#author platform

But writing was never meant to start polished. It begins messy, uncertain, and sometimes frustrating, that’s part of the process.

If you’re struggling right now, it doesn’t mean you can’t write. It just means you’re in the middle of it.

Most of you will probably know that Sanderson refused to use Audible for some reason projects because he felt they were taking advantage of indie authors. In a recent blog post, Sanderson announced the big news that Audible had listened and was taking action. I felt that the industry was taking advantage of authors because of their lack of powerful corporate interests to advocate for them.…

For the past year, I’ve been interviewing several authors per month on Apex. I’m up to perhaps 80 so far.

All are selling well, gaining notoriety. Some are traditionally published but many of our guests were Indies. Some who had started as Indies had graduated to traditional platforms and were literally making millions, so I asked how they did it.

The answer is rather instructive. All of them, in one way or another, followed the same approach.

Find your audience.

There are a lot of places that readers hang out. Many of them belong to reading groups on Facebook, for example, and so joining a large “Fantasy Readers Forever” group can literally put you in touch with a hundred thousand readers, and advertising to friends in that group becomes inexpensive. But slightly younger readers can be found on Goodreads, or on platforms like Twitter, Twitch, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Kickstarter, and so on.

Many authors did almost nothing to promote themselves. They had their audience “discover” them. In other words, fandoms started up spontaneously on a single platform and then began to spread.

In some instances, our authors found large audiences in unusual places. For example, many educational associations like to promote literacy, and if a few hundred teachers adopt you, you may find yourself getting very popular in their schools. I’ve seen other authors find fans at State Fairs or by signing in grocery stores.

It really doesn’t matter where your audience starts: what matters is that you recognize what is happening and take the appropriate action.

Adopt your crowd.

Once you recognize a fan base, it becomes important to promote to them. This means that you might begin advertising books to your Facebook audience or offering early review copies to fans in your Goodreads crowd. You might want to create a street team of Twitter influencers, and so on.

In particular, you start gathering names and email addresses from your readers so that you can notify them of new events in a newsletter.

It’s especially important to recognize which fans are the most faithful “missionaries” for your work. Some of them may have book blogs or work as newspaper editors. Some may even be movie producers or run video game companies. These people need to be promoted to the level of “street team” members, so that they are brought into your inner circle on future projects.

And this is, unfortunately, where most successful authors stop. You can make a very decent living if you have enough fans on one platform, and over time your fan base will expand far beyond that base.

For most of our Indie authors, they developed a fanbase online, then found that traditional publishers wanted their books. So maybe they started on Goodreads and began getting blockbuster sales once their books hit the bookstores. At that point, life gets hectic. They spend more time writing and have less for promotion.

It seems to me, though, that most of us authors are leaving most of our money on the table.

Here is what I mean: When you work with a traditional publisher, the publisher grooms your fan base. They take the books to bookstores to start, and when the buzz warrants it, they begin selling much more broadly into grocery stores and airports. They build your audience in that way, hoping that your works will go into other mediums—such as film or television—and thus continue to spread.

But publishers are notoriously bad still at building online audiences. Most paper publishers keep their e-book prices artificially high in fear of cannibalizing paper sales. This means that they keep your electronic reader base . . . starved, so that it stays tiny.

This hurts you.

Furthermore, the big publishers don’t seem to recognize the importance of some of the offbeat platforms. So while you might be very personable and find fans on YouTube, your publisher probably not know how to promote you there.

On the other hand, as an Indie, authors often will look at several platforms and feel overwhelmed. They don’t want to try to tackle all of cyberspace. Nor should they try.

As an author, if you want to grow your fanbase, you need to build some intimacy with your readers. You have to create a list of people who visit your website, build a street team of influencers, and then as your books come out, find ways to promote yourself to your die-hard fans electronically while selling through mainstream channels.

Nonfiction Notes: Newsletter Ninja

Overall Impression: 4 out of 5 stars: This book is for any writer who wants to learn more about the marketing side of the industry. You don’t have to have a book out yet. In fact, you should be reading this and implementing the advice before you publish so you can reap the benefits of having a mailing list. But regardless of where you are, if the idea of self promotion makes you want to curl up…

I hope, even in all this craziness, that you have a great day and meal with family and/or friends.

What I’m thankful for:

my family and friends

my job

this Tumblr

being able to write most nights

reading (right now I’m reading Windswept and I’m in loveeeee)

having a critique partner who will help make my story even better when I’m ready to hand it off to her

having a story to tell (!)

being relatively happy and healthy

thankful for everything in my life right now

What are you all thankful for? I’d love to hear your comments down below!

I’m almost on the rewrites for Act 3 and the Climax and I’m sadly running out of steam now. My handwriting is becoming messier and I am having trouble typing stuff up. I’m debating taking a small break, but I’m also so close to the finish line, and one of my favorite parts of the whole book,

After I finish this draft, I’ll take a month-=long break before diving into self-edits. But right now I just want to rest and relax a little. But at the same time I don’t want to take any of my precious time off. But I don’t want to mess up this draft because of exhaustion.