Tag: build a platform

Categories
Book Proposals Uncategorized

Be the Exception

It’s easy to feel lost in the world of book publishing. Experts say there are over a million proposals and manuscripts in circulation at any given time. With the proliferation of self-publishing, there are over 4,500 new books published every day. The average self-published book sells about 200 copies during the lifetime of the book.

            With these discouraging statistics how can a writer stand out and be the exception?  Some people are amazed that I’ve written over 60 books for traditional publishers and my writing has appeared in over 50 magazines. It is not because I am one of the best writers in the room. I am one of the most persistent and consistent writers that you will meet. As an editor, I’ve been speaking and attending conferences for years. I will listen to a writer’s pitch, then with sincerity say, “That’s a great idea, write that up and send it to me.”  I’ve learned that if you do what the editor or agent asks, you have put yourself in the top 10% of the people at that conference. Many writers never send their manuscript or proposal or query. 

Here’s four simple yet important ways for you to be the exception.

  1. Submit your requested material. Your writing and storytelling has to be excellent but it will never be considered if you don’t send it. I still get rejected as a writer but I seize the opportunity and submit my material.
  2. Build Your Platform or Presence in the Market. Edtors and literary agents are looking for writers who are connected to their readers. I’m not talking about Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. Do you have a direct connection to your readers or fans of your book? Do you have an email list? Are you working to grow this email list and increase your reach? It is one of the greatest tools any writer can start and build. I have more details in this free ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author.  Also I have an inexpensive ebook on list building called The List Building Tycoon.
  3. Follow-up and meet their deadlines with editors and agents. Writers are notoriously late on meeting their deadlines. New York Times bestselling author Jerry B. Jenkins who has also been an editor says only one writer in 100 will meet their deadline. If you deliver quality writing on the deadline, it is a way for you to stand out in the market.
  4. Develop habits so you are in the top 10% A recent Pew study showed that 80% of tweets come from about 10% of users. I meet many writers who have a small Twitter following and post something once or twice a week.  I am probably in this top 10% because of my frequency of tweets, the diversity and providing excellent content.  If you create a habit and then execute your plan over and over, you too can be in this top percentage. Your consistent action will move you to the top of the stack.

Your persistent efforts will pay off in the publishing community. If you take consistent action, you can be the exception.

Terry Whalin

——–

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook, his blog and LinkedIn.

Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success.
Categories
Guest Posts

Building Your Social Media Profile as a Writer: 5 Steps

Guest posts

Why Does It Matter?

If you’re serious about building a long-term career as a social media writer, building a robust and attention-grabbing profile is a must. With more than 80% of the U.S. population having a social networking profile, you are gaining access to a huge market of prospective customers. It would be remiss of you to miss the opportunity of reaching out to them.

It is important that you establish your presence to connect with new audiences, identify new ideas, and generate interest in your services. You also need to do this in a way that ensures your privacy and protects sensitive data. Below are the 5 key steps that will propel you to a great start.

Step 1: Choosing Your Audience

It may seem obvious, but you really need to start by determining whom you will be targeting with your profile, messaging, and services. That depends on several factors, such as your language proficiency, writing skills, past performance, type of services, etc. Whatever the combination of factors, be purposeful and strategic in your choice.

The above decision will shape your style of communication, content, and selection of services. It will also help you identify areas for your professional improvement. This audience includes your potential customers, so you need to be aware of their likes and dislikes, needs and whims, and strengths and idiosyncrasies.

Step 2: Choosing Your Username and Image

This is another building block in setting up your profile. It is worth spending quite a bit of time choosing your username, as it is a bad idea to change it afterward. It should be easy to remember and be reflective of your area of work and services.

It also needs to read and sound well. If you are targeting non-English-speaking audiences, make sure that your username does not have undesirable connotations in the respective languages or induce some awkward associations.

Pick a nice photo of yourself. You should choose professional attire. Smile! No one likes to work with a gloomy face.  Be creative with your background. If possible, make it thematically linked to your work or services.

