Tag: readership

Categories
Platform and Branding

Platform Starts with Your Mindset

When you hear the word platform what comes to mind? A mountain between you and getting published? One more thing to add to your to-do list? An elusive goal you’re not sure how to chase?

Thankfully, while platform is important for today’s writers, it’s not impossible to build. You probably have more of a platform than you realize.

Platform isn’t just social media followers.

Platform is potential readers.

Followers and reader are two very different things. Sometimes they’re the same, but often followers and readers are different. Put simply, the people you interact with, online or in person, who may purchase your book, that’s your platform.

This is where mindset comes in.

1. Share Your Passion

What we do with our lives often shows the areas we are interested in. You probably won’t write a how-to guide on rock climbing if you don’t love rock climbing. But if you love it, you’ll also probably join clubs or Facebook groups that focus on rock climbing. There’s an audience there.

To continue with this example, find people who reviewed movies on rock climbing (Free Solo, for instance) and find out what social media they like best, and what kind of content they engage with. These are the type of people you want to engage in your daily life because of shared interest. Naturally, they become potential readers.

2. Refuse the Scarcity Mindset

Platform is built off relationship, and relationship is born out of mindset.

Last year I attended a writing conference. I met a lot of great writers and made some great friends. Over lunch one day some of the writers started asking me questions about writing and platform. I could’ve answered vaguely and kept all my answers to myself. After all, the more writers working to build their platform the more competition, right?

Actually, not really. The world is full of readers, and there are plenty to go around.

Believing someone’s success lessens the possibility of your own is a scarcity mindset. Instead of choosing a scarcity mindset, I gave them my tips, helped them as much as I could, and then went on with the rest of the conference. Today, I keep up with some of them and we support each other in our writing.

3. Engage with Those Around You

If you can’t attend a conference this year, start small. Although writers are often viewed as introverts, even introverts talk about what excites them. When you’re in line at the coffee shop and the barista asks you what you’re working on today, tell them about your book. You just talked with a potential reader.

Remember, people talk about what excites them, and there are plenty of readers to go around. Share your passion, refuse the scarcity mindset, and engage with those around you. You’ll be surprised where it takes you!

Sarah Rexford is a Marketing Content Creator and writer. She helps authors build their platform through branding and copywriting. With a BA in Strategic Communications, Sarah equips writers to learn how to communicate their message through personal branding. She writes fiction and nonfiction and offers writers behind-the-scenes tips on the publishing industry through her blog itssarahrexford.com. She is represented by the C.Y.L.E Young Agency.

Instagram: @sarahjrexford
Twitter: @sarahjrexford
Web: itssarahrexford.com

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
Dear Young Scribes

Creating & Maintaining a Blog to Build a Readership: Part 2

In the previous post, we discussed how writers can build a blog readership by establishing a brand, deciding on a topic, and having a clear target audience in mind. But how is a blog maintained once its created?

Here are 5 strategies I’ve found to be the most helpful:

1. Keep the blog updated 1 – 3 times a week.

When I first started my blog, Christ is Write, I blogged three times a week and noticed great results from this. Now, I only blog once or twice a week. There have been times when I’ve gone weeks without posting. It’s during those times I’ve noticed the greatest dip in my page views.

If you want others to notice your blog, it’s vital to produce weekly content for your readers. That way, they will continue to return week after week.

2. Follow multiple blogs within the same category and comment on their posts.

Remember the blog topics you narrowed down in the last post? Now, find other bloggers who post on the same topics.

For instance, when I launched my blog, I followed multiple bloggers who posted on faith and fiction. Those were the people I wanted to connect with.

If you comment frequently on their posts, your name will become recognizable to them. Pretty soon, they’ll return the favor on your blog as well.

3. Interact with your blog followers.

On the “about” page of my blog, I introduce myself, then invite the readers to introduce themselves in the comments. This gives me the opportunity to know more about my target audience, build relationships, and start conversations.

Also, it’s polite to respond to your comments—even if it’s a simple “thanks for commenting!”. Doing this will show that you appreciate your readers, and it will encourage further conversation on the topic. Then, when readers see that you’ve responded, they’ll be more likely to comment on your future posts, too.   

4.  Stick to the main topic(s) of your blogs.

Think of your blog like a magazine. If you typically write posts on health and fitness, then your readers should expect posts on dieting, exercise, etc. Don’t you think they’d be a little disappointed if you decided to write a random post on politics?

However, if you have an idea for a post that doesn’t fall under the main topic(s) of your blog, try to brainstorm ways you can cater the post in a way that sticks with the main subject(s).

For instance: When I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, I had the urge to write a post about this disease. The only problem? My blog isn’t a medical blog.

Because of this, I decided to write the post in a way that could fit into my “faith” category.  I was still able to share my experience and give info on the disease as well. (See Purpose of Trials: 5 Things Being Diagnosed With Diabetes Has Taught Me”.)

5. Write fresh content that will make it easy for others to read, share, and interact.

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when writing a post:

  • Try to keep it between 300 – 850 words
  • Write short paragraphs
  • Include 1 – 3 questions at the end of each post that invite readers into a conversation
  • Research how to write SEO-friendly posts
  • Make it easy for your readers to share the post on social media
  • Always use copyright-free images (you can find them on Pixabay.com, Pexels.com, Photopin.com, Unsplash.com, etc.)
  • Modify your font, size, and colors so it’s easy on the eyes

It takes time, determination, patience, and persistence to grow and maintain a blog. The payoff, however, will be well worth it—especially when it expands your reach and perhaps increases your chances of publication.

For more blogging advice for writers, I highly recommend the book Connections by Edie Melson. Much of what I’ve learned on blogging came from that book, as well as the author’s blog, TheWriteConversation.blogspot.com.

How do you maintain your blog? Let me know in the comments!