Relationships

It's a word I hear more and more often.  As writers, we talk about building relationships with our readers and with other authors.  But how do you do that in a natural, organic fashion?

I've journeyed into this uncharted territory these last few weeks as I ask myself how to build an author platform.

What I have done:
1) joined Twitter under my pen name
2) joined Goodreads under my pen name
3) set up a website

So you do all of that and your followers and readers magically appear?  Of course not.

It takes TIME.  Maybe more time than I can give, in fact.

What works for me:
Twitter - I retweet versus new tweets.  I need to keep my real life separate so I find retweeting industry news and helping promote others is better for me.
Goodreads - I am working on ramping up author interviews for my blog on my author website

And I've suddenly found myself sharing about my book with people I don't necessarily want to read my book...like my boss' boss' boss.  (Um...you probably don't read romance novels...right?)  But you never know because she or he may know someone who does!  And what's important is to start building that connection.

Maybe they won't like your book.  Maybe they will.  And just maybe they will share your book with others.  Then you'll have built yet another relationship.