Own Your Writing Platform

Publishing a book is like running for political office.

There are a lot of people out there who you want to take a certain action, at a certain time and place in the future. With political campaigning, that action is to vote. With book campaigning, it is to buy your book.

In both cases, you need to do many of the same things: meeting people, connecting with existing communities, attending conferences and events, publishing content online, and generally making yourself known in the network that you’ll eventually need to propel you to success.

Here’s what most aspiring writers don’t realize: most of this campaigning needs to happen before you begin writing your book, before you have a proposal, and even before you decide on an idea. Approaching a publisher is actually the last step, not the first, because the first thing they will want to know is how big your “platform” is. 

How big is your platform?

The answer to this question outweighs every other part of your proposal combined. It proves that there is a market for your book, instead of just claiming it. Look at it from the publisher’s point of view: would you rather invest in an author who has proven demand for their ideas, or one who is pretty sure people will want to buy their book?

Best-selling author and marketing expert Seth Godin puts it this way: “If you don’t have an asset already—a ‘permission base’ of thousands or tens of thousands of people, a popular blog, thousands of employees, a personal relationship with Willard Scott — then it’s too late to start building that asset once you start working on a book. My best advice? Build an asset. Large numbers of influential people who read your blog or read your emails or watch your TV show or love your restaurant.”

Whether it’s called a platform, a permission base, or an asset, the bottom line is that you need a ready and willing audience for your writing. A sizable group of people who know you, trust you, and already like what you have to say. Without an existing group of highly engaged potential buyers, your only option is to rely on the platforms of others. Even if you can somehow gain access to them, the price they extract will be so steep that you’ll question if it’s even worth it.

Other examples of platforms you can use to boost your credibility include a successful speaking career, a track record as an expert in the media, demonstrable expertise or recognition within a particular field, a social media following of thousands, or a major YouTube audience.

But more and more, having a platform means having an online platform. The power of the Internet, and its ability to distribute your writing around the world virtually for free, is simply too great to ignore. 

Whether through social media, an email newsletter, or a YouTube following, having an online platform allows you to:

• Expose yourself to an infinite world of ideas and stories
• Instantly connect to sources of information and knowledgeable experts
• Plug into trends so you know what’s hot and what’s not
• Test-drive your material
• Find your community and future audience
• Become an active citizen in your community
• Develop and/or expand your platform and brand
• Demonstrate to a publisher that lots of people will buy your book
• Raise the profile of your name and work
• Sell lots and lots of books

Having an influential platform may seem difficult, but the good news is you don’t need to become a mainstream celebrity to publish a successful book. We live in the age of the “long tail” – a term coined by Chris Anderson of Wired magazine to describe the almost infinite number of tiny niches that we see thriving on the Internet.