Ep. 25: Get Your Author Platform Publication Ready with Emily Carpenter-Pulskamp

Welcome to the Pub Date Podcast, the show where two book broads discuss what should happen before, during, and after your book publication date. Brought to you by Broad Book Group with your host Vanessa Campos and Jen Dorsey.

Hello, happy Friday, Vanessa. Welcome everybody to the Pub Date podcast.

Hello, welcome, welcome.

How are you, Jen?

I'm well. I've missed you. I feel like I've been gone forever because I was out gallivanting in San Francisco, uh, the last time you had the show, um, so I didn't get to be on with you. And so it's great to be back.

You were missed. You are very much missed.

Thank you. I always miss hanging out with you guys on a Friday. We have got an amazing guest today, and I think everybody's going to love talking to her. I know I love talking to her because we have been friends for almost 30 years. It's kind of knocking on 30 years, which is crazy to me. But she is a fantastic woman. She's going to talk book publicity— I can't talk today— author promotion and author marketing and how to get your platform publication ready. Emily Carpenter Polskamp, she's an APR-certified public relations and marketing professional creating and implementing strategies to help organizations achieve business goals and to build brand awareness. She's got more than 20 years of experience working with large and small corporations, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs to build their businesses, and she founded Little Red Communications in 2013. Emily, welcome to Pub Date.

Thank you. It's always a different experience to hear your bio being read out loud, right?

You sound very serious.

You are very serious, lady.

Serious business lady.

Oh, well, thank you for having me on. I truly appreciate it, and I love being here.

Oh my gosh. Well, you know what, we, we worked with Emily, uh, ever since we founded BBG, and she's, uh, she's a powerhouse. She's done so much to help us elevate our brands, and I can't wait to hear all about what she can tell us about how authors can do the same thing. So let's just dive right into it. Um, you know, when we're talking about people who want to do a book, they've maybe already got themselves out there a little bit in, in their individual subject matter area spaces, but maybe they're not quite, you know, they're not quite ready from a platform perspective. What do they do? And maybe before we do anything, we should really define what author platform means or what brand platform means. Sure.

Well, you know, one of the first way I was going to respond to that question was the first thing that you need to do is you need to take your book and you need to build the brand around the book. You know, as an author, you have a lot of different personas. You have your professional persona and your personal persona and like your networking persona. And, you know, you already have a social media persona. So you need to take that book and you need to create its brand and you need to go all way back to what is its identity, what are the colors, what are the fonts, what does it look like, what's the experience that people are going to have when they interact with this book, whether they're reading it or picking it up off a bookshelf or they're looking at it online, is go back and do that foundation work of making that brand. Because ideally you want the book to stand on its own two feet. Obviously you're going to leverage the networks and the relationship that the author has, but to get the book out there, to attract people and catch people's attention. The book has to have its own identity, which leads you into the platforms. Like, you know, you need a website where it talks about the book and it talks about what the book can do for the person reading it. What is the solution that it provides, especially in this market of book publishing? You know, go beyond the website to social media. You know, where do you want to live on social media? Are you going to be on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest? I mean, So there are just endless possibilities. And I think that when you're first starting out, you need to, you know, do your research, find out what each platform offers and how it interacts with people and who it interacts with, because maybe your target market isn't on Pinterest, maybe it's not on TikTok. So don't waste your time there. And that's not to say that you can't grow into that too. Maybe you can. But I, you know, I recommend where you can get the biggest bang for your buck when you're starting out on social media and start building yourself there, because obviously You know, your social media is going to live on your website. It's going to live everywhere that the book goes. And right now, social media is more out there than your website's going to be, honestly. And you're going to use that as a driver to go to your website, honestly. And then even before your book is published, start looking into what podcasts and media that you want to interact with as well. Go ahead and do that outreach and create the relationships and create the understanding of what the book is and what it does.. So that when it comes time for launch, you're not just launching to an empty room. You've already got people on board, you've already got people in the room and excited and talking about it on their own platforms, right?

Absolutely. I think that's a— those are all really good points. And we've talked about this many times ourselves, helping build our own brand with you. And, you know, we've talked a lot about where you live on social and where you can really lean into what makes sense for you. And we've honestly, with us, we, we've dropped a few things off, right?

Because it wasn't quite are fit.

