Don't Sell. Build!
If you are like most authors, the very thought of having
to go out and “sell” your book, is overwhelming. You aren’t sure of where to
begin. You don’t want to take on the role of a salesperson. You don’t have the
money to advertise or hire a marketing professional.
Here's my advice: Don't Sell.
Instead, build an author platform and let it do the
selling for you.
Think of your author platform as a literal stage. You use
this stage to raise yourself above the crowd, making it easier for people to
take notice of you. You use this stage to engage your new audience. Not sell, but
engage. You do so by entertaining, teaching, inspiring, or motivating. This
turns a general audience into a loyal fan base that keeps coming back for more.
Your influence and connection with your fans will almost completely eliminate
your need to “sell” anything. Your fans will already want whatever you have to
offer – including your books.
You now have an idea of what to do on this stage, but you
still have to build it. So, how do you build your stage? Plank by plank.
Each plank represents and supports who you are and what
you have to offer. Each plank is cut from:
Your personal and professional story,
Your experience and expertise,
Your message,
Your activities,
Your connections (online and offline),
Your brand,
Your personality,
Your beliefs,
Your credibility,
Your awards and endorsements,
Your previous writings, and
Your following
... all carefully joined together to fully support
everything you do on that stage.
You probably already have at least some of what it
takes to build a strong platform ... your stage. Make an honest assessment of
what you have and what you still need.
Once you do that, start building!
Post by Deana Riddle; Deana is
a publisher and publishing consultant who provides authors and business
professionals with the tools needed to become successful independent
publishers. She also offers the Independent Publishing Program, found in
the WOW! classroom.
4 comments:
Like your analogy to a stage!!!
Deana:
This is a very helpful post. Thanks for the tips. I have a couple books coming out this year, and I "hope" I have already started to build my platform/stage. We'll see--of course, we can always make it stronger!
Margo
Hi Deana,
This is wonderful advice and so true! In the hurry and worry to get the book out... I've been following pretty much all the advice you've outlined. Not sure how well it's working, but have had back-to-back author events since my debut novel, DUTY AND DESIRE's, release in Dec 2011. Flying to CT this weekend for 2 author events. Fingers crossed!
It's true, people want to know who and the validity of the author behind the book more than ever.
Regards
Anju
Great way to look at it, Deana. Thanks for the post.
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