An Authors Platform
will increase sales!

An authors platform is a combination of many things:

• Your stature within your target audience. Are you a celebrity? Are you an expert? What are your credentials?
• Your presence on the Internet. Do you have a website or a blog? Do you have readers for a newsletter? A blog? An ezine? A newsletter?
• Your social media presence. Do you Twitter? Are you on Facebook? Does your book have a page on Facebook? See My Facebook Page.

If you don’t have an authors platform, you can build one. It takes time, but it is not difficult. The first step is to focus on your target audience. Who will your readers be? It is important to answer this question upfront, so that you can focus on them as you build your platform.

Authors Platform: Website or Blog?

The foundation of your authors platform is a website or a blog, preferably with your name as the domain name. The reason for using your own name is so that anyone who comes across a reference by you or to you, can Google your name and find you and your book.

If you are a subject matter expert writing books in the area of your expertise, creating a website or blog should be easy. I would put a link to my detail page on Amazon.com at the bottom of every page.

If you write fiction, it is a little more difficult; although, you may be a subject matter expert on writing fiction, and have plenty to say. You can include samples of your writing. As an experiment, I am blogging my entire book, one story at a time, on Facebook.

Twitter

If you are not Twittering, you must start. Focus on your target audience. Your goal is to be interesting and helpful, so that people will click on your name and be transported to your Twitter home page. They will see your 160 character bio and find a link to your Website or blog. Increased traffic to your website should result in increased sales. It’s working for me, and my website isn’t even about my book.

Use Twitter Search to find people to follow. I search on self publishing and authors. Over half of the people you follow, will follow you back. Others will find you by searching on the topics you write about.

Facebook

Facebook is a great place to build your authors platform. People want to know about you as well as your book. Publishers are always after books by celebrities because people know about them, and it makes a difference. Upload a picture, and complete your profile. Do not leave any area blank.

Consider a page for your book. Use Facebook Notes to write a blog. My book consists of 128 humorous short stories, so I post one a week. Use Facebook Search to find Pages, Groups, and people with similar interests.

If you’re not on the Internet in a big way, you might be overwhelmed by all of this. If that is you, start small. Sign up for Twitter. Use it for 20 minutes a day for a few weeks. You will learn that it is not only easy, it is fun. Especially, if you like people.

Blogs are easier and less work than websites. Once you start one, you will be amazed at how easy it is. When you are comfortable with Twitter and your blog, add Facebook.

You are on your way!

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