[Due to an unfortunate technological malfunction, this post did not go out correctly late last year. The content answers a common question, so we are reposting it again for those who missed it the first time around.]
As a novelist, making a solid connection with your readers is better than building thousands of followers, if half may be bots. Make readers excited about you and your book. Buyers of nonfiction are looking for self-help or study, so the author’s topic and authority are critical. In contrast, a novelist doesn’t need an MDiv but needs to possess the gift to write a God-honoring, entertaining, edifying, and meaningful novel. A novelist must convince readers that reading a story is a good use of their leisure time. Readers who are invested in you will be more likely to read your fables. How do you show agents and editors that readers relate to you?
Can We Find You?
Experienced and competent agents and editors search the Internet to find the author when considering proposals that pique their interest.
Website
Not every author will have an extensive, glamorous site that immediately pops up after we type a couple of letters in a search bar. For fun, I searched Stephen King and got the correct hit after typing Stephe. Even then, Stephen King showed up after basketball player Stephen Curry, but he showed up quickly. We don’t expect such prominent positioning with a new author; but, like potential readers, we ask to spend little time finding an author’s website. We understand we may have to type Ima Writer Christian Author, especially if you share your name with several doctors and real estate agents. But please make sure your site appears quickly when we search.
By the way, your website is your identification online. This is a place where you can shine and tell us all about yourself!
Social Media
Agents and editors, as well as your readers, would like to find you easily on social media. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, choose one or two formats you enjoy and focus on those. Keep track of the number of followers you have, and share those in the proposal. Some authors hire an assistant to handle social-media posts on Facebook, Instagram, X, and other platforms. If you prefer to avoid the business side of social media, an assistant can help you manage your image while you tend to your writing.
When was the last time you were active with your social media? We often search an author’s site or social media and discover an abandoned account. Once, Steve Laube said he came across a blog on an author’s site where the last entry was seven years prior. If you don’t enjoy blogging regularly, deleting the dates of the blog posts could be helpful. We still recommend that you write blogs occasionally since your writing and ideas have no doubt matured over time.
How About a Newsletter?
Do you have a newsletter that appears weekly, monthly, or even quarterly? Publishing updates is an excellent opportunity to reach readers in a meaningful way. Provide the number of subscribers in your proposal. We understand that building a newsletter readership takes time. This step does show that you are serious about being a known author.
The Book!
The point of platform for novelists is to show that they can reach their readers and how they are doing so. Novelists are demonstrating that they can be great partners with their publishers. Still, the book itself is the primary consideration. Concentrate on your novel while you grow your platform. With a winning combination, a book contract may be in your future.
It was Twitter, now it’s X,
and is Facebook now called Meta?
Someone’s gone and laid a hex
upon our social media.
TikTok’s where the cool kids post
their videos and everything,
but that platform’s playing host
to intrusion from Beijing,
and what to make of Instagram?
People go there to find recipes
for things like kale and kosher ham,
and tea made from the bark of trees,
but do not use the bark, I beg,
from low, where Rover lifts his leg.
This one made me smile, Andrew!
Tamela, that’s why I’m here!
Nicely done.
Thanks, that was the first common sense advice for building a platform I’ve read. Especially about my blogging and adding a newsletter.
Derek, thanks for the encouragement!
I’ve been struggling with this myself as I fine tune my author presence online.
I agree with Derek. An excellent commons sense approach to platform building. Thank you.
Ah, well, why not one more?
I have made my platform,
but you know how it goes;
it’s so small that I must perform
upon my tippy-toes.
It creaks and groans beneath my feet
in digital resentment,
swallows content that I must repeat,
and smiles, so unrepentant!
I so wish that I might afford
a medium so sleek
that I would feel an overlord
to an oil-mad sheik,
ensuring that all hard work lands
in my underpaid assistant’s hands.
Thank you,Tamela! So glad to hear the website is crucial, I have a such a good team helping me!
Oh my word, I was just thinking about this yesterday! With this agency being my dream agency I’ve been searching high and low on the website for an article like this, because I just launched my website eight months ago and as I was setting goals this year I was trying to figure out how many subscribers i was hoping to gain before I attempt pitching. Currently I have 110, so maybe in another eight months I’ll have three hundred? XD One can dream. But I can pretty easily find myself, even if I go onto another search platform that I don’t use as much.
Does not having a social media account hurt your chances? I would prefer to keep off social media and just focus on my website and email list…
Thanks for asking! Social media increases an author’s chances of being seen. However, since you have a website, you do have a professional presence. The need to be on social media will be determined by many factors, including the publisher(s) you are targeting and what type of book you are writing. Hope that helps!
Yes, it does! Thank you. I think if I just focus on making a strong website and email list, it will carry me farther than a social media account.
(Besides, who needs all the drama? XD)
Thank you for this informative article, Tamela. An assistant to take over my social media responses isn’t a bad idea and would free up my time.
Thanks, Tamela. It helps to know the time we spend on our websites and social media is well spent.
Thank you, Pamela. This offers me a bit of encouragement. While my platform is still too small, at least my website pops up first when you google my name. I felt a bit of a boost with that. I guess getting out there and guest posting and commenting does help. Thank you again for your advice and God bless!
Thank you for this information, Tamela. It’s very helpful as I consider how to market my book.
Please forgive one more comment, but what if platform is purgatory, a view to a kill? (And Tamela, please delete this, if it’s off-topic; it’s written from a heart that may be in the wrong place.)
Don’t get me wrong; Barb shared with me the other day what my doctor told her, that I have outlived prognostications by years. I didn’t know. Every poem has a cost now. I used to scoff at writers spilling blood upon the page. Maybe now I won’t.
But it all really hurts, the writing from here focuses the pain, and I wish, God, so much, for a platform bathed in smiling Sonlight.
But maybe this is it, this platform, and seeing an end, I’m at a beginning?
And now it is my heart that’s failing,
the days are looking pretty dire;
of this thing are my words availing,
but must my platform be my pyre?
Where now are the simple days
of plot and moral certitude?
Why, now, am I in a maze
that dares God’s blessings to intrude
to lift the veil for one more chance,
to bring bright possibility?
In life and all its happenstance
must I face this Gethsemane
from which each gleam of light has run,
to leave me say, ‘Thy will be done!’?
Thank you for being a wonderful and caring part of our community by sharing your poetry, your spirit, your thoughts, and your heart. We appreciate you!
Thanks Tamela. VERY informative!!
Tamela,
Thank you for mentioning the importance of current activity on social media. What would you say are the most valuable platforms to build on in regards to what publishing houses like to see? Newsletter, I’ll guess is number one. Do Instagram, Tiktok, X, Facebook, Linked In, etc. more depend on the book’s target demographic, or do agencies and publishing houses have a favorite platform?
Good observation. Yes, go where your audience will find you. An author with tons of followers on a platform where the author can let fans know a book is being released should be successful.