 Build a “platform,” they tell you. It’s vital for a successful author to have a “platform”… When I first started writing and did bits of research into how to be a successful author, one of the themes that came up time and time again was the notion of having an author platform. At first, I didn’t quite understand what a platform was. So if you’re in the same boat as I was in those early days, here’s my understanding. An author platform is basically an online presence. It usually involves having a website and a decent following on various social media platforms. The different platforms A few years back, I tried to build this presence on a range of platforms, including Twitter/X, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. The only one I had any success on was Twitter. As for the other ones:
Twitter/X Now, Twitter…I’ve had some success there. I started posting regularly in autumn 2021, around the same time that I started writing The Queen of Vorn. And on this platform, I had some success. Writing a short post is quick and easy. I could do it in the morning while I drank my first coffee of the day. I soon found posting questions was a great way to invite interaction and hence followers, and I realised that if you followed people, lots of them would follow you back. For the last four years, I’ve been posting almost daily, and commenting on other posts besides. In the early days, I kept tabs on how my following was increasing. I just looked at that data and realised I last updated it in March 2023. I’ve just added in my latest follower count, which stands at 43,036. I made the graph below so you can see the trend.  You can see at first, the count rose quickly. I think this was in part due to luck. I jumped on the platform at a good time when the algorithm gods favoured me. In the early days, I could write posts that would regularly get tens of thousands of hits. That died away with time, but I had a good base and so the numbers continued to climb. I have tons of followers, so what? There have been plenty of people who have posted on my comments flagging this in a way that sounds a tad envious. You have loads of followers; stop whining about… that kind of thing. But: What is the benefit of having loads of followers? Err??? Six days ago, I wrote the following post:  What was behind my sudden negativity? Primarily, it was the result of one particular follower who I had allowed to live rent free in my head. But how did he get there in the first place? I’m trying to move on from the horrific experience I had soon after I published The Queen of Vorn this summer. I’ve removed the blog post I wrote about it and some of the tweets relating to it too, as I don’t want it to sit as a stain on my author platform. But as a brief summary, I wrote a post about a mediocre review, got loads of attention, and as a result someone set out to destroy me; and I ended up review-bombed. Six books that I’d been crafting for four years were bombed with one-star reviews, including three that were unpublished 18 months prior and two that were not even out yet. As well as the one in question. Needless to say, that little debacle somewhat knocked me sideways. I’ve been trying to recover ever since. Goodreads took down some of the more hateful reviews and some of the one-star ratings, but they refuse to take down the bulk of them. Hence, a scar remains on my author platform that I can’t remove. All I can do is try to move on from that. So after picking myself up from the heap on the floor I’d ended up in after this horrible experience, I set about trying to rescue my books. The book that got the mediocre review that I commented on did go out with flaws. I talk about how this happened in a blog post I wrote in September. Here’s a handy link if you’re interested.  But despite its flaws, it didn’t deserve to be destroyed the way it was.
