This column is excerpted from Guide to Literary Agents, from Writer’s Digest Books. GIVEAWAY: Chuck is giving away a copy of his reserve, Create Your Writer Platform, to a random comment. Week to get into Comment within one! Upping your author visibility through different online channels gives you to meet readers, cultivate an audience, and boost your discoverability to market more books. But finding your ideal interpersonal media channels is not easy and simple thing to determine and implement. That’s why I’ve reached out for some experts for advice.
I asked six different platform-heavy authors – three nonfiction, three fiction – for his or her best general advice in terms of using public media. Do you have any general advice for authors looking to market themselves and their work via social media, platform, and promotion? “I think you really have to enjoy interacting on internet sites or you won’t do it well or persist.
You can’t push yourself to do it; you have to find the ordinary things you prefer and do those even if they aren’t the most popular. For just one person it could be Twitter, for another LinkedIn, for another YouTube, for another podcasting, and another blogging. Also, I believe some writers are too afraid to ask people to buy their reserve.
I spend hours (and countless hours) of my time answering people’s questions without payment, so once it out of a new book, I don’t wait to post about it. I really believe I’ve gained the right to market my products. Over the other extreme, I see a great deal of authors jump into Twitter and immediately start doing only drive their publication.
“I’ve got flack for stating this before, but I am sticking with my weapons: take action well or don’t take action at all. There are billions of weblogs and websites out there. On the Internet, if it is built by you, they’ll not automatically come. You must give people a good reason to invest their precious time on your real estate. Don’t blog or tweet or Facebook because you think you have to. Your reluctance will ooze from the screen.
Don’t engage if you can’t keep it consistent, both in conditions of timing and in terms of quality. Find out what you’re best at, then do that well and forget the other stuff. You should have some online presence, but you don’t have to jump into everything all at once, especially if you’re going to irregularly do it badly or.” (Such as this idea? Click to tweet it).
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“Stay true to your integrity. You can’t be told by me just how many times I’ve said no, though it sounded like such a good platform-building opportunity. Listen to your gut (that I call your “inner pilot light” – that wise part of you that basically know what’s best for you, your body, your relationships, as well as your business).
Don’t let fear rule the show. In the beginning, I said yes to everything because I was afraid I’d miss a chance, and I finished up quickly burnt out, depleted. But you can’t lead or heal from a location of depletion. You must heal yourself first in order to change the world. That’s the one lesson I’d share with aspiring authors/visionaries/healers.
Don’t let system building spiral you downwards. Fill yourself first. Figure out how to say no. Create healthy limitations. Increase your vibration. Attract other people who discuss this vibration. Prevent the enticement to get sucked into doing everything for everyone. You are enough, doing precisely what you’re doing. “Whether fair or not, getting the good story into the hands of the general public now depends in large part upon your reach, as well as your reach depends in large part upon your savvy with weblogs and social media.
That can be considered a scary thing. Writers are withdrawn and even timid notoriously. The thought of having to ‘put yourself out there’ can be tantamount to having to tap dance in front of a firing squad. But it can be carried out. “My biggest caution is that you can’t do it all. I’ve tried to approach the platform building like organic farming.
