Your Writer Platform

Build your platform. Engage your fans. Sell more books.

Powerful Pictures Perform: How to Create Images That Grab Attention

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image creation

Images and graphics are an incredibly important tool for capturing your audience’s interest.

Like multi-pixel eye-candy for your readers.

In fact, images rank right up there with your post’s headline for creating impact, grabbing attention and enticing your reader into giving your article a chance when the competition is fierce.

Add to that the growth of social media platforms like Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest–and the increased ease with which we can take, alter, upload and share images–and it’s impossible to avoid this new age of visual fascination.

For many writers, this may be alien territory, but since the importance of images in today’s world can not be denied–or ignored–finding simple but effective ways to source, edit and incorporate images into your platform building is essential.

Strengthen Your Content with Images

Often, seconds are all you have to make your content stand out, grab your reader’s attention and effectively convey your message.

A great photo can do most of the work for you, so it’s important to spend a little extra time to craft a visually stimulating experience that not only attracts, but engages your audience.

Adding graphical elements to your article can help highlight key points, illustrate a concept or even trigger an emotional reaction from your reader.

Remember, even the most avid book lover will tend to scan and skim online, so photos can also help to break up large, intimidating walls of text and add visual interest and aesthetic appeal to your online content.

Concerned as to how you can pull off the ‘visual storytelling’ that plays a major part in your author branding and your presence online and off? [Read more…]

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #8)

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Writer Weekly Wrap-Up 8This post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

Unity and Independence

July 1st is Canada Day and I, along with my fellow ‘Canucks’, will be celebrating with BBQ picnics, parades, family and fireworks.

As many of my readers from the U.S. will also be frolicking in similar festivities–albeit a few days later-I thought I could squeeze in these helpful links before our productivity slides too far downhill! 🙂

Featured Articles

The Democratization of Publishing–Independence is Scary by Kristen Lamb at Kristen Lamb’s Blog

In her post, Kristen compares the changes in the publishing industry to leaving home for the first time. Is safety and comfort worth the limits placed on freedom and choice?

8 Important Questions to Ask Before You Publish Your Book by Carol Tice at Make a Living Writing

Carol outlines some basic questions every author should ask themselves before they publish, to help pinpoint when to publish and where to focus your marketing efforts. [Read more…]

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #7)

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Writer Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #7)This post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

When Quitting is Not an Option

As difficult as the job is, writers just can’t seem to stop writing.

We must be a wee bit masochistic with our tendency to repeatedly subject ourselves to the often unpleasant experiences that follow the declaration “I am a writer!”

No matter how painful the journey sometimes is, we just can’t help but put pen to paper and scratch out a few more thoughts.

The problem these days, however, is that writing is now only part of the job description, especially if you choose to self-publish.

Marketer, editor, book designer, social media strategist, website owner, blogger, publisher, entrepreneur–and the list goes on. Is it realistic to expect that a modern writer must wear so many hats?

Maybe. Maybe not. But if there is no struggle, there is no story, right?

[Read more…]

101 Quick Actions You Can Take Today to Build the Writer Platform of Your Dreams

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101 Quick Actions You Can Take Today to Build the Writer Plaform of Your Dreams _ YourWriterPlatform.com

What does it really take to build a writer or author platform?

Money?

Connections?

An intimate knowledge of vampires, wizardry or erotic romance?

Actually, the most important aspect  to building an author platform is understanding that it’s about engagement; about connecting and interacting with people who are aligned with your message and affected by your story.

Your platform is a web of intertwined beliefs, values, emotions, thoughts, stories, images and ideas that stem from your own core philosophy and are ultimately shared by your fans.

The tricky part is finding ways to effectively share your message with an audience that is yet unknown to you, and you to them.

Establishing and maintaining a link to your potential ‘tribe’ is both the challenge and the reward of building your writer platform.

What can you do today to craft a powerful writer platform?

By understanding that your ultimate goals when creating a writer platform are to find, engage and cherish your audience, it makes the application of the tools much more effective.

But remember: insight is useless if you don’t take action. So, go through the list of tools and strategies below and choose those things that you can easily do today.

By starting with what you can easily accomplish you will a) be more likely to complete the tasks, and b) gain the confidence to start implementing some of the more challenging items on the list. [Read more…]

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #6)

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Writer Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #6)This post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

Taking that first step

I often get emails from writers who recognize the importance of building their platform and gaining more visibility for their author brand, but have no idea where to start.

Overwhelmed with the task, they simply don’t do anything with the faint hope that maybe this whole ‘platform’ thing will blow over, or that a traditional publisher will pluck them out of anonymity and take care of all their promotional and marketing needs.

Unfortunately, neither is likely to happen. So my advice is to just take that first step.

“You are as powerful and as strong as you allow yourself to be, and the most difficult part of any endeavor is taking the first step, making the first decision.”

~Robyn Davidson, Australian author of ‘Tracks’

Decide what you want; decide that you are not going to stay in the place where you are, and then take the plunge! [Read more…]

Authors with Platforms Sell Books.

It’s that simple.

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