“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
—Henry David Thoreau
- Author Website
New Rule: Online tools must work together. Learn how to set up your author site as your central location that all other online locations point to so that you can keep control of your platform.
- Your Blog
New Rule: Draw in and converse with your audience through comments. We show you how and where to set up your blog and suggest best practices, including how to enable and pursue comments.
- Twitter
New Rule: Build social authority and influence by having others share your ideas with their network. Learn how to jump into the huge pool of your audience that participates on Twitter, get set up easily, and gain a following.
- Google
New Rule: Search engines like Google define your findability via keywords, metadata, and more. We help you understand the power of Google and how to harness it, how Google is continuing to reward authors who create great written content, and why Google+ is far more than a social network.
- Facebook
New Rule: Authors must create motivation for interaction among members of their audience to rank higher and be found more often. We show you how to use Facebook as a billboard (while still maintaining your privacy with your friends and family) and why “likes” on your author/book page are important.
- LinkedIn
New Rule: Expand your network of supporters by joining the networks of many others. We show the power of using LinkedIn to grow community with peers, add to visibility, and add to your following through posting, joining LinkedIn groups, and using LinkedIn Tools.
- Personal Appearances
New Rule: Success depends on how well you understand and speak from your audience’s point of view. We show how to use tools that maximize audience by teaching, training, and speaking.
- Articles
New Rule: Open up multiple avenues for others to talk about you and your work. We illustrate the value of creating an article bank and repurposing your written content for maximum exposure.
- Audio
New Rule: Your audience needs interaction with you, and you’ll learn how to use audio to connect personally with readers. We lay out the many avenues of audio available and why it’s an especially effective medium for authors.
- Video
New Rule: Video is a huge and growing draw on the web; authors must use multiple media. Discover how to maximize your author brand by creating video interviews, YouTube videos, channels, book trailers; repurposing your videos; and more.
- Book Website
New Rule: Become an online bookseller with the Buy button. We show you how and why to build your book site and how it sells books.
- Amazon
New Rule: Align with the “customer experience” at Amazon. Learn how to use Amazon, with all the tools in this author toolbox, to build your audience.
- Reviews
New Rule: In public view, authors must showcase reviews and praise from your audience. We show you how to go about getting solid book reviews.
- Book Launch
New Rule: Authors must search for their audience in multiple locations, using virtual and in-person appearances. We’ll walk you through how to combine all of these into a fireworks show to launch your book with parties and virtual tours so that you can break into new audience networks.