Establishing a Fan Base Before Publication
Last summer, I published an article in Writers Forum UK regarding an interview I had with the British YA author Keris Stainton. Before her debut novel, Della Says: OMG! had even hit the shelves, she had an established fan base. And she did this through the use of social media.
She achieved this through blogging, twittering and facebooking. I myself am a big fan of her blog, which she’s been writing since 2003. The fact that after all this time she can still come up with ideas still amazes me. She’s a presence on Twitter and let me tell you when she isn’t around the place just isn’t the same without her.
Create your own website. Sign up for Twitter. The nice thing I like about Twitter is that you can jump randomly into any conversation and it’s not considered butting in. Get a personal account or a page on Facebook. Write a blog.
I joined Blogger which I found easy for someone like me who is very technically challenged- they provide step by step instruction on how to get your blog up and running. But there are other blogging mediums as well such as WordPress and Squidoo. You can write about general stuff or specific things. Aside from writing posts for BIW, I also write two other blogs, Novelista (linked in bio below) which concentrates on books and writing and Chicklite which deals with my unending struggle to get my weight under control. But you need to be consistent–and blog regularly and this is where I have a tendency to fall down on the job. It is not a venture to be undertaken lightly. Commit to it. Otherwise it becomes another outdated blog taking up space on the internet.
The key is to get your name out there and reach as large an audience as possible. Luckily we live in an age where access is just a click away.
Gaining a captive audience takes time (six months to a year). It needs to be cultivated. But it is a good springboard to launch your work.
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