1. Introduction
2. Understanding the Components of an Author Platform
   1. Defining Your Brand
   2. Aligning Your Brand with Your Genre and Audience
   3. Online Presence
   4. Offline Presence
3. Building and Engaging Your Audience
   1. Identifying Your Target Audience
   2. Growing Your Following
   3. Fostering Reader Engagement
4. Creating Content That Resonates
   1. Blogging and Articles
   2. Engaging Social Media Posts
   3. Multimedia Content
5. Writing Exercise: Build your Platform
6. Conclusion

Introduction

In a world where so much is pulling for our reader’s attention, author platforms have become vital for Authors of Tomorrow. The publishing landscape has evolved just as fast as our technology. Your author platform is another tool to help your book succeed. But why does it matter so much?

Author platforms provide visibility and reach. They help you connect with a broader audience than ever before. Establishing your presence on social media, blogs, or email lists allows you to reach readers who might not have found your book otherwise.

Specific needs and opportunities arise for science fiction and fantasy authors when building their platforms. Overdoing your world-building on your platform can overwhelm readers and minimize interest in the overall story. Inconsistent facts about your world, its magic systems, and character behaviors break the reader’s immersion and trust in the story. With so many works in the genre, it can be hard to stand out. Science fiction and fantasy often involve intricate plots with multiple subplots, timelines and characters. What you share on your platform needs to weave together seamlessly with your story.

I don’t tell you all of that to discourage you, but to make you aware of some of the obstacles you might face. This post will help you understand the components of an author platform, create content that resonates, and builds and engages your audience.

Understanding the Components of an Author Platform

Building an author platform involves several key components that help you connect with your audience and promote your work effectively. Let’s break it down into three main areas: defining your brand, establishing an online presence, and creating an offline presence.

Defining Your Brand

Brand is often talked about, but it’s not always well defined. Here, I’ll try to make sense of it for you. Brand refers to the unique identity and promise you present to your audience. In essence, your brand is the overall experience and perception that readers have of you as an author. It’s about creating a strong, recognizable presence that attracts and retains readers.

Establishing your voice, style, and themes is the first step in defining your brand.

• Voice: Your voice as an author is something that’s hard to pin down at first, but as you write more, you’ll have more reference material to work with. For example, my authorial voice is thoughtful and nuanced. I want my readers to engage actively with the text to piece together clues about the world and characters as the story unfolds. Your voice is the way you express yourself through your writing. For speculative fiction authors, this might include a distinctive narrative style, tone, or perspective.
• Writing Style: This encompasses your writing techniques, such as use of language, sentence structure, and pacing. These elements fundamentally shape how your message is conveyed and interpreted by your audience. This can also include the visual elements of your brand, like book covers and website design. Your writing style might be rich with description, allowing you to create detailed images of the world you’ve created, or it might include inventive language to create unique terms that fit your narrative. Your promise of balanced action-packed sequences with introspective moments reflects your dynamic pacing. All of these make up your writing style.
• Themes: The themes you integrate into your stories speak volumes about your beliefs, questions, and guesses on life. As you write more, you’ll find recurring themes that don’t always happen on purpose. For instance, I naturally write stories of walled cities or isolation stories because I find the concepts of identity and transformation within such communities fascinating. Another common theme in my work is family, whether that’s family, friends, found family, or situational families. Are you exploring futuristic technology, dystopian societies, or magical realms? Consistent themes help readers know what to expect from your books.

Aligning Your Brand with Your Genre and Audience

• Visual Identity: Create a visually cohesive identity that makes your brand easily recognizable and memorable. This can include book covers, website designs, and social media profiles.
• Brand Promise: This is the unique value you offer your readers. It could be your writing style, the themes you explore, or the emotions you evoke.
• Brand Voice: Develop a consistent tone and style in your writing and communication. Whether it’s formal, casual, humorous, or serious, your brand voice should reflect your personality and resonate with your audience. It helps in creating a recognizable and relatable presence.

