Are you known to being an author? Are you wondering what you should do to get noticed among readers? Then check out what I have to share with you below. I am going to break down the top three things you need to do as a newbie to build your author brand. This will then lead you to building a fan base full of loyal readers.
Step #1: Social Media
The first thing you need to do is build your social media presence. You can pick among all the different sites that are available. I would strongly pick the ones you are most comfortable with and not overdo the accounts you have. To start off, I would start building at least 2-3 platforms.
(My Journey) I started off building my Facebook presence by creating an author page. This goes hand in hand with step #2 that I talk about later. For a time I did twitter but realized I didn’t like the platform that much. Then I moved on to include Instagram with Facebook. They are nice to work together because if you go into the meta business suite on the page dashboard for Facebook you can schedule your posts together.
I mixed my third page with my business. This was Pinterest. It is nice because you can share branding images to blog posts, social media posts, and much more. The only downside, make multiple posts a day to keep your viewership up.
These are the three social media accounts I have been running effectively since 2018. My Pinterest has been since 2022. But I am getting traction and having a lot of interaction on my pages.
You are probably wondering about TikTok. A lot of authors have had success on TikTok, but it is time consuming to create all the videos. You can outsource for this service by having someone create and schedule your post ahead of time. I wouldn’t do this right out of the gate unless you have a hard time with video editing. Another thing to note about this platform is that there is talk about it getting banned in the US. If that is the case you could end up creating a following to lose everything.
The big thing about social media is to find something that suites your needs and helps you get involved with readers. You do need to comment on comments and post either daily or three times a week depending on the platform. Pick something that fits your time available. The key is to make it work for you and not take away from your writing time.
Step #2: Author Graphics/Logos
When you set up all your social media sites it is key to keep a branding sequence that is similar across them all. If you are picking a username keep it the same across all the platforms to make it easy to find you.
The second thing to do is to make sure you have a professional logo that you put on everything. If you make book graphics put the logo on there as well. If you are targeting a specific type of age group or genre reader make sure the images follow the theme that will stand out. If you already have books published you can incorporate your covers into your social media banners.
If you decide to create a website make sure the branding works across the website as well. That means using the colors from your logo throughout the website with the fonts too.
Step #3: Newsletter
The third thing you need to work on building is a newsletter. I will talk about strategies to build your newsletter in another post later on in the series of this topic. But the first thing you do is pick your servicer and make sure you do a lot of research on the one you want to use. There are some that are followed by authors but cut corners legal wise. The one I have been using for years is Mailerlite. I would check that one out, out of all of them.
The importance of a newsletter is to have direct access to your readers. This way, you can send one email to over a hundred or thousand readers at once to announce preorders or new releases. Keep up a monthly update to keep them in the know on your current projects. Some readers like to hear about your journey in life also, so include some fun stories throughout the specific month.
These three steps are only the tip of the iceberg for building your author brand. The key is to start slowly with a few steps, then add onto your pile as it grows. A big key to building an audience base is to publish, so don’t overdo things to where you can’t keep a schedule for publishing regularly.
I will have another set of tips next time. Happy reading and keep up the hard work with your books. :)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katie Jenkins or K.M. Jenkins
K.M. Jenkins is a published international bestselling author that writes epic battles, forbidden romance, and tales of fantasy and adventure. She has a big love for the fantasy genre and loves dragons above all creatures.
When she is not writing, you will find her chasing her twin boys around the house. Between the three she has epic battles throughout the day and nothing ever gets boring.
Find her on her website: https://storytellerpub22.com
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