More about Platforms

Last week we talked about building an author platform – a worthy goal going into 2015. I asserted that to build a strong platform you need to do those things that get you in front of your reader.  It should be obvious that the way to find readers is to go to where they are. Where’s that? Well, for millions of readers that would be Goodreads and Library Thing. If you don’t have a strong presence in those locations you’re missing out. Like Twitter, it pays to be on these sites every day, and you can attract the attention of a lot of readers with a raffle or giveaway.
Book signings and readings are great ways to draw an audience and personally, I enjoy the personal contact with readers at these events. Sadly, this is getting harder as the number of bookstores shrinks and other event options narrow. The answer may be to use a little imagination. I’ve seen successful author events in restaurants, card stores, gyms, gift shops and even grocery stores. If you can figure a way that your book ties in to the venue you can make it work. Just remember that they’ve probably never done it before so you’ll have to educate the owners.
Non-bookstores probably can’t order your books so you should offer to bring them yourself and sell on consignment. Give an interesting talk if it seems appropriate, but if the store has a lot of traffic, just get a table and good signage and do a book signing. Just be sure to bring a sign-up sheet and collect email addresses for your mailing list. You should offer some sort of incentive for those emails: a free ebook download, an exclusive short story or maybe entry in a contest for a more substantial prize.
It may surprise you that your web site is an effective tool for platform building. Despite the apparent take-over of social media, every published author should have a well-designed web site. And that web site needs to have a mailing list sign-up button, because the best way to make your web site work for you is to use it to capture emails. This ties in to another useful platform building tool – an e-newsletter. A newsletter can put you in front of your readers several times a year. Many writers send one every week or every 2 weeks. I send one out the week before any event I’m going to be part of. I keep my formula simple; a cute opening remark, my latest writing news, details of the upcoming event, and something of value to my readers that is NOT self-promotional. That last bit is usually a review of someone else’s book or a web site I found particularly useful or fun. Whatever you choose as a format, be sure to include some helpful or insightful information that will help readers remember you. (and yes, you should hurry to my website - www.ascamacho.com– and sign up for my newsletter.)

Now I can’t promise that any of the ideas I’ve offered will make your book a bestseller. I just wanted to make the point that “building a platform” is another way of saying “Get in front of your reader as often as possible.” It’s really up to you to figure out how to reach YOUR individual reader. So try some of these ideas, and let us know what has worked for you.