How healthy is your author platform?

If you had the opportunity to pick the brains of your favourite bestselling, award-winning, TED talk-giving author, what would you ask? Would you take the practical route and ask them what steps they took to achieve their success? Or would you beg them to switch bodies so you can have their amazing career?

Well, we can answer the first question, and if you take our advice to heart, hopefully you can skip the second question altogether and create a dream career of your very own. Here’s the scoop: Although it all starts with writing a great book, that alone is no longer enough. The real secret to the success of many authors today comes down to one thing: their online author platform.

Exactly what is that? In essence, your author platform is the online relationship between you and your readers. It’s built upon the content you create, the methods you use to share it, and needs of the people who consume it. Without a platform, you’re like a band without a gig: stuck in the garage, playing for your kid sister and her Barbies.

If you’re already an author or are preparing to become one, ask yourself these questions:

Have I created a personal brand around myself?

Do I know who (and where) my readers are?

Do they know where to find me?

Are we in contact already, through social media, my website,  blog or newsletter?

Am I consistently sharing new stuff with them to keep them interested in me?

Are my books selling?

Am I working myself into the ground trying to get my books to sell?

If your answer is “no” to any question but the last, you have an opportunity to easily improve your platform and get close to becoming a career author. (If you answered “yes” to the last question, then don’t fear—help is at hand.) Coming up, we’ll be offering a free mini-course by email, focusing on setting up the foundations of your platform so that you can turn it into an enjoyable and sustainable career as an author, speaker, and all-around personality. To take your first step toward your place on the world stage, sign up to our mailing list:

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Paris Spence-Lang

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