Many authors hear they need to have a "platform" to reach readers and sell books, but few fully understand what this means. An author platform includes all of the ways you are communicating with potential readers. Per W Publishing Group Vice President of Marketing Caren Wolfe, there are three main components when building your platform online: 1) your social media, 2) an email newsletter, and 3) your website. Wolfe believes the email newsletter is the most important to establish and maintain because this is your "owned following", meaning you have complete control over the content and what is seen and when. The key is converting followers from your social media pages to sign up for your email newsletter. An author website is the central hub for driving traffic to and for monitoring user engagement with features such as a blog.