Jacquelyn Dohoney

January 3, 2023

Can you believe we made it to 2023?! It almost doesn’t seem real to me! I was just watching a recording of the Manuscript Academy holiday party and the first thing I see is a discussion on platform. And that sparked an idea for me. So of course, I have to share it with all of you lovely people. But this isn’t any average how to build your platform post. Over the last couple of years I’ve heard through the great publishing grapevine that publishers don’t focus so much on advertising for authors anymore, especially debut authors. Nowadays, it seems like a lot of publishers will put out their initial announcement post, but then they leave the rest of the advertising to the author and their agent. (And we all know how much free time agents have). Which leaves our poor authors with a conundrum. How do we advertise ourselves without looking spammy or desperate?

This post is going to address that question with some out of the box ways to increase your sales, thus increasing your platform, and vice versa! Now, I know some of you are probably asking yourselves, “What the hell does she know about selling books? She’s not even published yet!” And yes, you are correct. I’m not published yet. I’m not even agented (yet). But I have been in sales most of my working career, and I am also the social media manager for my business. Still reading? Good. Here we go.

Yes, social media is important. You want to sell those books, right? But you can only get so many sales off of your friends and family. And if we’re being honest, they’re probably expecting a free ARC from you anyway. So what are we left with? Lots of things! As I said before, I’m the social media manager for my business. I co-own a tattoo studio in Salt Lake City with my husband. We’ve been very lucky that our business has been extremely successful for 25 years. Through an unbelievable amount of blood, sweat, and tears, we’ve been able to have an enormous and loyal customer base. And over the last five years or so, I have managed to grow our Instagram followers from 1,000 followers to 20,300+ followers, all completely organically. Our Facebook page went from 1,000 followers to 11,600+ followers. No bots, no purchased likes. Why is this important? Because as this group of followers who are real, actual breathing humans grows, so does the potential for my personal platform. Total, that’s almost 32,000 people that will see an announcement from my business when the time comes to announce my book is being published. I can keep a few copies of my book in our jewelry cases to sell right out of my business. That’s right folks, if you have a day job, use it to your advantage! Just make sure you ask if it’s ok first! 

Do you have your own website? If not, you should! Even if you’re not published! Having your own website means that agents and publishers can see a little more info about you. Put your blog on it, and your works in progress. Maybe the book you’re querying is a no go for them, but what about the one you shelved two years ago? Trends are always changing in the publishing industry, and that might mean the difference between a potential agent or publisher being interested in your work! And with that, make sure you have an email list! Email lists are great because you can keep all the people on your email list updated on news and where and when they can buy that shiny new book of yours!

Know any celebrities? If so, this one is for you. I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of celebrities in my industry, and have become quite close to a few of them. For example, one of my brothers-in-law is a former member of a VERY famous metal band. He and a couple of other celebrity friends have already said they would be willing to give a shout out to me when I get published. That means the potential of MILLIONS of people seeing my book and maybe even buying it, just because a celebrity said to. Reese’s book club anyone? 

Are you part of any writing groups? I’m a member of Manuscript Academy, Sisters in Crime, and the League of Utah Writers. Writers love other writers, and they love buying their fellow writers books. A great way to network is to join writing groups, and sometimes they will even let you advertise your book. It’s a celebration for them! Someone they know got a book deal! It not only potentially gets your book in their hands, but it boosts morale as well! It shows them that, yes, this publishing thing is possible!

Are you a part of any other memberships or clubs? Use that too! My husband is one of the founding members of a vintage car club. We love classic cars. A few years ago, I got involved with the female counterpart, and last year was named president of our chapter. There’s even more potential there for your book and your platform!

Everyone knows about ARCs, and those are great ways to get reviews. Websites like NetGalley are great for getting you a jump on your reviews. But that’s not all you get out of it. It also adds to your platform. I can’t tell you how many authors I’ve started following because I got an ARC of their book and absolutely loved it! Have some left over? Consider donating them to local little free libraries. It won’t make you money off the bat, but it will get your name out there. And getting your name out there is another way to increase your platform.

Go to any conventions? I don’t just mean writing conventions. I mean any conventions. For example, our studio does a lot of tattoo conventions. If you’ve never been to a tattoo convention, I’ll give you the skinny. Each studio has X number of booths, and each booth has a table in front of it. Just like at an author signing. But instead of our books, it’s artist portfolios, business cards, maybe even some free stickers. But what if… what if it wasn’t just that? What if there was space on the table for my books too? Are the wheels turning yet? If you have a convention that you will be a vendor at, consider making space in your booth for your books and some author swag too!

Author swag, huh? The old saying may be cheesy, but it’s true. It takes money to make money, and this is especially true for debut authors. The artists at our studio are always making stickers to give away to existing and future clients. Sometimes they make prints, or even t-shirts. The best thing about this, is that you can do it yourself too. There’s a ton of websites out there where you can design your own stickers, bookmarks, pens, and even t-shirts to give away at your booth. You can even keep them in your car! Things like this make great gifts to entice potential new customers, and they’re (almost) free advertising! Our studio gives away shirts and stickers all the time to long time clients and we always get new clients because of them!

I hope this blog post gives you some out of the box ideas to increase your platform and thus your book sales! Have any questions or need some advice? Feel free to message me! I may not know all the answers, but I can guarantee that if I don’t, I know someone who does! 

Thanks for reading guys!

-Jackie