Fiction Writers Need Platforms Too

Well, I think it's time to get the conversation started. Ableit slowly...as I'm still putting the book to bed.

What the heck is a platform? And how the heck am I supposed to get one? You might be asking.

These are both questions that are thoroughly addressed in my forthcoming book, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Strengths to Grow an Author Platform (Writer's Digest Books 2008).

Check out this post by Tricia Grissom over at Coffee & Critique Writers Group. I think what Tricia reports has been true for some time now. Fiction writers definitely need to have a platform. In my book I devote an entire chapter to ways fiction writers can identify their strengths and grow the one that will suit them best.

I feel like a tease but I have a point. Tricia linked her post to this one over at Bookends, LLC, A Literary Agency, which defines platform quite thoroughly.

In Get Known, I spend another entire chapter on what platform is vs. what platform isn't. When you are done reading it, my hope is that readers will never misunderstand platform again (or underestimate what agents and editors would really like to see).

The point of writing such a book is to take a topic shrouded in mystery and awe and cover it so thoroughly that you not only totally get it but you know exactly what you need to do no matter what stage of development your writing career is in.

It's a little scary to be talking about the book so far in advance of it's pub date...so I'll probably reveal it slowly. But quite frankly I'm totally stoked about it and I feel confident that it is going to be really helpful for writers.

Write on!

Comments

[Tricia Grissom]

Thanks for the link!

I'm really looking forward to your book. I think many writers underestimate the importance of platform, especially as the publishing business gets tighter in a tough economy.

There's nothing much out there on how to build a platform, so you can count on me picking up a copy.