Online Presence

Website and Blog: The Foundation of Your Platform

Your website should act as the home base where your new and established readers can go to find out the latest in your writing. You’ll adjust your webpage to match your brand and genre, but there are a few pages you’ll want to have for your readers:

• About Page: Share your biography, writing journey, and what readers can expect from you.
• Books/Works: Showcase your published works with links to purchase.
• Contact Information: Make it easy for readers, media, and potential collaborators to reach you.
• Newsletter Signup: Build your email list to keep in touch with your audience.

When it comes to the blog portion, there are a lot of things you can post, but the goal is to improve your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are a few topics that can improve your search-ability:

• Writing Tips: Share your expertise and experiences. This will attract mainly writers, but some readers. Don’t rely on these unless writing advice is going to become a main part of the website.
• Behind-the-Scenes: Give insights into your writing process or upcoming projects. Writers are seen as mystical tale weavers that some readers don’t recognize as an occupation of mostly slamming your head on your keyboard. Providing behind-the-scenes can be a fun way to share your brainstorming tools, how you create your characters, and other aspects of your writing life.
• Personal Stories: Let readers get to know you on a more personal level. There’s a great push right now for authenticity in all things. Keeping the personal stories on your blog makes the readers feel like they can more authentically connect with you and understand your characters better.

Social Media: The Right Platform for the Content

Social media is a tool that is more for interaction than building sales. They can drive your sales, but should remain only part of your marketing strategy. Below are the most popular social media platforms, but there are plenty of newer ones or not so mainstream that you can use to connect with your readers. Find where they are, and share what you’ve found most successful.

• Twitter: Great for quick updates, engaging with readers, and participating in writing communities.
• Instagram: Ideal for visual content. Share book covers, writing spaces, and snippets of your life.
• TikTok: Perfect for short, engaging videos. Consider book trailers, writing tips, or fun challenges.
• Facebook: Useful for longer posts, creating groups, and engaging with a more mature audience.

Offline Presence

I know, this is the danger zone for many of us introverted writers. Though your online presence is convenient and matches many writer’s personalities, it needs the in-person experiences to validate the authenticity mentioned earlier. There are a few ways you can build your offline presence.

Speaking engagements, book signings, and conventions are all great ways to connect with writers, readers, and genre fans. Speaking engagements can include participating in workshops, panels, guest lectures and book clubs. These can be standalone, or part of a larger convention. The speaking engagement gives you a quick validation for potential readers, especially if you represent yourself and your knowledge well. People trust a subject matter expert, and even if you’re just starting, you can be a subject matter expert on your book.

When people ask you about your book, it’s less about the storyline, and more about seeing if you have the passion and engagement with your book. Why? Because if you’re not passionate about your book, then they probably won’t end up finding the next great read. So use these offline interactions to share your passion for your book.

Remember, these offline interactions are not just about promoting your book but also about building relationships and a community around your work. Keep sharing your passion, and you’ll find your audience growing organically.

Networking with other authors, editors, and influencers in the genre is essential for building a strong presence in the speculative fiction community. There are so many ways to do this, but I want to keep this post at a reasonable length. I’ll create another post that focuses on Networking with Authors, Editors, and Influencers. I’ll update that with a link once it’s ready.

Building and Engaging Your Audience

Audience is the key word when it comes to building and engaging the community you build. Once you’ve completed your book, or are on any draft beyond the zero/first draft, then you need to have your audience in mind. Sometimes it’s a challenge to define your audience, and it’s something you’ll need to practice. I’m trying to define my audience during the outline process and it’s not always easy when you don’t have all the story details yet. But let’s go over some ways to identify, grow, and engage with your audience.

Identifying Your Target Audience

Understanding the demographics and interests of your potential reader can help you identify what type of audience you want to build. Determine the age range and gender of your potential readers. As much as we’d like to say our books are for everyone, it’s never true. Two people of the same age and gender can read the same book and one will love it while the other will hate it. So much of the reading experience is internal. Can you think of any books that everyone loved and you still don’t understand how it became so popular? Location is another critical demographic. Where your reader lives can drive themes and settings that resonate with them. You may find that your book is successful in the US, but not in the UK. This could be due to cultural differences and many other factors.

