The Road to Publication, Part 1 – Author Platform

I’m an unpublished author, and my goal is to change that this year. I’ve “finished” a couple of books that are in different stages of revision. I also have an embarrassing number of works that I’ve started. Some of them are a few chapters, some only a few paragraphs. When my Muse smacks me upside the head with an idea, I create a Scrivener project for it so I have a placeholder in case I can turn it into a book someday.

I’m currently working on the launch plan for my first book, and I’ll be documenting my progress here.

I’ve subscribed to the /r/writing sub-reddit, and recently someone asked if there was any benefit to having an author website if you haven’t published yet. Most of the responses were along the line of “Don’t distract yourself with technology, it will take away from your writing time. Focus on your craft.”

I posted a Minority Report:

I’m not a published author, but I have Facebook pages and websites for two of my pen names. (The third will be up later this year,) These, and accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and other channels, are part of your social media network, with the emphasis on ‘social’. This is how you start to attract people before your books are published. Here’s what I’m doing with them so far.

I write dark fiction under one of my names… fantasy, scifi, horror, humor, mysteries, whatever I feel like writing as long as it’s “dark”. I’ve been posting short works, flash fiction and short stories, on the website. I post a teaser on the Facebook page with a link to the website. I’ve been writing short stories under one of my other names, that I hope to compile into an anthology at some point. I’ll be posting them to that author’s website and Facebook page.

Conventional social media wisdom is that you don’t just promote your books on your channels — you promote yourself. You let people connect with you as a person, not as a collection of books. Fans like to see what you’re interested in, they get invested in your life. They want to hear about your garden, your pets, your bowling score, the books and movies you like. They want to have a common ground with you. My Dark Author posts reviews of books and movies, with appropriate hashtags. If someone searches for #knivesout #review and finds my post, they might read more of my blog and I might get a new fan.

I’m also posting progress reports on my work in progress. And I’m planning to do some videos of me reading from my WIP.

Yes, some of this constitutes “publishing”. There was one comment on the reddit thread that if you post your work to your blog, that’s considered publication, and traditional publishers won’t touch it. But I’m going to be self-publishing, so that’s not an issue for me.

Does this take away from my “writing time”? Yes, but not much. My first author page has been up for a couple of months, and I’ve got eleven followers, yay! I post something about once a week, and it takes 15 to 30 minutes. That’s not a big resource drain. And you’re going to be putting a lot of time into marketing when you’ve published, so get used to it early!

The benefit of doing this is that when you do publish, you’ve got your author platform in place and possibly a small fan base. You don’t have to say, “Okay, my book is on Amazon, I’d better get my blog and Facebook page set up!” They’re already there, and marketing is already part of your normal routine.

Which reminds me, I need to set up the third pillar of marketing, after the blog and Facebook pages: The Mailing List!

Oh, and my Facebook page for my Dark Author has the cover of my work in progress as the banner, because I’ve already done that too.

I’ve read a lot of articles that recommend starting your author platform and building your fan base before you publish. So if you’re starting out as a writer, go ahead and get your website going. (I’ll have an article on that later.) Sure, you can write eight hours a day, and I know some writers do that. But sometimes you need a break, and working on your author platform will stretch your brain in a different direction. And as I said in my reddit reply, you’re going to be doing a lot of that anyway once your book is out.

But enough theory, here’s the practical application: my first author website and corresponding Facebook page.

https://www.mastergreyauthor.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MasterGreyAuthor/

As an aside, you’ll see from my blog page that I’ve spent some time (20+ years) in the Colorado Leather/BDSM/Kink community. There, my secret is out! If anyone is writing BDSM or Bondage fiction and would like some advice, or maybe some expert eyes on your writing, from someone who’s been there, I’m happy to help. You can contact me at Author@MasterGreyAuthor.com.