By Matthew Turner
Are you an aspiring author? It’s great, writing, isn’t it? The only trouble is it makes you one of a million wannabe writers, and despite the internet being an amazing tool, it allows everyone to go after their fuzzy dream of one day having a book in print.
Competition is tough and a writer needs all the help they can get. Therefore you need an author platform and here are 10 steps to creating the ideal one:
It’s About YOU, Not Your Book
Your book is important, but before people buy it they need to know who you are. Your author platform is about YOU, not your books. Create a strategy based around your skills, your unique self, and what YOU can offer the world.
Setting up a platform based around a book, or a character within a book is short sighted. A solid author platform can last a lifetime so make sure it has a solid core.
Have a Vision
You can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know where you are. In the early stages you need to come up with a vision of the future, come up with a mission on how to get there, and create some aims and objectives about how to achieve this.
Create a Unique & Memorable Brand Identity
What do I mean by this? You are a unique being with a variety of great things to showcase. What pictures, logos, colours, and fonts will you use? Competition is tough so how will you stand out from the crowd? A strong Brand Identity, that’s how!
Know Your Audience
You’re great; don’t let anyone say anything different. The thing is you need to know your audience better than you know yourself, and base your content around what they need. I read a comment recently saying, “If Content is King, then the Audience is Queen”. This is sage advice!
Interact with Experts
There’s a Guru around every online corner, and guess what, they have a platform that’s usually great. Follow these experts; interact with them, and over time form friendships. Don’t SPAM and don’t be annoying. Become a valuable member of their tribe and you’ll see good things happen.
Carefully Choose Your Communications
You can’t use every communication tool out there so don’t try. Choose your tools carefully and have a good reason and purpose for each. By all means join Google+, but for the love of God have a reason for doing so.
Always be Networking
Online or offline you need to be always doing this. Meet new people and interact with a variety of industry folk; fellow writers, agents, editors and the like. Meeting new people is amazing and you never know where a new friendship can lead.
Create Calls of Action
Make it easy for readers to join up to your newsletters and what not. It’s tough getting people to your site, but keeping them coming back is harder. Whenever possible sign people up and your tribe will begin to grow.
Analyse & Improve
There’s always room for improvement so measure your activity and be striving for the best. Analytical tools are vital, and staying organised is key. Create schedules and spreadsheets and stay on top. Understand your progress and everything becomes easier.
Re-Visit Every Six Months
Every six-months you need to go back your strategy and re-evaluate your progress. Do you need to change your aims & objectives? Are you using the right tools? Keep moving forward and you’ll be a permanent fixture in the writing world.
Matthew Turner (aka Turndog Millionaire) is a Strategic Marketer who Blog’s about how aspiring authors can market themselves in a strategic manner. As an aspiring author himself follow him on his journey to becoming published at his Blog: www.turndog-millionaire.com and on Twitter: @turndog_million.
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