Another influence is your reader’s interests and preferences. Many readers have genre preferences that will quickly knock your book off their list or add it to the extensive TBR pile. Your ideal reader should match the genre your writing and that can help you identify other aspects of your ideal reader. Along with this, you’ll want to consider how your audience consumes stories. Do they prefer e-books, audio-books, or physical books? This also plays into book length and the genres you write in. Romance readers are voracious. They plow through TBRs and always want more. This has led to many romance writers having to produce stories consistently releasing multiple books in a year. Your Epic Fantasy won’t appeal to all fantasy readers, the extra world-building can overwhelm those who aren’t ready for it.

Try to get as specific as you can with your audience. Here is an example from one of my story ideas that I’ve refined a few times before I’ve even written a word of the story.

30-year-old males who seek an immersive escape into a world where they can feel like Lords of their lands. They desire a break from the complexities and pressures of the modern world, yearning for a setting where power, control, and leadership are paramount. This audience craves a rich, immersive fantasy realm that offers adventure, honor, and the freedom to explore without the constraints of technology or modern-day stress. They are drawn to stories of triumph, mastery, and the ability to shape a world, appealing to their sense of nostalgia and desire for a simpler yet grander existence.

Knowing the finest details like this can help you with creating content, which we’ll cover later in the post. So now that you’ve identified your audience, let’s grow your following.

Growing Your Following

Growing your following can be hard and uncomfortable for authors. Unless you’re well versed in social media, it’s an awkward tool to use. Yet, social media is a massive tool to connect with your readers. Once you’ve identified your audience, you can do some searches to find where that audience is mostly found. Use platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook to reach your target audience.

Social Media

You’ll want to post consistently. This doesn’t have to be every day, but try to create a posting schedule that is realistic for you. Consistency will tell your readers what to expect from you and how often they should be checking in on your social media. Your posts can increase and decrease as necessary, but give your readers a heads up if they can expect to see more or less of you.

Growing your community on social media begins not with great content, but showing you’ll commit the time to other’s posts. Search for posts within your genre, target audience, and that match your aesthetic and interact. If you’re uncomfortable with social media, begin with likes. Like posts, pictures, comments, and once you’re ready, add your own comments. Dedicate 15 minutes a day or every other day to interact with the social media world. People are more likely to interact with you if you’ve already shown that you’re willing to interact with them.

What should you post? We’ll go over that more later in the post.

Email Lists

Email lists are often brought up through many writing conventions, online or in-person. The email list is seen as the ultimate marketing tool that leads to sales. It’s a more personal interaction than social media as it’s a more welcome invitation into a more private channel.

You can use email lists to create a newsletter that keeps your readers in the loop. The newsletter can offer exclusive content, such as sneak peeks or short stories, or to encourage sign ups. As you learn more about your audience you can personalize the emails to match the majority of followers. But how do you get sign-ups?

Lead Magnets are any form of content you promise in exchange for email addresses. For your author newsletter, you can set aside a short story that you feel best represents your writing style to send upon sign up. Or you can offer a world-building guide if that matches your audience.

There are several excellent email newsletter management services available, each with its own strengths. Here are some of the top options for 2024:

1. MailerLite: Known for its user-friendly interface and powerful features, MailerLite is great for both beginners and advanced users. It offers a free plan and affordable paid plans.
2. ConvertKit: Ideal for creators, bloggers, and small businesses, ConvertKit provides robust automation and segmentation features.
3. Mailchimp: One of the most popular platforms, Mailchimp is easy to get started with and offers a wide range of features, including email marketing, automation, and analytics.

Collaborations

Collaborations are a great tool that help bring audiences more of what they love. As much as authors are trying to make their success, we sometimes forget that we’re never going to produce enough to satisfy our reader’s needs. How many readers do you know say that they only read from one author? Not many, they often have a group of authors that they read and like to recommend for others to read. So, don’t make writing a competition. Other authors within your genre and outside of it are great resources to build relationships with.

Partner with other speculative fiction authors for joint promotions, anthologies, or cross-promotion, as collaborating with like-minded creators can significantly expand your audience reach and enhance your visibility in the genre. By working together, you can pool resources, share marketing efforts, and even combine your unique voices in a collection that showcases diverse storytelling styles, themes, and ideas. This collaborative approach not only strengthens community ties among authors but also introduces readers to a wider range of narratives, enticing them to explore more than just one author’s work.

