Author: Matthew Brown
Matthew is a writer, web dev, and geek from Kent (UK). He is the founder and current chair of Thanet Creative as well as head geek for Author Buzz. His ambitions include seeing a film or TV series based on something he wrote. Matt is also responsible for fixing stuff on AuthorBuzz.co.uk when it breaks.
What were the most popular social media platforms of 2025
Despite how much we wish it weren’t true, sometimes quantity beats quality. If that is the case for you, then you might want to pick a social media platform with a lot of users. At the start of the year, these were the most populous social media platforms. Find more statistics at Statista
Readers don’t need more books
Readers don’t have a new book need; they have a trustworthy author’s need. There’s no shortage of books a reader could buy – more than they could read in ten lifetimes. What is in short supply are authors they can trust to deliver a good read every time.
Platform building tip: Create an anthology and give away half of it for free
Getting readers onto the hype train that is the love of your writing is the hardest part of being an author. To overcome that barrier, consider compiling an anthology of short stories and one or two sample first chapters. Give away some of those short stories anyway you can. For example, I’d suggest putting some […]
The best way to sell books is to sell books
Nothing sells a book to a reader like selling another book to the reader and them loving it. Fiction authors can platform build just by finishing more books.
The reader onboarding problem
We authors have but one problem – reader onboarding. Once a reader loves one of your books, they are on board to read the rest. The challenge you are trying to solve is the reader onboarding problem. This is what an author platform is for.
Your author platform is not marketing it is reputation
An author platform is not (just) marketing. In fact, it is mostly anything but marketing. Marketing is what you use to grow your platform. The platform itself is the reach you gain, so that those who want to hear about your next book can. Your platform is your connection with the people who will be […]
You were never selling books
As an author, your job has never been to sell books. Readers don’t buy books; they buy trust in an author. That’s what you are selling – trust. A reader who trusts you not to waste their time but actually deliver a good read will buy every book you write.
What an author platform is not
There can be some confusion around what exactly an author platform is or is not. Here are a few things an author platform definitely is not. An author platform is not shouting endlessly on social media Being the biggest attention grabber on social media will not, by itself, build you a platform. I see a […]
Where should I host my blog/website?
It may be tempting to go for some free hosting. And honestly, this will get the job done. The downside is you lack some degree of control and whoever runs the hosting can take it away at any time. Hosting it “yourself” is fairly easy but it does cost a little time and money. About […]
This blog should be the Author Platforms directory host
This guide covers pretty much all of the author platform topics, webmentions are enabled on all the pages of the guide. Therefore, I suggest to the community, that this could be the host. This post is part of the (meta) discussion on the OpenMentions author platforms section.