Zen…

One of the biggest challenges beginner or aspiring writers face at the early stage of their writing careers is the struggle to be seen.

Getting people to read their works and not having to feel like writing is a scam or something boring people do.

Once you say “I’m Ruby and I’m a writer” the next question which is very much popular amongst writers will be “Oh that’s cool, have you published any books?” “Where can I find your works?”… then you’re stuck.

Because you probably don’t have a good answer to those questions. And it doesn’t mean you don’t have stuffs you’ve written somewhere, you only don’t know how you can show it off and still appear cool.

Truth is, people won’t buy into anything you’re selling until they see proof or a reason to take you seriously. This also goes for writing.

If they can’t have access to a proof of what you do, they’ll call it a bluff.

In this article, you’ll learn how to avoid those awkward situations or scenarios and more importantly, get ahead in the business of writing.

You will not just learn how you can put your work out there, you’ll also discover how you can drive traffic to your content and build a loyal audience which you can convert to customers in the nearest future, without seeming boring , pushy or insignificant.

Instagram x TikTok: They’re going no where! They are the future. Business, entertainment, learning… name it. It’s a no brainer what having a loyal audience on these apps can do for a creative person in any niche.

Of course there are other apps which can help you build a strong online brand like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat… but with these two, I can guarantee a fast, strong boost on your online authority.

If you have an account, start taking them seriously and if you haven’t one yet, hurry and create one.

All you need to do is – sit down, take out your notebook or journal, take your time to write down what you know best about writing and start creating contents on that.

Find out what you are most connected with – is it book reviews? Is it fiction writing? Flash fiction? Writer’s quotes, tips, WIP excerpts…

Open the app on your phone and search for yourself, type writers or TikTok writers or anything related to writing and you will find tons of creators on that niche. Then study their contents and how they’re related to what you can do.

Here’s a few screenshots from some creators accounts. Some are new and some are already established on TikTok.

These creators post book trailers, screenshots of their Wattpad stories-excerpts, but with creative aesthetic videos and trending sounds and relevant hashtags. You can only imagine the traffic these creators will be driving to their actual Wattpad accounts.

Point is, to get ahead you have to start from somewhere.

I know some authors who just discuss their books or main characters and have tons of people watch them.

Some make videos of day in the life of a writer – from waking up, to making their beds, to making coffee, doing an exercise and sitting in front of a laptop and scrolling the screen … funny thing is, people watch it!

Remember, the goal in this guide is to help you build a brand and have an authority, so stay with me.

Think entertaining, inspiring, educating – how to videos, 10 things about my main character… and stuff like that.

You can also google niche ideas for “writers on TikTok”. You will definitely find plenty of options to choose from.

Not only fiction writers- bloggers, content writers and the rest.

You just have to search what other people are doing. Study their strategy, find out how it’s connected to what you want to do and think about how you can do it better without boring your audience and still be able to pass a message across.

It could be a video of you sharing the list of self publishing companies or traditional publishing companies you’ve written to and failed …or how you started writing or what article you are working on and how you are going to pitch your article idea to an editor, your audience will want to keep up with the “part two” of your journey.

Start and see where the ship takes you.

Instagram on the other hand, we’ve seen how crazy it’s been with the app’s reels. You could have a hundred following today and tomorrow with a creative video, you could go viral and top your following and engagement by a five hundred or more.

These accounts are less than 2k following but look how viral their posts go on reels on a daily or weekly basis.

More so, do not depend only on reels. You still need a loyal audience, one you can interact more closely with.

So post pictures on your page, discuss interesting topics on your stories – use live videos and polls and so on. You have to do these things consistently.

Use Instagram analytics to find out when your followers are most active and post an hour or 30 minutes before the time or at the time (try both and see what works).

It could be pictures of your daily writing journey, your excerpts, your favorite book lines or anything related to your writing that can convince people you are a passionate writer.

