Tag: Building platform

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Marketing Sense

Your First Step to Expand Your Author Platform: Develop a Community Built Upon Service

Marketing sense

Our author platform will never grow until we reach beyond our circle of family-and-friends to those in our target market whom we do not know…yet. Some feel the key to finding that specific group within the world’s population of more than 8 billion people is to YELL LOUDER. Uh, no…

Serving our audience in God’s name is the first step, and guess what? We can serve them long before our book is even published! Hooray!

If this sounds like madness, it’s actually genius, because as we serve, our audience is drawn to our message. They participate, ask follow-up questions, talk amongst themselves, and ask more questions. They want to know how our message applies to their specific situation.

This is called engagement, also known as building community. We want this!

As we create content: social media posts, podcasts, and Lead Magnets to name a few, we’re sharing MORE answers to the questions our audience is asking and helping them solve MORE problems they’re encountering today.

The real impact comes when they apply our message. We don’t offer information only. (You don’t, do you?) Our message must offer change. A synonym for change is transformation.  

Our audience comes to us–or stumbles upon us–and discovers we know what they’re going through. We offer solutions, not as an armchair quarterback but as someone who’s been down the same (or a similar) road. As we share our story and listen to theirs, commonalities spring to the surface that both parties recognize. Commonalities that we already knew existed but that they didn’t (at first). Those common traits, questions, challenges, or fears bind us together in (say it with me) community.

Now we’re not an outsider; we’re a trusted resource. We must do our utmost to earn and protect that description.

They’ll want to dive deeper or discuss a related issue and hear our solution for that. They’ll look to us for guidance, strategies, and encouragement. We can offer this as no one else can because of our life’s journey, which includes God delivering us over and over as we muddled our way through the maze of each problem. Our audience is in the same maze. Christ delivered us in part for our own sake and in part so we could guide them to freedom in His name. Hallelujah!

As they apply the wisdom in our message–which is God’s wisdom–stubborn problems begin to improve. Long-standing challenges shift, becoming less difficult. Their lives begin to change in ways that matter to them. They’ll remember that. They’ll remember us.

This is how we can build an online platform that will last for our ministry’s lifetime and not simply for the lifetime of one book.

This is why we don’t have to start over from scratch with every.single.project. Ack!

Once in relationship with audience members, we earn the right to let them know–periodically–how they can help us. Perhaps they can buy our book, attend our event, give their input on our next book’s cover image…the list goes on and on.

“Oh, no,” some say, “I don’t want to be one of those pushy authors always asking their audience to, “Buy! Buy! Buy!”

Does that thought weigh on your mind? Relax, Padawan (Star Wars reference there 🙂 ).

Remember, these people are in your community, and others are joining them. Why? Because you’ve helped them change their lives. So, they trust you and want to support you. You’re in their community now, too. Cool, huh?

And it all began when you started serving your audience for His sake and their benefit, letting Him bless your service as He saw fit, which, since He called you to write for Him, will likely include book sales. He’s so wise!

Part Two of this series next month.

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: marketersonamission.com
Facebook: MarketersOnAMission

Categories
Marketing Sense

How to Serve Your Facebook Group Without Sharing Your Book’s Content

Marketing sense

This series focuses on growing your author platform in 2023, specifically, via an online community such as a private Facebook group.  Suggesting this when delivering workshops at Christian writers’ groups, I consistently hear, “But I don’t want to share my book’s content!”

Of course not. And you don’t have to because you know MUCH more than just your book’s content. You’ve lived, learned, and applied the principles in your book, haven’t you? Collected stories illustrating your points? Interviewed experts? Researched the Word and other resources to support your message?

Comparing your collective knowledge about your topic to your book’s content, there’s no contest. Your book contains segments of your wisdom; not everything you know. 🙂

You could spend years serving an online group without directly sharing your book’s content…because there are so many coordinating topics and sub-topics surrounding it.

A Facebook Group Is Ideal for Simultaneously Connecting to and
Developing a Relationship With Your Audience

Consider making your group “private” and “visible,” meaning that non-members can locate it online but cannot see its members or its posts.

Those two choices combined allow you to share the group’s link publicly and/or privately yet still vet potential members. The best of both worlds!

You Don’t Have to Become Your Group’s Sheriff

As your Facebook group’s Admin, you’re responsible for everything: training, responding to comments, adding new posts, vetting and welcoming new members, washing the windows…

Oh, wait, ignore that last example. 🙂

But it’s simple enough to reduce your workload by inviting one or more members to be moderators. They won’t have access to the full group settings, so they can’t lead a coup. Their role is to support you, respond to posts as they’re able, and notify you if a post (or a member) requires your attention.

