As creating an author’s platform – that is, setting up all of the tools you’ll use to get word out about your book – pay close attention to the name you use. All too often, the social media sites for an author utilize different names, which can make you difficult to find.

Using a lone name to refer to yourself that is followed across your author’s platform (and then in all of your promotional materials) is a matter of branding yourself. It’s what the big guys do, no matter what product they sell, and for good reason. Consider fast food giant McDonalds. Its website is http://www.mcdonalds.com. Its Facebook site is http://www.facebook.com/mcdonalds. Its Pinterest site is http://www.pinterest.com/mcdonalds. There’s no confusing http://www.eatatmcdonalds or http://www.mcdonaldscompany. The idea is simple: McDonalds wants to everyone to know them with the use of one word. Type that word in a search engine or at a social media site, and you’ll instantly arrive at their site.

As an author, you should do the same. This will be increasingly important with each book you publish. Rather than have separate sites for each book, or some sites named for one book and some sites named for a second book, utilize one, consistent name in which people will be able find out about all of your books (or at least whatever is your most current book), no matter which social media site they visit.

Going with your name as an author usually is best, especially for novelists or poets. Hence, if your name is Jane Johnson, then your website should be http://www.janejohnson.com, your Facebook site http://www.facebook.com/janejohnson, your Twitter site @janejohnson, and so on. Alternately, if you publish different lines of books, especially nonfiction titles aimed at different audiences, you would use the series’ name across your platforms. So, if your series title is “59 Seconds a Day…” (as in “59 Seconds a Day to Happier You” and “59 Seconds a Day to a Smarter You”, use http://www.59secondsaday, http://www.facebook.com/59secondsaday, @59secondsaday.

Be aware that various social media sites limit the length of your “handle”; Twitter restrains you to 15 letters, for example. Because of this, before setting up any sites, you’ll want to think carefully about what your “brand” will be. Shorter usually is better, as it not only ensures consistency in your site names but often is easier to remember (After all, would you more easily remember “Jane Johnson” or “Jane H. Rubenstein Johnson”?).

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.