What does it really take to build a lasting author platform in 2025? In this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi Podcast, host Dale L. Roberts chats with indie author Kerrie Flanagan about what it means to grow and sustain an author brand in today’s crowded publishing world. From mastering the tools that matter to balancing multiple genres under different pen names, this conversation offers practical insights for authors looking to deepen their reader connections and expand their reach.
Listen to the Podcast: Building Your Author Platform in 2025
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About the Host
Dale L. Roberts is a self-publishing advocate, award-winning author, and video content creator. Dale’s inherent passion for life fuels his self-publishing advocacy both in print and online. After publishing over 50 titles and becoming an international bestselling author on Amazon, Dale started his YouTube channel, Self-Publishing with Dale. Selected by Feedspot and LA Weekly as one of the best sources in self-publishing of 2022, Dale cemented his position as the indie-author community's go-to authority. You can find Dale on his website or YouTube.
About the Guest
Kerrie Flanagan is an author, writing consultant, and instructor with more than twenty years in the publishing industry. She is the author of The Writer’s Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing, creator of the Magazine Writing Blueprint, and co-author of several series under the pen name C.G. Harris. Her work has appeared in Writer’s Digest, The Writer, Alaska Magazine, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. A founder of Northern Colorado Writers, Flanagan teaches for Stanford University and regularly presents at conferences nationwide.
Read the Transcripts
Dale L. Roberts: You can't sell books if readers don't know who you are, but building a platform that actually connects with your audience? That's easier said than done.
Welcome to the branding, marketing, and promotion segment of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast. I'm your host Dale L. Roberts.
Today I'm joined by Kerrie Flanagan, a seasoned indie author, writing consultant and longtime contributor to Writers Digest. With over 20 books to her name spanning non-fiction, humor, science fiction, under multiple pen names, Kerrie knows what it takes to build a sustainable author brand.
In this episode, we're breaking down what platform building really means in 2025, how to grow readership across genres, and the strategic moves authors can make to stand out in a crowded market. Without any further ado, welcoming here to the podcast Kerrie Flanagan. How you doing, Kerrie?
Kerrie Flanagan: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, Dale.
Dale L. Roberts: I am geeked up. You've been on my long list of people I wanted to bring here onto the branding, marketing, and promotion because you are a prolific author. You have a lot.
How many books have you published to date and how many of those have you co-authored?
Kerrie Flanagan: Let's see, I think it's about 24. I know I should know the exact number. I know I should. But it's about 24, and co-authored about 12.
So, I kind of look at my career, I had the first half where I was experimenting and like you said, I did coffee table books, poetry, non-fiction, children's books, kind of tried a lot of different things. Then the last eight years have been working with a co-author under the pen named CG Harris, and focusing primarily on science fiction and fantasy. So, it's just been super fun.
Dale L. Roberts: Of all of the different genres, it's just out of curiosity, do you find one genre performs better than the other and are you continually seeing those types of results, or is it fluctuating?
Kerrie Flanagan: With the science fiction and fantasy, the science fiction has been performing better, but that was our second series. So, I don't know if it was the genre or our writing and marketing got better. So, it's really hard to compare the two because the first one, The Judas Files series, still does well. But the sci-fi series took off faster.
Dale L. Roberts: I find that so interesting, that you are a multi-genre author and you handle it really well. Let's kind of break into that. You've built a multifaceted author career.
Defining and Building an Author Platform
Dale L. Roberts: How do you define platform in today's publishing landscape and what does it look like for indie authors today?
Kerrie Flanagan: Platform is basically, if you think of a regular podium platform, it's what you stand on, how you get in front of readers. So, to me, platform can vary based on an author's strengths, and I don't think an author should try to do it all. I've experimented with lots of different things because I like doing it, but I know a lot of authors don't.
So, trying to build that platform, pick what works for you. If you love speaking and teaching, then reach out to those avenues. If that scares the daylights out of you, then just look at guest blogging or just trying to do things that you enjoy.
Dale L. Roberts: It's a little bit of experimentation then.
Kerrie Flanagan: Yes, absolutely.
Dale L. Roberts: What were some experiments that you've done with your own author brand that you found were successful or not successful? I'd like to see both instances.
Kerrie Flanagan: Looking back, in the last eight years with Chuck, my co-author, we decided we didn't want to do a newsletter because that just takes time, and our books will speak for themselves. So, we're just going to put out the books, use some social media and that should be all we need.
Huge mistake.
Dale L. Roberts: Oh no.
