How To Build A Platform...

Megan
Lynch

How To Build a Platforma You Care Enough About to Maintain

Whether you’re an author, a book blogger, or a consumer reviewer, you’ve probably come across ideas to promote yourself and your work, including building an online presence. For authors of fiction, it’s not necessary to be well-known before publishing that first book, but anyone who wants to find new readers and retain fans is going to need be accessible online. You have to have a platform.
For many of us, self-promotion makes us want to crawl inside our hidey-holes instead of strutting onstage like the rock stars we are. (Hello! You worked really hard and now you have something to offer the world!) But it doesn’t have to be that way! Personally, I feel more comfortable on what I call a “heart-shaped platform”—which means that it’s centered around subjects and people I love.
Here’s how to do that:
#1 – Prioritize Helping Others
For the book “Undone,” the third book in my series, I had the idea to do Instagram posts for ten Indie authors I knew and respected. I reached out to them and asked them to promote my book in whatever way they thought was most effective, and in return I’d craft a #bookstagram post for each of them. I made it clear that they’d be free to do whatever they wanted with the image. I had so much fun staging the photos for the other authors and, as a result, felt tied to their success. After all, the more likes and clicks an image got, the larger their audience became, and the more people who would soon hear of my book!
#2 – Pick a Social Media Outlet You Like, and Stick with It
Are you into connecting with readers through images on Instagram, or trading funny comments with fellow authors on Twitter? Maybe you’re a Facebook expert and love to cultivate your author page, or you’re active with your favorite Goodreads groups. Here’s something nobody told me: You don’t have to do it all, especially if there’s a platform that you don’t like.
Pick one of them, and make yourself proud on it, with a curated account that you’re happy to invite others to see. When you are doing something you enjoy, keeping up with social media is fun and doesn’t feel like a chore. Are you into connecting with readers through images on Instagram, or trading funny comments with fellow authors on Twitter? Maybe you’re a Facebook expert and love to cultivate your author page, or you’re active with your favorite Goodreads groups. Here’s something nobody told me: You don’t have to do it all, especially if there’s a platform that you don’t like.
Pick one of them, and make yourself proud on it, with a curated account that you’re happy to invite others to see. When you are doing something you enjoy, keeping up with social media is fun and doesn’t feel like a chore.
#3 – Get with a Group, and Celebrate/Cry/Be Accountable with Them
This is related to picking your social media favorites, but doesn’t necessarily have to be. Even if you’re naturally shy, all authors need to join some kind of writers group to learn from, and help with promotion. Just don’t forget to help them, too (see #1). They’re also the people who will remind you that you had an idea a few months ago and will ask you about your progress, which is invaluable. I feel so unbelievably rich to be able to say I’m in three different groups, each full of high-quality writerly human beings who are generous with their help!
#4 – Throw Yourself a Launch Party, and Bring the Party
How would you like to be invited to a party where everything hinges on your attendance? Where you’re guilted into coming and convinced that if you’re not there, the whole event will be a pathetic waste of time? Okay, that's a little hyperbolic, but it’s not that far off from how I used to talk about my own author appearances.
Instead, think about how you feel when a friend gushes on about the incredible party they’re going to have: how they’re going to get a cake from your favorite local bakery, music that makes you want to move, seasonal beer from the brewery in town, and it’s all going to be at that bookshop that makes you want to zoom past the shelves on a rolling ladder like Belle. Sign me up!
A little confidence goes a long way, so if your events are truly for you, have fun and celebrate yourself and your love of literature. Then, others will want to get involved. Trust me.
#5 – Guest Blog, Give Interviews, or Submit Articles to Publications you Actually Read
It can be tempting, when you have a new release, to just spam everyone who has a book blog with a canned blurb about your book and yourself, and just hope someone will accept you. However, knowing the audience for each specific publication gives you market knowledge on a much deeper level. When you’re armed with knowledge, your query has an edge. So, brainstorm the publications you like to read and get to know their submissions process. You’ll have more fun when you can imagine someone similar to yourself reading it.
These are just ideas to get the ball rolling!
The more you make decisions from a place of love, the better you’ll get at maintaining a platform people actually care about. As human beings, we all have an uncanny knack for sniffing out authenticity. Make sure when you put yourself out there in the world, or on the internet, you’re putting out the very best version of yourself.