Fostering Reader Engagement

Reader engagement refers to the ways your audience interacts with your content. This can be comments, likes, shares, and even just opening emails. High reader engagement indicates that your readers are not only consuming your content but are also actively participating and showing interest.

Interacting with Your Audience

The easiest way to interact with your audience is to respond to social media posts and blog articles. These comments may not come often at first, but even if it’s just a “Nice” or something similar, respond. Even if that response is just thanking them for taking the time to comment and you’re glad they enjoyed the post/article, it will do more for you in the future than you may realize.

You can host live events to connect with your audience on a deeper level. These events might include Q&A sessions, writing sprints, or virtual book clubs where participants discuss their favorite books. Platforms like Instagram Live, Facebook Live, and Zoom are great for these interactive experiences, offering features like chat and screen sharing. You could also invite guest speakers or industry experts to share their insights, making the experience more valuable for attendees. The success of these events relies on understanding your audience and their preferences, allowing you to tailor each event to their interests.

Community Building

Online Groups: Join or create communities on platforms like Facebook or Discord where fans can talk about your work and speculative fiction. Engaging in these groups leads to deeper discussions about themes, characters, and world-building, while helping readers connect with each other. These communities often hold events, share fan art, and create polls that provide valuable feedback on what your audience enjoys. By being involved in these discussions, you enhance your presence as an author and build a loyal fanbase that cares about your creative journey.

Reader Involvement: Involve your readers by asking for feedback on character names, plot ideas, or cover designs. This helps build a community and makes your audience feel valued. Engaging with readers through polls, social media, or forums can provide new ideas and perspectives. Encourage them to share their thoughts and experiences related to your story’s themes, as this can enhance your narrative. By including their input, you create a collaborative space that can increase their excitement for your upcoming releases.

Creating Content That Resonates

Creating content that resonates with your audience involves understanding their interests and delivering value in a way that captures their attention. Let’s break it down into three areas.

Blogging and Articles

Creating Content for your Target Audience

Blogs and articles allow authors to discuss their writing experiences and share story details that readers crave but can’t be included in the book. Remember, not everything you write in early drafts will make it into the final published version. You can use these “extras”—the background information and details you needed to know to write the book—as “bonuses” for readers who support your content outside of the book.

This approach not only provides added value to your readers but also deepens their connection to your work by offering them exclusive insights and content. It’s a great way to engage your audience and reward their loyalty. 

Here are a few examples you can use:

• World-Building Insights: Share behind-the-scenes looks at the worlds you’ve created. Discuss the cultures, histories, and geographies of your fictional settings. Readers love to dive deeper into the lore of their favorite stories.
• Genre Analysis: Write articles that explore the themes and trends in speculative fiction. Discuss popular books, movies, and TV shows, and analyze what makes them compelling.
• Character Spotlights: Highlight your characters by sharing their backstories, motivations, and development arcs. Readers enjoy getting to know characters on a deeper level.

Guest Posting

You can find blogs and websites that focus on speculative fiction fans, which are great places to share ideas and connect with a dedicated community. Take the time to study these platforms to see what themes and topics resonate with their audience. Then, create a pitch to offer your unique insights or original content related to your works. Think about writing a series of articles or guest posts that dive into your creative process or discuss the themes of your stories.

Once you join these blogs, you can interact with readers through comments or discussion boards, building connections that could lead to helpful feedback, collaborations, or new fans who enjoy your work. Having meaningful conversations will not only help you develop your ideas but also boost your presence in this lively literary community, increasing your visibility as a writer.

Engaging Social Media Posts

Sharing Content that Attracts and Engages

Sometimes, it can be tough to figure out what engages your readers. A good starting point is to examine other authors in your genre and their methods. What content do they share? Which themes connect with their audience? What is the mood of their social media? Do they use dark images with low color saturation for a mysterious feel, or bright landscapes that evoke adventure and freedom? By looking at the visual and textual elements that attract their followers, you can discover effective storytelling techniques and draw inspiration for your own work. Also, pay attention to how they engage with their audience and the level of interaction from different types of content, as this can shape your approach.