Kerrie Flanagan: Because it's hard to reach new readers. So, looking back, our first book came out and we were super excited, and then you dive into marketing and realize that marketing one book, especially the first in a series, it's hard to gain traction.
So, if I was to go back and do it again, there's no right or wrong, but if I was to do it again, I would put out the one book, have a reader magnet ready to go, a short story in the same world. If I was writing non-fiction and doing it, I would have some sort of resource that readers could download. That way you could start building your email list.
Email Marketing Strategies for Authors
Kerrie Flanagan: Because if all you do, the only marketing you have time for is email marketing, you are way ahead of most authors, honestly,
I don't know if I answered your question. My biggest mistake was not starting on that email list sooner. Then once I started doing that, because I do most of the marketing for the work under CG Harris, I'm the one that does most of it. Once I put the time into it, found out it wasn't horrible and I like doing the newsletter now, and now we have over 4,000 subscribers. My goal is to have 10,000 by the end of the year, so I'm going to really be pushing that.
Dale L. Roberts: Nice.
Kerrie Flanagan: But that, to me, was the biggest success; realizing that what everybody was telling us was true.
Dale L. Roberts: It's so interesting because you're not the only author I've heard say that email marketing isn't something you wanted to bother with. You're like, hey, let's let our craft speak for itself, and that's commendable when you have that type of confidence, like our book is so solid, it's going to bring email people in, we don't even need to bother with that. Forget it.
Why do you think authors adopt that philosophy of, if you build it, they'll come?
Kerrie Flanagan: Probably because we put so much time and energy into it, and we love our stories that we put out there, so I guess we figure everybody else will.
But there are so many books out there, so you have to figure out how to get out there in front of new readers.
What the newsletter does is, once you start finding those readers and fans, you have a way to stay in contact with them, to let them know when a new book comes out. You can just build a relationship with them, which is the bottom line. It has to be a relationship.
I know if you look back in history in self-publishing, when Kindle first came out, I look at it as the gold rush time where authors were putting out the eBooks for 99 cents and they didn't have to do much of anything except put out more books, and the readers were there because it was new. It is not the case anymore.
I came in a couple of years too late on the eBooks for that gold rush. But the thing is that the readers, they have raised the bar in a good way, saying, okay, that was great, but then they realized, time to read a bad book is not worth 99 cents. They expect better, which has helped the industry overall for self-publishing.
Dale L. Roberts: I loved how you mentioned email marketing. Let's hang here for just a second, because I do hear how some authors will say I don't have the time, I don't know what to email them about, I don't know where to start. What would be your advice to those authors that are reluctant to break into email marketing?
Kerrie Flanagan: The key to email marketing is connecting with your readers and basically writing and telling a story. Now, we all are in writing because we like to write stories or share information with somebody. So, the idea that you don't have time or you don't like doing it, it's kind of counterintuitive to being an author.
Once I realized that and made that shift, it's like, oh, I get to write, not I have to do a newsletter. It's like, ooh, I get to write, and I get to share that.
And it doesn't have to be perfect. It's not edited. Just get to write and put it out there and people read it.
Dale L. Roberts: Very cool. I love that mindset shift. I'm very fortunate that when I came into the business, I was told right away, you do not do this without having an email list. So, it was ingrained in my brain from day one.
Even though there was a part of me that felt exactly like you and Chuck did; let me let this speak for itself. But my mentors in the business were like, no, no, no, you absolutely need this email list. So, I love that that shift of, I have to do this other chore, to I get to do what I love doing, which is writing, and chatting with my readers and delivering value.
Since we're still here on email marketing, I didn't anticipate we were going to break into this, but I feel like the next progression in things a lot of people will say is, alright, this is great Kerrie. I will do my email marketing, but I don't know what to say or I repeat things way too often because I run out of things to say.
So, what do you do to provide the best newsletter possible that isn't redundant and also delivers value consistently?
Kerrie Flanagan: That's a great question, and it is something I have experimented with over the last seven years and have had a lot of fun with that.
If you are somebody who likes to share about things that you do, your hobbies and all of that, go for it. Tell your readers a little bit about your life. Let them in and share those experiences with you. Not everybody likes to do that. That's fine as well.
So, mix up some things. I've done things like, one of the sci-fi books was based in a town in Colorado, a tiny town, because we needed a city or town where a spaceship could land and not wreck the town. So, Eastern Colorado was perfect. So, I did one newsletter about that. Like, hey, did you know that this is based on this town, and I told them a little bit about the town, and gave some pictures. So, shared that.
