[Josie M]

I’m ready to start building my platform, which is exciting and also super scary! I’ll be honest, I’m terrified (prayers would be appreciated). I don’t know a lot about building a platform, so any advice would be welcome.

Right now, my plan is to build my website and blog. Set up a newsletter (I have  my reader magnet ready). And try to keep up with Instagram and Facebook, though this may be difficult as I’m not too good with social media. I can never remember to actually post…

So, any advice on building a platform? What works? What doesn’t? Anything specific I should know about websites, blogging, or social media? Honestly, any advice! XD

You are never so broken to no longer grow;
Never so wise that there's no more to know.

[Daeus Lamb]

@josie-m

I’m not an expert but I am good at some things things well and I sure know what not to do.

Here’s some of my top advice in no particular order or organization.

• I think it’s essential to market in a way you can enjoy. That’s the only way it will be sustainable. You may tell yourself “I will write one blog post a week!” or whatever it may be, but if you don’t actually like doing it, I’m telling you you’ll eventually burn out or just forget over and over. I think it’s important to look at the normal things people do like blogging and social media (or YouTube, podcasting, and so on) and find what you enjoy most and do that. But I also think you should think outside the box. Start with what you love to do most, whether or not it seems like a good way to build a platform, and then brainstorm to see if there’s anyway to build a platform incorporating that.
• Follow David Gaughran and The Novel Marketing Podcast. These are the best resources out there from what I’ve found. Dave Chesson is also good.
• I talk about this subject some in StoryEmber’s free mindset course, as well as our fairly inexpensive Breakthrough Strategies For Frustrated Writers course.
• If you plan on doing some form of content marketing (like blogging or social media,) I would generally say don’t post about gardening, or your pets, or theology or whatever other random subject. All these things will attract followers, but not necessarily followers who are interested in the types of books you write. There might be exceptions. For instance, if dogs are protagonists in your books, you could blog about your dog. If your stories all feature prominent themes of trusting God when things go bad, you could blog about that from a theological perspective. A good example is Shad from the YouTube channel Shadiversity. He put out cool videos about medieval buildings, weapons, and fantasy pop-culture topics for years and then sold a ton of books when he became published, because he’d attracted the type of people who love fantasy adventure books.
• Go all out on your lead magnet. First of all, make sure it’s your absolute best writing (assuming it’s a short story or such.) Don’t use something you wrote a year ago and have no other use for. Also, hire a professional editor for it and get a professional cover for it (doesn’t have to be top of the line, just professional.) Especially when you are starting out, your lead magnet is your brand. If the cover isn’t great, you may not get many subscribers. If the story isn’t great, the subscribers you fought hard to obtain may not care to fork over money for your book when it finally comes out, even if they’ve been opening emails from you and seem to be otherwise engaged.

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