I have a new course on pre-sale: Growing a Sustainable Author Platform. All of the course material will go live on the 25th, but if you buy now, you will get a special early bird price of £50. Click here to find out more.
One of the questions authors often come to me with, is where they should focus their time and attention when it comes to growing their author platform.
There is so much advice out there, and so much you *could* do – where do you begin? And how do you know if you are spending time on the right things?
There isn’t a single answer to this question (sorry), because everyone has their own unique strengths (and weaknesses) to consider, and everyone’s priorities are different.
For example, author a) wants to book to build their business. They offer a very specific service, and want to use their book as a calling card for that offering. Author b) on the other hand, works full time in an office, and has written a cracking thriller on their commute.
Those two authors will have very different requirements, and different levels of resource to give to building their platform.
So where do you begin? By understanding what your personal requirements are. What really matters TO YOU?
Here are a few questions that could help you narrow in on where to start.
What are you building this platform for?
What is your motivation for building your author platform? Some authors have external motivations – they’ve heard that they *should* have a platform, but don’t really know what they personally are going to get out of it.
“To sell more books” is one potential answer, but why do you want to sell more books? Why can’t you just give copies away to friends and family, and be happy that you’ve written something meaningful to you?
Jotting down why you want to build an audience, and get your book in front of more people, can help you to focus in on where the best place is to achieve that. It can also act as a reminder when things are tough – it’s worth sticking with, because you know what you are trying to do with it.
How do you best communicate with people?
Are you great at writing long form content? Are you a keen photographer? Do you love making videos (or could see yourself enjoying them)?
What options out there match up with the things you already enjoy doing and your existing skillset?
How much time do you have?
If you have limited time, you are not going to be able to do everything or be everywhere. Realising that is not possible, I hope, can actually be quite helpful. Write out all the things you’d love to do in an ideal world and then slash off the ones you can’t focus on right now.
Are there channels you find to be a complete time suck? Is there a better way you could be using them? If not, maybe it’s time to put them aside and try something different.
Are there channels that you really don’t enjoy? Take them off the list.
You can always change your focus or add more channels in further down the line, but for now, pick one channel that you own (eg: a newsletter, blog, podcast etc) and one place where your readers are spending time.
Want to learn more about growing your sustainable author platform, and build a plan that works for you? I’ll be diving into a lot more detail in my upcoming workshop – sign up for the early bird price here.
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