I thought I’d put some ideas all in one place for other indie authors just starting out for how you might go about growing your author platform. I definitely don’t have all the answers, but here are some of the things I’ve used:
Self-publishing platforms – Amazon is the leader here, and as an Amazon author, you get your own page and people can ‘follow’ you, which means they get an email whenever you release a new book. Handy! You can also pay for Amazon ads, although I have to be honest, I don’t think I’ve managed to crack this at all. It’s very easy to spend a lot of money on ads and not see a lot of return. There’s a lot of competition for certain keywords, and if your book is only £2.99, and the keyword is costing you £2… You do the Maths! Draft to Digital are great for really easily making your book available ‘wide’. I published my first book, Bell Time, on Amazon, and I also set up accounts on Kobo (I’m an affiliate there) and Google Books. I had trouble setting up on Apple because I’m British and they needed complicated tax information, and so D2D was an easy way to just click a button and they do the hard work for you. They do take a commission but I was fed up by that point! I also don’t think I could keep up with all of the sites now which have a growing ebook market: Smashwords, Hoopla etc. So D2D is a great one-stop shop.
Kindle Unlimited – Amazon offer a programme called Kindle Unlimited which you can opt into, or not. If you opt in, then your book has to be exclusive to Amazon – you can’t publish it on other platforms too. The advantage is that anyone with a Kindle Unlimited subscription (like Netflix, but with ebooks) can download and read your book… So if you’re a new author, unknown to someone, they can take a chance on you without parting with any cash. As an author, you get paid per page they read. If you have a series of books and someone binge-reads them, happy days. Kindle Unlimited also gives you the option to run 5 days of your book being free in each 90 day period. This is particularly useful if you want to join in with various Stuff your Kindle promotions, run by indie authors (more on this below). If you are not on KU, it’s still possible to ask Amazon to lower your book price to free (you have to lower the price on your other platforms first, then ask Amazon to price-match)… However, Amazon retain the right to refuse this if they want. So it can make for a lot of stress when the book needs to be free at a particular time to be part of a group promo where it could potentially get thousands of downloads. I’ve enrolled my Unity series books into KU, but I’ve kept my other books wide.
Author website – I use WordPress and I paid for my domain name to be sophietoovey.com. I find WordPress super easy to use but the catch is that on a free plan, you can’t use many plugins. I have a homepage, a page for each of my books, and a blog which I use for interviewing other authors, talking about books I’ve read, or making recommendations. If I do a newsletter swap, I can also post on my blog, and I’m allowed to use Amazon affiliate links on the blog. You can’t send Amazon affiliate links in an email newsletter.
Amazon affiliates programme – US here, UK here. This isn’t really to do with growing your platform, but it can provide a bit of side income which I think every indie author appreciates. Plus, through recommending other authors, you are also building a valuable author network, which is worth its weight in gold.
Book Cave – Book Cave allow you to upload a ‘reader magnet‘ and then to join different ‘reader magnet groups‘ which can be great to build your email list. Once I’d finished ‘I Want You Back’, my modern retelling of Persuasion, I set up my author website with a newsletter sign up page through Mailchimp (see below), and an automated delivery of a link to my freebie. Once Book Cave approved it, I could join different groups for romance readers and then by sharing the graphics and link in my newsletter and social media, I found that my subscriber list started to build. I am a Book Cave affiliate and earn from qualifying purchases.
Mailchimp – Mailchimp is a great platform to use for your email newsletter. It’s free until you hit a certain number of subscribers, and it makes designing an email really straightforward. They give you a free ‘subscriber page’ so you can direct fans from the back matter of your book or from a page on your own website to sign up. You can also import contacts in a CSV file. My top tip is to replicate my previous campaign so that I can use similar formatting in each newsletter and just change the details.
Newsletter swaps – Bookclicker is a website where you can sign up for free and book newsletter swaps with other authors. It is linked to Mailchimp and other newsletter platforms so it will sync up your subscriber count and details. I’ve only started using this recently and before this, I’ve mostly used Facebook groups such as Clean Romance Author Promotion and NL Swap or Just Kisses Romance Author Promo and NL Swap.