Step 3: Selecting and Structuring Content

Next is the subject matter. This is what your business or services are about. Include data about your skills, accomplishments, and types of services.

Put together a work plan with milestones, deadlines, and types of posts to track progress. If you are an Undercover Writer, you need to keep reaching out to your audience in a systematic manner.

Make sure you take note of the feedback you get, even if unpleasant or unsolicited. It will help you adjust substance, and fine-tune your targeting strategies. If possible, pick a friend or a colleague whom you will be using as your sounding board to test ideas.

Step 4: Enhancing Your Network

Don’t be artificial and avoid looking phony. Be genuine, honest, and forthcoming. Not only would your customers want to find a top-grade professional, but they would also want to get to know you as a person.

Be fun to work with without compromising your professional approach to work. Nothing beats an advanced work ethic when it comes to attracting and working with good customers on a long-term basis.

Also, think about building relationships rather than just a network of followers or customers. Many platforms, such as LinkedIn, allow you to connect with people in the same trade. Start with the people you know, and gradually expand to those whom you would like to know and those you need to know.

Step 5: Safety & Security

Finally, none of the above makes much sense if you set up your profile in a way that compromises your privacy or the security of any sensitive or personally identifiable data. While you need to communicate actively, frequently, and substantively, make sure you do not offer the kind of information that can potentially put you in harm’s way. This may include your bank details, various identity-related numbers, pass codes, and the like.

You should exercise the same degree of prudence when posting on social media. Choose your words, sentences, and images wisely. If you work for a company, make sure you are familiar with company policies to avoid unwittingly breaching any of those. Avoid linking up with any suspicious contacts or accepting invites from dubious sources.

Bringing It Together

The need for creative writers is unlikely to diminish in the years to come. As a writer, you are tapping into a huge market where there is no room for mediocrity and slack. An imposing social media profile is your business card with which you enter that market.

Be methodical about your approach to developing your profile. Clarity of purpose and your audience also matter. Build your network and keep honing your skills to establish a reputation of a reliable, hard-working, and fun-to-work-with professional who can cater to varying needs of customers with his or her A-game.

Jessica Fender is a professional writer and educational blogger at Is Accurate. Jessica enjoys sharing her ideas to make writing and learning fun. She is also featured on Forbes,  AMA Boston, HR Exchange Network . You can connect with her Twitter | LinkedIn

Categories
Writers Chat

Writers Chat Recap for September Part 2

Writers Chat Recap

Writers Chat, hosted by Jean Wise, Johnnie Alexander, and Brandy Brow, is the show where we talk about all things writing, by writers and for writers!

“Because talking about writing is more fun than actually doing it.”

Featuring…

How I Started Building a Rejection Proof Platform with Thomas Umstattd, Jr.

Do you struggle with building a platform and what that means? Well then this episode is for you. Thomas Umstattd, Jr. joins us today to share his expertise on this difficult, sometimes daunting task. Many writers think, I’m a writer or an author, I’m not a marketing person. However, we need to be both at times. Thomas asks an important question early on. Why do you write? He encourages us to dig deep, past the basic answers, to reach the real reason you write. And tells us, “Authorship is leadership,” as well as many tips and ideas that will keep you thinking for a while. Whether you struggle with building platform or you have numbers that make you happy, check out the replay of this episode.   

Watch the September 21st replay.

Thomas Umstattd, Jr is an award-winning speaker, who teaches creative people all over the world how to build their platforms, sell more books, and change the world with writing worth talking about. As a podcaster, he hosts the Novel Marketing Podcast, and Christian Publishing Show. He currently serves as the CEO of Author Media.

Understanding Deep POV with Eva Marie Everson

Bestselling author Eva Marie Everson shares how to write, as she says, “in such a way that the reader feels that: (nonfiction): you are talking directly to them; (fiction): they have become a part of the story. They are the characters. During her presentation, Eva Marie shared an example of how she changed “Some people walked into a room” (telling) into a scene (showing)–which was absolutely phenomenal! Then we took a ten-minute break to write our own scenes. A couple of these are shared and Eva Marie provided feedback.