When you are a subject matter expert, like, especially, like, non-fiction writers, business book writers, where do you kind of see the trends going for how they use social media? Um, or, you know, just people who are generally in that space, even if they don't have books yet, even if they are, you know, doing speaking or courses or what have you. I mean, is it all LinkedIn, or are there other opportunities there and on other platforms?

Oh sure, no, there's opportunity all over the place beyond LinkedIn. And obviously LinkedIn is very specific to the professional market. And that's where you're going to do like a lot of your professional networking where you introduce— like you would say, I'm Emily, I wrote this book here, here's my book, go here to learn more. Instagram is really big right now just because it's so visual and the reels are huge where, you know, it's fun because you can almost do like you're incorporating sort of the TikTok features where it's fun and it's light and there's music and there's animation to it, which is, you know, good. But I would say any— I would go where your market is. And that goes back to like your brand identity is who are you trying to interact with? Who is your audience and where are they? You know, that's critical. Like find out where the people are that you want to buy your book because maybe they're not on Instagram, maybe they're on Facebook, maybe they are on TikTok. You know, it depends on what generation you are. I personally don't lean into TikTok as much, but I know that the younger generations are there. So that may be your user market and you have to learn TikTok. And embrace it.

I'm terrified. I'm gonna have to ask my 13-year-old to do it, and I've said it for 6 months because I'm like, I'm still— I know that I need to do it, but I'm scared to do it. I'm just gonna have to have her sit down with me and do it.

But yes, that's me. I'm old.

Sorry, Vanessa, you were gonna say something?

No, I was gonna say I'm also terrified of the TikTok. I like to watch. I'm a spectator. I feel like it's a spectator sport. Emily, I love that we're talking about the way that the social media landscape has come in and crept in and kind of changed the way that we share our stories. For you, what have you seen in the last— I don't know, let's say in the last 2 to 3 years since a certain pandemic has hit and we're now shifting the way that we're talking to people. What, what have you seen in publicity that you like and are encouraging your clients to partake in?

Well, I think that, you know, obviously in the past 2 years we've really shifted virtually. So now people are going to the virtual world, i.e., social media, to learn about products and services and books and people because it's such an interactive, engaging— it's not, you know, it's not stock photos that are uploaded anymore. It's legitimately people getting on video, talking about their product, their service, service, their book, and they're trying to create that engagement. And trying to create that engagement, they are trying to promote organic growth through people seeing a video and be like, this is amazing information and I want to share it with my network too, so I'm going to share it to my stories or I'm going to share it to my profile. And that has been incredible. There's such, um, a huge focus on generating user-friendly content that speaks to people and it addresses their needs and their And that is how you're going to, like, create that virtual networking group now. And it's key to being successful because, you know, even if someone is like, "Oh, this book looks amazing. I love the subject matter." They're like, "Who is the person behind it? And how did they know how to write this book? What's their credibility, you know, behind this book? And what can they offer me beyond the book?" I've read this book, how can they help me understand it through their content platforms? How are they continuing this conversation and how can I get involved in it? You know, and it's a way for them to write.

I've done it.

I just, these like direct messages or just, you know, post a comment online. And if you're not reacting and engaging with those kind of comments, you're not going to go anywhere because obviously the algorithms, but, but you're creating a relationship. Honestly, by doing that.

That's so true. You brought up the idea of the persona and, you know, how an author can create their persona for certain different platforms. But I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on creating personas for that target audience. What's your experience there?

Absolutely. You can do that because when you're creating that persona, you know, you're creating information at the same time, you're creating a relationship, you're engaging with people where they are. And helping to educate them. And then that kind of goes off into the whole tangent of the grassroots campaign where people are actively talking about you and, you know, and then those people are going back to your, your platforms and engaging as well. So, you know, making sure that you have your key message points and what you're talking about and the content that you're generating and putting out there has to be beneficial, has to be factual and credible and based on fact for sure, because because, you know, for all it's good, social media— I mean, you can open up a can of worms that maybe you don't want to open up to. So that's why it's, you know, creating that persona and creating that credibility is so important.

Do you feel like people need to tweak the persona based on the platform?

Yes and no.

Yeah, you know, yes and no, because I, I think that, you know, you have to be you no matter where you go, because if people meet one person on Instagram, another person on LinkedIn, and then they happen to meet you at a press tour and you're 3 different people and you're not so nice in person, you know, or you're more scattered in person. No, you definitely need to link all those personas. And that's why I said, you know, at the foundation, create your brand. What is your brand? What, you know, and beyond, beyond the, the fonts and the colors, like, what is the persona? What is the brand, the brand person per se? And that needs to definitely be carried all the way through.. And yes, maybe you're more serious on LinkedIn, um, maybe you're a little bit more fun on Instagram, and then in person you're just you. But all of those, they do need to be linked together, and it's called a brand persona. Honestly, that's what it is.