We've been playing around lately with the characters. So, the one that's going to go out today is, what would you smuggle through a wormhole? So, here are the characters in this series, here's what they would smuggle through, and we just have fun with it and just come up with a variety of ideas and then you'll see what resonates with them.
And I always try to end with a question so they can feel part of it. Like today's question is, so what would you smuggle through a wormhole? If you were in outer space, what would you do?
And it has to be simple. I found that if I get too detailed with the questions, people don't want to take the time to respond. So, I ask the question, I give them a link that sends it directly to my email to make it super easy, and we get some fun responses.
I know that was a very long answer to your question, but truly just have fun.
Dale L. Roberts: It sounds like you just want to make this a conversation rather than you speaking from a podium?
Kerrie Flanagan: Yes, and it's very rare that I sell a book. On launch day, absolutely, I will send a newsletter that is all about the new book. But that's what your readers want. If they've been following you, that's what they want. But other than that, you don't have to sell your books in that. Just share some insights to those books.
Dale L. Roberts: Good stuff. Let's transition a little further forward.
Co-Authoring and Managing Multiple Genres
Dale L. Roberts: Many authors struggle with consistency. How do you stay focused and maintain a unified brand, especially when writing in different genres or underpin names?
Kerrie Flanagan: The good thing with sci-fi and fantasy is that they are connected enough that we can keep that brand. To me, branding is not only about the genre, but voice. So, if you look at the different series with the sci-fi and fantasy, there's a similar voice.
There's a lot of snarky humor in them, and that becomes part of the brand, which also shows up in the newsletter. So, if you have a certain voice that you're trying to brand, then put that in your newsletter.
If you write dark thrillers and suspense, I don't know how you would brand your voice with that, because you don't want to be dark and scary.
Dale L. Roberts: Are you opening your email newsletter? Are you scared yet? I know where you live. I have your IP address.
Kerrie Flanagan: Yeah. So, we are branding voice, and especially since there's two of us, we had to create a persona, a voice, that we both enjoyed writing, whether that's writing the email, putting out a Facebook post.
Honestly, I don't do a lot of social media because I don't love it. So, I love doing the newsletter now and talking with wonderful people like you for this.
I found other ways besides social media to reach out to readers.
Dale L. Roberts: How do you split that duty between yourself and your co-author? I'm kind of curious, is that like one month, one person handles it and the next month the other person handles it? Or is it like you write something, send it over to him, have him put his fingerprints on it and then shoot it off?
Kerrie Flanagan: Great question. We talk about the idea together, so we know where their story's going and then he writes the first draft. So, he just goes all in and writes, and he's a fast writer. In four to six weeks, he can have a novel done, but that's the first draft. Then I get the story, and I go through with a heavy developmental edit. So, if something needs to be added, I go ahead and do it.
I'm not saying, hey, you need to fix this. I just do it. Then it'll go back to him usually for one more look and then always to a professional editor before we publish.
Then when it comes to the formatting, uploading it to all the platforms and marketing, that's mostly my responsibility.
We do the newsletter together, but in terms of getting promotions, building the list, those are my responsibilities. It just works really well because we have figured out our strengths.
Could he do the marketing? Sure. Could I do the writing? Yes, it would take a very long time.
But together we make a great team.
Dale L. Roberts: You play into the strengths of each of you in that one. It's very interesting because you broke down the entire process, even beyond the email marketing. That's something I have not tried yet, doing the co-author stuff, because I'm just so type A that I would probably end up just butting heads with somebody.
But for authors looking to expand beyond one genre, what's your advice on managing their brand identity without confusing the readers?
Obviously, we could talk about the algorithmic relevance. You have these multi-genres here underneath one author name. Yes, it could get messy, but with one finger pointed forward, there's three pointed back because I'm very guilty of being a multi-genre author.
So, I'm just curious, what is your advice on managing that brand identity without confusing readers?
Kerrie Flanagan: I do think pen names are important.
Dale L. Roberts: Okay. So, it's separating those things out.
Kerrie Flanagan: Yep. We have some romance books that we're going to put out, but it'll be under a pen name, because I feel like that's very different genres, if you're doing sci-fi fantasy and then romance. Not romantasy, but a different kind of romance. You don't want to confuse your readers.
Now, I will absolutely put it in our newsletter and say, Hey, any of you out there romance readers? So, I can cross-pollinate, that sounds weird, but I can let my readers know.
