YouTube video by Julie Broad explaining what an "author platform" is (who listens to you and where you show up) and giving five concrete tactics to build one: write for established sites, publish consistent weekly content (blog/YouTube/social), speak on stage, partner with complementary peers/businesses, and write a book that captures emails via a high-value offer. Includes a personal anecdote about publishers valuing existing networks and a bonus tip that a well-reviewed book can boost discoverability on Amazon.
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You've probably heard this term author platform thrown around a lot. What the heck is it? And how do you get one? Well, that's what we're talking about today. Hey, it's Julie the book broad with book Launchers. We help nonfiction authors write, publish and sell a fantastic book that boosts your business and builds your brand. And the best part, you keep all rights in and royalties. One of the big parts of the book marketing puzzle that we're helping our authors figure out is author platform. So what exactly is it?
I am an author. Buy my book, please.
No, no, it's not that. Author platform is really a fancy way of saying who listens to what you have to say. Author platform isn't any one thing. It's everything you do that puts you you in front of an audience. It includes where you're published right now, how many people see it, how often that gets shared, what communities you're a part of. One of the reasons Wiley rejected me for my book deal in Canada was that I wasn't part of this huge real estate network. My friends who got deals were all a part of that network. Even though I actually had a stronger following of my own. Wiley felt that this real estate network was going to be the deal maker, or in my case, broke. I proved them wrong. But hey, that's a story for another day. The right community behind you can make your book, and it's part of your platform if you're visible and involved there. Another part is where you speak. How many people watch your videos? Check out your social media posts, and anyone who subscribes to your newsletter. So let's say you're listening to all that going, I don't have any of it. What do you do? Well, first, know that most platforms don't appear overnight. It takes consistency. I talk about that in the video on social media marketing for authors, which you can see here. So the best day to start building your platform was yesterday, which means you need to start today. So what can you do? Here's one idea. Start writing articles for websites or online magazines that have a following. Include a short call to action at the end for them to connect with you on your website or ideally, subscribe to your newsletter. Number two, commit to releasing new quality content on Your own blog, YouTube channel, social media site, and every single week. My videos come out every Tuesday and Friday. Subscribe so you catch them all. But seriously, this is where consistency is critical. Produce content at first, even if nobody is listening, but do it over and over on a regular basis. Number three, step Onto stage and start speaking. This is the single best way to build a brand and a business and sell books. Want help? Send me a direct message over at Book Launchers. I have a few amazing speaking coaches I can recommend for you to work with. Number four, find colleagues or businesses like yours that connect with the same people and partner up. For example, I just mentioned speaking coaches. Speakers need to write a book and speaking sells books. Speaking and books go hand in hand. You ever tried to shake your own hand? Doesn't really work. Anyways, I connect with speakers coaches because I can. I lost my. I tried to shake my own hand. We have the same audience but do different things. So I've partnered up with a couple of great coaches. They share my stuff and I share theirs. Number five, write a book. And then plan on writing the next book inside of that first book. Make sure you've clearly laid out a call to action in several places to connect with you. I'm not talking about a link to your website. I mean, you've put something really cool in there, inviting your readers to download something of value in exchange for their email address. So you want to have something of high value to draw people in to connect. So. So that you're building your newsletter list. Then when you have another book or some sort of a product or service to offer, you've got people to offer it to. And let me repeat this point because it's so important. The key to this is consistency. Just keep going. Look at what works and do more of it. Look at what doesn't work and do less of it. And over time, you will build a platform. See you on the next video. Oh, you're still here. That's awesome. Because I have a bonus tip for you. Lots of folks ask me, should I wait to build my platform before I publish? And my answer is simple. If you have expertise to share and a book will help you share it. No, a book will help you build your platform if you're smart about it. Amazon is the biggest expert search engine there is. Show up on page one for your topic with a great book that is well reviewed and your platform is going to grow massively from that book.
