Putting Out Your Writers Brand (Marketing Series #1)

The first of a series is always fun, and terrifying.  We always hope that our readers will find our words encouraging and inspirational.  This is not really about that per se...but about Marketing Tips.  Some of which you will find educational, and you will find use for; some of it you may choose not to use.

So with that in mind, I'll try to keep things as least complicated and helpful to more people.

With the advent of social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram etc), there are many different platforms to reach readers than ever before.  And these are very easy platforms to get into.   I'll start with FB cause that is arguably the most recognizable.

With FB you can do multiple things.

• Create a fan page.  This is like a profile for your single book, or series.  Or can be a general author page.  This is where you can share your trials as a writer, let folks know where you will be, notify folks of any releases.  Also can be used to show your personal side (though I recommend that you leave your page mostly for the business side, and use a professional demeanor).  
• You can also create events from your fan page.  Book Releases, or cover reveals (which I hosted an hour of such an event tonight), can increase your reach.  
• FB writing groups; there are many that I belong to (and some that I am an admin in).  Joining this kind of group, helping answer questions from other writers, encouraging the others, can also build your brand to your peers.  You need peers to help be your "Street team."  

Here is what mine looks like.  https://www.facebook.com/LAnneWooleyAuthor

The next I will discuss is Twitter.  I'll personally vouch that it has it's own good aspects....but if you are like me, it's hard to follow what is going on there.  I prefer FB quite frankly, because it's hard to keep following the news feed part.  I get freaked out by having 200 plus tweets (the more followers you have and more people etc you follow, can really increase those numbers quickly.  But that is also the beauty of it, you reach so much more people).  But your brand, or information can get buried pretty quickly too.

But it is so cool connecting with people you admire much easier.  You can also reach more by retweeting things and people that retweet your tweets (posts for those who do not know the lingo), are worth their weight in gold!

Also, by tweeting, you can set it up so that your tweets go to your FB account as well.  Though try to remember if you do that....that can be both blessing and curse.  Which leads me to point out, you never know who will see your tweets/posts, so you really shouldn't bitch about someone, they may see it and all heck breaks loose.

Instagram, DeviantArt, and the others are ones I really don't know much about.  But worth mentioning is Good Reads.  I like the page set up, and the fact that you can also recommend books by others.  

But what can also build your reputation as a writer?   Reviews of others books.  Reviews are authors lifes blood.  This can help in sales quite a bit.  Helps build your own brand too.  

Whichever platform you use, by learning how to use them, and stick to using them (try to post frequently, yes, I am bad at this), can be exponentially important to your career.   

The last thing I will mention is using proper spelling, punctuation and grammar.  There is nothing worse than those things.  That is the sign of a professional, and also the ability to make your words understandable.  To make your story (or your posts) reachable.  You may be able to get away with one or two errors, but if there are more, people are not going to want to read your books or anything else for that matter.   So putting your best foot forward is really important.

Next column will be on hosting someone else's event, and tips on what to do when you are working one.  Until next time,

Happy Writing.