You have an author’s blog to share your thoughts and ideas. Each day you transparently offer tidbits about your life, insights into the books you have written and your upcoming novels. The information is compelling, engaging and informative. Yet all is quiet. Do you have an audience? Are they listening?
The trick in every blog is to provide valuable, well-written information targeting your audience. The author of quantum physics will target an entirely difference audience than the romance novelist.
To attract the right audience, start by writing down questions you would be interested in knowing the answers to and then answering these questions in a blog post or series of posts. Keep answers concise and informative. Don’t wander. Re-read every post from the perspective of the reader BEFORE you publish. Not only should you provide invaluable information, it must be well written, and avoid the sale pitch. The purpose of your blog is to motivate the reader and engage them in a dialog about a post on your blog.
The comment area is one of the most valuable sections of a blog. Comments help determine if your site is doing well, so at the end of a post place a call to action. Do this by asking your readers a question, or by simply asking your readers to comment. You can even offer a reward for comments, such as a copy of your latest book. Just make sure you respond to every comment – do not just read them. Keep the lines of communication open, providing a comment section more like a two-way conversation with your readers.
Author Platform versus Blog Platform
In a recent discussion in the Writers,etc group in Facebook, guest speaker Deborah Riley-Magnus expertly pointed out the importance of targeting your audience through two separate blogs: the Author Platform and the Book Platform.
Deborah Riley-Magnus details the Author Platform as “a great tool for making sure you can promote yourself and ALL your books, present and future“. The author blog is “the place for your overall media room, boasting all those interviews for various books, all the different book videos for all the different books, and especially, clearly stating that you are an AUTHOR, not just the writer of one particular book”.
The Book Platform is completely different as it focuses exclusively on the book or series itself. Deborah Riley-Magnus states, “This platform is your sales tool for the book. It’s the place you create a relationship with your readers by keeping it vibrant like a living plant.”
Not unlike writing, promoting yourself and your book successfully takes time, a commitment and a rudimentary knowledge of how to target your audience through keywords and SEO (search Engine optimization)*. The writer must understand and fulfill the needs of their audience through posts and comment interaction. If you capture your audience’s interests, they are much more likely to share your content with other readers and ensure your blog success.
Please give us your comments or questions. Roxanne and I are here to help you achieve your goal of publication success.
If you would like to read the full discussion with Deborah Riley-Magnus, or follow her blog, go to Writers,etc Discussion Group “Author Success Coaching Q&A Discussion by Deborah Riley-Magnus “ and Deborah Riley-Magnus, Writeaholic (respectively).
Great information about how to engage a blog audience! I love the way you integrated Deborah’s wonderful discussion from Writers etc – her distinction between Author Platform and Book Platform was very important, but I hadn’t quite thought of it that way before. I know when I’ve done radio interviews, they are typically “tell me about your book” – Book Platform. But much of the time, since my book is a memoir, the interviewers end up asking followup questions about me – which is really about Author Platform!
The way I’ve had to think of it is that I wear three different hats – writer hat – getting the book done. Then publishing hat – getting the book published. Then publicity hat – which is a totally different animal from the first two. It’s been helpful for me to stay focused and not take off one hat with a specific book, until I’ve completed the other two. Particularly the last – I have to look at publicity as a business project, which as you point out takes time, and a commitment to the project! And yes, some knowledge of SEO can make all the difference!
Great article! :)
Thanks Dan. I loved Deborah’s terms defining the two platforms. And your comment on publicity is definitely the “third hat”.
In fact, We are currently editing our Writer’s Guides to SEO as well as the first steps when marketing and promoting for authors and writers. We hope to have it out in early 2011 (but you know how that goes).
Thanks again for the great comment, much appreciated! — Suzanne