I remember when we started working together, you had us fill out just some really great kind of questionnaires and worksheets to help answer those kinds of questions. And obviously people who work with a PR specialist would have access to those kinds of things. If you don't though, if you don't have the budget for, for PR are right now, are there resources out there that maybe they can go to to find where they can do some of that self-questioning and self-assessment to kind of figure out what that persona looks like?

Yeah, absolutely. Um, there are— I mean, if you go in, if you, if you Google brand persona worksheet, you'll have a variety of resources that will pop up to help you go through the process. And, you know, if you decide to go through the process on your own, make sure that you're not creating it in whole, for sure, because having feedback from your peers is absolutely beneficial, you know, and maybe even contracting with a professional with a set amount of hours or a set, you know, project delivery would be beneficial as well because absolutely you can do it, but, you know, leveraging that expertise, even if it's just for a short time period, would be probably more beneficial than creating it in the whole, for sure.

Sure.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's important too for people to understand the role of PR when we're talking about brand building, especially for authors. I think some people make the assumption that it's just you're going out there and you're pitching to magazines and, you know, and media, but it's so much more. And this brand building is really a big part of that. I mean, you can't do your job until people answer those kinds of questions.

No, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, PR is— I mean, it's so different from what it was even, you know, 5 years ago where It's, you know, PR is the media contact, but it's also the blogging and the article pitching and then the social media part of it and making sure that the messages stay consistent across that, you know. And a lot of times, I mean, like I said, on social media, it's such an open world right now that, you know, people can go crazy in your comments. So learning how to, learning how to handle that when someone throws something out there like it, because not answering it and just deleting it isn't going to make it go away either. I mean, there's a right way to handle that if something blows up in your comment section. I had one client that told me that he just started deleting it and I was like, stop, you need to deal with this. So I mean, absolutely, I would definitely, you know, work with a PR professional for that sort of thing. And honestly, like, I mean, I can come in and set a foundation for somebody and just steer them in the right direction and give them the right parameters to exist within. And then, you know, they can go off and do their thing and they can come back if they need me. But it's always just good to get the right foundation set for something like that because there are so many dynamics that can happen. Like your reputation in the industry is another one. Like, what is your reputation and how does that affect your, your book that's going out into the world? Is there anyone out there that really doesn't like you? You know, like, and how could that affect what you do?

Sure, absolutely. We've talked a lot about social, and I think that's important because it's the driver, right? It's kind of in the driver's seat of everything right now. But what other things do people need to kind of have in place in addition to social? We talked about landing pages and having one specific— specifically for your book, but, you know, also just to have sort of a broader brand website, I know, is a big part of it too, aside from just the book landing page. What other things do you think authors really need to sort of— we'll call it their starter kit for author platform building?

Well, I would definitely sit down and do like some sort of media tour where you're meeting reporters and editors, or you're already speaking on podcasts, or you're pitching articles so that people know who you are, they know what your book is and what it's about. And then, you know, creating that excitement, make it dynamic, make it fun, make it interesting. And then that way you have people already on your bus. People are excited, they're looking forward to it, you know. And in that same vein, you can create, uh, you can create a list where people are like, oh, I'm really excited about this, let me know when it launches. And then when it does launch, you're sending copies to the media, you're sending people that you talk to on podcasts and that you wrote articles for, and all the people on your list. I would do, definitely do the pre-work to create that excitement, create the relationships, And just understand that way, when your book does launch, it's not as scary to go out there and be on a podcast or do a media interview. You know who all your, your people are, per se, right?

Absolutely.

I have a question. Yes, I have a question because this was a conversation that we had earlier on and it kind of blew my mind. So in book publishing, getting your book discovered has a lot to do with metadata and keywords. And so when you're doing that and you're taking that information, usually we start off by listing the most important keywords at the very beginning. And that's just discoverability for SEO, for the retailer pages, Google, etc. But Emily shared something with, with us a few weeks back that kind of blew my mind about hashtags. I was doing it wrong. I was doing it so wrong. And I, I don't know if other people know about this, but But Emily, can you correct what we were doing wrong on our platforms?

