So, you’ve decided to become an author. That’s great! You’re putting yourself out there creatively, you’re committing yourself to a craft, and you want to hone these particularly marketable skills.

That takes dedication and a pretty healthy helping of courage, so good job there!

However, there is more to being a good author than simply writing a lot online. You’re going to need to find a way of getting your name out there for people to see.

You might already be aware of this. If you’ve been writing for a while, you may be aware of just how little attention new publications can get you as an author. Especially without a good marketing team/

So, with that in mind, we have collected the best methods that you can use to help promote you and your work as an author. Some are free, some are paid.

Some are solo methods, while others might need a team to help you out. But all are great steps you can take as a writer in the public eye!

These methods are also great strategies to try out if you are a freelance writer, but keep in mind that the exact audience and promotion that you’re looking to cultivate are slightly different.

One is for readers and publishers, while the other is for clients and other customers.

Examples Of Your Work

They say that actions speak louder than words. But when most of your work and actions are words, that’s all you need to start selling your work!

The fact of the matter is, a lot of people will often judge an author based on how their work reads, which makes sense.

After all, you wouldn’t hire a photographer if they wouldn’t show you any o their other work, would you? The same applies to authors.

You’ll need to consider just how big of an excerpt you use, as well as which work that you’ve made that you’ll want to use.

A favorite excerpt of yours might be a great indicator of your work’s vibe, but a short paragraph or two from your most recent piece can also go a long way to showing what your most up-to-date style is like now.

And, of course, don’t spoil any of your work in your chosen example!

Have An Up-To-Date Author Website

This might be the most important thing that you can do when it comes to establishing a professional, online presence.

You can use social media as much as you like (an idea that we will touch on later).

But if any of your followers are looking for a place where they can easily locate all or any of your work, you’re going to need a good author website to have all the information your raiders could need to learn more about you.

Having an author site of your own is a great way to create an immediate, easy-to-access online profile of yourself, as well as demonstrate what your current portfolio looks like, alongside maybe a little extra information about your background.

However, perhaps more importantly, an author’s website will be instrumental in further linking you to everywhere else you can be found on the internet.

Whether it is any other organization that you are familiar with, your social media profiles, or even your book pages on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or anywhere else readers can find your work.

While creating a website in the past has been quite a difficult task for anyone without programming or web development skills, there is a range of modern services today that can be used to create interesting and professional pages.

Companies like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix all provide quality services in this regard and need little to no pre-existing knowledge to be able to use them for yourself.

Setting Up Social Media Accounts

Following on from the point we were making in the last section, having social media accounts on different platforms isn’t a replacement for an author page.

What they are, however, is an excellent way to help build an audience of followers and readers that might be interested in your work!

It’s no secret that most authors, big and small, will have some kind of media presence on t least one or two major social media platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

However, there are plenty of other sites out there that are used by millions of people. Many of these may be the preferred site for people that you have decided are your target audience.

Benign present on these sites is one of the best ways to create an audience, as it allows you to make connections with people that you be interested in your work, whether they are simply readers, people that you may want to read and review your work, or even other authors that you can network with

Depending on the audience you are targeting, as well as its size, you may find that you are going to have to be on multiple platforms at any given time.

However, with how many sites or media platforms there are, you’re not going to be able to be on all of them for any meaningful amount of time.

This is where you will have to determine or research where most of your audience is likely to be found.

Try and stick to those social media platforms, whilst also keeping an eye out for potential other audiences that may be out there on other major platforms.

Have A Good Author’s Picture

In the same way that an excerpt can often show people what your writing is all about, a good picture of you for your author’s webpage is a great way to help your audience put a name to a face, so to speak.

This isn’t just to have a picture for pleasantry’s sake, either. Having a photo of yourself, as well as it is attached to your author’s page, is a great way to also boost how high up you are in search results.

Search engines like Google will often factor images into their algorithm when it comes to showing relevant results, so having a picture with your name attached is a great idea.

Maintain A Good Public Image

This one is an often overlooked factor, but one that cannot be overestimated when it comes to establishing yourself as a reputable and respected author.

When it comes to being a respected author online, it is best to not get dragged into vitriolic spats or arguments on social media, or anywhere else for that matter.

Sometimes emotions run high, and we’re only human.

However, considering that you aren’t just represented as a person as an online writer, but also a professional brand, so to speak, being dragged into heated arguments online is just asking for people to not take you seriously.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, becoming an established author online isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do. There are plenty of things that can make being noticed a challenge.

However, these tips that we have discussed are a great way to get you started there, especially if you are just starting, and need a good foundation to build your online presence.

We hope that you take some of these ideas into your professional author career with you!