If you are self-published or a traditionally published author, and you are serious about your author career, you will need an author platform. Even if you don’t have a book published, here are three top reasons for starting your author platform today.

Reason #1  Start small. Learn big. While making your mistakes minimal.

You’re writing a book – which is huge. (*That deserves a round of high-fives from me to you. *)

So now you may be procrastinating over starting your author platform when your book isn’t published yet.

Guess what? It’s the perfect time to start your author platform today. Here's why? Click To Tweet

Just so you know, there is no way they built the Harry Potter Empire in a day. The same goes for Stephen King’s Castle. So please don’t compare yourself to someone who’s had a head start. It’s your journey that begins by taking small steps. Reading this post is an awesome step in the right direction! (I think that deserves another round of high-fives! Don’t you?)

By starting your author platform today, you will gain invaluable insights into the publishing industry. Also, those mistakes you will make, which we all do, very few people will see – which is a good thing.

Now here’s the jaw-dropping info that makes my students sit up and take notice!

Reason #2 on why starting your author platform today is to make Google your friend.

Now here’s the jaw-dropping info that makes my students sit up and take notice!

The jaw-dropping info that made my students sit up and take notice about starting their author platform TODAY! Click To Tweet

Almost everyone searches on Google, it’s a huge part of today’s digital world.

To be a part of this digital realm you will need to create a digital rating of trust, which is kind of like a bank’s credit ranking which is this thing called Google rankings.

But to even gain a ranking it can take Google’s crawlers up to 8 months to find you online to even start putting you in the rankings.

Don’t gasp too loud, it used to take a year!

On the 12-month anniversary of being within Google’s sights, you used to receive this nifty invitation directly from Google to get verified, and that gets you the front page, baby! Verification is gold—or a blue tick.

Until then, you are looking at a potential six to eight months of nothingness before readers find you, making this a damned good reason for starting your author platform today.

Don’t get too excited because there’s this…

Sorry to be a killjoy, but…

Even if Google acknowledged your existence sooner, you could still end up on page 10 of the search results because you’ve been outranked by an Alaskan dentist who enjoys belly dancing with his pet otter. Go on, I dare you to Google ‘Belly-dancing otters’ and not watch.

What does Belly-dancing otters have to do with your author platform? Click To Tweet

The point I’m trying to make is that you need to aim for #1 Google rankings, my friend. Or at least get into the top 10 on page 1 of the search results, which is what we teach our students when it comes to building their author platforms.

Reason #3 on why starting your author platform today is… the Email Gods.

What am I talking about?

I’m talking about the newsletter bots. They’re the behind-the-scenes heroes who battle daily against spammers and all sorts of nasties to not overload your email’s inbox.

Being a newbie who wants to send out newsletters to your fans, the email gods won’t recognise you. They could potentially send all of your author emails straight to your reader’s spam folder.

The turnaround time to prove yourself to the Email Gods that you are not a spammer can be 30 days or more.

Getting verified by Google allows your rank to soar, and gives you street cred on other platforms.

The sooner you start…

Remember, creating an author’s career is a marathon and not a sprint. It’s the same for your author platform that will grow as your career grows.

I know we’re repeating ourselves, but if you are serious about your author career, we seriously recommend you make a start on your author platform today.