Once you decide to write a non-fiction book, it’s a good idea to make the time to build an author platform and warm up audiences to your upcoming book. This is because you want people to buy your book as soon as it’s published or even pre-order it! But having an audience requires having an ‘author platform’.
What is an author platform?
An author platform means your ability to reach the target audience for your book/books. Your platform might be in the form of podcasting – you may have a significant number of listeners who like you and will be interested in your book too. You might be renowned for great videos on TikTok, which you can use as a platform to reach people about your book. You may not have an online presence at all, but you are well-known for your work in the community or among your professional network. Your connections to people and organisations are your platform. If you don’t feel you have a platform, that’s OK. You can build one.
Your author platform must align with what you want to be known for
In order to sell your books, your platform needs to reflect the people who would buy from you. If your audience is aligned with what you want to be known for and what you are writing about, promoting your book should be fairly simple. However, if you are a dentist with only dentistry networks but are writing about French cooking, it’s advisable to build a new audience platform. While your dentist colleagues might be interested in your book, your book will probably be more successful if you reach out to people with an interest in French food, food and cooking generally, and travel and culture.
I don’t use social media
You don’t have to use social media to sell books (though it helps). As mentioned earlier, if you have connections with people, marketing and selling in person may be all you need! If your book is really good and at a high standard, you can probably gain traction from word of mouth alone. However, people will search for you on the internet, so make sure you have a website and a channel of communication, like a blog or newsletter, so that people can get to know you. (Just in case you didn’t know, having a website with a blog and using social media are two different things.🙂)
If you don’t use social media often but would like to, I highly recommend reading Austin Kleon’s book Show Your Work (2014). I’ve written a blog about using social media for visibility and recommended reading Show Your Work before because it is great for those flummoxed by social media. The book is 10 years old now, but the advice still holds up! It conveys how to showcase yourself and your work in the simplest ways. It’s also a small book, direct in its advice but friendly.
You don’t need to push sales on your platforms
It’s natural to worry about putting people off by marketing your book. However, there are marketing gurus who suggest selling techniques to suit our personalities and the expectations of our audiences. You don’t need to be pushy and annoying. Consider:
- Mention your book with a focus on sharing and celebrating, not selling. For example, show your manuscript or desktop and caption it with something like: ‘Redrafting my manuscript today!’ or ‘Look at the design of my new book coming out soon.’
- Mention your book sometimes (once a week) and post as normal at other times.
- Post a poll. Ask for people’s views of two different cover options for the new book (make sure both are at a high standard!). Go with the one with the highest vote. This will drive interest in your book.
Making a content plan (a social media plan) will be helpful. The lack of a plan tends to lead to poor results.
And one last thing – build a platform that you are comfortable with. It can feel ungratifying and draining to create platforms on channels that we don’t like or understand.
Look out for my blog on 13 ideas on how to grow your platform!