If you want to sell more books, you have to grow your author platform. Growing an author platform gives you a steady stream of readers for each of your book launches. This steady stream of buyers will give your book more traction on Amazon’s algorithm and result in more sales.
Most authors struggle with building their author platform. Part of the issue is that there are a variety of ways to grow your author platform. The other big issue is that you have to write books in the meantime.
Written Word Media came out with a study that said the average $100K author has 30.3 books in their catalog. How are we supposed t write that many books while growing out brands?
The secret is to leverage your books to grow your author platform.
Too many people just think about the book royalties. There’s far more that a book has to offer, and some book sales can translate into $100s or even more in business. Dale recently came on my YouTube channel to discuss secret streams of income authors have at their disposal but almost never tap into.
Understanding there’s far more to self publishing than just the book royalties is the starting point to getting more clients and growing your author platform.
Here’s the strategy for leveraging your books to grow your author platform:
Table of Contents
1: Focus On What You Want To Grow
The great thing about writing many books is that each of them can have a different focus. Right now, I’m working on my Ditch The Job book series which is based on the Ditch The Job Podcast.
In each book, I mention my podcast and include key takeaways from certain episodes in those books. The idea is that some readers will end up listening to Ditch The Job episodes.
It’s standard practice to have a free offer on the first page of your book to grow your email list. Thinking beyond the first page and considering parts of your business you want to mention throughout your book will help you more meaningfully grow your author platform.
You can also use your book to highlight client stories, your successes, and some of your projects.
Getting clear on the parts of your business you want to grow makes it easier for you to write a book that helps you achieve those objectives.
2: Get Readers In Bulk
The strategies you use to promote your book depend on your current author platform and what your goals for the book are.
When I write a book with the focus of growing my author platform, I am quick to mention free content such my YouTube channel or one of my podcasts.
When the focus is bouncing people through your other content, the best strategies to utilize as a permafree book, frequent 5 Day KDP Free Promotions, or $0.99 books.
I opt for a mix of $0.99 books and free promo strategies for the majority of my books because I don’t want to make too many of my books free.
Pricing your book at $0.99 also means more sales which will give you a better sales rank.
The idea behind this approach is to get as many readers as you can. Some of the people who buy your book for $0.99 will end up buying your $2.99-$3.99 books where you’ll get the 70% royalty.
For these types of books, it’s more important to get a ton of readers.
If your goal is to turn your readers into clients, then it makes sense to charge a higher price point. If someone buys your book for $0.99, they aren’t likely to pay you $100s let alone $1,000s for a training course or coaching program.
For most books, it makes sense to charge between $2.99 and $3.99 for the Kindle edition, but a $4.99 price point also makes sense for some books. The higher price point gets people more comfortable with paying premium prices for your other offers.
You’ll get fewer readers with the $4.99 price point, but they’ll be more likely to buy additional products and services from you in the future.
If you price your book at $2.99 or higher and have a paperback book to go along with it, running Amazon Book Ads can give your book a boost in sales and exposure.
3: Distribute Your Book In Multiple Formats
Part of growing your author platform is attracting people with different content consumption preferences. Some people prefer digital books while others prefer paperback books. It’s common practice to have both of these formats available for readers.
However, most authors leave money on the table by not publishing audiobooks. Some people only listen to audiobooks because you can do something else while listening to the audiobook (i.e. exercise, drive, etc.) which isn’t possible with a digital or paperback version of the book.
The more formats you distribute your book in, the more potential readers you can attract.
4: Repurpose Your Book’s Contents
Did you know it’s surprisingly common for people to combine previous speaking engagements, blog posts, videos, and podcast episodes to form their books? Some of the most popular books are built around free content.
These types of books thrive because a book allows you to organize free content and more effectively present it to your audience.
Similarly, you can take parts of your book and turn them into videos, blog posts, and podcast episodes. If you produce an audiobook, you can take a snippet from that audiobook and turn it into one of your podcast episodes.
You can also copy a part of your book and put it in a blog post or talk about it in a video.
Repurposing your content in this manner allows you to create more content that helps you grow your author platform. Many authors struggle with creating free content beyond their books, and that’s not a weakness. You can take your books and use that content as inspiration for your free content, or you can create free content that you put in your book later.
5: Collaborate With Others
A book gives you a big boost in your authority and allows you to reach more people. Books make it easier for you to collaborate with people in your niche. You can collaborate on a future book, guest posts, JV promotions, and more.
Dale and I both believe in the power of collaboration to grow your author platform, and we’ve done more than a few collaborations that have ranged from virtual summit interviews, guest posts, podcast interviews, and a YouTube collaboration we recently put together.
If you want to grow your author platform, you have to be strategic about your book’s objectives and connect with people who can take you to the next level.