Watch the September 28th replay.

Eva Marie Everson is the multiple award-winning, bestselling author of both fiction and nonfiction. She is the president of Word Weavers International, the director of Florida Christian Writers Conference, the managing editor of Firefly Southern Fiction, and the contest director for Blue Ridge Mountains CWC (the Selah Awards/The Foundations). Eva Marie and her husband make their home in Central Florida where they enjoy their children and grandchildren. They are owned by one sassy cat. You can contact Eva Marie on social media or at evamarieeversonauthor.com.

Writers Chat is hosted live each Tuesday for an hour starting at 10 AM CT / 11 AM ET
on Zoom. The permanent Zoom room link is: zoom.4074198133

Categories
Guest Posts

7 Tips for Writers to Build a Personal Brand on Social Media

Guest posts

As a writer, you need to know how to act and what to do in order to get more people to hear about your work, read your books, and start following your career. It’s not enough for you to have brilliant books if no one knows about them. That means that you need to build a personal brand and become more active in showing it, especially online. And, the best place to do it is on social media.

Social media is the most powerful tool you can use to build a personal brand as a writer. If you’re not sure how to do it, but want to learn, just keep reading. Below, you’ll find a list of 7 best tips for writers to build a personal brand on social media.

Let’s get started.

1. Build Strong Profiles

Let’s start with the essentials. To build a strong personal brand on social media, you need to make sure your social media profiles are fully updated.

Here’s what that implies:

  • profile and cover images
  • personal information
  • business information
  • short bio
  • fun facts
  • contact information

You want to make sure that your social media profiles are professional, informative, and complete. Also, make sure to delete any profiles you might not be using anymore to avoid having them ruin your online presence.

2. Get Personal

People love to see the non-business side of their favorite writers, so you’ll need to get personal. This doesn’t mean you’ll need to reveal your private life completely. It just means you’ll be giving them a sneak peek into who you are when you’re not an author.

That means you’ll share:

  • pictures of you with your dog
  • your family holiday photos
  • your thoughts on global or local events
  • your favorite musician
  • etc.

You need to let the people get to know you and start feeling like they’re your friends. The closer they feel to you, the more they’ll be interested in your work as a writer. Share the content that shows who you are as a person and allows them to learn about you every day.

3. Communicate

People following you on social media will love communicating with you and getting feedback on their comments, messages, or remarks. This is why to build a personal brand, you need to be active in responding to your followers.

That includes:

  • replying to the comments that ask a question or deserve your attention
  • thanking people for their nice words or support
  • answering DMs
  • reposting stories of people reading your book or mentioning you

Apart from giving feedback in this form, you should also try and inspire people to talk to you. You can ask questions, ask them to leave a comment, and share their thoughts. This way, you’ll be able to see how they feel and what their thoughts are on your new book or anything else you’d like to discuss.

4. Be Active

To build a personal brand, you need to present in people’s lives. And, every now and then when they’re scrolling their social media feed, they need to see or hear from you.

This will create a habit of checking your content and staying interested in what you’ll post next. To make this happen, you’ll need to:

  • post regularly (at least 3-4 time a week)
  • create engaging content that your audience will like reading or seeing
  • be innovative and post something fresh and different

Since you’re a writer, it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with interesting new ideas for your social media posts. Try making them fun, unique, and creative.

5. Show Consistency

Consistency is another super-important ingredient in your mixture for a winning personal brand on social media. Why? Because it makes you relatable and authentic.

Consistency means following a set of rules you created that define you as a brand. Those include:

  • your personality
  • your style of writing
  • your tone and voice
  • the colors you’re using
  • the type of visuals you’re posting

You should try and come up with a unique style, and use it in all your posts on all your social media. This comes through trial and error or, if you don’t like to risk, an editing company can do the work for you. This way you will help people recognize your posts before they even read it’s you.

This way, your brand is becoming truly powerful.

