Building a Platform to Land a Book Deal: Why It Often Fails

Photo credit: Chris Devers via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-ND

If you’re preparing to transportation your nonfiction activity to agents aliases publishers, you’ve astir apt heard astir nan necessity of having a platform.

Platform, successful a nutshell, is your expertise to waste books based connected your visibility to nan intended readership. If you’re a full unknown, past you whitethorn beryllium turned down for deficiency of a level to support your book’s publication.

For this post, I don’t want to discuss how nan publishing industry reached this point—or nan perceived unfairness of it all. I remark a spot further connected this move successful my definition of platform, but suffice it to say, erstwhile you’ve understood nan publishing situation we’re each operating in, a proactive aliases optimistic guidance whitethorn be: OK, I’ll create a platform! Er, really do I do that?

The dream-crushing cynic successful maine is tempted to say: Don’t unit it, because it won’t work. You’re reverse engineering a process that—in nan mostly of cases—is destined to fail. Here’s why.

1. You attraction connected superficial indicators of platform.

By acold nan astir communal mobility I’m asked by platform-building authors is: How large do my numbers person to be? What’s nan minimum number of Facebook likes? Website visits? Email subscribers? And truthful on.

It’s existent that nan easiest measurement for personification to quickly size up your level is to look astatine your numbers, but it’s a shortcut. An writer level is organic, complex, and unique—and intolerable to meaningfully express through numbers alone. The number is only a signifier that tin indicate something interesting is going on.

The spot of an writer level encompasses many factors, including your relationships, your power successful a community, and different signs of societal proof. However, agents and editors who activity authors pinch a level do sometimes opportunity rather pointedly, and moreover arbitrarily, “Well, we request to spot astatine slightest 10,000 Facebook likes and 100,000 blog visits each month, aliases it’s not worthy america considering.”

My gut says these statements are made much to discourage and get group to propulsion successful nan towel, alternatively than connection a realistic aliases meaningful extremity to achieve. The aboveground numbers yet mean very little; aft all, you tin bargain arsenic galore likes aliases followers arsenic you want. (But please don’t.)

What matters much than these numbers is engagement and spot pinch your intended audience, and really connection spreads astir what you do. Once personification scratches beneath nan aboveground of your numbers, they’ll beryllium capable to show if your level has been manufactured for appearances.

2. You attraction connected societal media growth.

Social media is conscionable 1 facet of an author’s platform, but since it’s among nan astir quantifiable, it tin beryllium overly emphasized. Sadly, thing will make you pursuit your tail faster than focusing connected building a societal media following.

Think astir this question, conscionable briefly: Why would personification want to travel you connected societal media? Why do you travel someone?

It’s usually because you read, listened to, aliases watched thing that personification did. You laughed, were inspired, aliases touched by immoderate communicative aliases penetration they offered, whether online aliases done accepted media.

Building a societal media pursuing requires that you do something, people something, aliases stock your activity aliases your ideas with the world.

Or: you build a societal media pursuing because you’re producing activity that group enjoy. To effort and build a pursuing for thing you will do astatine immoderate constituent successful nan future? Extremely difficult.

Anyone pinch a really important pursuing is, 99% of nan time, producing activity that group bask successful nan present and now. This activity mightiness see societal media activity itself (Twitter question and reply series, Facebook videos, Instagram poems), but that activity is still imaginative activity. It is sharing activity now that gathers an audience.

I spot authors effort to build a societal media pursuing to show platform, while astatine nan aforesaid clip fearful that if they put excessively overmuch of their ideas aliases activity into nationalist circulation, they will exhaust themselves aliases “waste” their champion stuff. So what do specified group station about? Usually thing meaningful—and truthful they flounder.

3. You put everything connected a timeline that’s excessively rushed.

If you’ve already written a book proposal—or sounded your activity and been told to spell create your platform—then you’re astir apt reasoning successful position of, “How quickly tin I build this point truthful I tin spell backmost to Ms. Agent pinch nan numbers she wants?”

You now person nan astir challenging mindset successful which to create a meaningful and long-lasting platform.

As I wrote earlier, each level is integrated and complex. Think of it arsenic a fingerprint, a unsocial signature of each writer that spirals retired successful a very peculiar way. You tin surely bargain ideas connected really to build a level from different authors, aliases travel definite strategical steps to summation your trading muscle, but level building is simply a career-long process, not an overnight process. It is built connected nan instauration of your activity that’s available, your master acquisition and credibility, your visibility aliases opinionated wrong a peculiar community, and nan group you cognize who tin thief assistance you up. Some of it is narration work, which is difficult to velocity up.

While it’s imaginable to return online courses and activity pinch trading consultants to make progress—especially to summation clarity on your target audience, your messaging, and your branding (and specified activity will thief you debar mistakes and possibly shorten your way to your goals)—for astir authors, this is slow, intensive work, which involves difficult questions, specified as:

• What are nan topics aliases themes you want to go known for?
• Where do readers presently spell to provender their liking successful these topics?
• What could you create to entreaty to these readers connected your topic—using a imaginative process aliases devices you would bask complete a play of years?

Building a level successful a strategical and focused way, successful bid to meet a extremity specified arsenic securing a book deal, requires a important finance of your time, energy, and resource. It yet requires business readying and is going to return clip distant from your imaginative writing. For immoderate authors, they’re retired of their constituent successful trying to tackle this situation unless they’ve had anterior business experience, aliases person a coach who tin mentor them done nan steps basal to person attraction and clarity successful their approach.

I’m not judge each authors are trim retired for building level connected a business schedule. Some authors luck into their level by creating and sharing their activity without respect for results—they stitchery a ample assemblage almost by happy mishap aliases done years of imaginative persistence. Other authors person strengths aliases assets they tin tie upon to get things rolling (an MFA from a prestigious university, a friend successful a precocious place).

So if you’re told you deficiency a platform, what do you do?

• If you person nan money, time, and energy, prosecute personification to thief you get started down nan correct path. Dan Blank astatine We Grow Media is 1 advisor who useful successful this area.
• Look for a different publisher. It’s usually nan Big Five who request platforms. Smaller presses often don’t care—they’re focused connected nan value of nan activity and really well it aligns pinch their ngo and values.
• Put your book task aside. Producing caller activity and much activity (in non-book form) is simply a meaningful and assured measurement of building your platform.
• Consider self-publishing.

Also, a connection of warning: Too often authors are rejected for “lack of platform” erstwhile nan existent logic is that nan value of their activity aliases their ideas is subpar. But it’s an easier logic to springiness than criticizing nan value of someone’s work. Unfortunately, this does acold much harm successful nan agelong run. Authors tin go wholly obsessed pinch nan incorrect scheme of action, and it sets backmost their advancement by years. Never presume that level is your problem moreover if it’s stated arsenic such. Despite a substantive logic for rejection, it’s besides go a catch-all, easy-way-out rejection.

Parting advice

Platform building doesn’t extremity if you do land a book deal. Your travel has conscionable begun. The bully news is that authors tin build a level by engaging successful activities that are astir enjoyable to them—because if they’re not enjoyable, you won’t proceed doing them for nan clip required to spot immoderate benignant of salary off. If you build level only arsenic a intends to an end, it mostly fails, and that’s why I thin to get cynical erstwhile authors effort to do it only successful work of securing a book deal. It doesn’t bespeak an knowing of the overmuch bigger picture: nan tremendous worth of being visible to your audience.