Your Writer Platform

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Using Fanfiction to Build your Audience, Brand, and Platform

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fanfiction to build and grow your author brand

This is a guest post by writer and marketer, Hayley Zelda, on using fanfiction to build your audience, brand, and platform. She’s written on major writing platforms and worked with a number of self-published authors on marketing books to the YA audience.

Have you ever been so interested in an artist or musician that you searched to find like-minded people so that you could enjoy your idol’s works together?

Have you ever been so fascinated with a character or setting of a book or TV series that you wanted to create your own story inspired by them?

If so, welcome to the world of fandoms and fanfiction.    

What is a Fandom? 

Fandom is a term used to describe communities built around a shared enjoyment and fascination with an aspect of pop culture, such as books, musicians, celebrities, internet personalities, movies, or TV series.   

Fanfiction archive website FanFiction.net declared the Harry Potter fandom as number one in their list of the most popular fandoms online. In fact, according to the data they released, there are around 821,000 stories about the books and movie series. 

[Read more…]

Building Your Author Brand: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make

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Building Your Author Brand_ The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make _ YourWriterPlatform.com

Branding plays a surprisingly important role in your author business.

Every time someone sees your name, lands on your website, reads your book or listens to you speak, you’re reinforcing what you want them to know about you and your work.

And whether you actively shape it or not, with every touchpoint or seemingly ‘insignificant’ interaction, your brand is being formed.

That’s why it’s critical to decide upfront what story you want to tell.

In this 3-part Author Branding Series we’ll:

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Personal Branding for Authors: What It Is And Why It’s Essential

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personal branding for authors

Personal Branding for Authors: A Simple Definition

Personal branding can be a vague term…

It isn’t just a website, a font choice, or a clever tagline. It’s a blend of your skills, talents, values, interests, and beliefs reflected through your writing, online presence, and offline interactions.

For authors, it’s often a mix of professional and personal branding which includes what you do, why you do it, and who you do it for.

It’s also an indicator of your value to your readers, industry professionals, influencers, or other key players in your topic area or genre.

What Makes You Different?

It’s not enough just to be good at what you write.

You must be able to easily and clearly communicate your vision or the purpose behind your work, and coherently voice its importance to others.

This is why effective branding is such a big and significant part of developing and growing your writer platform.

In this three-part series we’ll:

  • Clarify what personal branding is, and why it’s essential to incorporate into your writing business if you want to stand out from the crowd.
  • In post two of this series, we’ll cover the most common mistakes writers make when building their author brand.
  • And finally, in post three, we’ll focus on brand strategy and how you will connect your work and writing to the people who will be most inclined to read and appreciate it.
[Read more…]

Writing in Multiple Genres: How It Impacts Your Platform and Book Sales

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Today I’m going to answer one of the top questions I get asked: “I write in multiple genres (or hope to), how does this influence my platform and potential book sales?”

We’ll look at traditional vs. self-published authors, the impact on your author brand, your readers’ expectations and how genre-hopping ultimately plays out in terms of your writing career.

So, if you’re thinking of writing in multiple genres, watch the video below, and I’ll share exactly what you need to know.

[Read more…]

Build An Epic Visual Strategy for Your Author Brand

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The visual trend in marketing is inescapable.

Short attention spans combined with an unparalleled surge of information (and distraction) requires a medium that can convey a message, a story, your entire essence, all at once.

And if a picture is worth a thousand words…

A strong visual strategy is an essential part of developing a powerful and successful author brand.

The right visuals will help you communicate ideas that get remembered, boost interaction with your growing fanbase, help tell your brand story, and make it much easier for readers to like, share and respond to your work.

If you are not yet focusing on visual content in your book marketing and platform building strategy, it’s time to get started. 🙂

In this post, not only will you learn how to create essential brand graphics, but you will get key tips on how to implement them, the elements they should include to be effective, and the best places to get free and paid resources to enhance your visual strategy. [Read more…]

Authors with Platforms Sell Books.

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