Build Your Author Platform. Carole Jelen

Take the “Acid Test”

      Try this self-assessment now. Google the name Dan Brown (thriller fiction) or David Meerman Scott (nonfiction), both authors with well-developed web presence. Immediately on the results page you’ll see photos, books, considerable social network presences, URLs for websites and blogs, and more. Now type in your own name and see what appears. If your presence is not as easily identifiable, that should give you all the motivation you need! Follow the points in this book beginning with Step 1, creating your author website. After following all 14 steps in this book, type your own name again to see the profound transformation of your professional online author identity. These tools and techniques work for authors regardless of genre. Fiction authors need to connect to readers as much as nonfiction authors, and in these pages we suggest paths and examples for both nonfiction and fiction authors.

      Then Build Your Author Platform

      As you follow and build your author platform with the 14 steps in this book, when you or one of your readers searches your name, you’ll find professional, impressive search results about you and your book that are clear and well-organized. Your fans will get an optimal first impression of you and will be set on an easy path toward finding out more about you and your book. By harnessing the power of the Internet and learning how the various online tools in your toolbox work together, you’ll lead your audience to your unique message and author brand.

       The sound of platform necessity coming was like a locomotive in the distance, and it has arrived.

      Good luck! There’s no time like the present to begin. Build your platform right the first time, and as time goes on you’ll see it grow with minimal effort. Devote the time you need to plan, customize, and execute your platform. Once created, it will take on a life of its own that works to increase your book sales for many years to come.

      Visit our book site at BuildAuthorPlatform.com for links, new information, and more. Please contact us at jelenpub.com and michaelmccallister.com for Q&A on our blogs, and please participate in future editions of this book by sending in your success tips and stories via our website and the Contact Us form.

       CHAPTER 1

       Your Author Website: Home Central

      “I enjoy the Web site a lot and I like being able to talk to my readers. I’ve always had a very close relationship with them.”

       —Anne Rice, best-selling author

      AUTHORS WHO HAVE ANY SHRED of resistance to connecting with readers via platform-building, please consider these words of Rick Riordan, best-selling fiction author: “My goal is always to create life-long readers.” And the words of Felix Dennis, best-selling nonfiction author: “Everything I publish is for my readers.” These sentiments are echoed time and again by top-selling authors like Barbara Kingsolver, Ann Rule, Ann Lamott, W. H. Auden, and many more. John Cheever pointed out the impossibility of successful writing without an audience: “I can’t write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss—you can’t do it alone.”

      As a literary agent who has worked with thousands of author clients over many years, I work daily to overcome any and all author resistance to platform building. Once I’ve chipped away objections, the questions I hear repeatedly are, “With no degree in marketing, promotion, or advertising, how does an author reach out to build an audience? Isn’t that the publisher’s job?”

      It’s true that the publisher will market your books, including catalogs, publisher websites, in-store promotions, news releases, and more. As an example, BenBella has done a fantastic job of creating our book website; making our book postcards; listing our book on Amazon.com, in catalogs, and on their website; setting up speaking engagements and signings; setting up online events for us; and much more. In fact, the reservoir of knowledge and experience at BenBella connects us to every author success story in their history, which boosts our own visibility. The problem is that it’s close to impossible for an author to get a publishing contract in the first place without an author platform showing guaranteed audience following. In other words, an author platform—including an author website, social media network, and traditional media presence—demonstrates to a publisher that you already have a following that can be converted and grown into an audience for your book. It’s also impossible for authors to understand and deliver content to their audience needs and preferences without directly interacting with their readers. Your author website is the place to centralize all of your platform elements, connecting these under one roof for your readers to see your depth, breadth, and influence.

      The web is a crowded place, and a strong author website that effectively targets and communicates with your audience is essential. As of this writing, more than 2.4 billion people use the Internet for everything from email, file transfers, and Skype to instant messaging. Close to a billion sites already exist on the World Wide Web since the digitally enabled world makes it simple to connect with an online audience via websites. And fortunately, Internet audiences search for real and tangible information, so that the more authentic the information an author shares, the more meaningful the communication becomes between you and your potential audience.

Why Your Author Website Is a Must

      Many authors mistakenly skip building their author website—an essential and central element of the author platform—or even worse, allow their presence to be controlled by other entities, then regretfully find that their Internet presence becomes fragmented and confusing for their audience. If your audience can’t easily find you or your book in the crowd of websites, your book sales suffer.

      Here are the main reasons to create your author site as soon as possible if you don’t already have one:

      

       Findability: Readers find authors and books through websites by searching their names. If you have a scattered presence across multiple websites, you force potential readers to guess where to find “the real you.” When confused, potential readers are likely to give up and look elsewhere.

       Consolidation: Combining the 14 steps of your author platform in a central location makes it easier for your readers to connect with you and raises your profile in all web search engines.

       Control: You own your website and maintain your author brand, content, format, and message. If your web presence is only on social networks owned by others, the rules that govern your presence may change on a whim. Don’t give away the keys to your online presence when you are fully able to own your website.

       Mailing list creation: Your site allows you to collect names and addresses of your readers. Creating a custom electronic newsletter is by far the best way to announce your books and future events to an audience that has already expressed interest in your work.

       Growth capability: You alone determine the future of your site. If you want to add future webinars, links to YouTube channels, and the like, you don’t have to wait for someone else to add a feature or change a policy.

       Blog home: In Chapter 2 (Step 2 of the program), we’ll show you how to keep your website freshly loaded with new blog posts. Fresh content raises your profile with the search engines and keeps your audience returning to your website.

      Your author website is your home base, so tie all of your online locations to this central hub for all of your author branding. Incoming links to your author website count, even from your other online locations. It’s easy to create, and it’s one of your best tools for tying all the steps of your platform together.