Oh yes, hashtags. Yes. So obviously in social media you're using hashtags and your hashtags will differ slightly from one platform to another, but you know, we recommend that your strategy includes broad hashtags all the way down to like the minuscule hashtags. So, you know, focus on hashtags for your, your broad industry. And then like when you get down to the middle, start focusing on your particular business. And then when you get to the very end, obviously it's a tunnel. When you get to the very end, make it pertinent to your, your company, like Broad Book Group. So like obviously for book publishing, you're going to have, you know, hashtag book publishing, hashtag publishing, those sorts. And then, you know, right in the middle, whatever your book is about, you know, hashtag financial advisor hashtag, you know, cupcake maker, whatever, you know, whatever it is. And then at the very end, it's like hashtag Broad Book Group, hashtag BookBros, that sort of thing, so that could— we have full coverage and that you're more likely to fall into the algorithms.

Is there a platform that prefers this method of hashtagging than others?

I would say Instagram Instagram and Facebook or more TikTok probably are really into the, into hashtags, obviously not so much with Pinterest. Twitter, you can do well with Twitter, you know, obviously Twitter is extremely saturated. So to sit down and really put together a targeted hashtag strategy for Twitter would be a great idea. It's even more saturated than Instagram is right now.

How would somebody go about creating a hashtag strategy?

Well, number one, sit down and look at all your competitors. Look at your industry and like, what are, what are people using and how many people have used it? And it's as simple as going in and just doing, you know, hashtag Broad Book Group and seeing what happens when you do that. There are hashtag generators that you can use as well. I'm not in love with any of them, but there's there's a multitude, like all you would have to do is search for hashtag generators, but it's honestly, I wouldn't pay for anything. It's literally as simple as just going into the platform and seeing what happens. And then I would just create a big, huge document of all your hashtags, figure out who's using them and how often they're used. And you have to be careful with hashtags, especially on Instagram, 'cause you can fall into the Instagram hashtag shame and then they'll stop circulating. You as well.

What? Yes.

What is that?

I'm telling you, it's this whole cool universe out there of hashtags.

Oh my goodness. I think we need a book about this. I'm—

Oh yeah, I know, I know. And it's like, and then you always see the, the random articles about hashtags don't work anymore, but they do. I mean, and I have kind of a system that I go through when I'm working on hashtags with clients. And I have a customized approach for every single one because every— everyone's different, honestly. Everyone's just very, very different. So it's a whole subculture.

It is.

Wow.

I mean, what do you have to do to get put in hashtag jail?

That's—

that sounds serious.

Yeah, I know, I know. And the thing is, they don't— they won't even tell you. You'll just— you'll notice that your engagement just falls way off because they don't— they don't put you into the algorithm.

Them.

And then you can tell when you're back to good because then they'll start circulating you again.

Wow, that's like the worst boyfriend ever. Like, you don't know what you did wrong, you just know it was something. Oh my gosh. Wow.

Yes, I know.

So intriguing.

It is very interesting. And hashtags that I thought would have a lot of people using them maybe have like just a handful. It's very, very interesting. And I'm telling you, there's a hashtag for everything.

Sure.

Oh yeah. My gosh. Well, I think, you know, the one important thing that I take from talking to you, Emily, is that you don't have to be an expert in these things. I mean, you know, the more you know is the better, right? But I mean, if anyone who's building their platform, they can figure these things out, they can kind of follow some of this good core advice and make it happen. Like, you don't have to be a social media superstar to make this work. You just have to start, right?

Right.

Yes.

It just— yes. I would reiterate that when you're looking to build a brand around the book is go back to the foundation, build the brand for the book, and everything will evolve from there. Because the key here is consistency across all your platforms. When you're talking to the media, when you're on Instagram, when you're putting together a newsletter or a blog, I mean, people trust consistency. The news media trust consistency as well. So I would just, you know, start at the foundation and create that consistency through the brand identity.

There's no too soon time to start, right? I mean, even if you don't have a book that's coming out in the immediate future, you can go ahead and lay some of this groundwork and you should.

Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. I would absolutely agree with that because the launch day or the week before launch day is not the day to start it at all. Like, you need to have people excited and knowing about your book before launch day, because ideally you'll launch in a crowded bookstore with people all around you and the, and the media light bulbs popping off, right?

So before we wrap up, just speaking of really great campaigns, I would love to know what are some of your favorite brand platform campaigns. Like, what brands do you see that are out there, or authors, or, or just anybody that you think do a really great job of kind of harnessing the power of their brand platform?