6. Understand Who’s Reading

As a writer, you can have a colorful audience of different people following you for different reasons. Understanding and knowing your audience is the key to successful brand building. Your audience can consist of:

  • young writers looking up to you
  • people who have been following your work from day one
  • new followers who only read one of your books

Learn who they are and create content for each of these target groups. Make sure there’s something for everyone.

7. Talk Work

Just because you’re trying to build a personal brand doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to talk about your work as a writer. On the contrary, your social media is supposed to help you build awareness about your latest work and overall career.

This means that you should include updates from your professional life on your social media. You should post about:

  • your work in progress such as a new book or switching to a new genre
  • the release date of your new book
  • promotions and events
  • behind the scenes of a writing session
  • announcements and big revelations

Your social media profiles are there to support your professional career and make a connection between you as a writer and you as an everyday person.

So, don’t be afraid to talk work, but make it fun, genuine, and authentic.

Final Thoughts

Building a personal brand on social media is a great way for writers to gain more attention and expand their readership. When you’re present online the right way, people have a chance to get to know you, like you, and develop an interest in your work.

Hopefully, the 7 tips we’ve shared above will help you build a strong personal brand on social media so use them to reach new career heights.

Jessica Fender is a professional writer and educational blogger at Bestwritingadvisor, an aggregator for useful college resources and websites. Jessica enjoys sharing her ideas to make writing and learning fun.

Categories
History in the Making

Using Your Research for More than Your Novel

History in the making

Writing a novel is hard work and takes time. Writing a Historical Fiction novel may require more time and hard work due to necessary research.

Then there’s publishing. Whether you publish traditionally or indie publish, it takes time to publish the book and make sales. Let’s take a look at ways you can use your research while you wait:

1) Writing short pieces – you can purchase the current Writers Market Guide, the current Christian Writers Market Guide (or both) to find magazines that might be interested in an article about your research topic (i.e. the California Gold Rush). Then you will need to find the magazine’s website and download their guidelines. Be sure to follow their guidelines carefully because they will not consider your article if it isn’t written, formatted, and submitted according to their guidelines. You can do this any time during your novel writing process.

However, I don’t recommend putting the next two suggestions into practice until closer to the time of releasing your novel, six months to a year prior depending on how many pieces you can write and put into use. You don’t want to run out of writing subjects for these important items before your novel releases.

2)Building your audience and building your brand – I’ve been told many times that it is very important for a writer to have a presence on Social Media – specifically, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I’ve also heard that Pinterest is a great place to connect with readers. You can connect with readers on these sites by posting interesting things from your research. Be sure to connect it to your novel by giving them a small tidbit of information like revealing the name of your novel’s town and sharing history about that town.

  You can also create a blog and write blog posts about something you’ve researched for your novel. This is a great place to include pictures as well. You might write about men’s and women’s fashions from the time period of your novel and include a couple pictures showing some of the clothing from that time period.

3) Market your novel – You can write an additional story that connects with your novel and release it for a reasonable price or offer it as a free gift for purchasing your novel. It could be a novella about the backstory of one of your characters and how they ended up in the time, place, and/or situation of your novel. You could use a scene from your story to create Flash Fiction story, or maybe create a short story about one of your minor characters.

Any of these suggestions can put your research to good use and make it work for you as it builds your brand and/or audience or as it draws readers’ interest in your upcoming novel. Your research can serve multiple purposes and be an enjoyable endeavor, making all your hard work pay off.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Kids Lit

Three Tips for Successful Platform Building

Kids Lit

If you’ve been to any writers conference lately, you’ve no doubt heard lots of talk about building a platform. And, you’ve probably learned that one of the best ways to grow your platform is to increase your social media following.

But, just how can we grow our online following? Well, it would take more than one blog post to fully answer that question, but here are three tips to help you improve your online numbers and your engagement.

