10 Ways to Build Your Writer’s Platform
These 10 effective ways to build your writer’s platform will not only make you more marketable as a writer, they’ll help you become a better writer, too. You’ll develop your skills and writing discipline.
First, a quip from a famous published author:
“What I had that others didn’t was a capacity for sticking to it,” said Doris Lessing.
If you want to be a published, fellow scribes, you need to persevere…and stand on a solid writing platform!
Your writing platform can make or break your chances of selling a book proposal or manuscript to a publishing house or agent. Read on for ten ways to build your writer’s platform, and, for tips on writing book proposals, click on Author 101 Bestselling Book Proposals: The Insider’s Guide to Selling Your Work by Rick Frishman and Robyn Freedman Spizman.
What is a Writer’s Platform?
Your writing platform is a tool you use to promote yourself and sell your writing. To build a strong writing platform, you need to be an entrepreneur and marketing guru with established followers. It’s a tall order – but take heart! In our modern technological age, it’s possible and not too difficult to do.
Your writing platform proves your ability as a writer to promote and sell your book on a national or international level, which drives book sales. It provides a measure of security to the publisher and acts as a vehicle to promote your book and you, the writer.
Some writing and publishing experts say not having a writing platform is an automatic death sentence to an article query or book proposal. If you don’t have a writing platform, you won’t get published. According to Frishman and Spizman’s book called Author 101 Bestselling Book Proposals: The Insider’s Guide to Selling Your Work, building your writing platform is not only necessary, it’s essential.
10 Ways to Build Your Writer’s Platform
1. Create your own website with blogs, forums, newsletters, and photos. To promote your website and yourself as a writer/blogger, use social networking (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc).
2. Blog or write for an established website. I write for Suite101, and I love it. It doesn’t pay as much as About.com (who I don’t write for but really wanted to for awhile) but…every trickle of income and exposure counts.
3. Figure out what your specialty or niche is, then build your writing platform around that. For example, I love love love inspirational quotations, so I build two blogs around them.
4. Give talks about your specialty in schools, churches, libraries, local groups, etc. Ugh. Personally, I’d rather give myself a Brazilian wax than than give talks about writing. I love to talk about writing and blogging, but I don’t want to give a talk about it.
5. Teach classes or offer workshops. Ditto, but at least you could get paid.
6. Offer products or services related to your niche. Just last night, I read that one blogger makes and sells his own t-shirts online.
7. Participate in online communities and forums, focusing on building your writing platform, but still offering thoughtful comments and helpful information.
8. Sell or donate articles or bits of your book to magazines, newspapers, or newsletters. Writing for free can be a great way to build your writing platform.
9. Conduct focus groups or send out surveys to convince publishers that your idea has merit and will sell. This will build your writing platform by providing you with tangible support.
10. Ask an organization to commit to buying a hundred or so copies of your published book – and include their letter of commitment with your book proposal.
The idea is to get your name and writing out there as much as possible. Publicity begets publicity, writing begets writing, getting published begets getting published, books beget books…
Fellow scribes, do you have a writer’s platform? Is it a necessary evil of a writer’s life…or the best part of getting published?
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Comment by Afi Scruggs on 3 February 2009:
I keep asking this question. If I do all of the above and build a platform, why should I submit a manuscript to a publisher?
Why don’t write the manuscript, do a print-on-demand or ebook, and sell books to the audience I’ve created?
Comment by Laurie PK on 3 February 2009:
Thanks for your question, Afi. If you ask 10 different writers, I suspect you’ll get 14 different answers! Here’s what I think:
Regardless of the size of my platform, I’d rather go with a traditional publisher because I don’t want to take on the marketing, selling, distributing, etc that e-books or self-published books demand. (Though I am well aware that even traditional publishers require their writers to market their own books!). Plus, I want the weight of a big company like Penguin or McGraw Hill behind me. And, I think publishers offer additional exposure and opportunities, which you don’t have as an indie publisher.
There’s a writer in my writing group who self-published her first book. Though she doesn’t regret it, she’s now looking for an agent and traditional publisher for her second book. Self-publishing seems to be its own business — and as a writer, I don’t want to get involved in the business and marketing end, any more than I have to.
That’s just me — I do know other writers who love self-publishing — to each his own!
Laurie
Comment by John on 12 June 2010:
I’ve got a blockbuster of an idea for a book on finance/investing, and I seem to be in a catch-22.
Supposing that an inventor trying to solve the energy/environmental crisis slaved away in his garage every night and every weekend for years and one night by accident discovered that fermented watermelon juice was the perfect clean fuel for our cars.
What should he do with this idea? If he handles it the wrong way, either he or his idea could be ignored. I read one story about an inventor at a conference who asked a patent agent how the former could be sure the latter would not steal his idea. The agent hitched up his pants, legend goes, and said, “Young man, steal it? I doubt you could give it away.”
I want a fair shake for me and my idea. Would it be better to put the idea I have out there? If I give it away, am I losing my leverage or gaining more leverage by causing a stir?
Comment by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen on 15 June 2010:
Hi John,
lol, cute joke about the agent and the inventor
Congratulations on your blockbuster book idea! Books on finance/investing are always popular, so you’re on the right track right off the bat.
If you DON’T put your book idea out there, how will it get published? I’m not quite sure what you mean by “put the idea out there”, but I’m assuming you mean approach literary agents, publishers, editors? That’s the only way you’ll get it off the ground, unless of course you decide to self-publish.
OHHH — if by “put it out there”, you mean talking about it before you’ve sold it to a publisher, I’d say it depends on the idea and how you put it out there. Many people blog about their blockbuster book ideas for months or years before they actually sell it to a publisher. They build their platform, get lots of followers, and land a book deal based on all the excitement (platform, platform, platform).
Leverage also depends on your level of expertise or celebrity. That is, if you’re a famous successful plastic surgeon who has a blockbuster book idea, then you don’t necessarily need to build a platform — you have your expertise or celebrity to thrust you into the limelight.
I suggest sending your idea to a few literary agents in your field. Find out if there’s a market for your idea, and if you should be blogging about it.
And, find out if someone else is already exploring your idea in their own money or finance blog….since there’s “nothing new under the sun”, you never know if it’s already been done….
Good luck with it!
Laurie
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Comment by kylie on 14 July 2010:
Are you aware that Suite 101, like About.com, are content mills? That’s very different from a legit website or media outlet, and writing for them can actually damage one’s credibility as a writer. It separates the hobbyists from professionals. Professionals earn money per word, not by hit.
Comment by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen on 14 July 2010:
Thanks for your feedback, Kylie!
Actually, I think professional writers earn at least $50 per hour, not necessarily per word (that’s what I charge, anyway).
I’ve been writing for Suite101 since Oct, 2006. Sure, there are lots of hobby writers there. And, there are lots of professional writers and bloggers, like me!
In fact, I have an email from the editor of an architectural magazine sitting in my in-box right now, waiting to be answered……she likes my Suite writing style (she found me through my Suite articles) and wants to know how much I charge. I’m debating whether to say $50 per hour or $1 a word…..either way, it’s sweet!
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