Then my non-fiction is all under my name because I have built up a brand over the last 25 years as a writing expert. I have worked really hard to get all the information and knowledge and experience. So, with my name, that's where all my non-fiction and writing books come into play. So, that's definitely a different branding that I do keep separate.
Dale L. Roberts: Yeah, highly recommend to listeners, check out Kerrie's books. Her non-fiction books are fantastic. I've read a couple of them. Actually, you had a Kickstarter campaign last year and I was like, I want all of them.
This is really cool that you're talking about separating out into separate pen names.
My question would be, let's just say, Kerrie, I'm coming to you for advice. I'm struggling, I'm not getting enough sales. I'm a multi-genre author and I've been putting it underneath one pen name. What should I do?
Kerrie Flanagan: Wow, that's such a complicated question. Or not complicated, it just has so many-
Dale L. Roberts: Nuances.
Kerrie Flanagan: Yes, nuances for sure. I guess I would look at goals. What is it you want to do?
Are you really passionate about one genre, but it's not selling yet? Well, can you look at maybe a different sub-genre within that that you would enjoy and try that?
Or are you wanting to do multi-genre consistently? You want to do non-fiction, you want to do romance, or you want to do different things. Then you've got to look at your time, because you're basically splitting that time up. You're marketing two separate things.
So, you really have to take a look at your life, how much time you have, and how you can separate that. Or maybe you give a couple years to one genre and then you are like, all right, then I'm going to try this one.
It is really hard to build two platforms simultaneously.
Dale L. Roberts: The man who chases two rabbits gets none, I think is what I've heard so often.
I've been very fortunate. I think when I started out I was doing that, where I was going multi-genre, going everywhere, and it wasn't until I got really targeted on fitness that I saw success for myself. Then more recently, the pivot in 2020 to talking about writing and self-publishing.
I haven't gone back to the fitness. I focus strictly on the writing and self-publishing underneath that brand name, and I know coming up, in October, I'll be doing the official pivot over to doing sci-fi horror novels. So, that name's going to be Dale Lewis Roberts as opposed to the Dale L. Roberts. I'm just going to go ahead and manage the two separate brands rather than try to muddy up the waters, because there's just so little overlap between writers and self-publishers and those that like sci-fi horror. It's just such a small cross section right there.
I'm so glad I asked you that.
Kerrie Flanagan: But I think what you just said, it backs up what I was saying. You built one brand and now you can do another one because you're confident with the one you have now on self-publishing. So, you can basically maintain that; you're not necessarily building. Then you can focus on the horror and sci-fi.
Dale L. Roberts: Yes. We're going to be adjacent, you and me. Just a little darker, and by the way, I won't be sending out email newsletters like that creepy IP address shout out. Everybody's like, good lord, Dale, please, that's just weird.
Content Creation Beyond Email Marketing
Dale L. Roberts: Let's talk content for just a second. What kind of content should authors be putting out regularly to stay visible and valuable to their audience? Think beyond email marketing.
Kerrie Flanagan: Beyond email marketing.
Dale L. Roberts: Otherwise, everybody's going to be like, it's all about email marketing today.
Kerrie Flanagan: Do you mean books and content?
Dale L. Roberts: Yeah. Books, blog, website, social media presence, things like that.
Kerrie Flanagan: Okay. Ask the question one more time.
Dale L. Roberts: What kind of content should authors be putting out regularly to stay visible and valuable to their audience?
Kerrie Flanagan: Besides email marketing.
Dale L. Roberts: Right. We nailed it on that one.
Kerrie Flanagan: We did. Obviously, new books. I mean, that's what your readers want. So, if you are writing fiction, then you focus on getting some more books or do some short stories.
We tried something, this is going to go on a little bit of a tangent, but I'll come back, I promise.
It was a way to provide content, get more readers to our list, and it was putting out a short story that was in the world we had already created, and we did a Kickstarter for it to help cover the editing. Short story, we put it out there, we wanted to raise $100, we raised $600, for a short story.
Dale L. Roberts: That's dang good. You got $500 extra to go ahead and do whatever you want.
Kerrie Flanagan: Exactly, and we got 40 people backing that. Once again, it's no Brandon Sanderson money, but we made money from a short story, and we got 40 new people for our list.
So, it was content that we put out. It didn't take as long as a novel, but we used it strategically to also build our list and to make money to cover costs.
So yes, put out some short things. If your novel is wearing you down or you just need a break, then put out something short and have some fun with it. Try a Kickstarter to help build.
Also looking at, you had said blogs, why not put some time and energy into finding reader blogs, not writer blogs. Just a little side note here, when writers go on Facebook groups for writers, and they just start throwing their book at everybody. No. Find your readers.
