I've been thinking about my post titles and have decided to dispense with the music thing.  Sooner or later I would run out of ideas for songs or end up repeating myself.

So from now on the blog post titles will be a little more direct.

I guess this is all part of today's blog post subject;

Platform building

"...the group of activities you engage in that get your name and work noticed by the public. It's marketing, not of a specific work, but of you as the author. It's everything you do to build your brand."

This is something I have come into quite late in the process of publishing my novel.  So in some respects I feel I'm playing catch up.  But, I'm a quick study and probably have a few weapons in my arsenal that other writers may not.

Firstly I already pay for sever space for an unrelated website and, using WordPress, I have previously designed my own website.  This means when it came time to create my own website I already had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to achieve.

The result, although still a work in progress, is:  www.philiptolhurst.co.uk

The second thing I did was to start a blog, this blog no less.   I already started blogging on a different blog called: The Words Escape Me

However, I can't remember the details I used to log into it so instead I just started from scratch.

I've tried as much as possible to keep posting to the blog with stuff I think is relevant and that people who read this blog will find interesting.  I think I'm averaging about five posts a week which I am quite happy with.

I'm still experimenting with blogger.  I recently added a nice gadget to show my most recent Pinterest pins on the right hand side of the blog.   Pinterest is the most recent of my Social media forays.  It's also one I've been finding a lot of fun to get to grips with and I have created quite a few albums now.

You can find me on Pinterest here:  www.pinterest.com/philiptolhurst/

By adding the Pinterst panel to my blog I am linking the two together in a more permanent fashion.  Which helps to tie my platform together.  Imagine, if you will, several Train stations with no track to link them together.   You can visit them each individually but you can't travel between them.   The goal is to lay more and more of that track.




About the same time I started this blog I also started to build my Twitter account.  I've recently topped 2200 followers and am maintaining a steady increase.  My attempts to build rapport with my followers builds a base from which I hope to bring people further into my platform.

I also have a Facebook page:  facebook.com/philtolhurst  and a Google+ account

Although I confess I've never really been sure what to write to those two.  I guess it's something to work on.

One of the least used aspects of my network of social sites is my Goodreads account.

I guess I still have some learning to do.   However,  I think there's an important lesson I read not so long ago.  It boils down to the fact that it is better to have three or four social networks and concentrate on those than it is to spread yourself too thinly across the multitudes.

There are lots of other sites that I'll be using more and more as time goes by and once the book is up and running.  Mainly these are authors platforms and I will work more on them once I've published my book.

For the record I'm planning an April release for George and the Dragon now due to some last minute work I've taken up following some late beta reading.

Although not technically part of my platform each of my books will have their own website and should they be part of a series the series will get a website too.  I need to create a site for the Knights of the Sky but that can wait till I've finished the book.

Hope this gives you a few ideas on how to build your platform.   The next time I discuss this I'll look at all the author sites I've decided to join and we'll see what they can do for me.

Phil