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Thursday, June 2, 2016

What's Your Platform?


Ever been urged to build your platform as a writer/author? Do you have any idea what that person was talking about? An author's platform has come to be the most important factor in determining whether or not a project will be accepted for publication.

Editors and agents typically look for someone with visibility and authority who has proven reach to a target audience. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+ are only small pieces of the author platform. Other pieces of the pie include contacts, previous books, ability to execute, personality, and readership. 

Some novelists kick off their own careers by indie publishing, manage social media to advantage, build a readership and then offer their following books to a traditional publisher or small press. Platform building will be different for every single author.

Growing your own platform isn't difficult, but it does take time...time most of us would rather spend writing. Remember just by being you comprises a large part of the pie: expertise, personality, and ability to execute. You can keep growing it, a day at a time. Push yourself outside your comfort zone as much as you can, but not to the place you are overwhelmed with what needs to be kept up.  

There's lots of online advice on some of the slices of the pie you can incorporate to create your own unique platform. Here are a couple sites to get you started: 

Just keep in mind, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

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