Regardless, it was tarnished beyond redemption in my opinion, so I pulled it from the shelves and resolved to do some work on it to fix the flaws. I would also give it a new title so it could get a fresh start. Keen to get as much feedback as I could to make improvements, I sought the opinions of beta readers. Twitter helped me find some. Yay! The platform has some positives: a bunch of people read my novel and gave feedback. Now, if you ever do this yourself, I have one piece of advice: If you disagree with feedback, only ignore it if it’s an outlier. What I mean by this is that when you get feedback, lots of people will say lots of different things. Some you may read and think, “yeah, I thought as much”, other comments you may disagree with. I suggest you ignore these unless they are a common theme from different beta readers, or you will start changing your novel into something completely different and maybe even make it worse. Now, getting back to the point of the article—I got lots of feedback and, as a result, decided what changes I would make to my story. One particular reader, however, was particularly critical. He made a lot of comments that I disagreed with that hadn’t been raised by others. That’s fine—everyone likes different stuff and has different opinions. I thanked him for his feedback, which was rather detailed, and asked if he would be interested in reading my revised version. I revised it, and he read it, and he came back with a load more rather critical feedback. Now, here’s the thing. When someone takes the time to read my work and provide details as to what they think of it, I’m very grateful. They give up their time for free to do this, so whether or not the feedback is good, I still hold them in high regard for doing this. When I got the second batch of critical feedback, I thought this reader deserved some of my time to explain how although the comments were useful, and that there were a few points I would take on board, I also wanted to explain why I wouldn’t be completely re-writing my novel to turn it into a different story, as he’d basically suggested. Reply written, let’s move on. Except this particular person didn’t want to move on. He seemed to be somewhat offended that I didn’t take all his points onboard. He kept dripping comments into my Twitter feed. Every time I referenced the Twitter storm of the summer, I was a whining victim. Every time I referred to my book, he liked to have a dig about how I couldn’t take feedback. This went on and on. I would have blocked him a while ago, except that I only usually block people who are hateful, and he wasn’t hateful. He always phrased his comments in a reasonable, respectful way, despite their negative connotations. The Queen of Vorn was revised further and rebranded, and I asked for advance readers on Twitter. The lovely human being I referred to decided to create a pseudonym and sneak his way onto my ARC list. He got his free copy and then proceeded to slate it on Goodreads. His review is easy to spot; it’s the one that goes on about The Queen of Vorn in a review about Path to Power. He also decided to write a blog about it on his website, going into great detail about how awful my book is. I don’t know why this person became so obsessed with me. But I’m angry with myself for feeding his obsession. Every time I replied to his comments, I was feeding the beast without seeing him for what he is. When I looked at his latest stating of my book on his website, it finally clicked. He’s a bully. And the worst thing you can do when dealing with a bully is react. So I realised he needed blocking, ignoring, and left to stew in his hatred of me and my books until he eventually got bored and went away. He is just one bad apple, I guess. Besides him, surely there are positives to having loads of followers. Why would people seek fame if they didn’t want to be noticed? Being noticed is good, right? It helps people make money, doesn’t it? Um, I’ll come to that shortly. I’ve been talking a lot about the negatives of having loads of followers, so I think it’s important to address the subtitle of this section a bit more concisely: What is the benefit of having loads of followers?
But as for selling books? Err… Whenever I try to plug my books on Twitter, the response is usually tumbleweeds. Sure, I may have found a handful of readers for my stuff on this platform. But in terms of the ratio of time spent tweeting stuff to profits for book sales, I’d be far better off using that time working for minimum wage and using that money to pay for ads. The Platform Curse If you have lots of followers, a lot of people can see you. I’m very much of the opinion that most people in this world are decent and good. But there’s a minority who are nasty and spiteful. The more people who can see you, the more likely it is that one of these nasty people spots you. And if you do something they don’t like, they will gleefully set about trying to destroy you. The sad reality of life is that hate spreads far quicker than love. I managed to collect hundreds of book reviews, ratings, and comments in a short space of time that were nasty and vindictive. But to try to get hundreds of good book reviews and ratings takes a lot of time, effort and patience. We are all human, and we all make mistakes. You can get things right 99% of the time. But we sometimes make mistakes. And the more people that notice, the more likely it is that someone will be ready to sink the knife.
