Developing Your Online Persona as an Author

Being an author these days is hard. Not only do you need to worry about crafting your book, but you also have to worry about cultivating a meaningful and engaging online platform to attract readers. If social media doesn’t come naturally, the latter can feel like a massive roadblock. Even authors who are familiar with social media can have a mental block because they’re going from using social media for fun to planning to use social media to grow their reach as an author. It feels a lot like selling, and if there’s one thing we hear over and over from authors, it’s that they hate the idea of “selling” their books, and by extension, themselves. So how can you utilize social media well if everything about it feels unnatural and forced? Especially when one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to developing your presence as an author online. Here are a few tips that can help you get started:

Bring Your Writer’s Voice to Your Social Media

If social media helps build readership, grow a community, and hopefully garner future sales, then you want to make sure your social media platform acts as a sort of foundation to your books. To do this, you need to think of your social media in two ways. The first is the tone you use when posting, especially as you work to build your authorial brand or try to figure out the best way to post consistently. You need to make sure that your posts vibe with your authorial voice. Through your writing, you’ve established your voice. This distinct personality and perspective should flow through the rest of your communications to your target audience. 

You can draft a couple of posts as though one of your characters is speaking. You can come up with three keywords that describe your overall tone and do a vibe check before you post. Think beyond your words, too. Social media is heavily visual. What colors and imagery match your persona? Your book cover is a great place to get inspiration. Pull a palette from there for your first handful of posts. Gather images that make you think of scenes in your book and use those colors, too.

Of course, you want to be authentic in your posting, but if your books tend to fall into a more heartfelt, inspirational space, then filling your timeline with gloom or anger might feel jarring for your readership. Once you find your footing in the way you post, and you’ve cultivated a dynamic online space, you’ll have a better idea of when it’s good or important to step out of that voice. However, at the beginning, sticking to your author voice will not only help build trust with your readers, but it will help guide you as you figure out what to post.

Remember Your Target Audience

If the first thing to consider as you build an online platform that supports your book is your online persona, then the second part is the specifics of what you post and how it will impact your target book readership. In the world of memes, recipes, slice-of-life posts, personal thoughts, life updates, and political opinions, what should you post? 

In addition to posting in a tone that works with your books, make sure the stuff you post will interest your target readers. What do your readers come to social media to find? What do they tend to avoid? What things make them unfollow someone? Use the online behavior and preferences of your audience as a guide when it comes to filling up your new timeline. Don’t be afraid to check out what your comp authors are doing and what drives engagement for them. You don’t have to copy it, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, either.

Pretend You're Posting On Behalf Of Your Author Voice

Even after considering your author voice and your target audience, you might find there’s  something really intimidating about building a platform meant to bolster you as you chase a dream and help grow your public profile. It makes the stakes feel incredibly high and extremely personal, and that pressure is enough to drive some authors away from social media entirely. 

Take a moment and take a breath! Social media is a valuable tool, but it’s just that—a tool. It has no effect on your value as a human or your abilities as an author. If you’re struggling to post because you feel overwhelmed by the stakes, remove yourself from the situation a bit.

 Instead of thinking of this like your own, personal social media platform, shift your thinking to look at your social media as something you’re running on behalf of someone else. Telling yourself that you’re the social media manager for your author persona can help you post more consistently and stop you from second-guessing everything you put online. That level of separation can not only help make you feel a bit more comfortable with posting, but it can let your brain remove yourself and your worries about your talent as an author from the platform.

Ultimately, building a social media platform is an important part of your authorial journey. With these parameters, hopefully you can start finding your feet in the social media space. However, if you feel like you’re still struggling to build your platform alone, don’t hesitate to reach out! We can help you build your author platform and talk about the best ways for you to use social media. Schedule a free consultation today and we can start talking business!