Building Your Online Presence

Good morning Friends! Today’s blog might be a little short but today’s piece of advice for you all is growing your online presence, even if you haven’t published yet. When I first started writing, I didn’t think of anything beyond that.

Writing. Getting my book written. Pages in my hand.

And yet something nagged at me even when I was writing.

I kept thinking, when I’m done, how am I going to get it into the hands of readers beyond the simple act of publishing? There has to be more to it than that. How am I going to market it if no one knows it’s published?

I have found, through the years, that the number one mistake writers make, is getting the story, their book, published first, and then they start to build their platform, their online presence.

Me and a friend were talking a few years ago and she’s in the process of writing her book. I told her to build her presence and her response was, “but it’s not done yet. I’m not technology an author yet so what’s the point?”

Wrong.

Just because you haven’t published yet doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t build your presence. In fact, it’s better to start early, to grow. A few steps you can take are simple.

Develop an attractive professional Facebook Page. Work on growing it. Build your base.

WordPress and WIX is free. Develop your website. Design it yourself. Believe me, you will be very proud of yourself when you do. If you aren’t confident enough, hire someone to build it.

Create a twitter account. Create LinkedIn. Create Pinterest. Start an author blog or more generic one. Since the internet has revolved, it’s been so easy to grow your product, your brand, beyond your own little world and family.

I wish I had known all of this when I was first starting out but if you focus on growing your presence, even before you publish, it will be a lot easier to sell when you have your audience in front of you.

For me, I began to develop it as I published my first paranormal romance. I created all of the above, worked on networking, posted teasers with specific hashtags, etc. It was after I was published so a little late but heck, better late than never, right?

There are so many paths you can take to build your online presence. Never be shy of promoting yourself even before you publish.

You won’t regret it.

Stay tuned, stay sane, and stay safe my friends!