First Things First – 7 Tips to Build Your Author Platform

First Things First – 7 Tips to Build Your Author Platform

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Click to watch my YouTube video on building your social media platforms

Hey y’all,

It’s nice to sit back and check out my author growth over the past year. It really hit me how far I’ve come while I was in the middle of making a requested YouTube video on social media platforms for authors.

Without social media I would’ve never hooked up with my FABULOUS author friends who are now a part of my circle. I would have never built my author tribe at Jen Lowry Writes Podcast, where we challenge each other, hold each other accountable, and learn along the way! I could keep going how God has opened AMAZING opportunities for me through the use of my author social media accounts. You need to make sure you start yours today!

1. Set up a gmail account specifically for your author brand. jenlowrywrites@gmail.com was available, which meant I could use this email along with all of my other author account names and match them!
2. Create a name that is easy to remember. You want people to be able to find you! If you type in Jen Lowry Writes, you’ll get all of my platforms popping up in a Google search.
3. Get a free Canva account. Start making images, quotes, promotions, etc. Trust me, it’s amazing. Follow my YouTube channel. I’ve made videos specifically on author uses for Canva – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwRR1ecPpKg
4. Set up Pinterest, Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and Goodreads. Link them! Share! Spend five minutes a day connecting with authors, readers, and educators. Find your target audience and follow them! Create events on Facebook, and hold Facebook Live parties! Everything stores for later, and when readers find you they can access your old material! Even if you meet one new person, you’ve connected! Stay positive. It will grow.
5. If you want to start a podcast, I suggest you try Anchor. If you love listening to podcasts, find my author podcast and join my tribe of over 12,000 active listeners – https://anchor.fm/jen-lowry-writes
6. If you want to be on AuthorTube – start your YouTube channel today! Start making content! Get comfortable in front of a camera. It will help you in the long run when you’ll be face to face with readers at events. Trust me.
7. Keep your content consistent, authentic, and share! People love to know about you, your author process, and your WIP! Stay active. Take time. Help others. Stay positive. Help promote other authors. Use social media for good.

I CHALLENGE YOU! After you watch my YouTube video, if you have any specific questions or would like to request a new author video, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments below or email me at jenlowrywrites@gmail.com and ask away!

Blessings,

Jen Lowry

Follow me and share the love:

Instagram: 
https://www.instagram.com/jenlowrywrites/

Twitter: 
https://twitter.com/jenlowrywrites

Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/jenlowrywrites/

Website: www.jenlowrywrites.com

Official Author Merch (every author needs a cool t-shirt): https://shop.spreadshirt.com/jenlowrywrites

Daily Author Podcast: https://anchor.fm/jen-lowry-writes

YouTube (Jen Lowry Writes – where I share publishing tips!): 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQiNlUBqsnL3vnpFL97EqQ

Jen Lowry, Author, Teacher, Speaker

Beta Reads are Closed! Street Team Still Open For The Hartwell Chronicles: Teenage Exorcist!

If you like to watch or read horror/paranormal YA and would like to to become a part of my ASP Street Team for The Hartwell Chronicles: Teenage Exorcist, I would love to have you join me! That means behind the scenes author talk about the development of the book, what’s happening in my author life, and celebration planning for the release of the novel on Friday the 13th (9/13/9)!

Beta readers are now closed due to the volume I currently have, but Street Team members will have access to the first chapter, as well as sneak peeks along the way.

If you are interested in being part of the ASP Street Team, email me at jenlowrywrites@gmail.com right away!

Blessings,

Jen Lowry

Author Talk: 7 Tips on How to Create Social Media Banners that Reflect Your Author Brand

Example of my Twitter Banner for Spring and New Best-Selling Update

It’s time to update your author profiles and give it a Spring makeover. You can do this by still keeping with your brand colors and themes. I’ve included my banner as an example.

1. Choose a color and stand by it!

Of course, you see the color purple. When one of my students saw my Instagram page, she commented, “Purple must be your favorite color. I love your Instagram.” I explained to her that my intention was to change the color of my pages every time that I have a new book released. Color has great meaning and symbolism for Sweet Potato Jones, so purple had to be it! No questions that this was an intentional author move to brand the book. When the student responded so positively to my page I wanted to pat myself right on the back for it! That was the audience I was hoping would notice! They did!