Great question.

What do you like? Sorry to put you on the spot, but— oh no, I want to know what you like.

No, no, I think that's great. I actually really like the Badass Girls where they talk about books. They do such a great job of tapping into many different demographics. Number one, because, you know, I'm a 40 -something-year-old, and I love it. It's very interesting and intriguing to me, their newsletter, their social media, their blogging. And then I noticed that people interacting with it are, you know, 20 years old. So they do a really great job of crossing that divide. It's interesting, it's engaging, it's current. And honestly, like, I like to read the comments on their social media platforms because they're really interesting comments, and I will drill all the way down through the com— even though they're like 45 comments, I'll go like not read every single one, but I'll like flow through them. And they have great graphics, bright, engaging, and contemporary, but it's not the crazy flashy, I can't look at that for another second. It's very solid. That's really one of my favorites. Like, I keep going back to them.

Oh, I love that. I'm gonna have to check them out. I— the one that I really think is doing a great job of kind of social media brand building is Elvas, or Elvas, I'm not which, uh, which way you say it, but, um, the women's, uh, the women's financial company that, you know, they do investing, they also have debit cards and savings accounts, and they do a really great job of making their brand feel accessible to people, not salesy, uh, you know, just very community-driven. And I love just their, their whole brand look and feel and how they approach people. And really, they're, they're fairly heavy on LinkedIn, which makes a lot of sense. But I see them elsewhere too. Like, they're— they've got a good strong presence across the board.

They do.

And their advertising, their social media advertising, is really good as well because, like you said, Jen, it's not, um, too salesy. It literally— like, in their advertising, they identify problems that women have with money, right? And then they offer like a— like a snippet of a solution. And it has, you know, you're like, oh, like, I struggle with that. Let's go see what they have to say. They do a great job with that, of creating that engagement and that conversation feel. They do.

And I think their, their content ecosystem really plays into that because it's not just social posts. They've got email newsletters that come out, and you can sign up for little courses that are really just daily emails in a series. They've got, you know, one-on-one coaching. And, uh, yeah, I, I really like it too. I think it's great. Do you have any that you're loving right now? Because I know you're all over looking at all of this stuff because you're our marketing guru.

I'm educating myself on how to educate our audience, and I've been getting a lot of inspiration from, believe it or not, authors we've worked with in the past, like Laura Pennington Briggs, Kanika Tolver. These are the type of people who are out there kind of, you know, doing the thing and, and really owning their specific platforms. So I'm reeducating in that myself. But I think one of my favorite industry-specific topic is IngramSpark, which is a digital distribution channel, but they do a really good job of making self-publishing an actual thing that people can understand and follow. So just learning how to speak to that audience is interesting to me. So I am following— I'm geeking out on people that are just average people. So they're out there that, you know, you could always just learn. And it's never really stealing, it's borrowing.

That's a whole other show. Yeah.

And I like how you identify that as just being everyday people out there creating content and engaging and informing people through their content ecosystem, which I thought was a great word, a great phrase, Jen.

Thank you. Because people have so much to offer and nobody ever knows about them, and now they people who are out there solving problems for other people, who are offering solutions and not just saying, "My book, my book, my book," all day long. I mean, that's what people want. I mean, the, the buying the book will come organically if you are providing that value to people, and you don't have to wait for them to buy your book to provide that value. You know, the social value is the gateway to buying the book, and so it all flows from there. It all flows from great content and great presence for sure.

So if somebody wants to reach out to you, Emily, and talk hashtag strategy, how can they do that?

Uh, they can catch me at emily@littleredcommunications.com.

Perfect. We will definitely put that in the show notes. Feel free to reach out to her at any point. She is— she's everything we ever needed because sometimes the book publishing people need book publicity. And thank you so much for joining us today, Emily.

Oh, I had a blast. Thank you, ladies.

I truly Well, we know that we're going to be bugging you to come back again really soon so we can have another great conversation.

Yes, I would love to do that.

Absolutely. Well, with that, thank you to our producer, Paul Roberts, and Emily, who happens to also be our executive producer. Thank you for joining us and for helping us out with the show. We will see you next time, everybody. Have a great one.

We hope that you gained some valuable insights into the world of book publishing. Head over to broadbookgroup.com to learn more about us and all our services, and be sure to check out all our social media @BroadBookGroup. Until then, keep publishing!