Category: Bite Sized Ideas
Our growing collection of quick tips, hot new ideas, or bite-sized thoughts. All designed to beef up your platform building skills.
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.
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 […]
Platform building tip: Use the local press
One way to demonstrate platform reach to an agent or publisher is to demonstrate real-world reach. Many local newspapers accept freelance writers to help tell the news. Even ones that do not will often jump on a well-written press release. Be it by press release or freelance writing, make a point of getting published in […]
Become a book reviewer – I will show you how to convert that hobby into book sales
Book review blogs are a big deal. The most popular review sites have to charge to review book submissions if they even take them at all. This is something you can leverage to get many book sales. Let me tell you how. First, invest some time – several months at least. During that time publish […]
Subscribe to other author’s press releases to learn what works and what doesn’t
Press releases are a whole new skill set for an author to learn. One way to learn faster is to subscribe to other author’s press releases. You might discover a book you will enjoy but you will see enough examples of press releases to figure out what works. Just drop some key sentences into Google […]