Ten Things That Set My Platform Advice Apart

If you purchase the new September Premium Kit “Build Your Platform” from Writer’s Digest, you’ll see that my thoughts on platform have evolved and deepened since the release of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths To Grow Your Author Platform, which came out in November 2008 when there were like, you know, ten posts online about author platform.

I have learned a lot working with hundreds of writers over the past ten years, and also from writing many articles on platform and a new book, The Writer’s Workout, which covers the topic at new depth.

Here’s a round-up of ten things you are going to get from me as a platform instructor. You will find that these are the hallmarks of all of my teaching on platform building, regardless of the form or format, so long as the topic is how to develop and grow an author-worthy platform.

1. Experience. I am an author, a freelance journalist, a teacher, a speaker, and a trainer, so I’m not just talking about platform hypothetically…I’m living it. My career has grown steadily and continues to gain momentum, across forms and formats. I have many people to thank for this, but I also credit my consistent platform-building efforts.

2. Context. I never talk to writers about platform without taking into account their particular audience of readers. What works for one writer won’t necessarily always work for another. You want each interaction to be authentic, whether live or virtual, to ensure that your efforts will be enriching for everyone involved.

3. Commonality. On the other hand, there are several things that will work for most any writer when the writer stays present and in the process. I know what those touchstone steps are and I encourage writers to work on them to help activate your platform confidence.

4. Incremental growth. Platform building is an initiation of sorts. It can be counter-intuitive for some writers at first. Most writers learn incrementally, as they go along, just like they would learn anything whether it be craft or selling or growing a niche. Some writers relax more quickly into letting platform be a process.

5. Experiential progress. Nobody else knows about your platform better than you because nobody else lives in your skin. This doesn’t mean that some writers don’t sometimes make rookie moves. Sure they do. We’ve all made them. But you need to learn to steer your platform ship in win-win-win ways that address basic human desires and needs.

6. Your “dynamic.” In Get Known I talk about the definition of platform being what you DO with your expertise. And in my new self-study course, Build Your Author Platform, and in my new book, The Writer’s Workout, I share how to maximize the best of what you do until it becomes habitual. I call this your platform dynamic. Do you know what your platform dynamic is? I help writers find theirs.

7. Growing respect for your waxing expertise. Of course, your expertise may be writing best-selling mystery or romance novels–it really doesn’t matter what your expertise is. The point is that you grow your expertise into something mighty, the way the acorn becomes the mighty oak…eventually. You might feel disappointed in the response if you act like a mighty oak when your professional experience level is more like that of a sprout. (Conversely, you don’t want to act like a sapling if you are already a mighty oak.) Be where you are.

8. Write across genres. Platform isn’t only for nonfiction writers. It is important for every genre writer. Since nonfiction writing and copy writing are generally the most important method you can use to communicate who you are and what you do, every writer needs to become a multi-faceted writer, who can write across any genre.

9. Stand on your own two feet. When I work with writers, I expect them to grow their own platforms, not borrow other people’s platforms or piggy-back their platform caboose on somebody else’s platform train. I want to see what each writer can do, not encourage him or her to mimic others. Patience is any platform builder’s greatest virtue.

10. Envision your creativity as service. What matters is that you know what your expertise is, you communicate it concisely, and that you grow whatever you already offer into something cool that impacts others. If you did nothing beyond these simple things, you would become extremely successful in a fairly short time (when I say “fairly short time,” I always mean years, of course).

Platform is not something you dabble in. But it’s not something that needs to be hyper-analyzed, either. It won’t really matter what’s going on in the world at the time you embark on yours; it only matters that you begin so you can start making platform-aware choices.

I hope you will check out the tools that my colleagues from Writer’s Digest have created. I feel proud of the work we have done. And I think you will really appreciate them, too.

Feel free to contact me if you need more information or have questions.

Happy platform-growing, writers!