A re you an author asking yourself: Who, how, and why you should have an author platform? Most of all, what is an author platform?
Well, you’re not alone, because it’s a question all aspiring authors ask.
In our recent survey over 54% of authors did not know what an author platform was! They knew of it, heard of it, knew they had to create one – yet didn’t know anything about it!
Over 54% of authors don't know what an author platform is. Do you? Share on X
Welcome to the Author Platform Party!
I remember when I’d just signed my first publishing contract, holding a glass of champagne in one hand while on the phone to the publisher, who asked, ‘How’s your author platform looking?’
I just blinked at the phone as the bubbles fizzled in my champagne glass.
What the heck is an author platform!?!
This sent me on a digital tour of discovery to learn how to create my author platform while trying to beat the clock before my first fiction book got published.
Back then, information either read like a laundry list or it was so technical I needed an interpreter to make sense of the first paragraph. This is where I’d add a Gif of me face-planting the desk in utter frustration, where the keyboard bounces and the pen rolls onto the floor.
I bet you can relate.
Which is why you’re here!
And this is how I explain it to my students:
An author platform is what you build within the digital world so your readers can find you!
An author platform is all about self-promotion. It’s making an online name for yourself as an author (without being a spammy salesman) to get readers interested in you and your book.
An author platform is what you build within the digital world so your readers can find you!
That’s it. Simple, huh. We can all go home now.
WAIT.
There’s more… Of course, this involves a combination of tools that are based purely upon how big you want to grow.
Yes, you.
5 different ways to describe an author platform:
The following 5 examples to describe what is an author platform, to help you get a better understanding of what it can do for you as an author. All you have to do is build it.
Let’s start with…
1. Imagine that your author platform is a road!
Imagine you are being tasked to build a road that is your author platform. Let’s call it The AP road, huh? Just hang in there for a bit, it’ll make sense soon.
Now, the type of road you build can be a rickety bridge where some off-trek explorer may stumble across your name. “Hurrah!” you say, letting rip an air punch while crouched over your PC in a dark room because you forgot to pay the power bill.
Or you can build a twenty-lane superhighway that funnels into the one central location where that wonderful reader buys your book and becomes a lifelong superfan. All done in the background, while you sip on a margarita, soaking up some sun in a deckchair shaded by palm trees, as you plan your next novel because you knew it was working for you.
Here’s another way to describe n author platform…
2. Bake an author platform cake!
Let’s bake a cake! Stick with me for this analogy, it’s yummy!
- Decide on what cake to bake — that’s working out your author goals.
- Gathering the ingredients together is the same as collecting your author tools.
- Baking that author platform cake — is the solid foundation of your writer’s platform like your author website.
- Adding layers of cake — adding to your platform’s foundations with an email list.
- Icing that cake with special sprinkles — is like using social media.
- Throwing a party so everyone can eat cake, is when you launch your website and can show off your book and the many books to come.
Now, who wouldn’t want a slice of cake for that kind of party? Hmm.
Sick of cake or on a diet, try this description for an author platform…
3. Build an awesome author platform building big enough for Superman to leap over!
Be the superhero of your own story by building a building that heroes would love to climb! And it all starts with an idea to build the bestest author platform building out there.
To begin, you’ll go and speak with an architect to design a plan based upon your amazing author goals.
Then you’ll hire builders and know of the legalities of contractors, building permits, etc. For the author platform, builders would be for your author website and you are going to need to know some of the legalities when it comes to author newsletters and copyrighting your online space too.
Will this special-superman-sized building have offices? What about an in-house gym? Or a rooftop bar with a lap pool? And how’s the underground car parking? Some of these are the future expansions you’d want to consider for your building, and they can be done easily over time. However, the underground parking is part of the planning stage as it’s to do with creating a solid foundation from the start. So how big do you want your author platform building to be?
Do want it to be so big, you could add some neon lighting to advertise it from space! Hey, you do have the right to dream big – especially with your author career.
Be the superhero of your own story by building a building that heroes would love to climb Share on X
4. Your author platform can be the book version of Justin Bieber’s career path.
With over 150 billion songs sold worldwide, as one of the youngest bestselling musical artists of all time, Justin Bieber started out with his mother recording his first performance on YouTube back in 2007. It was a grainy poor quality video where the sound is meh. But he’s sooo cute as a kid.
Fast forward 15 years later, 67 million people subscribe to this same Youtube channel and over 10 million people have seen that very first youtube clip, now you can too. HERE.
All Justin did was write a song and put it out there by singing it on social media. No thousands spent on video equipment, or sound recording equipment either. It’s pretty raw. But it was enough to get his message across – that this kid could sing.
Justin Bieber created his own platform, which was a place to share his work. He specifically chose the most popular place for his fans to find him. It’s how and where his music producer discovered the young Bieber, by watching him sing that first song on Youtube. By then, Justin had already created a legion of fans before he’d even signed his first recording contract because he’d created his own platform.
