… a raised level surface on which people or things can stand. “there are viewing platforms where visitors may gape at the chasm.”
If you’re an author you are probably gaping at the chasm now! But are you doing it from your platform? A writer who has a platform (and understands the importance of that difficult-to-achieve accomplishment) has a place from which to view — and also a place from which to speak — most effectively in a world in flux and online.
While publishing now (or anytime, really) can be a depressing endeavor, there is also opportunity to be found in the difficulty of change. And the publishing game is certainly difficult and changing!
The goal of each writer is to gain new readers, but the old ways of finding readers don’t work well in today’s world. We’re on a completely different track!
OLD TRACK:
- Ask friends to review your book on Amazon
- Send announcements to local media
- Create physical, in-person events
- Carry your book with you in your car
NEW TRACK
- Use NetGalley or other review service to garner Amazon and Goodreads reviews
- Establish online-media relationships, including getting to know bloggers
- Create on-line events
- Promote on social media
(keep doing the old track, too!)
What can a writer with a platform do to promote their writing now?
- Get active on social media! Use Twitter, Instagram, and Linked In accounts if you’ve been using only Facebook. Communicate via social media at least once a week.
- Blog on your website at least once a month.
- Get a mail-chimp account (it is free!) and go to Lynda.com or YouTube for a tutorial on how to get started. Use mail-chimp to share the blogs you write to your social media sites easily.
- Guest blog whenever you can.
- Write an article for an online magazine or newsletters in your genre
- Create YouTube videos and share.
- Get active on Goodreads.
- Participate in NetGalley
These are ongoing activities that really cannot begin until a writer has developed their platform. The author platform is like a house woven of words. Those words make one author distinct from another — each author’s special pattern-of-patter making each house unique, so to speak. An author platform provides a structure the author can then begin to fill. Words — like living room furniture that reflect one’s tastes — decorate the platform and call to passerbys, “Hello! Something’s interesting here!”
Don’t forget to read A RECIPE TO MARKET YOUR BOOK: 21 STEPS! for ideas on setting up your author platform.
NETGALLEY
Reviewer service
MAILCHIMP
Email and social media posting service
As mentioned above, you can share quick notes, your website blogs, and create social media posts easily using mail-chimp. Not only does it make posting less painful, it gives you insights — not necessarily into the mysteries of the universe, but at least into the mysteries of your audience!
For example, you can discover how many people open your message, and how many click through to an article for more information. Mail-chimp provides you with percentages to compare so you can see the overall click-per-open rate, etc. as well as a lot of information that may be helpful that you won’t get by simply posting or emailing alone.
Next steps for Anamcara Press
Anamcara Press is getting an updated website! Our new site will include:
- a submissions portal
- a calendar of events
- our online catalog
- and our new Zine (please submit to contribute!)
In addition to revamping the website, we will be doing fun, new things with our authors, and others:
- Creating videos for YouTube and podcasts. These will include interviews with Anamcara Press and guest authors.
- Online Magazine. Our new Zine will include contributions from many authors and will be available on Amazon.
- Audio distribution.
Take good care of yourself, and keep scratchin’!
submissions
P.S. Anamcara Press is accepting unpublished poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction on the topic of Words are Contagious through September 29, 2020 for publication spring 2021. Please visit our submissions page at: https://anamcara-press.com/submissions/
