Becoming a published author is as much of a business as it is a passion and as such you need to be listed on the top business networking sites…LinkedIn.
Now LinkedIn isn’t the social platform that is, well social. Meaning it’s not the place you tell your fans what you eat while in your writing cave like you may on Facebook or the place to send out tweets about upcoming sale on your latest release. No LinkedIn is the place where you create your professional writing resume which traditional publishers and literary agents will come calling and vice versa.
Below we’ve taken some highlights on what you should have on your LinkedIn profile and how you should manage it. For further information, all of the referenced articles will be listed at the bottom of this post.
- Make sure that your profile is “complete.” This means adding, at a minimum, your industry, location, at least 5 skills, education, photo, at least 50 connections, a summary, and two past positions. Once it’s complete, LinkedIn will invite you to share your profile on Twitter and Facebook so that your friends can see it.
- Add “Author” and the name of your book to your work experience. Be sure to include a description of the book, and a link to purchase in the work history. Personally, I enter the publication date as the “Start Date” and do not specify an end date. (I’ll always be the author of my books. That will never change. So an end date would just be silly!) You also have the ability to attach a video or photo to each position you hold. Be sure to upload your book cover image and if you have a book trailer, add that as well. If you have a sample chapter you offer, you can link it here as well (or if you want to capture e-mail addresses, to an opt-in page to download it), so that people can get the excerpt directly from your LinkedIn profile.
- A compelling headline is what can cause people to be interested enough to click on your name to find out more about you. Your photo and headline show up all over the network – next to any answers you give, your activity stream, in search results and lists of ‘people who viewed this profile’ …. Your headline should include the words writer and/or author (if that is going to be your primary use of LinkedIn), perhaps something talking about the style of writing or title of a book perhaps. It may include the word ‘blogger’.
- Update your profile URL to have a vanity URL. People won’t remember the system-generated URL, but they may remember your name. So, update your URL to reflect that. For example, mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/dianeschroder.
- Don’t forget the links back to your website, blog or Facebook page perhaps. You can add three links altogether and you should use the ‘Other’ category as this allows you to create the search terms that act as the link. Add your Twitter account if you have one as this allows users who are nosy (like me) to find you easily on that network too
- Finally, add some details about how people can contact you – an email at the very least and preferably a telephone number too. Never give anyone the opportunity not to give you money
The entire “2018 Marketing Plan” page has a list of all the topics already discussed.
References:
Linda Parkinson-Hardman, Article “How Authors and Writers can Use LinkedIn Effectively”
Tara Alemany, Article “LinkedIn for authors”