How to Build Your Platform

Increase your online presence to create buzz around your book and help you build credibility with your audience.

In the nonfiction publishing world, author platform plays a huge part in determining who gets published. Literary agents and publishers will look at your social media following, audience engagement, and your network of potential endorsers to ascertain if you will be able to move copies of your book. Whether you want to pursue traditional publishing or you want to self-publish, building an engaged audience is essential to creating momentum around your book.

This does not mean you have to become a TikTok influencer; it just means that some self-promotion/book promotion on the social channels you have will help with the marketing and sales of your book.

The goal: build an audience who is interested in what you're writing about and who will continue to follow you throughout your career.

Here are some tips for building your platform:

1. Find out where your target audience is. If your target audience is millennials, then it's Instagram; if your target audience is gen x, then Facebook; if your target audience is business professionals, then LinkedIn. All of these social media sites can help you as you build an audience, but focusing on where your audience is will help you know where to spend the most time and energy.

2. Figure out what content your audience is interested in. Which of your posts usually gets the most engagement/most likes, comments, etc.? This will help you know what to post more of as you build your platform. For example, if your audience really loves your Instagram stories in which you dress up your cat in cute outfits, then make sure you continue to upload those while intermittently posting content about your book and the topic you discuss in it. Remember, you're not just trying to get your follower count up, you want to build a community who is interested in your writing. They will come for the cat and stay for the insights into the mental health world.

3. Post consistently. After you figure out where your target audience is and what social media channels you want to use, start posting consistently. Figure out what works best for you, but make sure you're at least posting about your book or the subject matter in it once a week. This will ensure your followers know who you are and what your central message is.

4. Build a personal website. Building a personal website will add to your credibility as an author and subject matter expert. It gives you a space to present yourself and your knowledge the way you want to, and it gives you yet another platform to sell your book through.

5. Blog. Yes, yes, people still blog (I'm doing it right now!). While blogging may not be the hottest form of connecting with your target audience, it does enable you to build SEO around the topics you write about. You can easily take content from your book and repurpose it into a blog post (just make sure you don't post your whole book; you want to leave them wanting more).

6. Reach out to people in the field. Another way of building your audience is by finding and reaching out to people who are subject matter experts in the field you are writing about. This could be podcasters, authors, YouTubers, editors, whoever. Give them the elevator pitch of your book and see if they'd be interested in promoting you on their channels.

One quick note on the term "subject matter expert;" it does not solely apply to the STEM world or entrepreneurs. If you're writing a memoir/your story, the term subject matter expert does not exclude you. You are actually the only subject matter expert of your own story. But also, you can take the bigger events in your life: loss, trauma, grief, parenthood, marriage, finding a career, and talk about them more broadly to bring in your audience and build credibility with them. You can offer unique insight because of your lived experiences. Building an online presence is part of sharing that insight and wisdom with people.

If you want to learn more about book marketing or want more insight or advice, please reach out with any questions you have.