What is the writer’s platform?

Is there such a thing as information overload? If there is, I have it. After a week of Twitter and going through the link maze to find so many other writers out there, published and non-published, inspiring other writers such as myself and finding agents, editors and publishers giving great advice through the websites, adding all the links I’ve found in the last two weeks would take half the day at least, which I intend to do at some point.

With all the available advice via the Internet I find myself overwhelmed by all the information. Not only am I learning about how to write a novel; how the publishing industry works but also how to write blog posts; how to keep in touch with what’s going on and all about internet marketing.

It’s come to the point that I’m not blogging as freely because I see so much of the same information out there already on the same subjects. And I wonder what can I add to the so many posts out there already? I realized as I’m just starting out and new to this, I don’t have the expertise on many of the topics so what can I write about that anyone would want to read? Then I think that blogging is not what I’m trying to do here. I’m trying to write novels and get them published. It sounds simple enough so why am I so confused, overloaded and overwhelmed?

Do everyone feel this overwhelmed? So when you’re bombarded with so much information, you have to ask yourself what is it that you’re really trying to do? The bottom line. For me I want to write novels and get them published. So I’ve decided to write my blog as I’m learning, asking lots of questions and finding the answers to them; creating an action plan and delivering the results – I am a corporation of one after all – and documenting what I’m doing. In the end I can only write what I know and what I’m learning. The writing part, I need to just keep on writing but the get books published part, it seems that requires me to build myself a writer’s platform.

What is a platform?

Platform is everything that you bring to the table. A Platform, of course, is similar to branding but it is a step beyond. A Platform is being developed and accomplished in many areas. It is similar to the spokes in a wheel, each one is separate yet each one is important to the whole. The more powerful the spokes, the more powerful the wheel.

So if we think of a Platform as the entire wheel, we have many spokes in the wheel that make a platform possible. (Source: Annie Jennings PR)

Annie Jennings’s Platform Check List:

1. Are you the author or co-author of books and articles? The more books and the more articles the better. E-books count also and are relatively easy to create.
2. Have you developed any products such as audiocassette or CD series, video series, internet courses, any innovative products that you have developed to help your industry?
3. Are your books and articles appearing in other countries, translated to different languages?
4. Do you have speaking engagements? Did you address large audience or companies with names people would recognize? Have you done an impressive number of speaking engagements? Have you spoken outside of the country? Were you a keynote presenter?
5. Did you contribute your industry or achieve or breakthroughs? Have you received awards or recognition. Did you develop new business processes that enhanced your industry?
6. Have you achieved Expert Status in the media, including TV, radio and print? Have you appeared on national TV, had article written about you. Have you received media coverage in any other country? A few major media placements builds up your BIO fast!
7. Have you toured the country promoting your book? How many cities did you go through, how many interviews did you do, where did you speak, where did you hold book signings, did you sell an impressive amount of books?
8. Have you hosted or co-hosted a radio show, or have been a regular guest? Do you have your own show, internet shows are easy ways to get started!
9. Do you have endorsements or testimonials from industry leaders?
10. Did your book make it to any best sellers lists? Did it receive any awards?

I found this post on ‘How to Build your Writing Platform‘ by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen outlining 1o ways to build your writing platform according to Frishman and Spizman’s Author 101 Bestselling Book Proposals: The Insider’s Guide to Selling Your Work’:

1. Create your own website with blogs, forums, newsletters, and photos.
2. Blog or write for an established website.
3. Figure out what your specialty or niche is, then build your writing platform around that.
4. Give talks about your specialty in schools, churches, libraries, local groups, etc.
5. Teach classes or offer workshops.
6. Offer products or services related to your niche.
7. Participate in online communities and forums, focusing on building your writing platform.
8. Sell or donate articles or bits of book chapters to magazines, newspapers, or newsletters.
9. Conduct focus groups or use 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.

Another 5 ways from Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen:

1. Make it easy to buy your book on your website or blog.
2. Become an expert.
3. Write articles for popular blogs.
4. Start an online group.
5. Do a virtual book tour.

It’s amazing how much of that I’ve not done. I have a blog. That’s it. The others seem impossible because I’m still at the writing phase. I guess I can only do what I can do. I’m going to come back to this list. Really, I need to plan these things. There is just so much there that I need to break this down into chunks. First though, I need to organize a bit better, perhaps with an Excel spreadsheet because I’m losing track of things, people, posts etc. With Twitter and Google RSS reader, it’s so hard to keep track of where I heard about that book or who recommended this. In ‘Author Platform: What Are You Waiting For?‘ Joel Friedlander suggests what a writer needs is a marketing strategy so that the platform is developed slowly and gradually because no one can do it all at once and it has to fit in with your primary activity – writing the book.

[pic taken from here]

Here are the links on this page again and a few others:

10 Tips to Creating a Powerful Platform by Annie Jennings

5 Tips For Building an Online Platform for Writers by Lauri Pawlik-Kienlen

Author Platform: What Are You Waiting For? by Joel Friedlander

The Dreaded Author Platform by Rachelle Gardner

Creating a Writer’s Platform by Dorinda Ohnstad

Developing a Platform for Nonfiction Writers by Robert Rummel-Hudson

Audience Development: Critical to Every Writer’s Future by Jane Friedman

Build an Author Platform Before Publishing by Suzanne Pitner

It’s Not the Size of Your Platform, It’s the Magic in it by Jonathan Fields

Author Platform and the Debut of your Book by Lindsey Edwards

Why Writers Should Have a Platform Interview with Christina Katz

Building an Organic Web Presence by Carol White

Why All Authors Need a Platform Excerpted from Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katzby

7 Methods to Build an Audience by Q B Wells

Here’s a video of Chris Brogan‘s take on building presence on the Internet via BubbleCow.

“When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink and glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life.” Christopher Morley – Novelist and Poet

CURRENT STATUS:

What I have done from the advice I’m finding throughout the Internet. I’ve managed to do the following things;

• Set up Google RSS reader and subscribe to blogs written by other writers, agents, editors, bloggers and internet marketing people. Every day there is over 300 posts to read. I found out today that there’s a panic button where it marks every post as read if you ‘panic’ at the amount of reading ahead of you. I hope I will never have to use that button.
• Set up Twitter and twittering throughout the day. It’s hard to keep up with other posts sometimes and I’m finding that I have to email myself the link so I can read it properly later. I’m keeping up with the Twitter comments and coming back and finding that there have been over 100 tweets since I checked, which can be unnerving.
• Create a blog that enables RSS feed and Twitter updates.
• Using Firefox’s Bookmarks and creating folders so I can file important blogs or people I’d like to read more about later.
• I bought the book that was recommended by an agent, I’ve forgotten her name: ‘Get Known Before the Book Deal’ by Christina Katz and it should be with me in the next few days. Through a Twitter post, I found a link to a writer expressing the same confusion I’m experiencing now and I’m hoping this book will clear the muddled-up ideas in my head a bit, if not a lot. Here’s a post by Christina Katz on platform building. From what she’s saying, I need to wait until starting some of the activities above whilst I’m still learning and figuring my way around the publishing labyrinth.
• Set up Google Alert using words ‘writing’, ‘writer’ etc.

WORD COUNT: 118,500 in total; today 500 – I get the Inkygirl ’500 words a day challenge’ badge.

THINGS FOR ME TO DO, OTHER THAN WRITE:

Straight away I can see things I can do in the next few days that is not totally impossible; I can try: