Balboa Press publishes articles written by our authors in which they share some aspect of their self-publishing journeys. These are the words of KJ Landis, author of Superior Self: Reaching Superior Health For A Superior Self and other books. For more about KJ, check out her website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram. Download the Balboa Press free publishing guide to receive more information on self-publishing your book with Balboa Press.
When I first heard the word platform coming out of Reid Tracy’s mouth at a writing conference, I thought he was referring to the stage my future self would speak from, or the shoes I would wear to become even taller than my 5-foot 10-inch frame. What ensued that weekend was an education in waters I had never swum in before. The term platform, I learned, was my audience across the World Wide Web in all the forms that it takes.
When writing a book, the first part is the tickling of the creative muse. Then comes the rewriting. Then comes the rewriting. Then comes the rewriting. You get it? “Writing is rewriting,” my husband (a screenwriter) has said many times.
Before the book comes out of the oven, and before it is for sale, we must learn how to market the book. We market the book through many avenues, thus building our platform little by little, or if one already has a fan base of readers from a blog, maybe in larger chunks.
I didn’t even know how to type when I wrote my first book. My children taught me how to do that with elementary school typing games. They also created for me a Facebook page and a Twitter page on line. My cousin who is younger than me sat with me for 16 hours and taught me how to create my website. My kids’ friends showed me what a YouTube channel looks like, and how to upload a video. And then my niece came over and said, “It’s all about Instagram and LinkedIn these days.”
“Aaaaagh! This is all so confusing and I am technologically challenged. How am I going to market my works when I just want to help people from my research and from my heart?” I thought.
I began educating myself by listening to podcasts about marketing and authors, when in walked Mailchimp and his buddy
Buffer. Those two tools helped me tremendously to simplify my messages to multiple social media and emails directly to friends and family through marketing without sounding like a used car salesman!
So allow me to share my marketing efforts:
-Once a week, I write a blog on my website.
-Once a week, I create a short, helpful video on YouTube related to my books.
-Once a week, I write a newsletter with links to the blog and video and send out through Mailchimp.
-Once a week, I write an email letter campaign highlighting a benefit one will get from reading my works, always with links to my books, and to my social media.
-Once a week, I create short statements of empowerment for my friends and family with photos and hashtags so folks can find me. I use Buffer to schedule up to 10 of them in advance. Buffer staggers when they will send out the image and motivational statements, so I can continue tickling my creative muse.
-Create a professional fan page on Facebook, separate from your personal page, and post to both pages.
-Once a month, or more, I host free wellness workshops at libraries, senior centers, and in private homes. I make it fun, humorous, and hands on. The participants must give me their full name and email in order to participate in the raffle at the end, therefore add to my list of supporters.
-Once every 3 months, I give away my companion workbook in eBook format completely free for 3 days on Amazon.com. This is available as a promotion through Amazon.com only, not Balbao Press.
Remember, if you touch and change one life for the better with your writing, the energy is exponential in nature. And that is fulfilling for me.
Balboa Press authors who’d like to share a 350-600 word experience related to the self-publishing of their books, are invited to do so by sending a message through our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BalboaPress, by tweeting us @BalboaPress, or by emailing blog@balboapress.com. We may not be able to use every story, but we will read and consider them. Balboa Press reserves the right to edit stories for content, grammar and punctuation accuracy; as well as for space.