As an aspiring author, you don’t have to sing songs or shake that booty for the camera if you don’t want to, but when it comes to your author platform, working out who your fans are and where the best place is to find them is all part of building your author platform. You don’t need to spend billions or even a hundred dollars. To know your readers are, knowing where they are, then branding yourself in a way so you can reach those readers makes a huge impact on your author platform.
And that’s what your author platform does, it helps to connect you with your readers in the best possible way.
But there’s another way I’d like to share with you to describe your author platform…
5. Your author platform is Facebook’s relative! A very long-long long distant cousin, twice removed, as far apart as the human race can go!
Gotta love that title!
Ahem, *clears throat* before you tap off this page allow me to explain…
Most people know Facebook. And they should because it’s the largest social media platform in the world.
But it was never like that.
Created in 2004, Facebook was a simple messaging system used by students at Harvard University to connect with each other.
Today, over 2 b-b-billion people use Facebook and it all started with a person creating a simple message board. It then went on to create:
- A Facebook page for businesses
- that filtered down into private Facebook groups
- then flung open the windows to the Facebook shop
- In between flouncing off their Facebook live/ videos
- Even creating Facebook stories
- To then invest in Instagram, WhatsApp, Occulus.
- Finally doing a re-brand to call itself Meta.
And it’s taken 24 years to get this far for Facebook, oh, and it still has Messenger that’s had many facelifts over the years!
Your author platform can be like Facebook, where you start with:
- one simple message “Coming soon” while you build your amazing author website.
- web pages will advertise your books
- groups can be the author newsletters you send to specific groups of readers
- a shop for people to buy your books
- content marketing such as an author blog, vlog, or podcast.
- that you’ll share it across social media
- and invest in bigger and better tools and eventually an assistant to do all that admin work for you, while you sip on margaritas at that swanky bar near that tropical beach, watching palm frond’s shift throughout the day.
All you have to do is start.
What goes into an author platform?
How many books you want to sell is how big you will want your author platform to grow.
But it’s not as expensive as you think. Most of it can be done for FREE! It will just cost you time.
You can use a combined set of tools that helps you reach your audience, where some author platforms receive 500 views per month, others 40k per week!
Which one would you prefer?
For some author’s, fame scares them and as most writers are introverts so we recommend you start slow. But please do make a start today with the free tips and tools we have to offer free in our newsletter.
An example of an Author Platform’s To-list
Ready for the panic and overwhelm to hit you with this list?
You can look away.
Or…
Take a deep breath.
I have no doubt that you will get told you’ll need an author brand, a website, an email list, 300+ social media accounts you access every morning, 40+newsletter groups, and a dozen book clubs to gate crash weekly. You’ll need to perform live Facebook events/pages/groups, podcasts and radio interviews 3 times every day as well as run a YouTube channel and do television appearances. Then there is the conference circuit where you’ll do talks and book signings every few months. You’ll stalk your local librarian for a chance to hassle the readers, as well as set up a stall in the shopping mall’s book section while auctioning off a kidney on Craigslist to pay for all of this. And we haven’t touched on paid advertising yet.
Just kidding!
Actually, I’m not. But the above gives you an idea of how complex the author platform can become like that superhighway or the electrical system of that tall building. The author platform’s job is to help your readers find you!
“…your author platform’s job is to help your readers find YOU.
Ah, but before you hit that overwhelm button to break out the ice cream and flick through Netflix, I’m here to tell you that you don’t really need any of it—or you can have it all, but we have plenty of experience, tips and tricks to share with you.
But it all falls back on one thing…
What do you want for yourself as an author? What are your author goals?
Why bother having an Author platform at all?
Move over Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age, we’re in the clutches of the Digital Age making this an amazing time to be an author. We have the power at our fingertips to be in direct contact with our readers, through your author platform.
Today, publishers and agents will request the links to your author platform as part of vetting your manuscript’s prospects and they will want to see something. Unless you’re a household name like Stephen King and JK Rowling, you don’t need to bother. But guess what? Mr King and Ms Rowling, do loads of self-promotion (they’re a blast on Twitter) and they also have a team that manage their author platforms for them.
Yes, the first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club. But after 22 years, I feel the statute of limitations applies.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 6, 2021
Still don’t believe me.
The 3 tops advantages of having an author platform.
For an author to be seen amid the noise out there, create an author platform that works while you sleep. More importantly, it can work for you while you’re writing your next book.
- Your author platform can introduce you to some amazing people (readers) and other fabulous network opportunities with other authors.
- Having an author platform makes you look like a serious author to readers, publishers, agents and other authors.
- Also, the stronger your author platform is the bigger the audience you’ll have, means the more books you’ll sell. Hurrah!
But that’s if you need one.
So we created this nifty blog (because we didn’t have time to do a quiz) that answers simple yes and no questions to see if need an author platform. Read this blog first to see if you really need an author platform or not. It will save you money, time, heartache, and well—sleep.
Happy reading.
