I am the author of Get Known Before the Book Deal from Writer's Digest Books.
When it comes to platform development, I have learned a thing or two about a thing or two over the past twelve years. Here are a few insights…
- Have a specialty focus, but don’t adhere to your specialty focus so tightly that you miss opportunities or don’t get to follow your healthy creative instincts. Nobody ever said having a platform meant cutting yourself off from your inspiration.
- You don’t need a guru to develop and grow a platform, but you do need solid, informed, up-to-date advice from a number of knowledgeable resources according to your current needs.
- Platform development is not a one-time event, it’s a career-long process. Learn what you can now and keep learning as you grow your career over time.
I have explored platform development as an aspiring author, as an author, and as a multi-book author, and I always enjoy the challenge of learning new ways to communicate who I am and what I offer to others as I expand my writing horizons.
This past summer, I wrote a self-study course for Writer’s Digest which I have turned into a workbook to accompany my second book, Get Known Before the Book Deal.
Get Known has helped thousands of writers go from invisible and unknown to visible and known, and it can help you, too, especially when used in conjunction with my workbook, Build Your Author Platform.
During the week of The Associated Writing Conference, I am knocking ten bucks off the workbook price, so you can purchase Build Your Author Platform for just $29.99.
Here’s an excerpt from the introduction of Build Your Author Platform…
This self-study workbook is designed to help you identify and grow your author platform from scratch. What’s a platform? In 2007, I created the following definition of the word:
A platform communicates your expertise to others. It includes your Web presence, any public speaking you do, the classes you teach, the media contacts you’ve established, the articles you’ve published, and any other means you currently have for making your name and your future books known to a viable readership.
Basically, your platform is everything you DO with your expertise. A platform-strong writer is a writer with influence. Once you establish a platform, it can work for you 24/7, reaching readers even as you sleep. Of course, this kind of reach takes time. If many others already recognize your expertise on a given topic or for a specific audience or both, then you likely have an active platform.
I find it helpful to define a platform as a promise writers make to not only create something to sell (like a book), but also to promote it to the specific readers who will want to purchase it. This takes both time and effort, not to mention considerable focus.
I hope you will purchase the workbook and use it with Get Known Before the Book Deal to get started building your professional platform today! Happy platform-building!