Tuesday night, I had the privilege of attending Sin and Syntax author Constance Hale’s class The Book Biz from A to Z at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. One of the topics that arose was platform.
Today, every agent and editor wants to know that you have a platform before representing/buying your book. But what is platform?
One of Hale’s students suggested that platform is your audience—all of the people interested in the topic about which you’re writing. So if you’ve written a book about knitting, does that make every knitter in the world your platform? Unfortunately not. Those knitters have to know who you are and know that you’ve written a book in order to be part of your platform.
Someone else suggested that your platform is your number of followers and fans—say 1000 on Twitter, 500 on Facebook, your mom, your sister and your best friend. But we all have a lot of “fake” followers—followers who follow us in hopes that we will follow them back but who aren’t really reading our posts. In fact, nature photographer Mike Spinak, who has 52,000 followers on Google+, says an author can expect less than 3% of her followers to buy her book.
So what IS platform?
Your platform is the people who are likely to buy your book. They include:
1. Your true fans
Your true fans are those followers who know you and love you, who retweet your tweets, +1 your Google+ posts, subscribe to your newsletter, read your blog, and comment on and share your Facebook posts. They will buy everything you write because they know you and love you. Every author needs true fans.
2. Your family and friends
When building an email list, be sure to include them on it. Don’t rely on Facebook to notify them that your book is out since only a small fraction of your Facebook friends see your posts.
3. Your students
Professors have a built-in platform. If your book is related to the topic you teach, your students are going to buy it. If you teach writing, they’ll buy your book no matter what the topic is.
4. Your readers
If you have a regular column in a print or online newspaper or magazine, your readers are part of your platform. They like your writing, they know who you are, and they will hear about your book (because you will tell them!) when it comes out.
5. Conference attendees
Speaking at conferences and other events is another great way to build your platform. Attendees will read your bio in the program, will hear your name when you speak, and may even ask you for a business card. (Be sure to keep a stack close at hand!)
6. Everyone you meet
You don’t have to speak on a panel to build your platform. You may perform in a show, co-produce an event, attend a meeting, or simply show up a party thrown by a friend. Everyone you meet and shake hands with has the potential to become part of your platform. Just be careful not to annoy them by pitching your book the minute you open your mouth.
For more information on platform, be sure to read this wonderful post by Jane Friedman, former publisher of Writers Digest, which is chock-full of great advice.
All great advice, Meghan. You always share the best information with us! Thank you
You're welcome, Becky!
Great tips, Meghan. I like how you highlighted that such a small number of followers will actually buy your book. It's a bit depressing, but from talking to others, I know it is true. It's great to have a lot of followers, but that doesn't mean they are all going to run out to buy your book.
It is depressing, Christine! But better than not building a platform at all!
Excellent list. I'm glad you ended with the caveat "Just be careful not to annoy them by pitching your book the minute you open your mouth." Too many writers become walking pitch machines. They need to realize if they use every event as a sales opportunity, pretty soon people will stop inviting them places. It's possible to spam in person as well as online.
It's so true. Be friendly, make conversation, and eventually they'll discover you're a writer and ask if you have a book out. Then tell them about it! But don't start with "Hi, I'm Meghan. Please buy my book"!
I read your blog post & Jane Friedman’s. I didn’t quiet understand her reference to the IOWA PROgram. If she meant every graduate has an automatic platform & guaranteed sales I don’t think she’s correct. I read an article about one particular class from Iowa & the only person earning enough $ from writing was Po Bronson. I can’t remember where I read it but it was a writing magazine. The entire concept of platform eludes me. If you work on a platform when do you write?
Jane, I think her point with Iowa was that if you graduated from that program, you will automatically garner respect for your writing prowess, regardless of your followers. People will buy the books of authors who are well-respected, who win awards, etc. That's another way to build platform. I'm not sure Po went to Iowa, by the way. I work with him and have never heard that and I can't find it mentioned in any of his biographies online.
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Great share about six ways to build ur author platform
I read your blog post & Jane Friedman's. I didn't quiet understand her reference to the IOWA PROgram. If she meant every graduate has an automatic platform & guaranteed sales
Your true fans are those followers who know you and love you, who retweet your tweets, +1 your Google+ posts, subscribe to your newsletter, read your blog, and comment on and share your Facebook posts. They will buy everything you write because they know you and love you. Every author needs true fans. I want to ask how about G+ ?
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Great tips, Meghan. I like how you highlighted that such a small number of followers will actually buy your book. It's a bit depressing, but from talking to others, I know it is true. It's great to have a lot of followers, but that doesn't mean they are all going to run out to buy your book.
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