1. Be Authentic: 

People can spot “a fake” almost immediately, so be genuine when you post updates. For example, if you aren’t a savvy cook and yet you’re coming out with a cookbook, don’t promote yourself like you’re the expert. Instead, be self-deprecating and play up your inabilities to cook. Have fun with it! People are tired of folks showcasing their “perfect social media lives”—be real. Your connections will love you for it, and they’ll be more apt to listen to you when you share about your latest books, future speaking gigs, etc.

One of the most liked and shared posts I ever made happened this past winter when I posted a picture of my feet wearing two different boots. I just happened to glance down at my mismatched feet while sitting under the dryer at my hairdresser’s, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I snapped a picture, posted it on Instagram & Facebook, and said something like, “You know you’re on way too many deadlines when you look down at your feet and discover that you’re wearing two very different boots. At least they are both black, so there’s that…”

My followers loved it! Many commented that they’d worn different shoes to work before, so not to feel too badly. Others said they were having that same kind of week. Still, some just messaged, “Thanks for the laugh.”

2. Be Overgenerous:

Always give more than you take. It’s totally fine to share the cover of your latest book and promote it on all social media platforms, but make sure you’re also giving back and not always in advertising mode.

For example, you could offer a coloring sheet related to your children’s book or some other kind of free downloadable (Perhaps, some of your backmatter or a sidebar you didn’t end up using could serve as a nice freebie.)

Entrepreneur and Author Gary Vaynerchuk has been giving away content from his books before they were ever released for years, and yet his books are always bestsellers!

So, why should we be overgenerous with our information? It builds  authority, credibility, trust, and likability, and it increases our online presence because people will share you and your valuable content.

3. Be Consistent & Caring:

You can’t post once every two months and expect to gain much of a following online. Post often, even if it’s just a repost of a funny meme you found, or one that you created in Canva. (Hint: You can use a scheduler to post across several social media platforms all at once.)

Can’t think of a clever status update? Why not ask your followers a question, and see how many responses you receive?  It can be something as simple as, “So, how’s your Monday going?” or something as specific as, “Anybody else watch the Thanksgiving Day parade? What was your favorite float?”

Don’t be afraid to engage with your followers. Get to know them and let them get to know you—the real you.

Lastly, when interacting with your followers, whether it’s on your personal Facebook page or within a LinkedIn group, always try to add value when sharing information. Be that “go-to guy” or “go-to girl.” When you answer questions, without asking for anything in return, you become more likable, and people will be more likely to share you and your books with their friends and family.

Ok, there you have it—three tips to get you started on that all-important platform building. Now, go forth and post!

Michelle Medlock Adams is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author of over 90 books with close to 4 million sold. Her many journalism and book awards include top honors from the Associated Press, AWSA’s Golden Scroll for Best Children’s Book, and the Selah Award for Best Children’s Book. Michelle currently serves as President of Platinum Literary Services, a premier full-service literary firm; Chairman of the Board of Advisors for Serious Writer, Inc.; and a much sought-after speaker at writers conferences and women’s retreats all over the United States.  

When not writing or teaching writing, Michelle enjoys bass fishing and cheering on the Indiana University Basketball team, the Chicago Cubbies, and the LA Kings.

 Michelle is celebrating the recent release of her books, Get Your Spirit On!, Fabulous & Focused, Dinosaur Devotions, and C Is for Christmas, and she’s anticipating the upcoming release of What Is America? (Worthy Kids) and They Call Me Mom (Kregel), a devotional book she co-authored with Bethany Jett.

Categories
Magazine and Freelance

Build Your Platform with Magazine Articles

Last week I taught several workshops at a Christian Writers Conference and also met one on one with numerous authors. As typical for these events, many of the people were at their first conference.  Because I’m an acquisitions editor at a New York publisher and we do many types of books, my schedule filled quickly with appointments where authors were pitching their book ideas.

For a few of those meetings, they were double 15 minute typical length because I was critiquing their submission (something done as a part of this particular conference). In each critique, I was asking the author questions about their publishing experience and learned they had little or almost no experience.

