Years ago, I was reading an issue of Writer’s Digest and came across this topic. The writer left her Twitter handle at the end of the article. I decided to follow her in hopes of learning more. Since then, I have expanded my brand through Facebook, Twitter, Goggle+, Linkedin, and a website.

It takes time to cultivate a brand, but it is, in my opinion, vital to each author out there. Once you type the end and the revisions and edits are complete, what then? No matter how you publish, how will you shout to the world about your book? Besides friends and family, how else can you tell people about it?

I started on my brand when I finished the first draft of my book, “Jasper, Amazon Parrot: A Rainforest Adventure.” I started sending query letters, and the publishers wanted to know where I was online. Thankfully I was able to provide that information.

As I mentioned, it will take some time but start somewhere, anywhere, and grow from there. Trying to be all over the place will exhaust you. The sites that work for you will suffer by you trying to do it all. That was how I learned my lesson, trying to be everywhere. I was not giving each site enough love and attention it needed.

New platforms are popping up regularly. It is up to us to learn about them and if those will work for us. Just remember, not everything will work for you. And while not all will work for you, there could be a time that your platform needs a go-over. What worked for you may have stalled and stopped working.

Go over your platform. See if the links are working, the pages created are viewable, and your contact information is active. It is good practice to make the hub of your brand functional. It takes little time for a person to visit a site, see it is having issues and move on quickly to another website in under a couple of minutes, if not less.

Your platform is to make you and your brand sparkle.

In due time it will get easier to update the sites to go and make a post or send out a relevant tweet to your followers. But start somewhere, no matter how small, start. You want your book to shine. It deserves to shine.

Do you schedule your posts or social media updates, or do you take it week by week?

It takes time to come up with a blog post and more to put up on your platform. The time that you could use to edit, revise and write.

There are great programs that allowed you to do that. For Twitter, you have Tweet Deck and Hoot Suite, which allow you to schedule tweets for your people.

Here on WordPress, you can set up your blog posting on whatever day you choose, whether it is this week or next week, and so on. Facebook gives you the same option. If you run a newsletter, that also applies.

No longer being away from your computer for whatever reason keeps you and your brand from being stagnated, especially if you have a booming business.

A little bit of time can free you up for weeks if one has the patience to do so.

It is time-consuming to market one’s product, regardless of what the product is. Any bit of time you can scrap out to devote to writing is a plus in my book.

The Musings of A New Englander