A Question Frequently Asked

 

By Linda Glaz

 

How can I build platform before my book is even published?

I am so glad you asked. First, let’s look at why publishers want you to have a strong platform. They need to know:

• You can help market yourself.
• You know your topic and are qualified to write about it.
• You're able to go a level above other authors writing in the same genre or on the same topic.

 

So how can you achieve all of this success? Let’s look at a historic author who is not published but wants to connect with potential readers. She can blog, write a newsletter, or use You Tube/Podcast consistently on topics that relate to the era she’s writing in. Let’s say once a month she blogs or sends out videos on clothing of that period. She might have samples or, if a seamstress, might show how to construct those clothing pieces. Another time she might talk about recipes from that era. Or books about that era. Maybe share some research from the era. So many opportunities to share. Then, when the book releases, she has a ready-made group to present it to. And in the meantime, she’s impressed potential publishers that she can reach the readers. So, here she is, building those potential connections with booklovers that will help her find her audience long before the book is published.

 

If you think it’s not important, let me put it this way: a publisher, XYZ, might have five slots for books coming up. If a bestselling author or substantial author from another house comes along because her publisher, ABC, stopped handling her genre, the XYZ is probably going to snatch that author up like a Venus fly trap snatches a fly. And maybe a couple other well-known authors as well. Now, maybe only two slots left. One is filled by an author they’ve been considering for some time. Lo and behold, only one slot left. Two amazing authors have proposals for a topic they’d really like to see come to life. One author has been busily building his or her platform. The other author has actually told her friends, agent, anyone who’ll listen, that she’s a writer, not into marketing. Need I ask who Publishing House XYZ will want to work with?

 

You see, like everything else, there are often aspects of our jobs that aren’t our favorite parts, but still, like it or not, they’re part of the job description! And we simply have to learn to do them. Once you start, you’ll be surprised, and you might even like this new thing you’re involved in called platform.

(Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net and winnond.)

 

Linda S. Glaz, married with three grown children and four grandchildren, is a complete triple-A personality. How else would she find time to write as well as be an agent for Hartline Literary Agency? She loves any and everything about the written word and loves when families pass stories along through the generations as her mother did with her.

She’s a speaker, presenter, and searches her emails each day to find that one nugget of gold. Writing so stellar from a teachable spirit. What more could she ask for?