How to Start Building Your Author Brand-Starting From The Bottom

This is something that I am learning as I go along but if you are like me, and just love writing, does the thought of actually promoting yourself scare you?

It certainly scares me-yes I am using present tense because it is something that does make me nervous.

I used to make so many excuses for myself:

-I will eventually sell lots of books, just need to worry about writing a good story first

-The sales will follow, and I won’t need to promote myself: if the story is good, people will jump on it and word of mouth is all I need

-I’m too busy to learn about how to promote and market myself-I have a book to write!

I had to go back to reality and tell myself that if I want to go down the self-publishing route, I have to start promoting myself RIGHT NOW.

But where do I start? As someone completely new to internet marketing and what not, how do you go about promoting yourself? I always hear that with the advent of social media, people are becoming narcissistic and that all they do is take photos of themselves etc., and that’s why they would never use social media etc.

But guess what, for us wanna-be self-published authors we have to get over that mentality, in fact we need to embrace the need for self-promotion.

No you don’t have to take a photo of what you eat every day, no you don’t need to take a photo of yourself in a bikini (as if I would!)

I’m sure that at one point or another, you may have Googled for help on how to promote your books, how to sell more books and Google being Google, there are thousands, if not millions of articles out there.

That’s what I thought when I wanted to first start researching, and I was more than overwhelmed when I started reading them.

‘You need to start a blog, and create a mailing list’

‘You need to actively promote yourself on social media-Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc’

‘You need to customise your website and update with content consistently’

I got so confused that I almost wanted to STOP writing altogether, I’m serious!

I didn’t know where to start, which was the best way to go in terms of getting my name out there, it seemed like I had to do about 10 things at a time to promote myself. And obviously different things work for different people so I read a lot of contrasting advice:

-You need to start blogging and promote yourself to promote the launch of your debut novel.

As opposed to

-You need to have written several books BEFORE you start promoting your novel.

And what about someone with various book projects, in different genres and facets like myself? In one of my previous posts I shared the most insightful advice from Kim @ Your Writer Platform, about how to structure your website/blog and how to plan how to publish your content. If you are in that category of not knowing needing some guidance on that first step please check that link out.

But this post is for those that are starting out, that have felt a bit overwhelmed with all the ‘things and stuff’ you need to do to be a credible author.

I have copied in the most simple and profound advice from a best-selling author Tom Carson-Knowles who simplified it for me, giving me the clarity I needed:

This was my question:

Hi Tom,
Firstly I just want to say thanks for putting out great content, I am really glad I came across your course!

I am currently in the midst of writing several books in different genres: one novel, one self help book about networking, and one on natural remedies.
I am quite lost on how to get started as these books are all quite different, I thought the best way to promote them whilst creating a following was to create a website/blog dedicated to my journey as a self-published author, and feature all the books there.
Do you think that is a good idea or do I need to do something more specific?
Regards,
Maggie 

His response, although it was short, was to the point and exactly the guidance I needed.

His response:

I'm all about simplicity, so I'd rather have one website and one blog and one Facebook page, etc. to promote all my work on. It takes A LOT less time to manage one website vs. 3 or more for each market you write for. And as they say, time is money :) When you're just starting out, the key is just to get started. Whatever mistakes you make, you can correct along the way. That's just my personal preference - there's no right or wrong way to do it. Hope that helps!

 

His advice really gave me clarity and direction, and I have kept his response in a little journal for me to refer to whenever I am lost. There is no right time to start doing anything, you just have to start now and work with it, because the sooner you start the sooner you will start learning how to improve.

As a result I have decided to join Twitter: I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, and I’m still getting acquainted with it as I write this post-I mean what is the point of hashtags?

But you know what, only 2 weeks in and I have a 100 followers, all within my target market: aspiring authors, publishers, support groups and such. I even got a few bestselling authors to start following me! My point is, if I had started being active at the beginning of the year who knows how many more followers I could have gotten by now, and I would have a much better leverage to start promoting my book? (FYI I am no expert on Twitter and I am a complete noob, but if I get better at it I will share any insights I learn!)

Now that I have thrown myself into using Twitter, I feel more confident about updating this blog, because I am getting more traffic as a result from using Twitter, I don’t feel as nervous or as scared anymore. I try and take little ‘wins’ as something to be excited and proud of!

What are your thoughts, do you agree?

Lastly, follow me on Twitter @ MaggieintheWay lol :p (thought I would throw that one in there haha)

Happy writing everyone!

How to Come Up with Your Book Ending And Overcome That Last Bout of Writer's Block

Hi All!

So I am at the knitty gritty end of my family drama novel, with no set WIP (yes its terrible but I will need some help with this, or I was going to wait until I was actually finished to think of a name that suited the novel tone)

Having written this novel since May 2014, I have written, re-written, edited, deleted, you name it, I have made changes to this book. I foresee making more changes when I have finished the book. Being my first novel, I've decided to just jump right in and do what I love: write. I haven't taken any writing courses before, so my writing skills would definitely be raw.

I am learning as much as I can as I go along.

I am sad to have to say goodbye to my novel and end it, its been a big part of me for the best part of this year and I don't know how to end it. I had so many possibilities of what to do, but I honestly do not know what is suitable.

Whilst scouring the internet and asking people on social media for advice I have gotten some valuable and genuine advice.

