The 6 Key Components of an Online Author Platform OnDemand Webinar

Even if you're unpublished, it's important to begin building your online presence, and to understand the basics of online marketing. Why? Because you have to start building your platform (or audience) before your book comes out if you want it to make a difference to your sales. Platform is why some books are published and others aren't. It's why some published books sell well and others fall short.

Online marketing is such an integral part of every writer's career that it should be integrated into your daily life. Fortunately, you're living in an age when the tools to reach your audience are free, easy to use, and come with a short learning curve.

Online marketing can waste your time, if pursued without focus or intention. When it's done well, it's part of your critical mission of spreading your story or message, building an audience, and developing relationships that benefit you over a lifetime.

Don't wait to establish your online presence until you have a book deal. You're likely to feel confused and unsure of yourself, and it's going to be like summiting a 10,000-foot mountain in an hour. Educate yourself in advance, build your platform over time, and you'll see your investment of time and energy pay off over the span of your career.

What you'll learn:

• How to build 3 visible components to every online platform: your website (hub), your social media activity, and your content.
• How to build 3 invisible components to every online platform: your relationships or network, your influence/authority, and your actual reach.
• 5 key channels of social media engagement (e-mail, community sites, blogs, comments, multimedia), how to use them, and how to prioritize them
• What meaningful interaction looks like on social media
• The 4 key stages of online engagement, and why it's important to take them one stage at a time (no skipping to the fourth stage!
• How to develop a Facebook and Twitter strategy that works for you (which might mean not using them at all!)
• How and why to develop a site that serves as your online home, and what components are essential to it
• How to use analytics to better focus your efforts and figure out what's working and what's wasting your time

Speakers
As the former publisher and editorial director of Writer's Digest, Jane Friedman is an industry authority on commercial, literary, and emerging forms of publishing. She has spoken at more than 200 writing events since 2001, and is known within the publishing industry as an innovator, cited by sources such as Publishers Weekly, GalleyCat, PBS, and Mr. Media. Jane currently serves as a visiting professor of e-media at the University of Cincinnati, and is a contributing editor to Writer's Digest. Since 2008, she's offered advice for writers at her award-winning blog, There Are No Rules, which receives 55,000 visits every month.

Who should attend?

• Anyone who has books to market and promote (print or digital)
• Anyone who is trying find and grow their audience online
• Writers who want to learn more about what types of online marketing really make a difference in their career
• Writers who need to grow their online presence
• Creative professionals who are building their online platform