Here are some quick ideas for posts:

• Snippets from Works-in-Progress: Post intriguing excerpts from your current projects to pique interest. Use visuals or graphics to make these posts more engaging.
• Speculative Fiction News: Keep your audience updated on the latest news in the sci-fi and fantasy world, such as book releases, movie adaptations, and conventions.
• Fan Art and Fan Fiction: Share and celebrate fan creations. This not only engages your current readers but also encourages more fan participation.

Multimedia Content

Using Video

The growth of YouTube from the early 2000s has opened up an easy way to share content through video for authors. Creating a channel for your fiction is a great way to share book trailers, book reviews, character deep dives, and behind the scenes looks at your writing process. TikTok is a way to share short, engaging videos that highlight key aspects of your work or offer insights into the speculative fiction genre.

All social media platforms now offer “shorts” for quick videos, allowing users to quickly scroll through content until they find something engaging. This trend shows a change in content consumption, with users wanting instant entertainment. The aim is to create videos that grab their attention in seconds and encourage further interaction. To do this, make sure your content is visually appealing and tells a compelling story that connects with your audience’s interests and emotions. By knowing what they like and how they watch, you can produce relatable shorts that catch their eye among many distractions.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a fantastic medium because many people listen to them through their favorite podcast service while going about their day. I personally listen to writing podcasts on my drive to work every day. People often view podcasts as an educational way to spend their time, making them an excellent way to reach your readers. You can either start a podcast to discuss topics related to speculative fiction or make guest appearances on other podcasts.

If you start a podcast, invite other authors, editors, and industry professionals to provide unique perspectives on the speculative fiction world, trends, and processes. Promote your episodes on your social media and website to engage your existing audience and attract new listeners.

Writing Exercise: Build your Platform

This exercise will help you practice the key elements of building your author platform as discussed in the post. Complete each step to develop a strong foundation for your online presence.

Step 1: Define Your Brand

1. Write a brief paragraph (3-5 sentences) describing your unique author voice. How do you want readers to perceive your writing style?
2. List 3-5 recurring themes in your work or themes you plan to explore in your writing.
3. Create a one-sentence “brand promise” that encapsulates what readers can expect from your books.

Step 2: Identify Your Target Audience

1. Describe your ideal reader in detail. Include demographics (age, gender, location) and psychographics (interests, preferences, reading habits).
2. List 3 online communities or social media groups where you might find your target audience.

Step 3: Content Creation

1. Blog Post: Write an outline for a 500-word blog post that would appeal to your target audience. Choose one of the following topics:

• A behind-the-scenes look at your world-building process
• An analysis of a popular trope in your subgenre
• A character spotlight for one of your protagonists

1. Social Media: Create 5 engaging social media post ideas (1-2 sentences each) that align with your brand and would interest your target audience. Include hashtags where appropriate.
2. Multimedia: Outline a 2-3 minute video or podcast episode that explores an aspect of your writing or the speculative fiction genre.

Step 4: Audience Engagement

1. Design a simple “lead magnet” to encourage newsletter sign-ups (e.g., a short story, world-building guide, or character profiles).
2. Plan a virtual event to engage with your readers. Describe the event format, platform you’ll use, and how you’ll promote it.
3. Brainstorm 3 potential collaboration ideas with other speculative fiction authors or content creators in your niche.

Step 5: Reflection

1. What aspect of building your author platform excites you the most? Why?
2. What area do you find most challenging? How might you overcome this challenge?
3. Set 3 concrete goals for building your author platform over the next 3 months.

Remember, building an author platform is an ongoing process. Use this exercise as a starting point and continue to refine your approach as you learn more about your audience and what resonates with them.

Conclusion

Building an author platform is an essential part of your journey as a speculative fiction writer. It’s not just about promoting your books; it’s about creating a community around your work and connecting with readers who share your passion for imaginative worlds and stories. Remember, your platform is an extension of your creative vision.

As you develop your online presence, stay true to your unique voice and the themes that drive your writing. Engage with your audience authentically, share your love for the genre, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of content. With persistence and creativity, you’ll build a platform that not only supports your writing career but also enriches the speculative fiction community as a whole.

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