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 DoubleTree by Hilton - venue of the World Fantasy Convention 2025 I went to the World Fantasy Convention! Yes, I took my northern ass to the very southern reaches of our shores and had an amazing few days in windy, rainy Brighton. Set in The DoubleTree by Hilton hotel, the conference spanned four days and cost me £200 for a full event ticket, but with hotels, trains, food and drink, the total cost was rather a lot more, maybe £600+. Yes, it’s a lot, isn’t it? Was it worth it? I think so; here’s why. The conference started on Thursday, and I arrived in time for the welcome brief to first-timers like myself. I was given a quick low-down on what to expect during the convention, mainly from an administrative and practicalities point of view – nothing I probably couldn’t have figured out myself. But like so many things I attended during the conference, the benefit wasn’t in what the presenters said, but in the people I met. Sat around a table of fellow first-timers, after the brief we were encouraged to chat. And as well as learning lots of interesting things about my fellow attendees, I also learnt that a couple of hours later, there was the chance to pitch your novel to a small press publisher – somehow I’d missed this in the programme. Ever one to jump on any and every opportunity as it arises, I went to the pitching session and despite not pre-registering, like I was supposed to, I blagged myself a five-minute slot with one of the two owners of the press. I gave a spiel about The Stolen Throne Trilogy – and I got an invitation to query! Yay! Granted, I’ve never queried the latest iteration of this trilogy, but I have queried versions of the first book in the past. That soul-destroying ritual of researching agents or publishers, tailoring your query package until it’s just how they want it, then hitting send. And hoping someone gets back to you. Most of the time they don’t. If you’re lucky, you get a soulless standard rejection. If you’re really lucky, you get a personalised rejection – I think I had one of these, once. If your query is the one in a thousand that pricks the interest of whoever you send your query to, you are asked for a full manuscript – which may or may not lead to a publishing deal later – then maybe it's time to start playing the lottery, as you've just been blessed with a big dose of luck! So, having someone in the industry say my trilogy pricked their interest was really nice. Would I trad-publish the trilogy I’m on the verge of self-publishing? Maybe. I guess it depends on what the offer looks like. But I’m not holding my breath that there will be one. Later in the conference I spotted the guy I delivered my proposal to, and we had a good twenty-minute chat. I explained why I didn’t think he’d go for my novel – that sounds a tad self-defeating, I know, but frankly, I’m happy to self publish at this stage. We also talked about how his small press worked; how he goes for only one book a year – one book a year??? Yeah, that’s a tiny number, isn’t it? It’s not the first time I’ve chatted to small presses, so it wasn’t a massive surprise. But in the early days of querying, I really had no idea they took on so few books. The next three days were filled with various panels and launches. At least four events were held at any one time, so there was lots to choose from. There were things like panels with titles like Politics in Fantasy, Blending the Genres and Writing Fighting. These are where four or five people sit on a table in front of an audience and discuss a topic.  Panel discussion on Editing and Editors, World Fantasy Convention 2025 One of the great things about World Fantasy Con and its smaller sister event, British Fantasy Con, is that members of the British Fantasy Association are invited to sit on the panels. Ever happy to share my thoughts in public, I of course I volunteered, and I ended up on two of them: Inspired by Tolkien and The Role of Class in Fantasy. I happily chatted away with my fellow panel members (some of whom were actually successful authors!) about said topics then answered questions from the audience. I’ve long been comfortable talking to crowds, so this came naturally, and I really enjoyed it. There were also talks. A highlight was Andrzej Sapkowski in conversation with David French. If the name doesn’t ring any bells, you might be familiar with his books – he wrote the Witcher series, and David French translates Andrzej’s books into English. I read several of the Witcher books before they were even televised, and I really enjoyed them. I find famous authors often mean little to you unless you’ve read their work. The two of them chatted, and Andrzej came across well. A down-to-earth realist