If viewing yourself in this way is foreign to you, set this post aside, find a mirror and repeat after me, “I am an expert.”

Now, add your field and get specific. Your expert statement could look similar to this: “I am an expert in editing for indie authors, helping them build their editorial boards, advising them on the types of editing they need and when they’ve done the work necessary to move to the next round and building their personal style guides to maintain consistency across all rules—from using Oxford commas or not to formatting of texted conversations and more.”

Now that we’ve embraced the right mindset, and once you know the expertise you have to offer, it’s time to start positioning yourself where others will recognize you as the expert you are.

How can you set yourself up for visibility and success?

Blog about it! Podcast about it! Post about it! Speak about it!

Brainstorm a couple dozen focus points for your area of expertise and plan out content from there. You don’t have to do all the things, but if you build one anchor content piece, it would take very little time to divide and multiply it into all the others.

What might this look like?

Chances are you have a preference for either speaking or writing. So, start where you’re most comfortable.

If you like to speak your wisdom, record a podcast or YouTube episode or go live on social media. Wherever you share, capture the recording and pull a transcript. Copy and paste your words, clean them up and format them for a blog post, submitted article or social media post. Expand your original message into a longer presentation or workshop and pitch it to conferences and organizations.

On the flip side, if writing is your starting point, write your blog post, pull pieces from that for social media or YouTube shorts, read your words and record them, expand them into a presentation you can market to position yourself as the expert you are.

Let’s take it three steps farther and optimize what you’ve got.

How can you optimize your expert presence?

First, learn how to optimize your online presence to be found in today’s brave new world of AI technology. You can flip the switch on visibility with a few quick, simple steps. A perfect starting point is Alexa Bigwarfe’s post, “GEO—What It Is and Why Every Author Needs to Know About It.” Though written to authors, this topic applies directly to anyone who doesn’t want to be invisible online and who wants the right people to find them there. Keep an eye out, because this is only the tip of the iceberg of what Alexa has to share with us on the topic!

Second, add a claim to your expert standing on your website and social bios and official bios and media kits. Once you have your wording, it’s a matter of a few copy/pastes and tweaks, and you’re up and running.

Third, tell people. Two small words that make all the difference but feel massive when we hear them. Tell people.

You’ve graduated from the mirror and your computer screen. You have to share who you are and what you do in conversations with others and you need to submit your expertise to places where the clients you’re trying to find will hear you and discover what other greatness you can offer them. Submit speaking and or guest blog or article proposals and apply to speak on podcasts.

Position yourself to be heard and seen as the expert you are.

Tip 2: Give Generously and Wisely

We hear the same advice for showing up on social media, in professional groups, at networking events, in the wider publishing world: be generous. Share your knowledge.

I’m sure you agree that it is sage advice to present yourself as a kind and generous person, and I don’t have to sell you on such an action.

What I want to add, though, is to give generously with wisdom. You only have so many hours in your day. You only have so much bandwidth for interactions. So, when you offer aid, pause to consider how much time and energy and emotion you are giving.

An answering comment on a posted question may be a simple two-minute light shed on that person’s challenges. On the other hand, it may require a back and forth that can continue for a half hour, leaving you more drained than you’d intended for a Wednesday afternoon.

Take the pause to reflect and consider how much you may really be giving before you open your mouth and say, “I’d be happy to look over that proposal for you and tell you whether I think it’s ready for submission to agents or publishers.” Consider your calendar—business and personal.

Instead of promising something you don’t actually have time to deliver and losing a potential client’s trust, pause, consider and then say, “Hey! I’ve got a lead magnet that outlines the top ten red flags that your proposal may not be ready for submission. I would be happy to send it to you right now if you’ll give me your email address. Of course, I cover similar topics in my monthly newsletter. If you want to subscribe you’ll get the PDF, plus my tip-filled newsletter. Here’s a QR code you can scan to sign up right now.”

Be a wise and careful giver and build others’ trust in who you are and what you offer.

Tip 3: Know Your Clients and Embrace the Niche

If you work closely with authors, chances are you’ve heard—and probably said—build your reader avatar. You, too, need to build your client avatar.

Who is your ideal client? What do they need? Where do they hang out? What websites do they frequent? What organizations might they join? What blogs and magazines do they read? What podcasts do they listen to, and what YouTube channels do they frequent?

Most of us naturally want to paint our client avatars with a broad brush because we think that will get us more business. The truth is the opposite.

When you get specific about who you can help, when you can help them and how you can help them, you will more easily find and reach your ideal clients.

At the beginning of my journey as a book editor, I decided to cast a wide net, thinking that was the best way to catch the most authors. If you’ve ever actually fished, you probably know that fish sizes vary widely and some of the best ones may be small enough to slip through the wrong net. Plus, if you do catch a bunch, you may end up with a stinker in the midst.

Marketing is harder than it needs to be when you’re unsure who your ideal client is, so get clear on who you’re looking for to know exactly where to find them.

Tip 4: Know What Makes You Unique

Closely aligned with Tip 3, knowing what makes you unique will ultimately help you clarify your services and share what you offer with the right people.

How can you help them? What do you offer that sets you apart—this is your area of expertise, but it’s also your style and your approach to working with clients. What do you do best and what do you enjoy most about your services and the interactions you have with clients?

After a few flops with signing clients who weren’t the best match for me, I began to niche down. I landed on indie authors, specifically those who took their writing seriously and planned to publish multiple books.

Had I taken my own advice to the full extent, I would have niched down further to something like: women indie authors who write series in historical fiction or epic fantasy OR indie authors of informative and narrative nonfiction.

Why?

The first example leans in to my desire to be a combination of editor and coach and my love of working with other women. I enjoy assisting with massive projects—like multi-volume series and series that require extensive world-building. I am good at spotting errors in details like characters’ name spellings, geographical directions in mythical worlds and factual discrepancies in tools or verbiage during particular time periods. I’m also adept at building style guides and fictional world guides.

In the second example, I would have drifted back to my early days in the writing industry and my journalism background. I love finding the intersection of ideal reader flow and logical order to present a subject in an engaging manner.

Knowing your ideal client and yourself link together and will likely either become clear simultaneously or through a careful back and forth between them.

Knowing who you are and where your strengths lie, while honoring your experience and knowledge base, will help you position yourself for ideal clients to find you.

Tip 5: Join Women in Publishing

Why would I suggest joining Women in Publishing as Tip 5 for marketing your publishing services?

Women in Publishing is the only online community I know of that offers seats side by side for authors and publishing industry professionals. Whether you take advantage when we open our monthly networking to free registration, grab a $97 ticket to a Bootcamp—like our Marketing Bootcamp—and find yourself in our free WIP Community for ticketholders or invest in your business by joining WIP Society or WIPpreneur Circle, you will be surrounded by your ideal clients in an ecosystem that lives and breathes collaboration and connection over competition.

Through natural community posting or conversation in a platform hosted by Women in Publishing, you will find ways to position yourself as the expert you are, give generously and wisely and learn more about yourself and your ideal client and what needs exist that you can meet.