Author Platforms | Promoting Yourself | Talking About Writing
Hey guys,
Yes I’m back again and keeping up! So today’s topic is a bit more serious, but it is something I’ve wanted to discuss for a while, but I struggled as I didn’t think I had enough knowledge to touch on it. But I’m attempting it today and I have learned a few things about my online presence and how I promote myself without overstepping bounds or actually going out and promoting myself.
For me, my author platform has never been about me, it’s always been about the writing. I struggled with this a bit at first as I didn’t have any following to read any of the writing I ever posted. So I tried posting more obsolete things to get my following up. But that didn’t work either. I was struggling and I didn’t know what to do. I felt like such a boomer like I had no idea what I was doing or how to work any of this technology or win over any of the algorithms.
But once I stopped caring about the number of followers and I only posted the things I wanted to about writing, reading and related things as well as things I enjoy and began following people who shared those interests, my following began to grow. And without knowing it I began to form my brand (though I am still trying to figure out what my brand is and looks like and I do have a few other ideas, just not sure how to put them out just yet.).
With regard to social media and author platforms and ‘selling yourself’ as a writer/author, you really need to stay on-brand. Be true to yourself and your following will find you or you’ll find them by accident. But start by showing people who you are and if you don’t know who that is yet then start by sharing your interests and things you like. Then slowly you’ll find who you are through those things.
For me ‘selling myself’ is more about showing off my writing and who I can be as part of this community of writers across the world and what I can contribute to that. But let’s face it, writing cannot stand on its own and rarely does. It needs a presence to back it up and show it off. And that is why I began my author platform.
I will advise. Beginning a platform can be a bit costly. While Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all free to use, their ads are not. And creating a blog like this one also costs money to maintain. The cost is usually yearly as you have to pay for the URL you are using that prevents anyone else from having that URL or domain name.
So if you are looking into something like this I do advise that you take a look at which website building site is best for you and that you’re able to afford to pay for the domain each year until the site begins to make you money back. And if you are thinking about beginning a blog of your own make sure that it is something you’ll be able to maintain long-term even if it isn't something you enjoy doing. But I recommend doing it only if you’ll enjoy doing it. That would make it much easier to maintain and sit down to write a post every day.
Because once you’ve started, the worst thing you can do is stop, especially when you’ve just got going.
Blogs are a great way to promote yourself through your writing and through your thoughts. Which really promotes the most important thing, your writing. Another thing I will say is as awkward as it might feel to connect your accounts together. I would do it. It has worked wonders for me. I can make one post and post it in multiple places and it will be designed for that specific platform and the post will be posted to more than one social media platform with one click. It really works in your favor if you get back the awkwardness you feel when doing it or when connecting those separate accounts with each their own following. But it really helps save time, especially if you don’t have lots to spare to begin with.
Anyway, thank you so much for popping on and for sticking with me during that slight drought of posts. Things were chaotic to say the least. But they are finally beginning to normalize, thank goodness. See you soon guys.
You mean the world to me, thank you so much for taking some of your precious time to see little old me. It means a lot, truly. Lots of love all. I hope this post helps anyone just starting out, I wish I had a post like this for reference before I did it all myself and struggled for so long. Happy reading and writing! Please talk to me below! I would love to hear from you. Until next time guys, bye.
Celine Rose Marie