2. Include all of your works or create a subheading that lists your accomplishments!

Make sure that you list your books. So, I decided to make one banner and include it in another banner. That might seem weird at first, but for me, I like the visual look of it. All of my Bible devotionals are placed on one banner with a butterfly, representing my Monarch business platform and publishing company, Monarch Educational Services, L.L.C. for indie publishing. I decided at the last minute to add the Jen Lowry Writes podcast logo, so I covered up the butterfly and replaced it on the side. Sweet Potato Jones is my traditionally published book that will be released September 10, 2019 so I made sure I had her as my standout, with the publishing information included.

3. Resize to fit your different platforms. It will cut off if you don’t.

What I love about Canva’s paid subscription is that I have the resize function. That means nothing is cut off, and the image is trimmed without any customization thought that I have to do. It’s easy. I typed in LinkedIn banner, Twitter banner, etc. and sure enough my Facebook banner is resized in seconds, and I’m updating across the board.

4. Allow for seasonal change to refresh your look.

Every season, let’s challenge ourselves to update our banners. If you have a special book birthday coming up, let your banner reflect the Facebook Live event party you are going to throw. That’s just one idea of how you can refresh base on what is happening around your book to generate book flair excitement.

5. Keep our social media site banners updated.

Not only do we need to update our bio every now and then by adding new info, we should also keep our headers updated. It was so wonderful and surreal to type “Best-Selling Bible Devotional Author” today. That is a huge milestone for me that I have prayed over since I started this author journey in 2014. Happy Renewal Year made the #1 best-selling ranking for self-help this year, and it just so happens to be my favorite challenge devotional journal book yet! Celebrate your successes! Claim it! Go after it! Mark it on your calendar to change your social media banners periodically. I already have mine marked in my Google author calendar to update closer to the release date of Sweet Potato Jones when my pre-orders are ready! It will be a specific pre-order celebration banner! I CAN’T WAIT!

6. Research other author banners.

I love looking at the way other authors are presenting their work digitally. The big time authors that are banking have their own social media managers and PR teams that have also done their market research. Trust me! Since I am doing all of my work myself and DO NOT have a digital media background or visual eye for anything of the sort, I trust what others are doing and try to model that. Then, I just go with my instincts, like I did this morning. That banner you see as a sample might not be the best of the best, but I am proud of the result. I found a premade banner template and just worked from there. I can always modify it later.

7. Stay consistent with your brand.

Being consistent is a key to connecting with your audiences. They will see who you are across your settings and know that your platform has a particular style/feel to it just based on the images, bio, and descriptions you provide. You can’t pull it off on Instagram as being dark and edgy on Instagram and then go to sunshine and happiness rainbows on Twitter and not have that as a blaring contradiction of your author platform. Stay consistent across the social media world and keep the same banner. You don’t need a banner for every platform to be different either. Yes, I see authors doing this, but it is my humble opinion that we can create one seasonal or event banner and mass use it simply too save time and energy. I’m going to change it up closer to the Sweet Potato Release in September, 10, 2019, so this one won’t be around too long anyway!

So, your challenge today is to update all of your banners on your social media sites to represent your brand or mark the season of Spring. I tried to do both!

Hugs,

Jen Lowry

Follow me and share the love:

Instagram: 
https://www.instagram.com/jenlowrywrites/

Twitter: 
https://twitter.com/jenlowrywrites

Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/jenlowrywrites/

Website: www.jenlowrywrites.com

Sweet Potato & Co Etsy Shop: 
https://www.etsy.com/shop/JenLowryWrites

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/jen-lowry-writes

YouTube: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQiNlUBqsnL3vnpFL97EqQ

Sweet Potato Jones – Release date September 10, 2019 – Check out my girl on Goodreads!

Author Talk: 7 Tips for Sharing a Quote on Social Media

A Quote by Stephen King, “You have to stay faithful to what your working on.”

I challenge all of you today to spend time searching quotes from authors. It’s a valuable undertaking, and may just be the encouragement that you need for the day. I realized the power of inspirational social media posts early on, so made the pact to myself to only use those platforms for good. But now that I have a lot of authors that follow my sites and message me, even those who just listen to my author podcast and are reaching out via email, I know that encouragement is more needed than I once thought.

Writing can feel like an isolated undertaking if we allow it to be. We might not have a single person around us that understands our author life in our immediate family or circle of trust. That’s where the wonderful world wide web comes in handy. Author communities, author blogs (like this one!), writer conferences, and workshops … all of those and more are available to us now and can add tremendous value to our daily author experience. Let’s seek the ones that are encouraging and supportive and stick by them. Then, let’s share the love.

