Book Authors Need Platforms

I’m working on the second edition of my book, The Fast-Track Course on How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal. It’ll be published in the spring of 2012. Here’s a sidebar I’m thinking of including.

Authors Need Platforms

Attendees at writer’s conferences often hear that agents and editors want authors with a  “platform.”

Basically, a platform is whatever an author can bring to the table that will help market the author’s books.

This platform may include being elected to the Senate or hosting a national TV show. Authorship of a column is often a good platform. The column by Peter H. Gott, M.D. appears daily in 350 newspapers. When he mentions one of his books in the column, sales soar.

Being famous is a platform in itself. When we contracted with Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer to publish Dr. Ruth’s Sex After 50, we knew Dr. Ruth’s international celebrity status would help sell the book.

Unfortunately few of us are Senators, host TV shows, are internationally famous, or write syndicated columns. But we can do things such as developing a hefty schedule of speaking engagements—even if only in our local geographical area—or establishing ourselves as an authority in a particular industry by writing for trade periodicals and presenting at conferences. One of the easiest things to do is to create a noted online presence.

For help in that last part, read Stephanie Chandler’s The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books. The ideas in John Kremer’s 1001 Ways to Market Your Book will also help you establish a platform.

If you’re thinking of publishing a book and you don’t have a platform already, start building yours today. If you do have one, see what you can do to enhance it.

Just a write thought.