Get Known Before the Book Deal

Platform Talk This Past Week

Sharing a round up of the best of what's in my Google Reader:

Agent Rachelle Gardner has a series of posts (re-posts) on Platform. Here they are in order they were posted:

Let's Talk About Platform

Non-fiction Platforms

Fiction Platform

Alan Rinzler has a helpful article in his blog, The Book Deal, called "Build Your Author Platform, 10 Tips from a Pro.

Hang on a sec! Platforms aren't important? I don't think so, Michael Hyatt. His blog post won't have a negative impact on a superstar, brand-name author. But certainly hurts a writer like this one, who is happy to have one less list of items to add to her to-do list.

Barbara Mountjoy talks about how writers need to be Thinking Outside the Traditional Writer's Box in these evolving times. I couldn't agree more and I'm always trying new things. Most recently I visited 31 blogs in 31 days to promote the two-year anniversary of my first book, Writer Mama. View the complete blog tour list here.

Robin Mizell is way too kind to me.

I try new things using online tools but I also try to keep a sense of humor about new things I try...like when I saw this post from one of my book winners.

Thanks to former student and friend, Susan W. Clark, who said a lot of nice things about me in her blog, Writing for a Sustainable Future. Susan writes regularly for In Good Tilth magazine and is a co-founder of Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust.

Most of the ideas of the best ways to sell more books and build a platform in this survey by Mosquito Marketing Blog are covered in step-by-step depth in my book, Get Known Before the Book Deal. (Sound of me patting myself on the back.)

Have a great week balancing platform development with writing, selling, and professional development, writers! And don't forget to subscribe to Writer's Digest magazine so you won't miss the forthcoming 20-page section on standing out to agents and editors.

Another Fiction Writer Who "Gets" Platform: We Are On A Roll!

Over at the Musings of Christine Fonseca, a fiction writer gets platform. And man oh man, after somebody who does not deserve to be mentioned took a sideswipe at my book yesterday, I want to personally thank Christine for rallying the fiction troops.

Because some people think they are exempt and I should pay for their bad attitude.

Well, I won't. And I believe in karma.

I'm speaking, of course, of people who pick up a book and pan it, without any signs of actually reading it.

I was bound to encounter one after a total of 47 rave reviews for my books.

And that's why on days like yesterday, I especially appreciate thoughtful, intelligent folks like Christine Fonseca.

Read her post, Branding Yourself as a Author BEFORE You Need To.

And then kiss her feet. She deserves it.

A Fiction Writer Who "Gets" Platform (YES!)

It's always refreshing for me when fiction writers are willing to consider the possibility that platform development is just as important to their literary success as it is to writers in every other genre. But the reality is that there is a ton of resistance to this idea out there in the world of writers.

So often, what I get in response to my suggestion that platform IS quite important to ALL writers isn't, "Hey, thanks for providing this information." It's "Shoot the messenger!" instead.

So I'd like to take this opportunity to say, I did not create the reality, I just report on it, and try to make helpful, constructive suggestions as to how to address it. I am a writer. And we are all on the same team no matter what genre we write in. (This could be a longer post about the biases that non-nonfiction writers often have and display towards nonfiction writers, but I'll save that for another post.)

Because I'd like to personally thank Jina Oravetz for her thoughtful Amazon review of Get Known.

She is a fiction writer who gets it.

She'll help you get it.

And she won't take shots at me in the process, which is always nice too.

Here's her review:

Platform. Have you heard that word before? I have. I've read it. I've heard about it at conferences. I even sat in a workshop at a conference and someone asked a panel of four or five agents what a platform was. None of them could provide a straight answer, and none of them gave the same answer. So I was still left floundering on what a platform is, do I need one, and how do I get one. Read this book to finally have answers to ALL of your platform questions.

I'm a fiction writer so I originally thought, oh, platforms. I don't need one of those. Ah, I was wrong. And Christina Katz does a brilliant job of explaining why. Just a few of the great points she makes are:

• Fiction and non fiction writers need a platform
• You do not need to spend a fortune to work on building a platform
• The Internet is not the end all be all of platform building--you do need to spend time with actual real people.

Her book provides a road map of where to begin (identifying your platform) and how to build it. It really is a must-read for any writer. Plus her writing is witty and humorous which makes for a very enjoyable read. I read her book in one sitting and continue to go back to it, again and again. I've already begun implementing her suggestions and met some great people and found some wonderful opportunities because of it.

Thank you, Jina. I could just KISS you! But don't worry I won't. I wrote this post instead. :)