who doesn’t waste words on unnecessary waffle or flowery language. Like many Poles I’ve met, he showed a dry sense of humour and a no-nonsense personality, which I really like. I’m yet to meet a Pole, or any eastern European for that matter, that I didn’t like. New books were launched (often with free food and drink) and authors read their work. Throughout the convention there were 39 reading groups – 45-minute slots where three authors read an excerpt from their work. I was sure I’d signed up to read my stuff, but I couldn’t find the details in my inbox. So, I scoured the programme, looking for my name. I didn’t spot it, so I guess I hadn’t signed up… Turns out I had. I found my name around 7:30pm on Saturday just as I was thinking about leaving. I was due to read at 9pm. Um, looks like I wasn’t going just yet then! Far more people turned up to my reading than I expected for that time of day on a Saturday, and I read chapter one of Path to Power to my crowd. I write to be read, or to have my work consumed in any form, so getting the chance to deliver my writing directly to fantasy enthusiasts really was an enjoyable experience. On top of all this stuff, there’s the dealers room. This is where indie authors peddle their wares, along with a few artists and people selling other things linked to the genre. This is where I plan to be when I attend the convention next year (just the British version though – the world version is in California next year). I wanted to take a look at other indie authors’ stalls and chat to the authors selling their books. I talked to many of them, some of them at length. And gosh, did I learn a lot.  World Fantasy Convention 2025 Dealer Room I learnt how much a stall costs, where to print your banners, and how to make your books look good on your table. I got an idea of how many books you might sell at an event like this, and what kind of figure I should sell them for. And best of all, I got invited into a Discord group. This is a group for indie authors who attend these kinds of events. Many visit several, and so they see each other time and time again. It makes complete sense that they should try to help each other out. The group includes details of all the big conventions that happen every year, and from conversations I had with the authors, I now have an idea of which ones might be the most lucrative. Here's the guys who helped me out the most. I bought a copy of their books, too, of course. They more than earned those sales.  Authors David Tucker, T M Faulkner and Matt Adcock with their books Outside events and stalls and readings, there was the social side. I managed to overcome my fear of talking to strangers and chatted to quite a few different people over drinks. Many were interested in my writing: as an author who has no author friends, and no close friends who are interested in my writing, it was amazing to be able to talk about my books with people who cared. And I learnt so much about them, too. I discovered how unusual I am to have written six books. Most people seemed to be on the first or second. I learnt about the huge range of backgrounds of the lovers of fantasy. But most of all, I learned that my kind of people are out there; I guess you just have to know where to look!
 Chapter 1 of Path to Power is now ready to read! Get a taster of book 1 in The Stolen Throne Trilogy here: 1. A Second Chance Observation Vessel B801, 400km above Planet Geo-84A Zark slumped forward onto her control panel, knocking an empty cup onto the floor. She rolled her large black eyes at the shattered mess on the shiny grey tiles and glowered. Stupid cup. She gazed past the buttons and flashing lights and through the enormous glass window. She scowled at the planet filling the view—a mass of purple seas and red land, dotted with orange patches and shadowed by swirls of bluish clouds. It was certainly a pretty planet to look at—perfect dorm room- poster material—had she known it existed during her academy years. But almost no one knew Geo-84A existed because it was boring, and even fewer cared. The orange patches might have looked pretty, but they were just masses of bacteria. Geo-84A was home to nothing more than single-celled organisms. Zark sighed. The sound of a hatch zipping upwards broke the silence in the ship’s control room. She rolled her eyes toward the hatch, watching as a small droid emerged and floated towards the broken cup. It hovered over the shards, vacuumed up the mess, then vanished back into the hatch. Her gaze slid to the poster above the hatch. She knew it was childish to have posters on her ship, but who cared? She was alone, and this poster made her smile. It was a picture of the planet she used to study, Aura-14G—a world with advanced lifeforms and