Frequent references to \u201cplatform\u201d in politics, beauty pageants, beds, and shoes can confuse the author struggling to understand how that concept applies to book publishing.<\/p>\n

In politics and beauty pageants, your platform is a message or goal \u2013 \u201cWe have got to get more people working!\u201d or \u201cStop bullying in schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

With beds and shoes, it\u2019s about height.<\/p>\n

But for authors, \u201cplatform\u201d is the word the publishing industry uses to describe your built-in sales network. Who is waiting to buy your book as soon as it\u2019s available? What\u2019s your fan base or following? A publisher might ask, \u201cHow many books are we guaranteed to sell because of the author\u2019s platform?\u201d<\/p>\n

Is “author platform” a Catch 22?<\/h2>\n

Sometimes the need for a platform feels like a Catch 22 \u2013 you\u2019re expected to enjoy a certain level of celebrity status in your niche to get a traditional book contract, and yet, getting that status can be difficult without a book as a credential.<\/p>\n

Not too long ago, an agent told me that she loved my unique nonfiction book idea, but wouldn\u2019t be able to get a publisher for it until I had done several high-profile national media interviews on the topic. Could I get on “The Today Show” based on just my topic knowledge and a handful of successful workshop presentations? Of course not \u2013 I needed \u201cauthor of . . .\u201d after my name to snag that contract-generating exposure.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0social media\u00a0<\/span>explosion\u00a0makes it easier to work around that \u201cyou need a few big national media hits\u201d obstacle, though. If you\u2019ve got enough blog or YouTube channel subscribers, Twitter followers, and Facebook-fan-page-likers, your platform might be big enough without a steady stream of national media interviews.<\/p>\n

How are you going to build your platform so that people are ready to buy your book when it\u2019s published? Think of it like a stool \u2013 the more legs you have under the seat, the safer you feel when sitting on it. Tomorrow, I’ll share a list of 12 platform-building elements to consider<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

(Editor’s note: This post was updated in June 2018.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Frequent references to \u201cplatform\u201d in politics, beauty pageants, beds, and shoes can confuse the author struggling to understand how that concept applies to book publishing.<\/p>\n

In politics and beauty pageants, your platform is a message or goal \u2013 \u201cWe have got to get more people working!\u201d or \u201cStop bullying in schools.\u201d With beds and shoes, it\u2019s about height. But for authors, \u201cplatform\u201d is the word the publishing industry uses to describe your built-in sales network. Who is waiting to buy your book as soon as it\u2019s available? What\u2019s your fan base or following? A publisher might ask, \u201cHow many books are we guaranteed to sell because of the author\u2019s platform?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,20,11],"tags":[54,55],"class_list":["post-1630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-publicity","category-news","category-tactics","tag-author-platform","tag-platform"],"yoast_head":"\n