Indie Authors: Building Your Brand and Writer Platform

To be a successful indie author, you need to have a brand / writer platform. At first, this may sound like a daunting task. And yes, it is a lot of work.

But I’ve found that it helps to outline goals, and then break down your plan into small steps that you can easily do a little of each day. Even if you only spend 10 minutes a day, over the course of a few months, you can really accomplish a lot.

I’ve also realized that when I first started out, all social media and even blogging felt like a chore. But as I’ve gotten used to it, I’ve started to really enjoy it and not see it as a task that needs to be done, but rather as a way to connect with people. Granted, it took me a while to get into this mindset, which may be something someone who is just beginning may want to keep in mind.

Here are some articles I’ve found that can really help you craft a marketing plan and build your brand / writer platform, a little at a time, day by day:

• Your Writer Platform’s “101 Quick Actions You Can Take Today to Build the Writer Platform of Your Dreams“
• Hubspot’s “13 Lessons From Upworthy & BuzzFeed: Viral Content’s Secret Sauce“
• Steamfeed’s “33 QUESTIONS TO PROPEL YOUR PERSONAL BRAND FORWARD THIS YEAR“
• Writer Digest’s “50 Simple Ways to Build Your Platform in 5 Minutes a Day“
• Aravinda Loop’s “A Key Book Designing Tip: Always Include Reputable Reviews! (See TheIndieView)“
• Anne R. Allen’s “The 10 Commandments of Social Media Etiquette for Writers“
• Random Writing Rant’s “What Does it Cost to be a Successful Self-Published Author? The Dirty Costly Secrets.”
• Author CEO’s “Branding your book? Guess Again!“
• Badredheadmedia’s “Branding 101 For Authors“
• Writers Helping Writer’s “Creating Your Map to Successful Authorship“
• The Creative Penn’s “How to Love Book Marketing“
• Street Side Convo’s “How to sell yourself better (7 tips)“
• Marketing Christian Books’ “Is Your Book Endorsed?“
• Indelible’s “Author Brand in the Age of Indie (Indie Life)“
• The Book Designer’s “What J.K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith Can Teach Us About Author Platform“
• The Book Designer’s “Genre versus Author Platform? Which Matters More?“
• Writers Helping Writers’ “Tips for Reaching Readers“

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on March 16, 2015.