Author platform
Love your author platform: why every writer needs one
An author platform is everything that lets readers find a writer and stay close: a website, an email list, a social presence, talks and interviews. Without one, a good book can stay invisible.
An independent guide. This site is not affiliated with the copywriter who used this domain before. About this siteUpdated 2026-10-28
What a platform gives a writer
- Relationships: readers, other writers, editors and beta readers to ask for help.
- Feedback: early readers who catch problems before publication day.
- New ideas: a steady stream of reader questions that turn into the next post or chapter.
- Practice: a reason to write regularly, even on days when nobody is waiting for it.
Freelancers:clients call it a brand. A portfolio site, a clear service page and a record of published work do the same job for a freelance writer.
An author platform is built out loud
A working author platform is more than a website and an email list. Sooner or later it includes interviews on podcasts, a reading at a bookshop, a webinar for readers or a panel at a writing conference. Each of those turns a writer into a speaker, and the voice becomes part of the platform.
Writers who talk about their books are among the many people who, in the words of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, use their voices for their work. Its advice on taking care of your voice includes drinking plenty of water, resting the voice through the day, and using a microphone where you would otherwise strain to be heard.
A rested voice still needs a plan for the talk itself: an opening line, a pause where the filler would go, eye contact with readers in the room. That plan fills the practice guide below, which shows how to improve public speaking step by step and is reproduced from improvepublicspeaking.com.
| Platform moment | What to practise |
|---|---|
| Podcast interview | Short answers out loud, about a minute each |
| Bookshop reading | Pace, and a look up at the end of each paragraph |
| Webinar | Talking to the camera with water within reach |
| Conference panel | One clear point per answer |
Source: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Taking Care of Your Voice
The full practice plan, reproduced from improvepublicspeaking.com
How to improve public speaking
How to improve public speaking fastest: work on the one area that breaks first for you, not all twelve skills at once. Practicing in your head feels productive, yet only runs said out loud and recorded show what goes wrong.
Nerves, breathing, filler words and feedback are where most speakers get stuck. If you're working out how to improve public speaking past them, the fix is a plan: practice out loud, record each run, work on one skill at a time and find a real audience early.
- Practice out loud
- Know your audience
- Embrace the pause
- Control your breathing
How to improve public speaking: the practice plan
Preparation and Structure
- Know your audience
- Learn who will be listening before you write. Their needs decide your words, your examples and how much detail you give. (Stand Up, Speak Out)
- Organize clearly
- Give the talk a clear introduction, body and conclusion. Open with a short attention-getter and close by reviewing your main points, with a line people remember. (Stand Up, Speak Out)
- Avoid word-for-word memorization
- Speak from notecards with key words and phrases, not a script. (Stand Up, Speak Out) That is extemporaneous speaking, the style most talks call for.
- Practice out loud
- Say it, don't just think it. Run the full talk out loud in front of other people several times, spread over several days. (Stand Up, Speak Out) Record each run on your phone and watch it back once. No audience yet? Here is how to practice public speaking alone.
Delivery and Stage Presence
- Make steady eye contact
- Hold eye contact with individual people across the room instead of sweeping your gaze. (Stand Up, Speak Out) Finish a thought with one person, then move on. Where to look.
- Use purposeful body language
- Stand up straight with an open posture and use a few well-planned gestures for emphasis. Drop nervous habits like clicking a pen. (Stand Up, Speak Out)
- Vary your voice
- Change your pace and pitch so you don't sound flat or rushed. (Stand Up, Speak Out) One recommended band is 120 to 170 words per minute. (100th Monkey) Voice is one of the twelve public speaking skills in this list, each with a drill.
- Embrace the pause
- Slow down and use a brief silent pause where the um or uh would go. (Stand Up, Speak Out) Silence reads as calm. Stop saying um.
Managing Anxiety
- Reframe nervousness
- A racing heart is your body getting ready. People who say "I am excited" out loud before a performance do better than people who try to calm down. (Brooks, 2014) If the fear keeps you from saying yes at all, start with our stage fright guide.
- Control your breathing
- Slow, deep breaths slow your heart rate. (ASCA) In a trial of 108 people, five minutes a day of breathing with long exhales lifted mood more than meditation did. (Balban et al., 2023)
- Start small
- Build public speaking confidence in low-stakes rooms first: a friend, a small online session on AmberWillo, then a team meeting.
- Accept mistakes
- If you slip, don't stop to correct it: keep going. Audiences don't perceive the level of nervousness speakers feel. (Stand Up, Speak Out) If the same slip keeps coming back, this guide on how to get better at public speaking finds your weak spot first.
