Painful but necessary for all writers: the author platform

If you want to be a professional writer, your job is not simply to write a book. A major, often overlooked part of every author's job is to build an author platform. Self-promotion is never comfortable, often icky, but selling books requires a strong marketing strategy, and the author platform is an integral part of this. Some writers plan to get around this requirement by assuming that they will publish conventionally an have the book marketing part done for them, but the sad reality is that agents and publishers are more likely to take on an author who has a strong platform already when they query. Sound terrifying? Not to worry. Your writing coach, Karena Akhavein, will walk you through the easy steps of building an author platform with zero ick factor.