AMRITA CHODHURY
With all the advice that’s thrown at any new writer looking to get published, this one’s heard the most:
Build an audience around your work.
I’m willing to put all my bets on all-time-marketing-genius-man Seth Godin’s advice for writers:
“The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you’ll need later.”
Early 2017, when I’d just started working with new writers, I encountered a client who is an aspiring writer looking to self-publish his book. And the conversation soon turned to audience building for authors. He was extremely excited about the topic, till the time I asked him for his social media handles and blog address. He stared at me, first blankly and then with confusion.
“But I’m not published yet. What would I even post?” he asked.
This was perfect. It got me to poll a fiction writers’ group on Facebook, and the answers were completely unexpected. A whopping 49% of aspiring writers said that they hadn’t set up their Author accounts. The remaining 51% had, and had little or no idea of how to leverage social media to their advantage.
Almost 75% were only on Facebook and not on any other platform. Apart from participating in “Likes for Likes” or Instagram pods, they’ve generated very little organic traffic, engagement or sales through their accounts.
And this was only social media. Out of all the aspiring authors who had replied to the poll, about 65% had their own blogs and only 15 out of 185 of them (8%!) were actually posting on their blogs regularly.
However, this is not a major problem with non-fiction writers, who already have (under most circumstances) blogs that they maintain on a regular basis.
YES, I KNOW THE FEELING…
And the big question is always,
“What to even post when I’m not even published yet?”
10 things to blog about, before you start or while you’re writing your book:
- Behind-the-scenes.
Writing a book is hard work and writers go through a range of problems, doubts and emotions while doing it. The best thing you can blog about is your journey as a writer. Write about what stage you’re at: Are you editing? Re-writing? Looking for a copy-editor? Struggling with a particular piece of research? What books are you referring to? What have you written so far and where do you want to go with your story? - Excerpts.
Excerpts are like tiny nuggets that give people a taste of your style and stories. It can range anywhere from a couple of sentences to a 100-word excerpt. It could be part of your work-in-progress novel, or could be a whole story by itself. Use a free online design site like www.canva.com or www.picmonkey.com to design a post image, add your excerpt and appropriate royalty-free artwork (or your own artwork), and post it to you page. Excerpts keep your readers interested.
Tip: Posting full poems or chapters or stories, if any, at this stage, is not advisable. If you’re planning on submitting your work to literary journals, then full posts on blogs, or social media channels will be counted as “published” pieces. Remember that most literary journals will consider this as “previously published” work and will reject your submission even before they look through it. Similarly, many traditional publishers are not fond of making offers on “previously published” pieces. - Character sketches.
Once in a while pick a character from your story and write about them. What’s their story and what are they doing in your book? Who has been the inspiration for that character? Have you based it on a real-life model or stock photo? Do you have a sketch to display? Putting up tidbits on your characters can really pique the interest of your readers. - Reviews and Opinion pieces.
Book reviews, poetry reviews or reviews of articles or pieces you may have read in a magazine, always do good. They are the perfect posts that readers and bookworms will hook on to, if you keep providing them with fresh reviews. Don’t worry about the book/article being an old release or new, just write your honest opinion and post. - Personal pieces.
This is the main reason the phenomenon of blogging came to be so popular. You can use your blog as a journal. Don’t just make your blog about writing. For every four posts on writing, post a review, followed by a personal piece. Write about a recent travel experience, or a writers’ event that you may have been too. Share a recipe or write about an interesting dialogue you may have overheard at a cafe. Keep it funny and light or thoughtful. - Curated links.
A list of links or objects/articles that you found interesting throughout the week, could make for a quick post, especially during those times when you don’t have the time or don’t feel like crafting a full informational post. Blogging is the combination of helpful content and consistency. Your posts should appear regularly and frequently, so your readers start to expect it. Pro bloggers often use this trick to take a break between content creation. When you’re out of ideas and need some time to come up with fresh material, a curated list of links can be posted, so there’s not too much gap between two posts. - Book cover inspiration.
If you come across a book cover that catches your attention, then talk about it on your blog. If you’re a graphic design expert, then you can post a constructive commentary. If not, then just talk about what you like or don’t like and whether you would pick it up at a shop. - Interviews.
Profiling other writers, editors, agents, designers who are in the industry is always a great way to raise your own profile. Interviewing an author will do potentially three things:
it’ll provide your readers with fresh, helpful content,
whoever you interview might want to interview you back, which will add to the exposure you’re seeking as a new writer, and then
there’s the potential of gaining name and contacts in the industry itself. - News and updates.
This one’s obvious. This is the reason you’ve been working hard at your blog. You can now use it to announce your books, pre-orders, promo offers, discounts, launches, giveaways, signing events, readings et al. - Advice.
This is a little controversial, considering that a first-time author might not be in a great position to give writing advice, but it shouldn’t stop you. Veer away from giving ‘expert’ advice. Instead talk about the problems you’re trying to overcome with your own manuscript. If you suffer from writer’s block often, how do you get out of it? What do you do to inspire yourself to write? What things do you do to self-edit your chapters? What apps or software do you use to help you write? You get the idea. These posts are extremely helpful to other writers who might be going through the same struggles and your blog might be exactly what they’re looking for.
IT MIGHT NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT
Audience building is not especially difficult. It is however, time consuming and requires consistent efforts. And it can get tricky trying to produce good, quality content on a regular basis. But whether you’re trying to bag a traditional publishing deal or planning to self-publish, you need to get started ASAP. And apart from your social media channels, building a solid following for your blog, of people who like what you offer, ensures that you’ll have a community waiting for you when you’re book gets published.
Amrita is the author of Let’s Sell Your First Book! Marketing 101 For Brand-New Authors. Follow her blog on writing, book marketing and design at A Manuscript in 90 Days.
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