Social media – Let’s face it, it’s a bit of a beast, and it’s always changing. I started out mainly using Twitter to connect with other authors but now it’s changed to X and a LOT is different about that platform than when I started… Some solid advice I got from a self-publishing course was to never depend too much on any one social media platform, because you’re at the mercy of the algorithm and also the platform owners. Your email list is the one thing you can control and utilise, and so that should always be your focus. This said, social media does have a huge amount of benefits, one being that lonely indie authors can connect with a vibrant community of like-minded writers around the world. I’d say my main social media now is Instagram, and the Bookstagram community has been really genuinely delightful. I don’t have a huge following and I wouldn’t say I’d nailed how to use the platform really well, but I enjoy interacting with other writers and through Instagram I’ve really been able to ‘drill down’ into my own niche… Seeing other clean romance and closed door romance writers and readers has given me confidence that I can write what I want to read, without being afraid that there’s no market for it. One of my Instagram tips is to save posts you like for your own ‘post ideas’. That way, when you’re wondering what to post next, you can sift through your saved posts and there will be a bunch of cool ideas or trends you can jump on, like ’24 books for 2024′ or ‘Top 5 challenge’. Make sure your account is only used for your writing (rather than tons of family pics), and use your bio to signify your niche eg. Clean romance reader & author. I would also seek to cross-post where possible, so if I make a reel on Tiktok, then I can post it afterwards on Instagram and Facebook. Try to see your author-platforming as an ongoing conversation with different forms and avenues, but make it easier for yourself by allowing one to feed the other. For example, I create a social media post graphic on Canva (more about that below), and use it on multiple platforms. I might also use the graphic on my blog. Whatever’s on my blog can also be fed into my next email newsletter. So it’s a cycle where content may change format slightly and you may find you have very different audiences on different platforms, and learn how to adjust your content to fit each platform better.
Canva – This is just perfect for creating fabulous graphics. I’ve got a free account and I never struggle to find great templates which I can adapt. A few tips: I mainly use templates that are Instagram posts, because I don’t want a design to get cut off by the square format of an Insta post. I can then re-use them on the other platforms too. I pick one template for my ‘Bookstagram’ posts, and then I just duplicate the slides and adapt each time. This leads to consistency on your grid. Some accounts are just amazing at using one palette of colours and look very uniform, which mine definitely doesn’t! When it comes to my books, I try to find a template post that works well with my book cover’s colours and themes, and then keep duplicating slides as needed. It means that I have one Canva project with all of my social media posts for Bell Time, for example, which means it’s really easy to find what I need if a promo is coming up.
Savvy authors – This website hosts a vibrant online community and you can find a whole load of helpful resources. Frequently, authors are running classes or courses you can sign up for. They also provide a free critique partner match up service, which I’ve used in the past and met some lovely authors through. There are forums for Q&A and whatever stage you’re at, there will be something helpful there for you.
Goodreads – This is a reader’s social network where you can log what you’re reading and leave reviews. You can create an author account and also connect to your WordPress site, so that your blog updates get posted on your Goodreads feed too. It’s a great place for readers to find your books and you have an author profile page which is another opportunity to build your platform.
Newsletter promotions – Bookbub is a platform where you can follow authors you like and, as an author, they feature your book in their newsletter, which has a huge number of subscribers. These promos can be pricey, though. Written Word Media provide a promo stack service, where you can pay for your book to be featured in an email newsletter to subscribers interested in your genre (eg. romance). I would suggest signing up for some of these emails yourself so that you can see how they work. The idea is that they have access to way bigger numbers than your own email list (eg 30k subscribers!) – but I would say, as a subscriber myself, my open rate is not very high. So you take your chances with these. You may not break even.
I’d say that I’m moving more away from these paid promos and ads, and more towards free swaps with other authors, and free participation in indie-author-organised promo events. This is where building your author network is absolutely crucial. If you team up with other authors, also writing in your niche (Eg. clean romance), then you benefit from each other’s platforms and it’s a win-win.
Indie author group promotions – these seem to be run by very capable individuals who usually have a Facebook group for participating authors eg ZoeBub or #RomanceBookBlast. The date of the promo is set and you need to make your book free or 99c, depending on the promo type, and you also need to share the link in your newsletter on the day. I’ve done a few of these and I’ve never had so many downloads – although, they were free, so I didn’t make any money. However, it’s free to take part, and new readers are discovering your books. Definitely worth a try. I’ve recently joined a new group called ‘Stuff With Closed-Door‘ and I’m excited for their upcoming promotions.
Youtube – Victorine Lieske wrote about the success she’d had with putting all of her audio books on Youtube so they were available to people for free, and how she’ d actually seen an increase in her book sales as a result. I’ve made two audio books and put them on Youtube as well as Audible and other platforms, and I think this is a growing market. I’m lucky though that my husband has the software for me to record them myself, rather than paying for someone else to produce it.
OK this is a long and potentially very overwhelming post! Please note that I first starting researching self-publishing in May 2021. It wasn’t until June 2023 that I published my first book, so you are looking at several years of trial-and-error discovery here. Whatever stage you’re at with your author journey, remember that everyone has to start somewhere. And just pick one thing to start with. I did Bethany Atazadah’s self-publishing course on Udemy, and it really helped me to get my head around the process so I could make an informed decision on whether I wanted to take the plunge. I have no regrets!
Sophie Toovey 