By Matt Aird  on The Book Designer Site:

Today, marketing specialist Matt Aird discusses a question that bedevils lots of authors when they begin their publishing journey. Are they marketing to sell their books, or to build their brand and platform? Here’s his report.

As authors, we’re responsible for spending our advertising dollars and marketing time in the most efficient ways possible. We don’t have five- or six-figure advertising budgets, or a team of people working around the clock. We need to get maximum impact from every single dollar and minute we invest.

What most authors might not consider however, is that there are two ways we can advertise.

We can advertise to sell books now. Or, we can market to build an Author Platform.

We’ll look at the differences between these two approaches in a moment, but first let me clarify what I mean by “Author Platform.”

Every author…