Find writers on Instagram, follow the people who engage on their contents- those are the people who are most likely to follow and engage with your contents. And don’t chase them by not clearly identifying with a niche or being inconsistent.

Choose quality over quantity. It’s better to have 50 posts that are valuable than 200 that is completely useless.

Study the hashtags of writers with higher following- use the related and relevant ones to your posts and watch how engaged your audience will become.

Here’s a screenshot of my writing page and how active it is even with less than a 1000 followers. I only post scribbled thoughts from my notes.

Weeks ago, a page reached out to me to write for their magazine because they saw my contents and believed their audience will also love it.

This should be a good reason to take your TikTok and Instagram accounts seriously. You don’t have to be on both apps but if you can, double influence you got there!

Build your portfolio: having a social media presence is not enough, to really make it as a writer you must show your work. It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting, if you wish to get gigs you really need something to show that you can do the job you’re telling people you do. That’s how you build trust and get paid too.

Imagine a make up artist trying to do your make up and you haven’t seen pictures of his or her works anywhere. You won’t probably trust he or she is good enough or worth your time and money.

All you need is 1-3 samples of your previous works posted or listed somewhere and you are good.

Clippings.me is a good place to start when you’re looking to compile list of your works (like PDFs , word docs, links to articles etc) WordPress is also another great place for your works to be listed.

Imagine blogging about topics that are interesting to you and when a client or publication asks for a sample of your work you send them a link that directs them to your blog. Now all they have to do is see a list of topics you’ve written about.

So pick a niche today or just figure something you’re interested in and write about it consistently then post on your blog or polish those drafts on your Ms word office and post the docs to your clippings.me account, have something to show when the opportunity calls!

Get published: yes I know, publishing a book is hard. Especially when you don’t have the funds yet.

Sometimes when you rush to publish you end up hating the idea – whether it’s paying a costly amount to an editor or just the whole long process and then not selling enough copies or people not even knowing you and your book. It’s a very tiring experience. Now you wonder if this writing thing is even meant for you in the first place. It is, you just need a good working plan. This is what most beginner writers don’t understand until later.

They first try to compare themselves with published authors of bestselling books and think it’s only going to take a good story to blow as a writer. It actually takes more than that – patience, long practice and a good plan.

How about guest posting on blogs. Writing contents for these blogs and getting the credits which will add to your CV.

Also find friends, family, relatives or organizations that you work for or the ones a friend works for. Find out what you can write for them. Keep the lists to show for later.

If you eventually publish a book tomorrow, those clients will want to check them out because they know you are into these things and they were a part of your journey sometime in the past.

Some of these blogs or clients will not pay you and it’s okay, especially when you’re still starting. You get to learn more and get publicized too.

If you write for a blog with a big audience and at the end they attach your email or contact or blog address, their audience will try to find you and some of them will stick around because they love what you are doing.

I suggest you subscribe to magazines like freedomwithwriting.com authorspublish.com and the likes-newsletters, keep up with the lists of publishers they provide in order to get published and build your CV.

In conclusion, to have a strong online authority you have to do what you’re doing, but in a creative way- you must be able to tell people who you are without boring them and be able to keep them because you’re consistent enough to provide fresh entertaining contents every single time and before you know it, these followers will be so loyal you can sell literally anything to them.

You don’t need a million readers to be a popular writer, you need a hundred or a few thousand who will always come back for more contents and services simply because they love you and what you’re doing for them.

You can also begin by putting various contents out there till you find out the one your audience engage most with, then you can niche down and be a master in the game.

I can’t promise you will get there once you start but if you remain committed and consistent to putting out creative stuff out there – one that answers questions, solves a problem or just entertains and keeps people engaged, the right audience will find you and stay for as long as you want to keep them.

If you follow these 3 steps correctly, you’ll establish yourself as a writer with a strong brand which will bring you open door opportunities like never before. Don’t forget, anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Good luck, whatever you do, keep writing!