many blog posts here to each of these topics. Just type the keyword into to search function above and get all relevant articles and further information.
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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 179 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.international-ebooks.com/book-promo to advertise your new book, specials or KDP Select Free Days.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Whom to Follow on Twitter

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If you want to become popular and a star on Twitter and have your tweets go viral, check out these small, but significant challenges you might not be aware of. So whom do you follow – or BETTER NOT?  Here are four tips:
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Celebrities:
Well, often they only think they are one. They do not follow back, even if they have 10’000 followers, they just follow 16 of their best friends. In writing/publishing/photo/marketing circles I found them mainly among literary agents, YA writers and business advisers. Fine with me. As they are not interacting, nor re-tweeting anything I am posting, why should I follow them?

Me, Me, Me’s:
They consider Twitter as a free advertising board. When I go to their profile and scroll down I can’t see any re-tweets whatsoever. Some even never re-tweet. Only their continuing posts, varying from three to six subjects, and this for pages and pages… What I found so far: 80% of these are male and/or are introvert writers or leadership business advisers.

Over-Social:
Too much of a good thing. They are lovely people, don’t get me wrong. They are re-tweeting, re-tweeting and re-tweeting more. And if you want to thank them and reciprocate you cannot find anything they are tweeting. Maybe on page 41… But I don’t have time to go through all these hundreds of re-tweets to find anything they originally posted to return their favor.

Veeerrrrryyyyyy long names:
Like “WriterAngelina-ChristineParastopolis”. If you take up half of the space just for your name, there is barely anything left for re-tweets or any conversation. Just cut the name at least in half, thanks.
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OK, enough said. These are just four of many challenges that make it difficult to interact with others on Twitter – or prevents tweeps to click on Follow you and for you to build social networks and build a platform. To become popular and successful on Twitter:

• Follow others, tweet something VALUABLE for others, such as helpful tips, news or something interesting or funny – and don’t use Twitter as a cheap way to advertise!
• Create a nice mixture of your own, really interesting tweets and also do some re-tweeting.
• Choose a short Twitter name.
• Make it as easy and convenient as possible for your fellow “tweeps” to engage and interact with you. 
• If you are looking for readers and reviewers – choose readers and reviewers and follow them!

Read also:  “9 Things Authors Should Never Do on Twitter“.  Is there anything you think of, people can do to become a star in the Twittersphare, other than to post really great content and be social with others? Any good advises you have for others (or for me : )

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.e-Book-PR.com/book-promo to advertise your new book, specials or KDP Select Free Days.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 890+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Have You Got a Marketing Plan for Your Book?

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Marketing possibilities for your book sometimes seem to be overwhelming. Use this article to schedule and divide it into small pieces to execute one at a time – make it a habit to work on it every day.
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Let’s assume that you, as a self-publishing author have produced an excellent, high-quality book or e-book and now you are going to publish and to market your book.
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Or take scenario two: you have written the best book and found the best agent possible and she’s made the best deal she can get with the best publisher who’s interested, then you will be surprised to learn about the reality in traditional publishing: Publishers do spend money on advertising, PR and paid placement in bookstores, but they don’t spend the same amount on all books. On average publishers spend less than $2,000 on advertising 90% of their titles—not much to get the word out about your book.

Bookstores will return your unsold books after three months to the publisher, which means almost the end of your book’s “brick & mortar” career. These are the reasons YOU will have to get the word out about your book, no matter if you author-publish or if you go with a big, traditional publisher.
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You certainly have done your homework before you started writing your book:

• You researched your possible competition and how popular the genre is in which you are writing.
• You have identified your target market and in which time-frame you want to accomplish the introduction for your book.
• You made plans for your writing career, you vision already – and maybe even lined out several books, you know that one book only doesn’t make for a writing career.
• You thought about where you want to be in one, three, or five years from now, and what you want to have accomplished as a writer then.
• You also know that book marketing starts ideally before and while you write your future bestseller.

There are two avenues to market and sell your work, even if you have sold your manuscript to a traditional publisher. Either you:

• will invest lots of money and buy ads / go on book signing tours / attend book fairs – or you
• will invest time into building a platform and an authors brand through the use of social marketing and content marketing, plus you learn some fast and free tricks to spread the word about your book
  .

And then there is 1. the promotional, social part and 2. the “hard-selling” part for your book.
The latter will barely work if you have not laid out the foundation with the first part. Would you likely buy something from an unknown person, no matter if on- or off-line?  Remember that your competition in published books is fierce and there are millions published every year. Readers have to be convinced to buy an unfamiliar book from a totally unknown author…
.

It will be the same for both, fiction or non-fiction: The foundation for your books’ success is in building a community, a social environment and a platform to introduce yourself and your work to readers. How can you accomplish this, even before your book is finished? It takes a year to make yourself known in the book community, so start early in order to have a successful book launch:
.

