The Concept of Platform
The concept of a writer’s platform get’s talked about a lot and is very confusing since you tend to get a difference answer depending on who you ask. Well I was doing dishes and this thought came to me:
No matter what you’ve written you need to be able to answer three questions.
1. Who is going to buy my book?
2. How are they going to know it exists to buy it?
3. Why would anyone want to read my book, aka, what are your credentials?
Bam! That’s what makes up your platform.
For example:
1. I write YA fiction so I figure my audience is going to be YA readers
2. How will I get the news out? Well, I belong to the Willamette Writers, I’m involved in the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County, I am in close contact with my local schools. It’s a start .
3. Well, while I don’t have any previous fiction published, I read a lot and blog book reviews in my genre regularly. You have to know your market and part of that is reading the books in it.
A wonderful book on platform building is by Christina Katz, and is called Get Known Before the Book Deal.
To find out more about it, visit her site: