I’ve been busy going through all the exciting info gleaned from my three days at Harvard Medical School’s publishing course. I’m planning several blog posts on my private conversations with literary agents and publishers on what they’re looking for, the state of publishing, what authors can do, etc.
In the meantime, here’s a quick post (and CONTEST!) inspired by a recent conversation with a potential client: a psychologist with a successful practice and several self published books. Here are 3 quick things she can do to market herself better and begin to establish a platform to build a case for her book to agents and publishers. Maybe one or two of these will resonate for you:
1. She signed her e-mails with an aol address. Use your website e-mail, such as Lisa@LisaTener.com on all e-mails. This is free advertising and many people will look up your website based on your e-mail address. If you haven’t set up an e-mail address for your website, just ask your webmaster to do it. You should be able to view and respond to those e-mails in whatever manner you usually view other e-mails.
2. Her website received 150 visitors a month, but she had no way of continuing to communicate with those visitors. You need some way to convert visitors to followers, whether it’s having them subscribe to your blog, having them provide their e-mail address and first name in exchange for a free special report or tip list from you. You want to build a relationship with your visitors and have a way to communicate to them when you have something to offer them.
3. She wasn’t branding herself. In fact, she specialized in several diverse areas with both parents and children. If you want to be seen as an expert, it’s best to pick one area to focus on, at least on your home page, in order to send a clear message.
Can you find one idea from the above to implement in your marketing and platform-building strategy? Let me know what it is and when you’ve implemented it. Point us to your page. 
The best implementation will receive a free CD of Writing in the Zone: Tap into Your Creative Genius: a Visualization for Writers, or a free e-kit: The Insider’s Guide to Writing Your Best Book in 60 Days.
Hi Lisa, I love the idea of putting your email address as Pat@….. I just implemented it. I have 3 areas that I am marketing as an author, speaker and spiritual coach. I think it is all under the umbrella of spirituality so I think it’s ok. Any suggestions? Blessings and Happy Easter. Pat
Pat, when you market yourself as those things, you are telling people the different ways they can access you, but they all have the same marketing message or brand–you put them in touch with their faith; you teach them how to pray and get answered prayer. So your message is consistent, and your market is consistent, even though there are different ways you can do that for people–through your book, workshops, counseling, etc. Great question.
I’ve focused on #2 for the last few years. My debut novel releases in September. My goal is to have 1,000 subscribers by then. Considering the amount of time it’s taken to capture the newsletter subscribers I have so far, I’m very glad to have started early!
I think my mother/co-writer (of other books) and I have found a niche in the “writing-related newsletter market” by focusing on our humor. In fact, if you google “infrequent” and “humorous,” the number one link is to our newsletter.
You can find back issues and the subscription box here: http://ashberrylane.net/update.aspx
(I’m having a technical problem with my header, but it should be resolved soon.)
Hey Lisa, great contest. These are simple ideas that go a long way from JUST being online to being seen by the world as a professional and focused business person.
I will enjoy seeing everyone’s progress! ~Michelle