Online marketing and social networking go hand-in-hand. Content shareability and visitor engagement is what counts with search engines.
According to Chuck Sambuchino, in his book "Create Your Writer Platform," an author's platform and its 'reach' is an important factor when seeking an agent or publisher.
Take note that this is not after a book is published; it's when the author is looking for a contract.
Sambuchino advised that "the size of your desired book deal" is a factor in the size of your author online network realm. So, if you're seeking a big-time New York agent or publisher, with a hefty advance, you'll need to have a hefty social network in place and substantial traffic to your website.
There were five categories mentioned in the book: blog page views; twitter followers; newsletter subscribers; public speaking appearances/audience; and sales of self-published books.
If you're a new author just joining the writing and publishing ranks, you may be taken aback at the thought of the book marketing strategies that need to be in place before you even have a contract. Well, welcome to the author's world.
This article will cover the first two categories.
Blog Page Views
Under this category keep in mind that your social networks, including the groups you belong to, play a factor in the numbers. You need to 'share' your posts to help bring traffic.
Sambuchino suggests that 20,000 views a month is a notable amount. This is the lowest amount mentioned. Twenty thousand views a month. For most authors this is a significant amount.
If you're a writer and you've been utilizing online marketing to create and build your author platform and presence you know how difficult it is to garner 20,000 blog views a month. It takes a lot of marketing strategies, time, and effort.
So, if you're at the 20,000 mark, congratulations.
Next is 'very notable.' This number is 100,000.
If you're at the 500,000 mark, which is considered "impressive," WOW. You can go for any agent or publisher you like.
Twitter Followers
Next up is Twitter and 5,000 followers are considered notable. For Twitter, this isn't difficult to do... if you don't care about who you're connected with. But, if you want followers who have certain criteria, then reaching 5,000 will take a bit of work.
Let me explain what I mean about some people having a certain criteria.
If you have followers who curse or use vulgar language and you're a children's writer/author, you should to be choosy as to who is associated with your Twitter account. Or, you may be a Christian writer, the same would apply.
How about if you're a writer and marketer, would it be effective or beneficial to your other followers to connect with a winery, a real estate service, a sports enthusiast?
Another scenario that happens is the individual who wants to connect, but has tweets in a foreign language. In this case you have no idea what's being said. Would it be wise to connect?
One other questionable element of getting 'followers' is the use of 'unethical' services that will get you 25,000 or 50,000 followers for a fee. Would this be a good thing to do just to have the numbers? Do you think you'd have any control over who will be included in the thousands of followers?
Getting the numbers isn't that difficult, unless you have criteria in place to keep your connections G rated and focused.
Very notable in this category is 15,000 - impressive is 50,000.
Bottom Line
It's pretty simple - numbers matter. While you shouldn't be losing sleep over it, you should be working toward building a 'notable' online platform, at the very least.
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