Platform Building: Personal or Professional?

Hi, everyone!

Disclaimer: This is my opinion and thoughts and it’s me sharing my own journey so, like any other writing advice on the world wide internet, feel free to toss it out if it doesn’t work for you! :)

Alright, now that the disclaimer is out of the way…here we go! :)

Platform building: personal or professional? With platform building, it’s so important to find that well balanced tone that exudes professionalism, but still maintains the very heart of who you are as a writer. Platform building is like your resume or audition in the writers world because it shows both readers and publishers who you are and the content you create.

This simple question on whether to make a platform personal or professional is one that I have often found myself pondering as I’ve learned to create and establish my own platform. Platform building is an essential part of the publishing part of writing and one that I have thoroughly dreaded since I first heard I would need a platform in order to actually be published.

It’s not easy to find the method that works, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that it doesn’t matter which social media platform you choose, but rather the community you develop through it. This affection for the community you create can only come from the affection you have for the medium you choose to reach those audience members.

Find a method that works for you and pursue it. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, a blog, email list, etc.- just pursue it. That is my advice.

There’s nothing worse (at least in my own experience) than a reader following an author and realizing said author NEVER puts anything on that social media. A year later, the reader then finds out that their favorite author published a new book and the reader never heard a lick about it for the longest time. This leaves the reader feeling left out of the loop and disconnected from an author that they resonated with through the author’s book.

Please don’t let this be you and your platform. Your readers are your community. Your readers are your biggest fans and they want to share in your journey.

My advice for you?

Try out different platforms to find which one works for you. Don’t stop until you find something that resonates with you and is something you want to pursue even when you’re a little tired or had a long day. I’m not saying this to get you to have a thousand different social media users and handles, but because I want you to try out different methods to get your work in front of people in a way that matters to you. This will have a domino effect and your developing community will also resonate with what you are doing to share your content with them.

If you hate Twitter no matter what you do, but you’ve enjoyed being able to interact with your Instagram followers through that avenue- embrace it!

Go with what you enjoy because you will end up publishing a lot more and building that active community that will naturally be drawn towards you and your books.

The sooner you find your community, the sooner you and your audience can celebrate all of the fun things that come with the book writing journey! :)

If you want to share what you’ve learned about platform building, leave a comment below and I’d love to read it!

Best of luck and remember to have fun! :)

~ Prose_