The Writer’s Presence Online: What to Do With Your Author Platform
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The writer’s presence online is a given these days. Long gone are the days when an author could hide away from the public, writing quietly in a shed in the woods, just being all mysterious. Now, you gotta have an author platform.
There are two forces inside me battling at any given moment. One force is the side of me that loves creating online content. It’s the side of me that created The Evergreen Author Platform Bundle, and it’s the side of me that designed The Author Platform Planner.
The other force within me is the side that wishes to run away, live off the grid, and only ever write in a notebook and never think of publishing.
For the most part, the online content creation side of me wins. Not only because I enjoy creating stuff on the internet, but because I like being intentional and proactive about how I’m perceived. And it definitely helps when it comes to marketing books.
Having an author platform isn’t all bad.
So, with that, I thought it would be fun to talk about what the writer’s presence online is and why it matters, and how you can use your author platform to better represent yourself and your work.
The Writer’s Presence Online
This will surprise no one, but the writer’s presence online is all the stuff on the internet made by or about the writer. A lot of it you can control, and in some cases, others are doing the talking about you.
001: Website
I recommend all writers have their own website. You don’t have to use it to blog or sell books directly from your site. But you do need to own your author name as a domain so readers can find you.
Your website can be as static as you’d like. It can be a single page with links to where people can find you on social media and in online bookstores. Or it can be more complex. You can add a blog and several pages to your site.
Ultimately, know that there’s no right or wrong way to have a website. You just need to figure out what will work best for you. And I recommend also considering what your readers may want from you.
