Writing and Publishing News

I’ve been asked to do a webinar on platform-building, so decided to talk to you this morning about the importance of building a platform in this highly competitive publishing field.

Hopeful authors come whining to me from time to time, saying that they can’t get a publisher because they don’t have a platform. So what do they do? They keep sending the same book proposal out to more and more publishers. What would I advise them to do? Start building a platform, of course.

I guess it hasn’t sunk in with many new authors that you don’t have to wait until you’re published to establish a platform. In fact, to me, this is backwards thinking. If you don’t have a platform in your genre or topic, you should begin building one before you ever start writing a book.

Many beginning authors come into the publishing arena with at least one of the following misconceptions.

• They don’t believe that a platform is necessary for their particular project.
• They think there’s plenty of time to start building on their platform, later.
• They don’t know what a platform is because they haven’t bothered to study the business of publishing.

To review, if you expect to land a traditional publisher (one that will invest in your project), you will need a platform—a following, a way of attracting readers. If you hope to sell very many copies of your self-published book, you need a platform—recognition and/or expertise in your genre/topic.

Whose dog training book would you buy? The one by the credentialed trainer with a syndicated radio show and several training books under his belt or one by a first-time author who happens to own a couple of pit bulls?

When you’re in the mood to read a romance novel, which one will you pick? The novel by your favorite author, whose stories you read in magazines and who sometimes appears on Oprah or the one by an author you’ve never heard of?

Put yourself in the reader’s/consumer’s place. What prompts you to buy a particular book? I think we all read books that we’ve read about or heard about from others—that have been recommended by friends or through reviews. We purchase books by authors that we meet and authors whose names are familiar. I bought a book yesterday from a first-time author after reading about it in our hometown newspaper. But I have never bought a book I didn’t know about from someone I’ve never heard of or never met. Have you? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Perhaps now you understand why publishers shy away from new authors who don’t have a platform and why I and other professionals recommend that you hold off even self-publishing until you’ve established a platform.

Tomorrow, I’ll give you some platform-building tips.

This is excerpted from my book in progress, Talk Up Your Book:

You’ve probably heard the word platform. It is commonly used within publishing circles to indicate an author’s following (who would buy a book by this author?), connections (who can he count on to help him reach his audience?) and way of attracting readers (the author’s popularity, expertise and/or credibility in the topic or genre).

There are numerous ways to establish your author’s platform and to build on it. Basically, it’s a matter of becoming known in your field or genre. You are strides ahead of the competition if you enter into the publishing realm with a solid platform. One way to do this is through public speaking and other activities that put you in front of your audience.
Why build a platform before your book is a book? For one thing, this would go a long way toward impressing a publisher. Traditional publishers are interested in an author’s marketing plan, and a solid platform can be a deal maker. If experience and exposure as a public speaker is part of that platform, all the better.

Additionally, no matter your publishing choice, once your book is launched, if you’ve established yourself as a speaker on your topic or in your genre, you already have a reputation and credentials. You know how to talk to people about your book, and there are at least a few people who trust your expertise in your field or appreciate your skill as a writer in your genre.

Conducting workshops and/or getting out and speaking on your topic before your book is a book will help immensely with name recognition. People are more willing to purchase your book if they already know who you are. If you also provide a signup sheet where you speak, you’ll have a leg up when it comes to promoting your book. Depending on when you start the process, you could conceivably collect the names and contact information for hundreds of people who are interested in reading your book. You will have a following even before you have a book to sell.

Note: If you are new to publishing, you may not know how difficult it is to promote and sell books and how much time and effort it takes on the author’s part. Believe me (and other publishing professionals) it is hugely time and energy-consuming. Anything you can do during the writing process of your project toward establishing and building on your platform, the greater chances you’ll have of success.

See Patricia Fry’s array of books for authors at her website:
http://www.matilijapress.com

Learn more about Patricia’s services and online courses:
http://www.patriciafry.com

So you have published your SECOND book—congratulations. Since you’ve already had experience bringing a book into the marketplace, promoting this one should be a slam dunk, right? Not necessarily. If the book is different, most likely the promotional activities around it will need to be readjusted.

Let’s say that your first book is a how-to book for realtors who want to increase their sales. And your second book is a novel. These are very different books with a widely different audience. Sure there could be some crossover—some of your real estate customers might be interested in a period novel. So be sure to use the customer-base mailing and emailing lists you have accumulated to promote it. But beyond that, your marketing tactics and strategies for the second book may send you on a completely new path.

Your business book sales might rely more on face-to-face connections—in workshop and speaking environments, for example. You might sell a lot of copies of this book through articles and ads in regional real estate magazines, through local board offices and at sales meetings for real estate personnel, for example. You novel sales might rely more on book reviews, word-of-mouth, your interactive website and your name recognition through stories published in major genre publications.

If your first book was a young adult fantasy, you probably sold copies through pretty much the same channels as you would the novel. You may have added school visits and book parties designed to entice teens at bookstores and other venues. But now you have come out with a book on creative writing for publication. You have a different audience—again, sure there could be some crossover, so don’t toss out any viable promotional ideas. But you’ll also need to go where your new audience is—writing sites, writers’ magazines, writers’ conferences and club meetings, etc.

In some cases, you’ll need strong speaking, communication and teaching skills in order to promote your book. You might use a lot of creativity in your promotional strategies and your readers might be easy to locate and approach. In others, you must reach far and wide to find your readers and use unique tactics to entice them. Your niche might be small and easy to approach or widespread and difficult to discover.

This is just one more reason why you should be thinking about your promotional plan and building your platform before you finish writing the book.

I received a Google Alert today reflecting a question that came across the Yahoo Ask site. It is a question that comes up often at these sites: “I want to write a book how will I find a publisher?” The answers most generally are, “Just write. Wait until you’re finished and then look for a publisher.”

Unfortunately, this is the attitude of many inexperienced writers—at least writers who are new to publishing. And it is so, so wrong. In order to enter into the highly competitive publishing arena, you must know something about the industry and become familiar with other books on the topic/genre and how they are being presented. And you really should have an idea of who is publishing material like yours and what the current criteria is. What you learn may change the focus of your book. And that can be a good thing.

If you haven’t already done so, please sign up for my newest online course—Build Your Platform. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_platform.htm This could be your ticket to publishing success.

You could do what way too many new authors do: go ahead and finish writing your book, hire a pay-to-publish company to produce it and pay way too much money and then begin to flounder around trying to figure out how to handle promotion.

Or you could spend time learning something about the publishing industry, all of your options, the possible consequences of your choices and your responsibilities as a published author—yes, you have some serious responsibilities as a published author. You could take this course and prepare yourself for the world of publishing and book promotion and give yourself a much better chance of succeeding.

Which way do you want to go?