a magic field. A smile crept across her small, lipless mouth. She sat back in her chair and dropped her arms on the armrests. ‘Ship, show clip 1 from my favourites file,’ she ordered. A holographic screen materialised above the control panel. ‘Clip 1 from My Favourites, playing now,’ the ship’s artificial intelligence replied. The black screen erupted into colour. A cobbled street crowded with people appeared. Terracotta roofs crowned whitewashed buildings that hemmed in the throng of cheering humans. Guards in red uniforms formed a chain, holding back the crowd and making space for the gold-plated carriage that trundled down the street. Zark flicked a switch on her control panel, and the room filled with noises. Cheers erupted, hooves clattered, and a man’s voice bellowed. ‘Make way for the king!’ The speaker, a man in pristine livery with a silver belt and polished sword, strode ahead of the carriage. Four white horses, their hooves oiled and manes plaited, pulled the gilded vehicle. This video originated from a Zargon observation drone, one of many assigned to monitor interesting specimens on the planet she’d once studied. Inside the carriage sat the king, his wife, and his daughter: the precious young princess who had brought Zark both joy and strife. The princess waved to the crowd, her dimpled cheeks and sparkling brown eyes delighting every citizen who saw her; their cheers exploded at the sight of the girl. A red circle appeared on the screen. The ship’s artificial intelligence had picked up an anomaly. A label appeared; it was a dwarf. Hooded and cloaked, he was hiding amongst the crowds of cheering humans. Zark read the caption at the bottom of the screen. Non-native specimen detected amongst human crowds. She had typed those words herself as she’d watched the scene unfold live all those cycles ago. Her attention shifted to the queen. Zark watched how she studied the crowd without waving, her eyes darting from face to face, searching for something. But Zark hadn’t noticed back then. Why didn’t I suspect her? Zark kicked the control panel. ‘Ship, report aura of Specimen Lila.’ Zark heard her own voice play over the sound of the crowds. ‘Specimen’s aura is seven point three and rising,’ replied the AI from her previous ship. ‘Ship, aurometer on screen,’ her younger self ordered. A red bar appeared on the bottom corner of the screen. She watched as the bar continued to grow, seven point four, seven point five. The aura is rising, for Zarg’s sake, if I’d just put an isolation field around the queen! With resigned indifference, Zark relived the moment the queen locked eyes with the dwarf, the moment her vital signs jumped, the moment the dwarf launched the blue orb over the heads of the crowd. The aurometer bar surged as magic shot from the queen’s hand and collided with the orb with a mighty blast. ‘Abduction successful,’ her old ship announced. Zark’s stomach clenched; this was the moment she had destroyed her career. The screen filled with dust and debris as the blast shredded the carriage. Shards of wood and chunks of mangled horse shot from the explosion. Humans screamed, soldiers shouted, and chaos consumed the view. Zark slammed her fist onto a red button. The holographic screen vanished. She slumped back onto the control panel again and resumed staring at the pretty, but boring planet. A musical chime pulled her from her daze. Zark sat up with a jolt. ‘Ship, answer call,’ she ordered. A new holographic screen appeared above her control panel. The beaming face of her old captain filled the display. ‘Captain Darkle!’ Zark straightened her back, tugging at her blue and green uniform and suddenly wishing the creases in it away. ‘Zark, how are you?’ Darkle leaned forwards and scowled. ‘You’ve not been eating properly, have you?’ Zark looked down at her baggy uniform, then back at her previous captain, her rounded white teeth nipping at the rim of her mouth. Her large eyelids blinked with a quiet popping sound. ‘And your uniform is a mess. It takes very little effort to have the droids iron your uniform.’ Darkle slipped her hands to her hips. ‘But there’s no one to see me,’ Zark muttered. ‘Does your supervisor not check in on you?’ ‘Um, only every so often.’ Darkle sighed. ‘And to think the Intergalactic Discovery Institute wants you back on my ship …’ Zark shot to her feet. ‘The IDI wants what?!’ A wide grin spread across Darkle’s small mouth. ‘But you have a first mate!’ Zark felt her heart pound in her chest. ‘Ah, I did have one, but I’ve been without one for a while now. The Zargon who replaced you was nice enough, efficient enough, and competent enough, but her heart wasn’t really in fieldwork. She went back to the IDI’s head office for a desk job.’ ‘So why haven’t they sent you a replacement? You surely can’t be managing on your own.’ ‘Mmm,’ Darkle adjusted her pearl captain’s brooch and cast a mischievous look at Zark. ‘I might have been delaying a little.’ ‘Why?’ Zark scratched her bald, grey head. ‘To give them time to conclude I needed you back, of course.’ Zark’s jaw flapped open; her words choked as she tried to take in what she’d been told. ‘Why would they conclude that?’ she managed to blurt. ‘Well, do you remember Specimen Lila?’ There was no way Zark could forget that human. ‘She’s the queen of the colony of Vorn on your planet.’ It would be Zark’s planet again soon—she could barely believe it. ‘Correct. She’s also a human with a genetic profile that suggests she’s actually from Geo-33G.’ Zark knew that too—she could hardly forget the details of the specimen who was the primary reason she’d been stuck studying amoebas for two decades. She shuffled to the edge of her seat. ‘What about her? What has she done? Has she murdered more people?’ ‘I suppose you could say that; she’s um, launched a genocidal campaign against the goblins.’ ‘What?’ Zark’s small mouth stretched wide. ‘She’s trying to wipe out an entire race?’ ‘Correct. She never forgot her encounter with them as a young woman, the one where she—’ Zark cut her off. ‘She wants to kill an entire race because a small group of them killed her lover?’ Darkle frowned at Zark’s interruption. Zark shrunk back into her chair. ‘Sorry, Captain.’ Darkle pursed her mouth rims. ‘It’s okay, Zark. You have been alone for a while. I imagine it’s easy to forget to be polite at times.’ Zark’s face flushed a deep shade of blue. Darkle cleared her throat. ‘As I was saying, it seems Specimen Lila has long held a grudge against the goblins for that particular incident and now seems determined to kill them all as a result.’ ‘It’s so sad that she never let go of her anger,’ Zark said. ‘Indeed. I often wonder if her extraordinary magical powers have exacerbated her hatred.’ ‘Quite possibly,’ Zark replied. ‘And perhaps her hatred has been amplified since the death of the king. Without him to challenge her, she is alone to stew in her own hatred.’ Darkle tapped her chin. ‘An interesting hypothesis, Zark.’ She smiled. ‘I’ve missed your observations.’ Zark beamed. ‘So what has Specimen Lila’s attack on the goblins got to do with the IDI agreeing to let me return to your ship?’ Darkle straightened. ‘It seems that Specimen Lila does not plan to stop at the goblins; she aims to wipe out the elves and dwarves too, and the IDI aren’t terribly keen on that happening. They want to interfere, Zark.’ Zark almost fell off her chair. ‘What?’ Her head began to spin. ‘The elves and the dwarves too? And the IDI want to interfere?’ ‘Correct. It appears Specimen Lila’s historic grudges do not stop with the goblins.’ ‘But what about the IDI’s interference? They have a strict no-interference policy. It was my unauthorised interference that saw me put on punishment duty!’ ‘You are again correct. However, in this instance, the IDI see their proposed interference as a simple reversal of a previous abduction.’ Zark gasped. ‘They want to send the princess home?’ ‘They do. She is the rightful heir to the throne Specimen Lila occupies. If the princess returns, she could supplant her stepmother and halt her genocidal campaign.’ ‘Right.’ Zark furrowed the space where her eyebrows would have been, if Zargons had them. ‘But the princess is just an ordinary Aura-14G native. How the heck is she going to defeat a powerful sorcerer?’ Darkle smiled. ‘We send her with backup.’ ‘Huh?’ ‘She’s married to a Geo-33G native. If he goes to Aura-14G, he has the same magical potential as Specimen Lila.’ ‘What? This doesn’t make sense. This isn’t just reversing previous interference; it’s interfering further. How has this been authorised?’ Zark leaned forwards, propping herself up on the control panel. Darkle’s face turned grave. ‘Let’s just say things in the IDI are changing …’ A mischievous smile crept up her cheeks. ‘And I’ve been pleading non-stop for months for this to happen! I was also insistent that I’d need you to help me if we were going to make this work. You were very good at your job, and I can’t risk having a substandard first mate at such a critical time.’ ‘I’m returning to your ship? Back to study Aura-14G?’ She could still barely believe it. ‘Yep. The IDI agreed that you had been punished long enough and decided to give you a second chance.’ ‘I-I don’t know what to say.’ ‘Say you’ll start eating again and sort out your uniform. Then get your behind to Geo-33G. You’ve a princess to collect.’ Want to be the first to read on? Then sign up to my newsletter, subscribers will get an advance copy for free!
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