Public speaking exercises
A public speaking exercise is a short drill you repeat to train one skill. Each one gives you feedback you can act on. When it comes to how to improve public speaking, the value of an exercise is the number of honest reps it gets you. The payoff is real: in one study, college graduates named oral communication the most useful skill in the business world. (Stand Up, Speak Out)
| Exercise | What it trains | How long | Backed by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record yourself | Pace, body language, filler words | Short runs: clarity peaks at 20 to 59 seconds | Stand Up, Speak Out, Confidently |
| Filler-word drill | Filler words, pause | One short recorded talk a day | Stand Up, Speak Out |
| Pause practice | Pause, voice, pace | Five reps of a 50-second answer | Stand Up, Speak Out, Confidently |
| Improv | Nerves, thinking on your feet | A beginner course over several weeks | Seppänen et al., 2020, AmberWillo |
| Real audience | Audience, feedback, impromptu speaking | One small session a week | AmberWillo, Stand Up, Speak Out |
Record yourself
- Trains
- Pace, body language, filler words
- How
- Film a full run on your phone, standing up. Watch it once with sound and once on mute.
- Time
- Short runs: clarity peaks at 20 to 59 seconds
- Check
- Write down one thing to fix in the next run.
Filler-word drill
- Trains
- Filler words, pause
- How
- Record a short talk and tally every um and uh. Redo it slower, with a silent pause where each filler was.
- Time
- One short recorded talk a day
- Check
- Fewer tallies than on the run before.
Pause practice
- Trains
- Pause, voice, pace
- How
- Mark a slash in your notes after each key point. Stop there for a full beat, then go on.
- Time
- Five reps of a 50-second answer
- Check
- On playback the pauses sound calm, not stuck.
Improv
- Trains
- Nerves, thinking on your feet
- How
- Join a beginner improv class or play word games where you answer without planning.
- Time
- A beginner course over several weeks
- Check
- You keep talking after a surprise. A small study found improv training might lower stress before a performance, and improv makes nervousness familiar (AmberWillo).
Real audience
- Trains
- Audience, feedback, impromptu speaking
- How
- Try an AmberWillo session (free to start), where up to fifteen people practise the same thing online, or visit a local speaking club as a guest.
- Time
- One small session a week
- Check
- You get a confidence score, coaching notes or spoken feedback from people who watched you.
Guides by skill
- Overcoming stage fright: What happens in your body and how to calm it.
- Speech writing: Purpose, outline, opening and close.
- Delivery and body language: Eye contact, pace, pauses and hands.
- Presentation skills: Openings, slides and audience feedback.
- Weddings and events: Toasts and short speeches for big days.
- Famous speeches: King and Churchill, and the device they shared.
- Quick answers: Slow down, stop saying um.
- Glossary: Anaphora, extemporaneous and more.
What people ask next
What are the 5 ways to become a better public speaker?
The five on this page: record yourself, do the filler-word drill, practice pausing, try improv and practise in front of real people. Pick one a week.
What are the 7 powerful speaking tips?
There is no single official list. Ours: practice out loud, record yourself, ask for honest feedback, know your audience, speak from notes, pause instead of saying um, and breathe out slowly before you start. Honestly, the first two do most of the work.
What are some tips for making effective presentations?
Skip the "Today I'm going to talk about" opener. Start with a surprising fact, a short story or a quote, use slides only where they clarify, and end by reviewing your main points with one line people remember (Stand Up, Speak Out). More in presentation skills.
Do and don'ts for presentation?
Do: know your audience, work from an outline, look at people and adapt when you see confused faces. Don't: read your script, pile on slides or try to be perfect. Nobody expects perfect.
How to write a good speech?
Start at the end. Pick the one sentence you want people to repeat, then outline your purpose, your central idea and a few main points that lead there. Our speech writing guide walks through it.
Sources
- Why Conduct an Audience Analysis?, Stand Up, Speak Out (Saylor Academy open textbook)
- The Attention-Getter: The First Step of an Introduction, Stand Up, Speak Out (Saylor Academy open textbook)
- Using Notes Effectively, Stand Up, Speak Out (Saylor Academy open textbook)
- Practicing for Successful Speech Delivery, Stand Up, Speak Out (Saylor Academy open textbook)
- Reducing Communication Apprehension, Stand Up, Speak Out (Saylor Academy open textbook)
- What Is Communication Apprehension?, Stand Up, Speak Out (Saylor Academy open textbook)
- Four Methods of Delivery, in Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking, Saylor Academy open textbook
- Why Is Public Speaking Important?, Stand Up, Speak Out (Saylor Academy open textbook)
- Words per minute: how to speak slower when public speaking, 100th Monkey
- Coping With Student Anxiety, American School Counselor Association
- Get excited: reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement (Brooks, 2014), PubMed, PMID 24364682
- Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal (Balban et al., Cell Reports Medicine, 2023), PubMed Central, PMC9873947
- Effects of improvisation training on student teachers’ behavioral, neuroendocrine, and psychophysiological responses (Seppänen et al., Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 2020), HSE University publications
- Practice-session data: 8,184 sessions scored, Confidently
- Online public speaking practice in small groups (1,851 people, 9,190 practice sessions), AmberWillo
- 197 nervous speakers named filler words their main challenge, AmberWillo News
- Improv for Public Speaking, AmberWillo
Last reviewed . Every number on this page comes from the source named next to it.