 

While we love the permanence of books, the publishing numbers tell a different story. If a traditional publisher takes your manuscript and publishes it, you will be fortunate to sell 5,000 copies during the lifetime of that book. Yes I know you want to sell more than 5,000 books but this volume is typical sales number in the publishing community and you are doing well to achieve it.

Yet within the magazine writing world, it is common to reach 100,000 or even 500,000 readers with your article. Your choices as a writer are not: books or magazines. You can do both and in fact writing for magazines will help you build your presence in the marketplace (called a platform) and sell more books.

A number of the writers I met with at the conference were writing nonfiction books. Inside their chapters, these writers were including their own personal experiences tied to the content of their book. With a little reshaping, these stories could be the elements in a magazine article. As I suggested this idea to writers, it was a new concept because they were focused on a book and not a magazine article.

How repurposing builds platform

Within the publishing world, this concept of using your writing more than once is called repurposing and a way to get more use from your stories. It is a practice that I encourage you to incorporate into your writing life. For it to work, you have to be aware of the rights you are selling to a publication. You do not want to sell “world rights” because then you give up any additional use of the writing. Instead, you want to clearly label the first page of your magazine article as selling “First North American Rights.” These words give the publication the right to publish your story. After the material is published, then the rights return to you as the author and can be used in your book.

In general, magazines are operating several months ahead. The specifics are different for each publication and you want to notice and keep track of these details so you can get use your stories in different areas,

Many publications are interested in personal experience articles. You can use your stories from your book chapters and easily rework them into a magazine article. As you get published on magazines, you gain publishing experience which is something agents and editors are looking for. You also build your presence or platform in the market. How? This exposure comes from the final part of your article: the one or two sentence bio. In your bio, you include your website which is hopefully something simple like your name or something else easy to remember.

Your magazine articles can be an on-going way to build and reach your audience. It takes some planning and intention on your part but repurposing your work can be easily accomplished with your writing.

Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor, Whalin has written for more than 50 publications including Christianity Today and Writer’s Digest. Terry is the author of How to Succeed As An Article Writer which you can get at: Write a magazine article.com. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. His latest book is Billy Graham, A Biography of America’s Greatest Evangelist and the book website is at: Billy Graham Bio.com Watch the short book trailer for Billy Graham. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @terrywhalin

Categories
Platform and Branding

3 Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Help Your Writer Platform

When building a writer platform, few of us consider hiring a virtual assistant, or VA. Most of us are DIYers, learning the ropes so we can understand what’s happening in the online world.

Not everyone, however, has the desire, time or ability to continue doing it themselves. In those cases it’s wise to enlist the help of someone with experience. A virtual assistant can be a godsend for a busy writer struggling to grow their platform.

3 Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Help Your Writer Platform

Saves time.

Creating social media content, formatting blog posts, responding to comments and messages, facilitating online discussions, etc. takes time and focus. A virtual assistant can perform many of these tasks for you, leaving you with time to write and engage in the places you enjoy.

Saves money.

Some content requires premium images and designer fonts, and that content often needs to be formatted for different social media networks. Many virtual assistants have access to these types of and can work with you to create a custom look that enhances your brand.

Some VAs are also savvy with WordPress and Blogger, and may be able to help with minor website modifications.

Saves sanity.

Sometimes you need a social media respite due to travel, health, family demands, or deadlines. A VA can help keep things moving forward when you need to take a break.

Other times you may need help because of changes in social media networks. Not only do the networks change, but your audience also changes. What works one year may not engage your audience the next. An experienced VA may also help you brainstorm new strategies.

virtual assistant

Where can I find a virtual assistant?

Finding a good virtual assistant can be challenging but it’s not impossible. Beware of economy sites as many of their sources live outside the US and may not have good English skills. Premium sites do a better job of pairing you with a VA who’s a good fit, but many require you to schedule interviews and pay fees.

A reliable way for a writer to find a VA is to crowdsource. Post the question in a Facebook or LinkedIn group. Ask your writer friends if they’ve worked with a VA or can recommend a VA.

