What did you see when you first looked at me? Did you notice the deep brown flakes in the pupils of my eyes? Did you see the red highlights in my thick hair? Did you happen to notice the color of the dress I was wearing?
We can wave a hand at all of those questions with a non-committal shrug and the overused quote, “It doesn’t matter what people think of me.”
The truth of the matter: This is your very first impression and when you are trying to sell something, it matters. Your first impression is the most important one. This is the first image that creates a distinct reference point in the mind of the onlooker.
This is where biases are derived using the least possible information without even being aware that these biases are forming. This is the cover from which the book is judged. Simply looking at the way that we carry ourselves can help us understand how impressions affect us. As an example, the way that we dress speaks to the idea that impressions are important.
There is always at least one person that goes WAY over the top. I’m pretty sure that you know the one. Sometimes you can spot the “over-the-topper” by the hours it took for them to recreate the structure of their face using makeup or by that lingering pungent aroma of that brother’s cologne after he had left the room hours ago.
Then there is the “barely-there” / “always messy” kind of impression. Sweat pants and over-sized t-shirts. Ball caps and sunglasses. Overly comfortable look. Items constantly falling out of the bags. From the outside looking in, it looks like this person does not have it together. And something as simple as disorganization or being dressed extremely comfortably can leave a bad impression.
What I am proposing is to be somewhere in the middle. Positively memorable without scaring off the viewer. So, what does this have to do with writing? Well, I’m glad you asked! EVERYTHING!
You spend months or even years (if you are anything like me, it’s definitely closer to years) perfecting the masterpiece that is your writing. The sheer number of things that you had to go through to get to this point alone is a miracle within itself. You should be proud. You deserve a cookie! A whole BOX of cookies! And now it is time to actually do something with your writing.
So you start setting up all of your accounts – social media, websites, newsletters, emails, etc. A month into the management of all of your accounts, you realize you have no idea what you are doing!
Your platform is falling apart. Only three likes, all of which are from your Mom (she likes everything you do and you can do no wrong, as you are her precious golden child). Did you just lose some followers?! You only had 10 so you put on your FBI (Facebook Investigations) hat hoping to see that maybe that one follower just deleted the whole social account and not just you.
You realize that no one is actually reading your stuff. And when you finally get that one potential reader to happen upon your site, they leave dissatisfied.
So what is the real problem? The problem is the lack of planning for the first impression. I was DEFINITELY guilty of this. After all of the reading and studying structure for crafting my story, I totally ignored that someone (other than my Mom) actually has to read this stuff.
Taking a step back, it was time to reevaluate my first look. At the end of the day, authors are simply readers who could not find the story they were looking for so they wrote themselves. So put yourself back into the shoes of the readers. What does the reader want to see?
I can guarantee that readers do NOT want to see typos. It does not matter how new you are to the writing industry, being “new” is not a license to put HOT GARBAGE on your site at any point. This industry is tough enough without the author creating unnecessary obstacles.
Clean up your work. Potential readers want to feel that they can trust the author and if they cannot get through your introduction without tripping haphazardly through a minefield of typos, they will not trust that you can write a 200+ word book. Or even an essay for that matter.
It does not matter how new you are to the writing industry, being “new” is not a license to put HOT GARBAGE on your site at any point.
Make sure that whatever it is that you are publishing is “clean” and ready for publishing before you send it out into the world. This goes for social media posts and even the short blurb that you create for the redirection links.
Readers are intelligent and want to be lost in a story. Clean publications allow your reader to be lost in the story and forget they are reading while an error-plagued publication jolts your reader out of the story with a reminder that “this is a book and I can put it down at any time.” You do not want them to remember that it is just a story so clean it up.
Just remember that everything that is connected to you is an opportunity for marketing. It becomes your first impression for a potential reader or buyer. Not saying that you need to create some unrealistic online persona, but just remember that what onlookers see helps them form opinions about whether or not to trust that you know what you are doing.
The reader wants to trust the author. The buyer wants to trust the seller.
Set a standard for your brand and impress me!