My group doesn’t have moderators, and I’m the only admin. That means more responsibility. As the only member to create posts, I may appear to be a control-freak. Not true. Instead, this approach allows me to fulfill my other, non-FB-group duties and still offer group members a safe haven to: connect with me and other members, ask questions, explore freely, share encouragement one to another, and so on, without unruly or unkind members suggesting otherwise. You and I have been in other groups with little interaction from its leaders. Unruly or unkind members can wreak havoc in such groups that takes a long time to repair.

I believe in safeguarding the hen house before the fox visits. 🙂

The key to getting it all done is how you create / choose your content.

Release New Content on a Schedule That Works for You

Some online group administrators focus the bulk of their efforts inside their group. Others rarely show up. Find a rhythm that doesn’t run you in the ground and doesn’t cause members to feel ignored.

New content–both regular and unique–keeps the group in motion. You don’t want the wheels to stop, yet no one–including you–can spend all day every day there. Your members understand. They can’t keep up that pace, either.

Consider posting content based upon the day (ask this question every Monday, share that resource every Tuesday, and so on) or based upon an activity common to your group (this week’s goals, share your latest blog post, who needs help with Topic XYZ, and so on). There are many more options. This allows new members to join the group’s routine more smoothly, while long-term members become eager to share their answer to that day’s question.  

It also helps you create content ahead of time so you’re not scrambling to “Come with something…anything…to post NOW!” while the clock ticks down. Not that that’s ever happened to me. 🙂

This content creation approach has a measurable benefit, giving you time to create deep-thinking posts, short video trainings in response to members’ questions, research examples that prove a point you made last week or one you plan to make this week. You have time to breathe, while still fulfilling your many other roles AND keeping the conversation going in your online group.

Next month we’ll cover the many benefits of leading an online group in Facebook. The same principles work in other online groups as well.

You’ll be surprised at how valuable serving your audience in Christ’s name can be to both you and your audience!

Part Three of this series next month.

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: marketersonamission.com
Facebook: MarketersOnAMission

Categories
The Intentional Writer

My Author Platform Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

The intentional writer

You hear it at every writers’ conference—Platform Is Important! Long before you have a book published, you need to be thinking about and building your author platform.

True.

However, I wish I hadn’t rushed into into creating a website, blog, or author social media accounts without considering why I was doing it.

“I’m doing this to build platform” isn’t a sufficient reason

Maybe the root problem was I didn’t understand what building an author platform really meant. I thought it was about numbers. Create a bunch of social media accounts and collect as many followers as you can.

Done.

Except, after I created them, I had no idea what to do with them. No strategy. No purpose. No obvious topics or themes. Nada.

I was working on a historical mystery set in ancient Rome, but I’m not a history expert, or a writing expert. Thus, neither history nor writing tips seemed like the right content for me.

Which left … ?? (Scripture quotes? Flash fiction? Life lessons from my kids? Photos of the coffee I’m drinking while I write?)

Does my quandary sound familiar?

Understanding the real purpose of those platform components

Pop Quiz: The purpose of an author’s blog, website, and social media accounts is to:

  1. Amass impressive follower numbers
  2. Promote all my awesome writing stuff
  3. Tell the world about my writing process and show funny photos of my cat
  4. Serve the reader by offering helpful or inspiring content

The answer may seem obvious, but when I was a budding fiction writer, precisely what helpful or inspiring content I was supposed to be offering was anything but obvious.

I was clueless. I tried a bit of this and a pit of that, but nothing really clicked.

So I blundered around, trying a bit of this and a bit of that and by process of elimination I eventually narrowed my blogging focus to intentional living (which, you may note, has nothing whatsoever to do with either ancient Rome or mystery writing).

An author platform needs a firm foundation

Have you ever tried to write an article, and you can’t seem to get your thoughts to work together? When I have that problem, it’s usually because I don’t have the single main point clear in my head.

The same is true for an author platform. The more clarity you have in your specific target audience and the specific topics/themes/issues you are called to write about, the easier it becomes to provide content that is both relevant and builds confidence in your author brand.

Your author brand is the perception of what you are about, based on your content.  

If your content isn’t consistent, nobody can figure out what you stand for, so they had little reason to keep reading my stuff.

Here’s the key concept I was missing

The goal of building an author platform isn’t to collect as many random followers as we can. The goal is to collect readers who want to come back regularly to see our content.

Why do those readers choose to give their precious attention to our content instead of the zillion other options? Because they have learned they can count on us to consistently offer interesting, relevant, encouraging content on topics they care about.

