The Author’s Switch – CARMA Spence

The Author’s Switch – CARMA Spence


The Authorneer’s Journey, Part 1 [The Author’s Switch Podcast]

October 28, 2020

In this episode, I’m going to share the first step in the Authorneer’s Journey.

“What is the Authorneer’s Journey?” you may ask.

Well, it is one of the types of Author’s Journey. Authorneers are authors who mindfully build their author platform, work artfully to bring out their inner author, and engineer their authorpreneurship. In other words, they take writing a book and building business around it seriously.

Not every author wants or needs to be an authorneer and travel the Authorneer's Journey. And that’s OK. However, by learning the steps it takes to be one, you can greatly improve the results of your book, even if you decide not to build an author-based business.

This process I’m going to share over several episodes works best for nonfiction books, but parts of the framework work for novelists, as well. I invite you to listen even if you think it doesn’t apply to you because you never know what golden nugget you’ll find!

Runtime: 10 minutes, 14 seconds

Transcript for Episode 3: The Authorneer's Journey, Part 1
NOTE: Due to some ad libbing, this may not be an exact transcript.

The first step in the Authorneer’s Journey…and that is Marketing. Yep, before you write a word or even an outline, you need to think a little bit about the marketing.

Now don’t get scared – you don’t need to create the full marketing plan at this point, but you do need to think about your book in terms of how you will promote it.

The first piece of marketing I suggest you think about is your online presence.

How will you mention your book on your website? Will it be a page on an already established website? Or will you launch a book-dedicate website? Although having a book dedicated website can help you brand the book, that may not be what you want. It might work better for your long-term marketing goals to dedicate a section of your website to the book.

I’ve done both. I had a dedicated site for the first edition of Home Sweet Home Page, which helps authors, speakers, and coaches create more effective home pages, but eventually took it down and merged it into my main website. This means there are probably broken links out there that may hurt my search engine optimization.

I also have a dedicated website for Public Speaking Super Powers, which makes sense because the work I do to help people unleash their inner public speaking superhero is separate from my main business of helping people become successful authors.

Regardless of whether you create a page on your site or create a new website for your book, you need to be thinking about what content you’ll need for it now.

Another piece of your online presence you need to start thinking about is your social media presence. Which platforms are you currently on? Are there platforms that you aren’t on now, but you’ll want to be on once your book is launched? If so, start building your presence there now.

Make sure your social media presence is consistent with your website, as well. Now is a good time to do a simple audit of your online presence and make sure you are presenting a cohesive brand.

The next piece of your marketing is critical: Your email list. Do you have one? If not, start building it now! You want a list of people who want to read your book before it launches so they can help you launch strong.

If you have one already, congratulations! Now is the time to make sure it is healthy. Are you sending emails out on a regular schedule? Do you have a decent open rate? If not, how can you fix that? One way to fix a low open rate is to clean your list of people who just never open your emails by running a re-engagement campaign.