Two Terrific Resources for Marketing Your Book and Building an Author’s Platform

As a writer who has spent an enormous amount of time over the past five years on marketing and platform-building, I have read scores of blogs and dozens of books on the topic. I have found few resources better than the two I’m recommending in this post. Lynn Serafinn’s Spirit Authors blog (spiritauthors.com) and Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn (thecreativepenn.com) are both focused, practical, and tuned-In to writers’ issues in a way many resources aren’t.When I started building my author’s platform, I felt like I was swimming in a vast sea in the pitch dark. I didn’t know which direction to go or what would bring me to landfall. I floundered around going this way then that, wasting a lot of energy on techniques that didn’t get me anywhere. I wish I’d had the work of these two authors then. I’m certainly making use of their expertise now.

Lynn Serafinn is a certified coach, social media expert, and author. What I love about her approach is that it is both spiritual and practical. Serafinn focuses on ethical and spirit-based marketing, but offers far more than vacuous “think positive thoughts and it will all fall into place” advice. Her suggestions are specific, clear-cut, do-able and effective, and they come out of an awareness that honors readers, writers, and the art of writing.

Serafinn’s work gave me a new lease on marketing when I was feeling like the old models just weren’t working. To learn more, check out her blog at spiritauthors.com or her excellent books The 7 Graces of Marketing: How to Heal Humanity and the Planet by Changing the Way We Sell and Tweep-e-licious! 158 Twitter Tips & Strategies for Writers, Social Entrepreneurs & Changemakers Who Want to Market their Business Ethically.

Joanna Penn self-published her first thriller, Prophecy, only to have it tank in the marketplace. Unlike most self-published authors, she wasn’t satisfied to sell a couple hundred books and call it a day. Instead, she taught herself book marketing and became an expert on the topic of getting self-published books in front of readers.

Her expertise paid off not only for her own writing—Prophecy sales eventually took off, and her two sequels, Pentacost and Exodus have both been high sellers—but for the thousands who read her blog at The Creative Penn. Though her focus is on self-published authors, almost everything she says applies to traditionally published writers as well.

If you are a writer who wishes to reach an audience you must be willing to put yourself out there—on social media and in person. Learning how to do that can be daunting. But Lynn Serafinn and Joanna Penn both offer abundant advice that makes the process clear and unthreatening.