Your Writer Platform

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

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #20)

by

The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up #20 Own RaceThis 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!)

Run Your Own Race

Have you found yourself stalled out of any forward movement, your inspiration and motivation for a project completely squelched, just because you happened to stumble across ‘better’?

A manuscript with a better plot, an article with a better angle, a book with a better cover, a colleague with a better network, a website with a better design, a marketer with a better strategy, an author with a better platform (a mother with better instincts, ugh! I hate that one).

At first, you’re inspired by the possibility, and if ‘they’ can do it, so can you, right?

Except, they’re just so much better, and you begin to realize how much time and effort -and fairy dust- it’s actually going to take to move you from here to there. [Read more…]

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #18)

by

The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #18) | YourWriterPlatformThis 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!)

Don’t Bamboozle, Cajole, Beg or Bombard Your Potential Readers

Getting the word out to potential readers about your work is a critical aspect to building your writer platform and establishing a successful writing career.

This is typically the role of marketing and promotion: get the right book in front of the right people, and magic happens.

The kicker?

Most writers haven’t got the foggiest idea how to market themselves or their work effectively, and are left scrambling to figure it out on their own.

The default ‘marketing methods’ that many adopt out of desperation are the loud, pushy hard-sell or outright shameless pleading.

The result? Definitely NOT magic.

But there is something that you can do right now that can jumpstart your marketing and give you an edge in all promotional aspects of your writing career: [Read more…]

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #14)

by

Backup your website | The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up | www.YourWriterPlatform.comThis 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!)

Bad Things Can Happen To Good People

Imagine this scenario: you wake up one morning to find that your entire site is gone. Every post, comment, tweak and photo has disappeared into the ether.

Nightmares and cold sweats, right? Can you even wrap your mind around the possibility of starting all over from scratch?

I can’t. In fact, I feel a little nauseous just thinking about it.

So before we dive into the featured articles, here’s a quick ‘how-to’ on website backup, so that we can all sleep easier tonight:

Backup For WordPress (Self-hosted):

There are many options for backing up your self-hosted WordPress site, so I recommend you do a bit of research to ensure you’re getting what works best for you. Here is one free option and one premium option for you to consider:

1. WordPress BackWPup plugin (free) – this plugin allows you to schedule full, automatic backups, as well as decide where you want your backups stored. Go here for a quick tutorial on setup.

2. Backup Buddy is a premium (paid) plugin which is similar to BackWPup, but also provides support and malware scanning. [Read more…]

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #13)

by

The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #13)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!)

Don’t Waste! Recycle Your Content

You’re convinced that building your writer platform is a necessary evil, and you’ve even managed to set up your author headquarters and create content for your website with some regularity.

But seriously!

Who has the time to continually produce ‘epic’ content for a website, rock several social media platforms with brilliant wit and casual banter AND knock out a respectable daily writing quota?

Not me, and I’m betting not you either!

So here’s a short checklist of ways you can repurpose the great content you already have, as well as get extra mileage out of your future posts:

  • build on a theme or idea that you’ve already written about; go deeper or try approaching the topic from a different angle.
  • turn an in-depth post into a video series, discussing each point separately in 5 minute mini-productions.
  • transcribe an interview or podcast, tweak it and turn it into a blog post.
  • take a pillar post and create a slideshow presentation for Slideshare.
  • mine your blog post or interview for great quotes that you can turn into Tweets, Facebook conversation starters or beautiful text-on-image graphics for Pinterest.
  • use an older, but evergreen post, to develop a PDF download or email opt-in series to give away as your ‘ethical bribe’ to incentivize new subscribers to sign up to your email list.

Now that you’ve got some ideas for making your content work harder for you, take a breather and enjoy this week’s wrap-up of featured articles and resources! [Read more…]

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #12)

by

Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #12)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!)

Don’t Sell; Engage

What do your readers want?

What do you want as an author?

What can you share that your audience desires, and what will you receive in return?

Engagement develops from finding the common ground, the similar interests and the mutual needs between you and your readers.

This shouldn’t be difficult, forced or phoney–but real and genuine.

“Effective engagement is inspired by the empathy that develops simply by being human.”

– Brian Solis

So strive to include this simple premise of engagement in your efforts to build your writer platform.

Commit to your readers not only by developing yourself as a writer, but by sharing the most important and relevant parts of your growth with them.

Ensure that those that should be aware of your work, are.

Listen to–and acknowledge–their compliments, criticisms and interpretations.

Include your readers in the process of your artistic expression, and let them share the journey with you.

If you do this well, you will never have to ‘sell’ another book. [Read more…]

Authors with Platforms Sell Books.

It’s that simple.

Get on the Insiders List to receive the free Quick Start Guide to Building Your Writer Platform, exclusive content via email, and instant access to a growing library of downloadable resources.