Building Your Platform
As many of us have come to learn, you cannot write in a vacuum. Likewise, you cannot just make a book and expect the masses to fall in line. This is where your platform comes into play.
What is an Author Platform?
Many published authors; traditional and Self-published, will tell you that an author platform is very important. You might have heard the words being tossed about — but what really is it?
The website, MasterClass in a November 2020 article described it as ‘A writer’s ability to market their work, using their overall visibility to reach a target audience of potential readers.”
Your platform as a writer could be your social media accounts; Instagram, Facebook, Youtube or Twitter. It could also include blogs and websites, such as this one. The main aim of your platform is to generate potential readers for your novel.
This is an important step in your book’s creation process because you create an engaged group of individuals who are interested in your work. Additionally, some traditional publishers will use your platform as a factor when deciding to publish your book. This isn’t always the case, but it’s not too far-fetched to believe if you’ve ever tried getting your work traditionally published.
Now that I have detailed why your platform is important, how do you go about building one?
Building a presence online isn’t easy work, it requires consistency, effort and heavy compromises, but it is worth all it. In the MasterClass article, they detailed some important ways in how you can create your platform. You can read that article here.
There are many ways to start your platform, this could include; writing blogs such as this one, posting on social media site regularly and being consistent. Please, do not spam your book online. It doesn’t’ matter how you accomplish your platform, as long as it works for you and gives you the results you desire to increase your potential audience base, and engagement. For a more detailed guide there are many Youtube videos and web articles about this topic, lend an ear.
In closing, please remember to not skip this process. Start as early as possible and be as consistent as you can. It would be a shame to slave our your manuscript day and night, only to have low engagement come launch day. So invest in your platform, and by proxy, invest in your success.