When I found a quote that said, “Be patient. Good things take time,” the messages flooded my inboxes on how much other authors really needed to see this short burst of advice. I was putting that up there based on an author conversation I was having back and forth with someone waiting on their release, and I could tell they were anxious about the whole thing. Would it bring in the numbers? Would it make the impact they are praying for? As soon as I saw the quote on Pinterest, I added it to my Love These Board and shared out on all of my pages. Immediate reaction.

Quotes are powerful. Start sharing them.

My own Jen Lowry author quote I challenged myself to write, “Honor your story by giving it a space to live.”

1. Create your own quote messages. You are an author! Quote yourself. Get your own images stamped out there in the Universe for someone to share about you. This is not narcissistic. In fact, if you need me to break the fear, I’ve quoted myself in the image above, and don’t feel the least bit guilty or weird about it. Use this as a model. Think of something you have said about your own writing or your own process. Stamp it and add your name to the bottom. Share that joker out! You can say I challenged you if it still feels uncomfortable. “I challenge you.”
2. Pinterest is a treasure trove of wonder. Create a quote board. I love quotes so it makes sense for my board to be called, “Love These.” You can check out my author pinterest page here –
   https://www.pinterest.com/jenlowrywrites/ Create a specific author Pinterest page today, if you haven’t already! You can find new readers there, trust me, it’s happening for me!
3. Link all of your social media accounts for quick bursts of quotes. (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr,)
4. Schedule a quote to be released each week that could encourage your readers. Try adding it to your blog and schedule the post to shoot out. I know of an author that specifically schedules based on her peak times. Analytics can help you discover that. I am a random think it – write it – share it so I have to challenge myself to look at my own analytics and evaluate them. It’s smart to do that! If you blog quote, that’s another way around having to go to all of your sites if you have linked your blog to automatically post for you! Work smarter, not harder – I wish I could have been the one to come up with that quote, but it is one I live by.
5. Find specific quotes that you could blog, write poems, make videos, etc. Those quotes could be your thumbnail. Create the thumbnails in Canva by choosing Instagram sizing and you don’t have to change them later. Then, blast out your writing with the image. Writing with images get a greater audience pull because you can use Instagram to capture a reader. Quotes can give you an idea to write about when you might have been looking at a blank page otherwise. Write around the quote and see how much more you can contribute by doing this.
6. Make sure your quotes are encouraging and inspiring. I love looking specifically at author quotes, but if you are a health brand, then choose something that spotlights your work. If you are in the entertainment industry, chose a famous artist or producer. Since my main audience right now is comprised of other authors because of my Jen Lowry Writes podcast listeners, I need to really connect with them through author quotes. It makes sense. I also navigate towards those personally, as you can see with the Stephen King quote on who inspired me to write at an early age. You can also brand them by adding a background color or images. You can add your link or hashtag to the quotes on the bottom of the image so people could find a way to tag you.
7. Always caption your images or write the quote out directly. Many people who are blind or visually impaired have screen readers that can’t pick up your image, but will read the caption. Make it easy by restating the quote for accessibility. The more you type it, the greater the chance that you will actually learn the quote. You never know when you are out working with others that the quote may come back to you to share to encourage them on the spot.

I‘ve included my link to my podcast to hear more about sharing quotes – find the episode, “Challenge – Share a Quote” or click here!

https://anchor.fm/jen-lowry-writes

Challenge – Share a Quote Episode

Have fun with quotes! Let it be something that you look forward to including on your social media each week. We always talk about ways to boost our social media accounts, and being present on the platforms of course is a given. But how about being intentional with our posts and add inspiring and encouraging quotes to our weekly postings. It can help inspire us as well!

I would love for you to share a favorite author quote in the comments below!

Hugs,

Jen Lowry

Follow me and share the love:

Instagram: 
https://www.instagram.com/jenlowrywrites/

Twitter: 
https://twitter.com/jenlowrywrites

Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/jenlowrywrites/

Website: www.jenlowrywrites.com

Sweet Potato & Co Etsy Shop: 
https://www.etsy.com/shop/JenLowryWrites

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/jen-lowry-writes

YouTube: 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQiNlUBqsnL3vnpFL97EqQ

Sweet Potato Jones – Release date September 10, 2019 – Check out my girl on Goodreads!