6 Ways to Add Vibrant Partnerships to your Author Platform

The big lesson that I learned from Janet Conner's sixth Plug In class, How to Build Your Author Platform, is:

Writers need vibrant, creative partnerships.

I'm sure you've heard before that an author platform is mandatory to your publishing career.  You've also heard that in building a platform you need to blog, social network, and use video sites.  In other words, you have to do your own marketing and promotion.   

by frankdasilva



"Publishers want to know how many people you know," said Plug In guest Jennifer Hill Robenalt, a 20-year communications pro and the principal of Robin Hill Media.  "Whether that's fair or not, or effective or not, it's all we have to measure how big our audience truly is."

But what you may not know is that all of your platform-building could be for naught if you don't bring people into your fold who can collaborate in helping you access your full creative and marketing potential. 

Even if you're the type who likes to go solo, there are times you'll need powerful partnerships and alliances.

Do yo need a website designer?  Do you need a publicist? 

"Own up to what you need," said Gail McMeekin, Plug in guest and author of The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women.  "Then carefully bring in someone who aliens to your purpose."

Jennifer Hill Robenalt went on to say, "Every time I have a new partnership, I have a new cheerleader for my work." 

Writers need partnerships to cross reference and promote each other, share contacts, network, act as speakers and teachers, motivate, and provide gifts to each other's audience. 

And how does a writer forge such partnerships?

Jennifer shared 6 ways:

1. Use Technorati, Google blog, and other author's blog rolls to seek out people who are doing similar work and are like-minded.  Forge relationships with them online, comment on their blogs, and on Facebook.  Collaborate content.  Guest blog and vice versa.
2. Create a dream list of people you want to form partnerships with.  On every website there's a contact or media tab.  Find the publicist or contact the author directly.  Tell them you are a blogger and would like to be on their "media list."  You may be invited on blogging calls or virtual book tours. 
3. Create your own mini media empire. You tube, Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress and Blogger are all free.  Add a video to your blog. All you need is a flip camera to make videos of yourself when you speak in public, etc. Create a buzz.
4. Start an Internet radio show.  Blog Talk Radio is free.  All you need is a computer and a phone.
5. Check out sites such as Help a Reporter Out, where journalists and national reporters are looking for sources.
6. List the top ten places you want to see yourself featured, then follow them and invest time in them.

The opportunities for creating vibrant partnerships are endless.

Share contacts. Share ideas. What goes around, comes around. A good deed is never wasted.

Thanks for stopping by,

Social Media/Socialnomics

According to Wikipedia, Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues. They support the democratization of knowledge and information and transform people from content consumers to content producers.

About.com:  Web Trends (http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm) has the following take on social media:  The best way to define social media is to break it down. Media is an instrument of communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication.


In Web 2.0 terms, this would be a website that doesn't just give you information, but interacts with you while giving you that information. This interaction can be as simple as asking for your comments or letting you vote on an article, or it can be as complex as Flixster recommending movies to you based on the ratings of other people with similar interests.


Think of regular media as a one-way street where you can read a newspaper or listen to a report on television, but you have very limited ability to give your thoughts on the matter.

Social media, on the other hand, is a two-way street that gives you the ability to communicate too.

Here are some examples of social media websites:

•Social Bookmarking. (Del.icio.us, Blinklist, Simpy) Interact by tagging websites and searching through websites bookmarked by other people.


•Social News. (Digg, Propeller, Reddit) Interact by voting for articles and commenting on them.


•Social Networking. (Facebook, Hi5, Last.FM) Interact by adding friends, commenting on profiles, joining groups and having discussions.


•Social Photo and Video Sharing. (YouTube, Flickr) Interact by sharing photos or videos and commenting on user submissions.


•Wikis. (Wikipedia, Wikia) Interact by adding articles and editing existing articles.

So how does this concern you?  Or, to put it another way, why should you care?  Well, think about what a technological miracle it is that you and I can reach and interact with a global audience almost instantly with little or no training and at little or no cost, using software applications like: blogs (Blogger), micro-blogging (Twitter), and Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube.

My eighty-six year-old mother was able to reach relatives in Holland instantly via e-mail and Facebook. No more writing on that blue, fold-up stationary she once used, no more trips to the post office, no more four-week delays for information to travel back and forth.  She communicated with her children and grandchildren, spread out all over the state, and she wrote, illustrated, and published her autobiography, all from the comfort of her own home and without breaking through barriers of agents and editors, who would probably have told her, "Thanks, but we're not interested."

An aspiring novelist seeking publication can share his or her experiences with other writers, who might offer their own perspectives, or maybe a bit of encouragement.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one's perspective), today's authors are also expected to promote their own work (build a Platform).  And maintaining a presence on the Internet is one of the best ways in which to do it.  It also keeps one writing and focused.

Wikipedia Social Media Marketing, takes up the subject of Platforms.  (And don't we all seem to need a platform these days?)  Social media marketing benefits organizations and individuals by providing an additional channel for customer support, a means to gain customer and competitive insight, and a method of managing their reputation online. Key factors that ensure its success are its relevance to the customer, the value it provides them with and the strength of the foundation on which it is built. A strong foundation serves as a stand or platform in which the organization can centralize its information and direct customers on its recent developments via other social media channels, such as article and press release publications.


The following video (compliments of YouTube) puts this all into perspective. 



Another site for the newest and latest on social media is:  http://mashable.com/social-media/. 

So, little old me, the most technologically challenged person in my family, is no longer fighting the challenges of social media, but joining in on the fun.  If my mother could do it, then so can I!

How good is that?

(Photo credits:  Jump on the social media bandwagon, Matt Hamm; Social Media Campaign, Gary Hayes)