Laying the Groundwork

The majority of my work today boils down to marketing. Traditional publishing routes involve querying (a process where an author reaches out to publishers to pitch their writing and appeal to an agent), an in-depth editing process that is heavily driven by the publishing company. Marketing is often also out of the author's hands. While the author may contribute, it is generally assumed that the bulk of this work will fall into the hands of the publisher. The author should be heavily involved in marketing in every form of publishing. However, due to general attitudes toward the nature of this kind of publishing, most authors assume that their involvement in marketing is unnecessary. Self-publishing places a higher emphasis on the author to build a platform for their work. This is obvious— if you're self-publishing, no one is going to magically appear in front of you when your book is done. 

The process of marketing needs to begin long before your book is finished, according to every writing YouTuber I've watched so far. Each one recommends building your platform from the bottom. This includes website creation, social media, mailing lists, giveaways, sponsorships, affiliate work, and dozens of other options. As self-publishing is my preferred route, I've been working on developing professional accounts for my writing career. I will not be querying agents, so despite being about 15% of the way through my first draft, I'm beginning to develop a personal brand. Today alone, I created this website, and filled it with everything you see here. I created a new work email and a Twitter account specifically for these reasons. In time, hopefully, my blog/site and Twitter account will take off. I'm also planning on creating a weekly mailing list in the future, but it will require a bit of a following to be amassed before I create it. As much as I'm enjoying patting myself on the back, this is literally the BARE MINIMUM that goes into creating a successful platform. Hopefully, it'll pay off.