Being able to outsource the things you dislike will not only reduce your frustration level but it will also give you margin. Hiring a virtual assistant can enable you to do what only you can do—write and share your message.

If you’re a writer who loves social media, has good content creation skills, and enjoys keeping up with trends, maybe YOU should be a VA! It’s a great way to hone your skills, help your fellow writers AND earn a little money!

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Categories
Platform and Branding

3 Can’t-Miss Tips For Steady Platform Growth

Smart writers invest in workshops, courses, and conferences. Smart and savvy writers will also invest time in building their platforms. These three steps repeated weekly, monthly or quarterly will ensure your platform grows at a steady rate.

Review Your Strategies

Look back over your blog and social media analytics. What content performed best for you? What networks gave your best results? Build on those strengths while taking a critical look at what didn’t perform as well. Should you make tweaks and try to improve, or abandon a failing strategy?

Numbers don’t lie, especially analytics, and so you’ll discover which social media networks fit best in your platform. Where are your readers? Where and how are you getting the best engagement? If a network isn’t getting the engagement you expected, what tweaks do you need to make?

Set SMART goals

Peter Drucker’s SMART management tool works well when setting platform goals:

  • Specific – Determine how much and what you will write, how you will network, what skills you need to learn, etc.
  • Measurable – Set goals for word count, number of articles to submit, posts to publish, manuscript progress, etc.
  • Attainable – Decide what works for you and your schedule, being careful to strike a balance that’s ambitious but also realistic.
  • Relevant – Goals must be timely and meaningful, moving you toward an identified objective.
  • Time-bound – Give yourself deadlines: daily (if appropriate), weekly, monthly, quarterly.

Don’t Neglect Relationships

Writing requires a good bit of solitary confinement, and it can be easy to retreat into your writing shell and neglect relationships. I need a good balance of non-writing friends who I can relax with, but I also deliberately cultivate friendships with other writers who understand the struggles and challenges of writing.

Consider joining a writing group or getting a critique partner. Find writer friends who will understand your goals and hold you accountable. Connect regularly to check progress and encourage each other.

 

Steady platform growth

Building your platform requires an investment of time and energy, along with regular evaluations. Set goals, connect with others, and know where you want to go with your writing. If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.

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Dear Young Scribes

Build a Platform & Increase Chances of Publication

“Does building a platform really increase chances of publication?”

This is a question many beginning authors ask when they are told to focus on building a platform—even before they receive a book contract.

“What’s the big deal?” they ask. “Shouldn’t I spend time working on my book instead of blogging? Won’t I gain a readership when my book is published?”

In the past, aspiring authors did not have to worry about building a brand, blog, or platform. They simply wrote a book, landed an agent, and received a publishing contract.

This is not the case with today’s writing industry.

If an aspiring author wants to gain interest from an agent/publisher, they must try to build a platform. When a publisher receives a proposal from an author, they often do an online search of the author. They want to see how many books the writer will be able to sell based on the number of potential readers they can reach through their blog and social media.

So, how can you, an aspiring author, build a platform—even as a teen?

Here’s how:

It’s pretty tough for an aspiring author to build a platform without writing a blog. Is it possible? Maybe.

But if you really want to impress an agent or publisher, don’t skip this. Blogging is a great tool to brand yourself as an author, build a readership, and build your platform—even before your book is published.

As a teen, you especially have the advantage of beginning to grow a platform early. Since it usually takes a long time to build one, you can try to begin growing it now before you completely dive completely into the writing industry.

But remember: A platform isn’t built overnight. It takes time, effort, and consistency.

However, I still advise that aspiring authors spend the majority of their time writing. Because if you don’t have anything to pitch to an agent/publisher—then, well, the time you devote into establishing a readership will be fruitless.

How has building a platform paid off in your writing career? Do you enjoy blogging, or do you consider it to be a waste of time? I’d love to hear what you think!

[bctt tweet=”Should aspiring authors build a platform? via @tessaemilyhall”]

[bctt tweet=”Build a Platform & Increase Chances of Publication via @tessaemilyhall “]