1. What you can do before your book is ready to go to the beta-reader, copy-editor and final editor:

– Have a professional! photographer taken a portrait to use for your avatar
– Get to know and introduce yourself to potential readers, sign up at Google+
(good for SEO), Twitter, FB, Pinterest, Flickr
– Join several book communities, #1 Goodreads, #2 Wattpad, #3 KindleBoards, BookTalk, Scribd…
– Visit forums in your field, especially if you write non-fiction
– Join HARO (Help a Reporter out) to make yourself a name as an expert in your field
– Start and write regularly (once or twice a week) blog posts
– Create your own (not a free!) author website 
– Send your blog articles to newspapers / magazines and even to e-Zines
– Write guest blogs for other bloggers to get your name out
– Write your “elevator pitch” and practice your “elevator speech” for quick pitch
– Start a spread sheet or list with email addresses of potential readers
– Create an email signature & use it for every email you send out
– Print business cards / book marks
– Get an ISBN number and register your copyright
– Register with Bowker to have your book worldwide listed (free)
– Choose the right genre (category) and keywords for your book
– Gather as many reviews as possible and write a compelling blurb
– Research media contacts and prepare Press Releases
– Invite several thousand! people as followers and friends on your social media sites

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2. Plan of action, once your book is edited, has an appealing cover – that’s what people see first, is professionally converted (e-book), or got a perfect layout (print) and is ready to launch:
.– Place your book into the right category / genre and sub-genre (important for its success!)

– Create a second, separate BOOK PAGE on Amazon, Goodreads, Google+ and FB
– Submit your book to the Library of Congress (USA only)
– Set up a media press kit on your website with a link to your book trailer
– Plan and create an email campaign to potential readers
– Get customer orders for special (price) pre-launch sale
– Invite more reviewers for your book
– Submit photos of your book cover image to Pinterest, Flickr…
– Create a slide show  and/or video book trailer
– Send copies to book reviewers in various publications and to book bloggers
– Send review copies to book clubs with large distribution
– Automate submissions to and between all your social networks
– Write a blog post about the upcoming launch
– Spruce up your website and blog for your book launch
– Write a compelling press release
– Ask your friends to list your book under “Listmania” on Amazon
– Participate in “Carnival of the Indies” blog carnival to promote your blog URL
– Comment on other blogs and write lots of guest blogs
– Submit your blogs including an URL link to even more e-Zines
– Consider to participate at KDP Select free days, announce your upcoming book for free
– Offer interviews at Radio /TV stations and newspapers or on other blogs
– Try to set you up to become a desirable guest expert on a talk or morning show
– Befriend influential book bloggers for even more reviews and articles
– Donate your book to local libraries and offer to speak
– Contact local bookstores for book signings
– Gather writing friends for cross-promotions and blog tours
– Add press clippings and articles, already published, to your website
– Get a new business card with an image of your book and sales link
– Place the books’ cover image & description daily on your Google+ stream
– Announce your book launch or book signing on Google+ for FREE
– Get even more friends, followers and people in your circles on social media sites
as you need lots of audience to spread the word about your new book!
.

What else can you do to increase your books’ success:
– Become a guest speaker at writers conferences or business seminars
– Sell your book to libraries
– Let your book translate in other languages or sell foreign rights
– Split your (non-fiction) book in pieces and sell single articles to magazines
– Participate in writing contests and book awards

The possibilities are endless… Stay tuned for more tips at https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com
Make sure you have done every one of these steps to have a great start once your book is published. Write for pleasure – publish for profit!

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 700 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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How to Become a Star on TWITTER

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It’s only six months since I joined and started to tweet and I learned a lot in the meantime. Half of it I could have learned even before joining, but I am not good at reading any manuals, even so I bought some Twitter lectures, but they are still on my Kindle (read: I am too lazy, or I just dislike reading it). I can say, I probably made every mistake one can do on Twitter, especially hurrying to follow up until I was at 2’000 tweeps – and then stuck for weeks and weeks. Until I learned about Unfollow.com

Now I became more selective in whom I follow. If you want to become popular on Twitter and have your tweets go viral, check out these small, but significant challenges you might not be aware of. So whom do I follow – or NOT:
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Celebrities:
Well, often they only think they are one. They do not follow back, even if they have 10’000 followers, they just follow 66 of their friends. In writing/publishing/photo/marketing circles I found them mainly among literary agents, YA writers and business advisers. Fine with me. As they are not interacting with me, nor re-tweeting anything I am posting, why should I follow them?

Me, Me, Me’s:
They consider Twitter as a free advertising board. When I go to their profile and scroll down I can’t see any re-tweets whatsoever. Some even never re-tweet. Only their continuing posts, varying from three to six subjects, and this for pages and pages… What I found so far: 80% of these are male and/or are introvert writers or leadership business advisers.

Over-Social:
Too much of a good thing. They are lovely people, don’t get me wrong. They are re-tweeting, re-tweeting and re-tweeting more. And if you want to thank them and reciprocate you cannot find anything they are tweeting. Maybe on page 41… But I don’t have time to go through all these hundreds of re-tweets to find anything they originally posted to return their favor.

Veeerrrrryyyyyy long names:
Like “WriterAngelina-ChristineParastopolis”. If you take up half of the space just for your name, there is barely anything left for conversation. Just cut it at least in half, thanks.
.
OK, enough said. These are just four of many challenges that make it difficult to interact with others on Twitter – or prevents tweeps to click on Follow you and for you to build social networks and build a platform. To become popular and successful on Twitter:

• Follow others, tweet something valuable for others and don’t use Twitter as a cheap way to advertise!
• Create a nice mixture of your own, really interesting tweets and do some re-tweeting.
• Choose a very short Twitter name.
• Make it as easy and convenient as possible for your fellow tweeps to engage and interact with you. 

Is there anything you think of, people can do to become a star in the Twittersphare, other than to post really great content and be social with others? Any good advices you have for them (or for me : )

<><><><><>

.

If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 560 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

.

.
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