The things I have taken is:

-Think calmly and coolly: You have gone through all the effort, now is not the time to jump ship and avoid finishing it off. It can be intimidating to want to start another novel if you cannot think of the ending, but you have come all this way, why give up now? Its like running a hurdles race, you are coming first in a race for your novel but are you going to just abandon that last hurdle?

-Write, write write: This might sound lame but you just have to keep doing what you love doing, which is writing! Jot down whatever ideas you have. I literally did this yesterday, and only came up with two options, but after assessing what I did manage to come up with, I was satisfied with one of the two and now I have direction.

-Re-assess your novel: If you still cannot come up with an ending, summarise what has really happened so far in your novel. Is there a plot twist or cliffhanger that needs to be addressed? Will it affect the ending? Is there something that needs to be resolved?

-How you want to position your novel: The business aspect needs to kick in. Do you want to end your novel here? Or do you intend to turn your work into a sequel? You can leave the book at a cliffhanger (don't make it too frustrating though, I hate books that leave me itching too much for the answers!) and then plan your sequel, or you can decided now that you want to end the book for good. In my case I have decided that I want to turn keep this novel a solo one.

Do you have any other suggestions or tips? I would love to hear-after all I am just an aspiring writer who peruses my time through books, Google and Twitter!

Historical Research

I'm at the pointy end of my fiction novel, towards the climatic scene where my main characters are about to reunite with an estranged family member.

I have done some research about old historical houses, set on a beautiful beach landscape, in a quiet country town.

In particular I am looking to describe a fairly haunted house, although there are residents in the house, it is supposed to give off a fairly old and aged vibe.

As a part-time author who only writes as a hobby with no training, I am really pleasantly surprised at the abundance of resources online to help you with writing for inspiration.

This particularly site I am thankful for-and no I will not copy a single word from this link, but will use it for inspiration in drawing my words.

http://www.descriptionari.com/describe/abandoned-house/

Best Advice I Have Received

Hi Guys,

I've been a bit lost at how to continue with my blog and as a newbie author I would imagine this has crossed your minds several times.

Have you been confused as to how to promote your works, especially if they are in different genres?

I have that issue especially, writing both fiction and non-fiction. Because my books are all quite different in genres, I was really lost at how to get started-hence this blog is my avenue for me to post my journey, frustrations and any advice I have learnt along the way.

But I have come through a breakthrough, and have received the most helpful advice from this amazing blog that I stumbled across when I was desperate for advice, and Googled for help.

The blog is http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/ and Kim is the brains behind it all. If you are a up and coming author, please check out this site (I don't know Kim personally and I have no affiliate with her at all).

I wrote to her the other day, having been ignored by several other bloggers and marketing experts and was astounded at how promptly she responded.

My question was:

Hi Kim,

Firstly I just wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful
information you have posted on this site, I am so glad I found this
and its on my bookmarks!

I am a newbie writer, who writes in my spare time. I do want to take
writing seriously so I want to focus on building my platform/brand
first before releasing anything.

My question is: I am currently working on several different projects,
all in different genres. For instance I'm writing a self help book
witha friend, I've written a book about natural remedies, and I'm
working on a fiction novel. I would presume its easiest to just
promote them all on the one site, but how do I balance promoting such
different genre books?

Should I blog about their updates at different times? Do I need to
establish a prescence for one of the books before launching?

Happy Thanksgiving by the way!
Best regards,
Maggie

Her response blew me away: it was detailed yet simple and to the point and gave me direction that I was severely lacking.

Hi Maggie,

Thanks for the positive feedback! :)

Your question is a tricky one, but you're not the only writer to be wondering how to handle the promotion of multiple genres.

Creative people's creativity is hard to corral! :)

Ideally, you would want different sites for each genre, with a content, promotional and marketing strategy to fit the needs of your various target markets.

BUT, realistically, this would be very difficult for you to maintain on your own.

Therefore, option B is to create a site under your name as author (or some close variation) and organize your site based on themes, topics or genres that fit your work. (And remember to think long term; what will you be writing about over the next 2-5 years?)

So, given what you're currently writing (and assuming your next several books will fall into these areas), you could consider breaking down your site as follows:

A. Nonfiction works
    a) Lifestyle
         i) Self help
              - Book #1
        ii) Natural Remedies
              - Book #1
B. Fiction works
    a) Novels
         i) Novel #1

OR

A. Self help
     a) Book #1
B. Natural Remedies
     a) Book #1
C. Novels
     a) Book #1

You will also have to determine how you would like to structure your content, what topics/categories you will write about, and possibly a schedule for your post topics.

For example, Monday's could be self help related topics, Wednesday's could be natural remedy related topics, and Friday's topics will relate to your fiction.

Or, you may determine that your target audience for all your books are women, ages 25 - 45 years. Then you could focus your content on lifestyle related topics that appeal to the needs/interests of these women (which may include crossover interest in your novels).

One you've clearly determined what you have to offer, and who it is EXACTLY you're trying to reach, you can more easily determine your marketing plan from there.

If you haven't already, take a look through these posts on branding and determining your ideal reader:

http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/build-your-author-brand/

http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/how-to-target-an-audience/

As you can see, there is no one "right way" to accomplish this. The key will be to find a way to structure your site (and your marketing) to answer your reader's question: "What's in it for me?"

Warmly,
Kimberley

I don't know how to repay you other than linking her to my blog, but this has helped so much and I wanted to share this with you too.

I will now use this to update my website: I will finalise a name for my website and transfer all the content I have created so far to this new website, hopefully it will look spick and span!

Have a nice day!