Go to those blogs that are already established, so you're not having to put time into establishing it. You're just reaching out and saying, hey, I would love to be a guest. Here's some topics I could cover that I really think your readers would enjoy. That's it. Put something together.
So, have fun with other content. It doesn't have to always be just the books.
Dale L. Roberts: How would I scope out and find an established blog that would work well with the type of content I'm writing?
Kerrie Flanagan: Google sci-fi blogs.
Dale L. Roberts: Super simple, right?
Kerrie Flanagan: It really is. I think people make the research part more difficult than it is. Honestly, just Google what you want. It is refined so well.
Then let me also back up for non-fiction. Something you could be doing is putting out additional resources. With my book, The Writer's Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing, I could put out a list of a hundred markets that you can research, and I could put that out as a lead magnet and say, here, if you give me your email address, I will send you this PDF that has a hundred current markets that you can research and send queries out to.
So, it would fit with my content, but it's something a little different.
Dale L. Roberts: You just sold me on that lead magnet. Where can I find it?
Kerrie Flanagan: I just sold myself on that one too.
Magazine Writing and Building a Platform
Dale L. Roberts: You've written extensively for the illustrious Writer's Digest. In fact, when I found out that you were part of Writer's Digest at some point I was like, what?
How has that contributed to your brand, and is that a path you recommend for other authors? We're not talking just Writers Digest. We can even mention magazines and things like that.
Kerrie Flanagan: Absolutely, and that's how I started writing before doing any books. It was writing magazine articles.
I was teaching full-time, had three kids at home, husband, there was a lot going on. So, I could do all those short things. So, I could fit it into my schedule for an article, write that up and then just keep doing that. I wasn't trying to make a living off of it. I loved doing it.
So, that's how that fit in initially. Then after doing that, probably about 10 years, and I had been teaching classes on how to write magazines, it was a quest. It was like, I want to write a book for Writer's Digest because the current book they have out now is 14 years old.
So, I researched and figured out what I could do and then I ended up working at Writer's Digest for about six months doing their conferences.
The one thing that did, it didn't get me in the door like, oh, okay, they're automatically going to publish it, but I also met the right people, so I was able to get it in front of them.
I would've pushed if that hadn't worked or that didn't turn out that way, I would've kept going. I'm a little relentless that way. I would've found who it was.
But what it did was it, once again, it's that brand. Once that book came out, I could write articles, which I already knew how to do, I could write articles about magazine writing that could go in the writer magazine, Writer's Digest. There's a writing magazine in the UK I wrote for.
So, that experience with magazine writing helped tremendously when it came to building my platform and selling this book.
Magazine article writing can also work for fiction. Fiction writers do a lot of research. Maybe for you, you know, we don't want horror, but maybe ghost tours, what ghost tours are available in different cities. We have one here in Fort Collins. Where are the famous houses from Amityville Horror? Where is that house actually?
You could just do some really fun articles that let people know that's what you write about. In the bio you put, Dale L. Roberts is the author of, and then you have your book there.
It is a way to build a platform that most people don't think of.
Dale L. Roberts: Interesting. Our time has gone by so fast.
You and I had met through Crave Books, fantastic book promotion agency, but you've been busy on other things. Let me know, the listeners know, what have you been into lately and what are the things that come for Kerrie Flanagan and how can people get hold of you?
Kerrie Flanagan: Okay. Three questions. Continuing to write books under CG Harris. I think we have five more scheduled to come out this year. Last year, we spent a lot of time writing, so this year we're doing a lot of releasing of these books and series. So, I'm very excited about that.
Dale L. Roberts: It's going to be satisfying come 2026.
Kerrie Flanagan: Yes. I'm also working part-time with Book Linker, which is under the umbrella of Genius Links. So, I'm working with them on creating a marketing course for authors. If you want to know more about that, reach out to me and I can I keep you on my list.
Then the way they can reach out to me is, I have my personal website, kerrieflanagan.com, which is a lot about writing. Then cgharris.net is about our CG Harris books.
My email really, anybody can reach out, I love talking with writers, is just [email protected].
Dale L. Roberts: F-L-A-N-A-G-A-N.
Kerrie Flanagan: So, I'm super excited about what the future brings.
Dale L. Roberts: Exactly. You have quite an amazing author career so far. I anticipate seeing so many more things from you in the very near future.
Thank you so much for taking some time with us today.
Kerrie Flanagan: You're very welcome. Thanks for having me.
