By Terry Whalin (@terrywhalin)
Many writers believe writing a book will make them famous. They believe getting their book into the market will make them well-known. This idea is a publishing myth. The reality is without the author’s promotion, something terrible happens—nothing. What are you doing to increase your connection to your audience?
Within the publishing community, the buzz word is “platform” Agents and editors will ask writers, “Tell me about your platform.” In a speaking arena, a platform is a raised section and where the speaker talks to be visible and reach his audience. The word platform is a way of asking about your audience and your connections. There are many ways to build or have a platform. It could be through a social media site like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. An author can have similar or different connections on each of these networks. While there is no perfect number for these networks, the larger the better.
My encouragement to you in the platform area is to have real numbers and not fake ones. Several years ago, one of my journalist friends had a major publisher releasing her new book. I knew she had a small twitter following yet one day I looked, and she had gone from a small following of hundreds to over 100,000. The sudden increase was suspicious because anyone can go to a website and purchase 100,000 followers. When you “buy” followers, your numbers certainly increase but they are not real followers who engage with you and actually buy your books.
As an example, I have over 180,000 followers on Twitter which is an aspect of my platform in the market. This platform did not happen overnight. I’ve been on X / Twitter since 2009 and steadily building and increasing my audience. People follow me for several reasons. First, I give varied and targeted content for my audience. I also tweet 12-15 times throughout a day. The majority of my tweets point to additional information and each one includes an image for greater visibility. Through the years, I’ve worked hard and consistently at creating this content. The growth of my audience on Twitter did not happen naturally or organically without any effort. It’s another reality of publishing: you have to consistently work at building your audience or platform. Why?
You may not like or understand X / Twitter so it would not be a good place for you to build your platform. Pick one or two online places that draw your attention and are fun to use. You want them to be fun because you will be spending a lot of time on these places. Whatever sites you choose, begin right away. Internet marketing guru Seth Godin says “It is never too early to begin marketing.”
Throughout my over 35+ years in publishing, I’ve learned one simple truth. Traditional publishers make powerful books. They have great distribution and attractive covers. Ready for the simple truth? Most of them are lacking in the ability to help their authors sell books. Authors can’t delegate that responsibility to their publishers. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you still need to be building your platform. Fiction is based on a great story and nonfiction is based on a great idea, careful research and storytelling. Both types of writing need to have excellent storytelling—but my contention is that every author will be better positioned to actually reach customers and sell books if they have built an audience or platform which is hungry for their work.
There are dozens of ways to build your platform and I’ve only given you a few possibilities. Your platform is important to every author. Why? Because even if you publish with a traditional publisher, it will be 80% up to every author to sell the books. Publishers will work with authors who have small or growing platforms, yet every publisher is actively looking for people connected to their readers.
This repeated exposure on your book using different methods is a key part of the platform building process and a necessity for every author. If you are not doing it, then take action, make a plan then execute your plan. Your connection to the audience is much more important than becoming well-known.
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