ENTRIES TAGGED "author platform"
Author platforms and the Black Box Effect
A report from Author (R)evolution Day
If you’ve spent as much time reading author blogs as I have, you may have noticed a disturbing pattern. In nearly every “here’s how I did it” post in which the author explains her route to greater visibility and sales, there comes a point when something happens that the author did not plan for or expect, that puts her over the top.
I call this the Black Box Effect: the degree to which authors are still mostly in the dark about what makes their book marketing and platform-building efforts succeed. For authors to take full advantage of this incredible time in publishing we need to reduce that effect, which means we need better data, and better tools to help capture and measure the data that already exists. So I went to Author (R)evolution Day last week to see how far along we are in chipping away at the edges of that black box.
An author-centric map of publishing
Why it's both an exciting and confusing time to be an author
When I first heard the publishing industry referred to as an ecosystem I immediately wanted to see a map of it on the wall. How does water cycle through the system? Which communities are currently well-placed, and where are the likely spots for new ones to grow?
It’s the brand, stupid!
Why smaller, well-focused publishers have a direct channel advantage
None of the Big Six are all that interested in creating their own direct channel. They usually say “we already have retail partners…we don’t know how to sell direct and we don’t care to learn.” That’s all true but the real reason they won’t do it, and wouldn’t be successful if they did right now, is because none of them are household brand names.
The core of the author platform is unchanged — it's the tools that are rapidly changing
Author Jeff Potter on the changing role of the author and how to market your own book.
"Cooking for Geeks" author Jeff Potter offers lessons learned while writing, marketing and selling his book. "The book is no longer the product," Potter says. "The product is now the conversations and community that grow around the book."