Last week I wrote about deciding upon your author name to determine your domain name. Once you have purchased your domain, the next step is stake out your own real estate on the internet. Before you build your author website, you will need to answer three questions.   (1)  Who will provide you with internet service?  Internet service providers (ISPs) are those who bring the internet into your home or office or mobile device. This may be your phone company, your cable TV company, or a local independent internet service provider. You will be billed a monthly fee for this service and rates vary. If you already have access to the internet, then you already have an internet service provider and can move on to the next question. (2) Who will provide webhosting service for your site? Many internet service providers also offer hosting services for websites and email. You may decide to buy your domain name through your webhosting service, but domain registration and webhosting do not necessarily have to be purchased from one provider. (If you have already purchased a domain name through one webhosting service, you can transfer it to another.) Webhosting services provide space on their servers for your site and assign it a unique DNS (Domain Name System). With many different companies vying to become the host for your author site, you want to look for one which features access to the Control panel (cpanel), offers site statistics, ecommerce tools, mailboxes, email tools, and 1-click…

Ravelry is a social media platform with 8 million members of the knitting and crochet community. It’s a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, felters, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, and patterns, and share ideas and inspiration. Knitting has always been a part of my life. Grandma Swenson knit me Barbie Doll outfits out of fine sock yarn. I learned to crochet from Grandma Kling. During college and graduate school, I knit through most of my lecture classes. My best friend from college, Amy E. Anderson, is a designer whose patterns for sweaters, hats, slippers, mittens, and bags I’ve knit and felted over the years. During several winters in the oughts, I taught knitting classes at the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts yarn shop in Watkins Glen, NY. I’ve taken dyeing classes and been a member of the Black Sheep Fiber Guild. I still spin. It is a form of meditation, a discipline. Craft for many, art for some. For pattern designers who author knitting books, Ravelry is a key platform in their business plan. It’s a quick way to find your target audience. It’s a marketplace of goods and services for the fiber arts and crafts community and free to the user. It’s not a place where you’d expect to find a lot of hate speech. But on Sunday, June 23rd, Ravelry implemented a new policy. “Do Not Post In Support of Trump or his Administration.” They aren’t endorsing Democrats or banning Republicans. The incivility in…

Whether you are preparing to launch your new book, still writing the manuscript, or marketing your book a year after its release, you can’t ignore the importance of your author platform for your success as an author. Today you need to demonstrate to a publisher you have built a big enough platform to sell a sufficient number of books before they’ll offer you a contract. And if you pursue self-publishing, it is even more important. How else will readers find your book? An author platform isn’t measured by the number of followers on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, but on the size and scope of readers who know you already and are interested in what you have to say. Taking stock of your efforts to attract readers will help you determine where to put your efforts into growing your customer base. Building your author platform requires a consistent, focused effort to make incremental improvements in extending your reach through expanding your social networks. Whether you use an Excel or Google spreadsheet, or a whiteboard on your wall, create a grid for assessing your current author platform. Channels: Make a list of all the ways you communicate with (potential) readers and places where you can be reached by someone who is trying to connect with you   Mailing address Email address Agent’s contact information Publisher’s contact information Publicist’s contact information Website Blog Newsletter Amazon profile Goodreads profile LinkedIn profile Facebook Page and/or personal profile Twitter profile Instagram profile Pinterest profile Previous publications…