Building Your Author Platform? Here are 6 Things You Need to Do First

Are you ready to start building your author platform?

Maybe you’ve been meaning to start building your author platform, but you keep getting distracted or life gets in the way

Maybe you hate selling, so you don’t even want to touch the marketing stuff

Or maybe you haven’t finished writing your book yet and are not quite sure if you are to the point of needing to build your audience yet.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

You should start building your author platform BEFORE you publish your first book.

And an even bigger secret?

It doesn’t have to be sleazy selling.

I’ve always been one of those people who hate the idea of selling. In fact, I’ve turned down several direct sales job offers (that would have paid really well) because I just didn’t like the way it made me feel. I’m an introvert at heart, so having to ask someone to their face if they would spend money on my product is close to nightmare material.

So how do you go about building an author platform without selling?

1. Identify your Audience

Before you do anything, you need to determine who your audience is: where they hang out, what they do for a living, what they buy, what they do for fun, who their friends are, etc. Knowing WHO you are targeting will help you be more genuine when you are trying to get them to buy your books.

2. Learn HOW to Sell

Unfortunately, in order to be successful in selling your books, you do need to learn HOW to sell.

You need to understand how SEO, or search engine optimization, works at least on a basic level. If you publish your book and just hope that it will fly off the shelves, you will get lost in the great abyss of the internet. SEO is basically the behind-the-scenes information within your blog and website that helps you appear in search results.

You have to learn how to write copy and use a sales funnel so people actually click on the things you want them to click on (like links to your book and email list).

3. Set Up Your Home Base

One of the most important pieces of your author platform is your own website. A website that you own would be like owning your own house in the very populated land of the internet. You get to control the information that you present. You get to control the colors, the photos, the information, the links.

If you were to build your entire platform on somebody else’s land – any one of the social media sites – then you are completely susceptible to their rules. They can decide they don’t want you on it, for any reason. They can make organic reach nearly impossible.

You could be going along one day with 10K followers, and all of a sudden that social media site may decide they don’t want to associate with brands like yours. And POOF, all of your followers – GONE.

Unfortunately, because it is their platform, they have every right to do that. The only way to combat this is to own your own platform. This means you need to set up your author website. It doesn’t have to be anything complicated, just your name, links to your books, ideally a blog (see #4), and a way to sign up for your email list (see #6).

Really, I could talk about this point all day, but instead, you can check out this post I wrote a while back for more info on author websites.

4. Content, Content, Content

Some authors are successful without a blog or any other kind of regular content (podcast, video channel, etc.), but they are the exception.

Basically, the way algorithms work, you are much more likely to get found if you have content for people to find, and the more people click on your content, the more often your content will show up in search results.

Now, this content is not “Buy my book!” “Buy my product!” or “Spend your money with me!” It should be valuable content related to your brand.

For example, if you are a thriller author, you may want to conduct interviews with other thriller authors, talk about the research behind your books, or even post reviews or recommendations for other thrillers.

Then, when it comes time to sell your book, you are seen as someone who knows what they are talking about and your readers will already be familiar with the type of content they can expect from you.

5. Get Found

In today’s society, it is pretty much essential to be on social media as a business.

I know, I know. I just got finished saying you need to build your own platform and not rely on social media but hear me out.

Having your own platform has to come first. But how are you going to reach new readers if they’ve never heard of you? You can’t just put up a billboard advertising your books and your website and hope that people will come. Well, you can, but the cost isn’t really worth the ROI. Plus it’s the 21st century – there are many more effective and cheaper ways to reach new readers.

Good Social Practices

Social media is a great way to initiate that first point of contact with new readers when building your author platform. You can post memes or photos and ask questions to drum up engagement, along with links to your blog or other content. By posting genuine content (see #4), you can pique readers’ interest and eventually lead them back to your website.

Just make sure that no more than 1 out of every 5 posts is selling something (this includes trying to get people to download your lead magnet). The majority of your posts should be providing free and valuable content.

Contrary to popular belief, the number of followers you have on social media is not the key to success in the online business world. You would be better off having 100 raving fans on Instagram who have also joined your email list than 15,000 followers on Twitter who never click on a link back to your website.

So which social media platform do you choose? There are so many.

Start with one or two, where you are comfortable and where your audience hangs out. You don’t have to be on every platform. It is much better to be on one or two consistently than spreading yourself too thin over several platforms.

6. Bring Them Home

For those followers that do click on links back to your website, you want to have a system in place that will guide them to joining your email list.

Even though it is the 21st century, email is still king. It has a significantly higher ROI than almost any other way to reach your readers.

Your email subscribers have already given you their consent to a direct and personal connection. Use it! They subscribe because they WANT to hear from you or they WANT what you have to offer.

Even if you have not published your book yet, try getting people to sign up for your email list. So when you do finally hit publish, you have some readers already anxiously awaiting your book.

Lead Magnets

You do this by creating a lead magnet that relates to your brand. A lead magnet is a free offer meant to get people to subscribe to your email list.

If you write fiction, a short story is a great lead magnet that will invite readers into your world and introduce them to your writing style. If you write nonfiction, an email course or workbook is a great lead magnet that provides honest value to your readers.

Creating a lead magnet does not have to be complicated. If you plan on using a short story, you would just format it like you would any other ebook. Canva is a great (and free!) tool to use to create workbooks or any other visual lead magnet.

Once you get them on your email list, don’t forget about them! Email your list regularly, at least once or twice a month, with (again!) valuable content. Get your readers to open your emails and respond if you can. That way, when you’re ready to launch your book, your readers are already in the habit of reading your emails. They will be the first to see any announcement you make about your upcoming book.

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