Building Your Author Platform / Fan Base by Bob Spear

You’ve worked very hard to write your book and submitted it to appropriate agents only to be told they and the publishers aren’t interested because nobody knows who you are. That quickly becomes a dog chasing his tail or a catch-22 problem. How can you become a known and admired author if no one will publish you? The fix for this is to develop a platform or a fan base. The larger your followership becomes, the more books you will sell. The publishers want to use this as a marketing guarantee. It makes their marketing efforts easier and makes them more money sooner. So, how do you build a platform?

It’s not easy but it is doable. Here are some suggestions you may find helpful.

Facebook, UTube, & Twitter—Social networks are a free, excellent way to become known to people who count. Seek relationships with readers, other authors, book publishers, agents, reviewers, genera bloggers, and anyone interested in whatever you write about.

Book Signings—Don’t expect many sales at the signings. Instead, seek positive relationships with owners, managers, and staff who will hand sell your book long after you’re gone.

Interviews—This is a potential treasure chest. Radio interviews are the best because you do them from phone wherever you want to. I did so many radio interviews, that I was eventually offered my own show, which did for two and a half years. TV is more difficult because you must do it from or through a studio. Newspaper interviews can be done from anywhere that is mutually convenient; however, they are getting more difficult to get because of the weakening newspaper industry. Seek a good media booking agent to help you make all these connections. Make the interviewer look good.

Book Fairs—These are good ways to meet the reading public. Some are expensive, so pick and choose wisely.

Industry Trade Shows— These worked very well for me. I would book a couple of adjoining booth spaces, fill them with tables, put colorful table clothes on them, and set up collapsible wire racks. I would fill them with my books and other good books in my genre. I would give speeches and/or workshops and provide my mobile bookstore. I became very well-known for this customer base.

Regional Bookseller Trade Shows— Yes, the Book Expo America is better known, but it’s huge and very expensive. It is worth attending for the networking opportunities and education. If you really want to sell your books, however, go to the regional trade shows. To learn about these, go to http://www.bookweb.org/resources/regionals.html

Book Reviews— These are useful to let book buyers know about you and your book. Even the largest review services have begun charging for their reviews, so use them wisely Reviews make for a good source of marketing blurbs. Never send a book in the blind and expect to get a review—huge waste of money. Be sure to check the reviewer’s submission guidelines and adhere to them.

Book Award Contests— These can get expensive, so be judicious as to how many you register for.

Email Campaigns to Bookstores— Check with the American Booksellers Association for mailing lists at http://bookweb.org/indiebound/indiessentials and at http://bookweb.org/membership/products .

Speaking Engagements— As I mentioned before, this is a wonderful way to become known and respected.

Book Clubs— I went to a mini-trade show for military books, linked up with the editor from Doubleday’s Military Book Club, and sold 25,000+ copies each of two of my titles. They also used my printer and allowed me to participate in their printings of my books at greatly reduced prices because of the economy of scale.

These are some platform enhancing venues I have used to good effect in the past. If you find only one or two that work for you, you’re ahead of the game. Remember, you’re competing against 500,000+ new books a year. You have to work hard to get seen in a crowd like that.

Scam Alert for Writers, Speakers, and Performers by Bob Spear

This is the sesquicentennial year for Kansas. For its 150th birthday, the state government in Topeka has put up a website that provides contact and performer information about entertainers who do historical-based material for children. For that reason, I wasn’t too surprised to get a query from an unknown person about performing for a birthday party. The email query wanted to know where I was located, what my rates were, and my availability for a couple of Fridays in December. His English language was awkward. Since we have several international families who come here every year to the US Army’s Command and General Staff College course, I presumed this may have come from one of them. Although a warning alarm went off in my head, I courteously replied to the message.

I soon got a reply asking if I could do the job. I answered with a series of qualifying questions that would help me structure a credible program. They answered and said they wanted me to do the gig. They asked where they should send the check and to what address. I provided that info and mentioned they could just hand me a check on the day of the performance. No, they insisted on sending it right away. All this time, more alarms were going off.

Next, I got a message with a Federal Express tracking number and a request to notify them as soon as the check got to me. They also told me there would be evaluators in the audience who owned a chain of orphanages who would be interested in booking me in the future. Now my internal alarms were screaming. I called the motel where they said the function would occur and they didn’t know anything about it, nor did they have appropriate facilities.

At that point, I contacted our Sheriff’s department and reported all that had gone on. They agreed that the whole deal smelled. Later that day, Federal Express left an envelope in my back door. I called the Sheriff’s Lieutenant and he and one of his deputies came right over. I had been careful not to get my prints on the envelope, which had a return address with a Vietnamese name out of California. The deputy put on gloves and opened the envelope. She asked, “What had been the agreed fee?”

I replied it had been for $100. She smiled and said, “As you suspected, the check has a photocopied signature and is made out for $3,800.” They kept the check and its package. I forwarded all the email correspondence to the Sheriff’s.

This how the scam works: they will claim a mistake was made and could I remit the difference to them? Of course the check they sent is fake. They make their money off my remittance. The investigators said this was the first time they had seen this scam targeted toward such a specialized group. Usually it would be sent out to a large group of elderly people.

Performers tend to be goodhearted souls. It would be easy to see someone fall for this, so I thought I’d better send out this alert. Fortunately my 25 years working in military intelligence developed some useful instincts. That is why I smelled a rat early on and also knew how to deal with it. Be very careful out there!