Why you should be building your on-line presence, even before publishing your books.

To date I have but one, short story published. There are others coming, but it is a slow process. There are many days when I don't have time, or when I feel too tired to write (like today). It is at moments like these that I turn my attention to other matters.

On-line presence.

What's that all about then? Is it just having 8,000+ followers on Twitter and an author's page on Facebook? Well, yes and no. There is no point in having 8,000 followers if you don't do anything with them. I need to interact with them and sell them me - the writer.

Screen shot of discussion thread mentioning Diem Burden

Pen name

Having a unique pen-name helps me enormously. I have set up a weekly, automated Google search. Each week,  a search is carried out on the www for any new mentions of 'Diem Burden.' I then receive an email with details. In one such email I was happy to discover that Diem Burden had been mentioned on a Publishing Discussion Thread as a useful source of 'great publishing tips of self publishing or getting published.' (see picture, above).


No, it hasn't helped sell my book. No, I didn't do it myself! What this person did was to provide my name to other people in a positive, glowing light! My name, my unique name. That's what it is all about, building your name, building your brand.

Brand Diem: helpful, knowledgeable, a person to follow and listen to. A publisher and writer worth mentioning.

What greater reason is there for an author to be building his on-line presence?

(Oh, and thanks, Veritas.)