You hear it at every writers’ conference—Platform Is Important! Long before you have a book published, you need to be thinking about and building your author platform.
True.
However, I wish I hadn’t rushed into into creating a website, blog, or author social media accounts without considering why I was doing it.
“I’m doing this to build platform” isn’t a sufficient reason
Maybe the root problem was I didn’t understand what building an author platform really meant. I thought it was about numbers. Create a bunch of social media accounts and collect as many followers as you can.
Done.
Except, after I created them, I had no idea what to do with them. No strategy. No purpose. No obvious topics or themes. Nada.
I was working on a historical mystery set in ancient Rome, but I’m not a history expert, or a writing expert. Thus, neither history nor writing tips seemed like the right content for me.
Which left … ?? (Scripture quotes? Flash fiction? Life lessons from my kids? Photos of the coffee I’m drinking while I write?)
Does my quandary sound familiar?
Understanding the real purpose of those platform components
Pop Quiz: The purpose of an author’s blog, website, and social media accounts is to:
- Amass impressive follower numbers
- Promote all my awesome writing stuff
- Tell the world about my writing process and show funny photos of my cat
- Serve the reader by offering helpful or inspiring content
The answer may seem obvious, but when I was a budding fiction writer, precisely what helpful or inspiring content I was supposed to be offering was anything but obvious.
I was clueless. I tried a bit of this and a pit of that, but nothing really clicked.
So I blundered around, trying a bit of this and a bit of that and by process of elimination I eventually narrowed my blogging focus to intentional living (which, you may note, has nothing whatsoever to do with either ancient Rome or mystery writing).
An author platform needs a firm foundation
Have you ever tried to write an article, and you can’t seem to get your thoughts to work together? When I have that problem, it’s usually because I don’t have the single main point clear in my head.
The same is true for an author platform. The more clarity you have in your specific target audience and the specific topics/themes/issues you are called to write about, the easier it becomes to provide content that is both relevant and builds confidence in your author brand.
Your author brand is the perception of what you are about, based on your content.
If your content isn’t consistent, nobody can figure out what you stand for, so they had little reason to keep reading my stuff.
Here’s the key concept I was missing
The goal of building an author platform isn’t to collect as many random followers as we can. The goal is to collect readers who want to come back regularly to see our content.
Why do those readers choose to give their precious attention to our content instead of the zillion other options? Because they have learned they can count on us to consistently offer interesting, relevant, encouraging content on topics they care about.
We earn readers trust by consistently offering the content they find useful. That consistency only comes when we’ve discovered our content sweet spot and are intentional about focusing our content within that niche.
Your platform isn’t built in a day
If you’re just starting your writing journey, you probably don’t yet have this all figured out. That’s normal. You might need to experiment with different types of content for a while before you find your stride.
However, experiment intentionally. Your goal is to zero in on the content that you are passionate about creating and identifying the specific audience that most benefits from what you write.
The sooner you find your sweet spot, the less time you waste writing meh content and the quicker you can begin collecting readers who are actual fans of your content and brand.
Your Turn
Can you articulate what your author platform is about in 1-2 sentences? If not, take a stab at it and consider that your starting point.
Pray about it. Ask God to clarify the specifics of what he’s calling you to write and who he’s calling you to write it for.
Get in the habit of regularly asking yourself questions like these to continually hone your clarity.
- Which subjects can I not help getting excited about?
- What have I learned from coming through trauma that I can share with others?
- When people think of me and my content, I want them to use words like ___ .
- What is the common thread in the various things I love to write about?
- What issues do people bring up repeatedly when they come to me for advice or help? (face-to-face or virtually)
Lisa E. Betz is an award-winning mystery author, entertaining speaker, and an unconventional soul. She combines her love of research with her quirky imagination to bring the world of the world of the early church to life. She infuses her novels with unconventional characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her second novel, Fountains and Secrets, was recently named a finalist in both the Golden Scroll and Christian Market Book Awards.
She also blogs about the joys and challenges of living an authentic, purpose-filled life. Lisa and her husband reside in southeast Pennsylvania with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in the Livia Aemilia Mysteries. Lisa directs church dramas, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit her Quietly Unconventional website at lisaebetz.com or check her Facebook page at LisaEBetzWriter.
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