We earn readers trust by consistently offering the content they find useful. That consistency only comes when we’ve discovered our content sweet spot and are intentional about focusing our content within that niche.  

Your platform isn’t built in a day

If you’re just starting your writing journey, you probably don’t yet have this all figured out. That’s normal. You might need to experiment with different types of content for a while before you find your stride.

However, experiment intentionally. Your goal is to zero in on the content that you are passionate about creating and identifying the specific audience that most benefits from what you write.

The sooner you find your sweet spot, the less time you waste writing meh content and the quicker you can begin collecting readers who are actual fans of your content and brand.

Your Turn

Can you articulate what your author platform is about in 1-2 sentences? If not, take a stab at it and consider that your starting point.

Pray about it. Ask God to clarify the specifics of what he’s calling you to write and who he’s calling you to write it for.  

Get in the habit of regularly asking yourself questions like these to continually hone your clarity.

  • Which subjects can I not help getting excited about?
  • What have I learned from coming through trauma that I can share with others?
  • When people think of me and my content, I want them to use words like ___ .
  • What is the common thread in the various things I love to write about?
  • What issues do people bring up repeatedly when they come to me for advice or help? (face-to-face or virtually)
Lisa E Betz

Lisa E. Betz is an award-winning mystery author, entertaining speaker, and an unconventional soul. She combines her love of research with her quirky imagination to bring the world of the world of the early church to life. She infuses her novels with unconventional characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her second novel, Fountains and Secrets, was recently named a finalist in both the Golden Scroll and Christian Market Book Awards.

She also blogs about the joys and challenges of living an authentic, purpose-filled life. Lisa and her husband reside in southeast Pennsylvania with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in the Livia Aemilia Mysteries. Lisa directs church dramas, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit her Quietly Unconventional website at lisaebetz.com or check her Facebook page at LisaEBetzWriter.

Categories
Mastering Middle Grade

Building Platform

You’ve poured hours into building a plot, developing characters, and revising. Now that your baby is written, how do you land a contract? One way is through platform because it makes your work more attractive to editors and makes marketing easier.

But what is platform? Simply put, it’s a network used to market books. This may include social media outlets, connections to organizations, blogs or podcasts, people who endorse our work, or paid advertising. While exceptions exist, in general, the bigger the platform, the greater the chance an editor will look at your manuscript. Two popular platform-building methods include social media outlets and networking through conferences.

Get Started on Instagram

Earlier, I posted on how to get started on Instagram part one and part two. If you’re new to social media, Instagram is a great place to build platform. Besides finding a target audience, you can also connect with other writers. Look for profiles of people who have successfully marketed their MG novels or accounts that feature/review MG books. Follow and interact with those accounts. For Christian readers, here are a few accounts to check out.

  • @hopebolinger–This prolific author/editor has over 14k followers and offers solid advice for authors.
  • @kristianasquill—This author shows some creative marketing ideas she employed for her award winning debut novel.
  • @mesontagauthor—This MG historical fiction writer has several posts and links showing how she markets her novels.
  • @kellimckinneywrites and @lori.z.scott—Hey, we’re both writing for A3 here, so you’ll see some of marketing ideas in our posts.
  • @endgamepress and @chickenscratchbooks- these small but growing publishers might be the perfect fit for your middle grade novel.

Throw in a Conference

Writing conferences were crucial to my publishing journey. Through them, I learned about writing opportunities, made friends with other writers who support my endeavors, found an agent, and landed a book contract. Outside the social aspect of these literary treats, each conference offers workshops to help aspiring writers learn the ropes and veteran writers hone their craft. Here are a few of the larger ones that offer strong faculties with multiple opportunities for attendees to pitch book ideas. The scenic locations allow writers a relaxing atmosphere to network with each other and leaders in the industry.

This brief look at platform doesn’t encompass all the avenues available to writers. That’s where you come in! Please post your platform building ideas in the comments below. Maybe together, we can create a supportive community of middle grade writers.

Teacher and author Lori Z. Scott writes fiction because she’s like an atom. She makes everything up. She also has two quirky habits: chronic doodling and lame joke telling. Neither one impresses her boss, but they still somehow inspired Lori to accidentally create a ten-title bestselling children’s book series and on purpose write over 175 other publications. She continues penning stories as an excuse to not fold her laundry. Find her silly drawings, poems, and whatnot on Instagram @Lori.Z.Scott and look for her debut YA novel Inside the Ten-Foot Line coming October 2022.

I’ve guest blogged on A3 (Almost An Author several times, and I’m happy to announce that I’m teaming up with regular contributor Kelly McKinney to explore writing for the middle grade audience.