Writing for Adventure Authors will be available in 8 days (1st May 2018). So you've got an inkling of what you'll actually be 'buying' (it's going to be FREE so you can tell your wallet moths to chill out!) I've decided to share little snippets from the book.
Today it's the turn of Chapter 2 - Build Your Platform. Enjoy!
We’re not building a literal platform here. You can put the hammer and nails down.
Instead we’re going to jump into the marketing.
But, Jon, this book is about WRITING my adventure book. Why isn’t this section in the marketing book?
Because it is paramount that you start the process of platform building AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
(Well, ok. Finish the chapter first, then get on it.)
Building a Platform, as you may be aware, is basically building a community of people around your brand or product that is interested in you and what you have to offer.
Your brand is YOU and your product is YOUR BOOK.
So how do we go about finding people who would be interested in buying your book, and why do this BEFORE we’ve even written the book?
The way we are going to build your platform is through a 3 step process.
1. Build a website
2. Create an email list
3. Engage on social media
The reason we are doing this before you’ve written the book is because it will give you the maximum amount of time to build your platform before your book is due out AND it will give you the kick up the butt to get your book finished on time.
In actual fact, you should probably have started to build your platform BEFORE you even went on your epic adventure, but I’m going to assume you forgot to do that before you drifted off to the other side of the world. You were probably too focused on booking flights, visas and immunisations. That’s fair enough.
If you have a website or are a whizz on social media then feel free to skip ahead. No point wasting your time when you’ve got a serious amount of writing to do.
Website
The first thing you should do is create a place where people can go to find out all about you. This will be your own brand spanking new website.
Woah! Woah! Woah! You want me to create a website?
Yes, I do. Not only will this serve as a place for people to go to potentially buy your book (and in the process give you the best royalties) but it will be where people can learn about you and your adventures. They can get in contact with you directly and you can gain their email and contact them directly too.
But can’t I do all of this through Facebook?
Yes, you could but you don’t own Facebook (unless Mark Zuckerberg is reading this, in which case, could you lend us a tenner?). Facebook doesn’t owe you anything. Facebook is well within its rights to pull down any fan page you make or delete any of the content that you put up.
You’d effectively be giving all of your intellectual property and your ability to make money to a faceless conglomerate and hoping they’ll give you something back in return.
In 2015 Facebook changed their policy on their pages. Business pages and ‘fan pages’ saw a dramatic drop in the number of ‘likes’ they had plus their visibility to their audiences was drastically reduced. Coincidentally, around this time Facebook introduced Facebook Ads where organisations would pay to have their content made more visible to their audience.
Now, I’m not slating Facebook. Mr. Zuckerberg can do whatever the hell he likes. It’s his business after all.
I’d hate for you to become a ‘sucker-berg’ (I'm here all night folks!)
If you want to engage with your audience you need to have your own place. You need your own house that you can invite your potential readers to come and spend some time in. Your own little piece of author paradise. Casa de You. Your Website.
Most authors and bloggers start with a WordPress site...