Before you can get published, you have to write. Duh.
I know it sounds obvious, but apparently, not so much to the students in Ariel Gore’s writing class:
Maybe it goes without saying that if you want to become a famous writer before you’re dead, you’ll have to write something. But the folks in my classes with the biggest ideas and the best publicity shots ready to grace the back covers of their best-selling novels are also usually the ones who aren’t holding any paper They’ve got plans, lemme tell ya, and their book is going to be better than yours. Too bad it’s written entirely on the sheaves of their imagination.
She goes on to describe all the ways we put off doing that writing, and ends with:
“No one ever does the last thing on their to-do list. Grab a pen and paper, and if you’re going to use them to write a to-do list, make sure you give yourself time to write way up there at the top. (How To Become A Famous Writer Before You’re Dead: Your Words In Print and Your Name in Lights.)
With modern distractions such as email, cell phones, and social media, it can be almost impossible to find the time to put writing at the top of the list. Jeff Vandermeer, author of BookLife: Strategies and Survival Tips For The 21st Century Writer, recommends setting up your rules of public engagement and a writing schedule.
But, what do you write? Anything? Everything?
Christina Katz, author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform and Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, suggests a more focused approach in the following guest post (available for free download):
Platform Resolutions for Writers 2010
Before writers establish an author platform, they typically establish a writer platform. Over the past decade, thousands of writers have parlayed established influence into traditional book deals. Landing a traditional book deal is still an effective way to exponentially increase your credibility and visibility.
Your “platform” refers to what you do in the world with your professional expertise that makes you visible and influential in the world. Having friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter is not your platform, unless the majority of those people know who you are, what you do, and are enthusiastic about your work.
I thought I would offer some advice about how to slowly and steadily establish a lasting platform. You may note the lack of fanaticism in this advice and the emphasis on enduring success instead. I’m a mother and a wife, a freelancer, a speaker, a teacher, and a blogger, so aiming for balance is the only way I can afford to work if I plan on sticking around for the long haul.
This advice has worked consistently for my students over the past several years. I think you will find that a grounded, step-by-step approach works just as well for you if you choose to follow it:
- Develop a platform topic that you love and can work on tirelessly for the next few years. Your passion of the moment should come in second to the topic you could delve into deeply for a good, long time. Prior professional education and a depth of personal experience are going to be a boon to your platform if you have an eye on a future book deal.
- Hang back from establishing a blog on your topic until you have cultivated a wealth of content and experience working with others on specialty-related activities that lend credibility and trust to your name. Others will tell you to start blogging immediately, but don’t, if you want to be efficient with your time and money.
- Instead, gain authority by seeking publication in established, highly visible publications both in print and online that serve your target audience. Avoid the kind of publishing that anyone can accomplish, like posting on article sites, and work on your professional communication skills instead. By all means, avoid the content mills offering writers slave wages with the promise of future earnings.
- Don’t begin any kind of marketing campaign for any product or service offerings until you have established yourself as a go-to person on your topic, again saving you time and money. Before you look at ways to serve others directly, channel your expertise into the best service methods possible based on your strengths and weaknesses. This is a meaty topic that is covered in-depth in my book, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform (Writer’s Digest Books 2008).
- Then, develop a product or service that can become one of several multiple income streams over time that will support your goal of becoming a published author. For example, teaching classes over the years has allowed me to re-invest more of the money I earn from writing books back into book marketing. Make sure any offerings you produce are released conscientiously and are integrated into the professional writing you already do. Otherwise, you will seem like you are all over the place and just trying to score a buck.
- Don’t expect your platform to support you financially for at least one or two years, as you micro-invest in it, re-invest in it as it grows, and expand your visibility.
- Once you have a professional publication track record in your niche topic, then it’s time to hang your online shingle. I’ve seen this accomplished in as little as six months by exceptionally focused students. Take a portion of the money you’ve earned writing and invest it in a professional quality online presence.
- A low-cost way to do this is to purchase your name as a URL and use a hosting site like GoDaddy.com to host a Wordpress.org blog. I use the Thesis Theme, which you can see in action at my blog. In this way, a blog can also serve as your website where you post your published clips, offerings and bio. If you don’t have a ton of money to invest in the look of your site, you can always pay a designer later.
- Delay partnering with others on joint ventures until you have a clear idea of your own strengths and weaknesses in and around your topic. And when you do partner with others be extremely discriminating. Make sure the partnership is going to be win-win-win for everyone involved.
- Start an e-mail newsletter or e-zine with those who are most interested in your topic. Build your list by invitation and then grow it into a permission-based following over time. Create an expected, ongoing dialogue that is mutually beneficial to everyone involved and your list will grow.
- Now you are ready to start blogging. And yes, I mean while you continue to do all the things we’ve already discussed. Be sure to zoom-focus your blog on what you have to add to the conversation that is already going on about your topic. Don’t just share information; make an impact. Make your blog a go-to, up-to-date resource for your audience.
- Partner selectively with others who serve the same general audience that you do with integrity and humility. Spend time getting to know folks before you decide to partner with them. You can’t afford to taint the reputation you have worked so hard to establish by partnering with just anyone.
- Now that you have an established niche and audience, definitely participate in social networking. I like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn because they all offer something unique. The best way to learn is to jump in, spend an hour online each week until you are up and running. Follow the instructions for getting started provided by social media expert Meryl K. Evans.
This start-up plan for a writer platform will eventually blossom into an author platform. From start to finish, implementing a solid platform following this advice should take you about a year. By the end of that year, you will have established yourself as a serious contender in both professional and online circles, without killing yourself for some huckster’s promise of overnight success.
Trying to Follow Good Advice (Me, Again!)
This is fabulous advice, but a little late for me. As usual, I dove in headfirst without stopping to think about what I was doing. Now, it’s going to take a lot of writing, and thinking, to push my writing career in the right direction.
Over the next year, I’m will feature a weekly series, “Get Published,” in which I’ll share publishing advice from established authors. Please join me in tackling and discussing these assignments, on this blog or in the Home Educators Writer’s Group.
This week, I challenge us to:
1. Write.
2. Identify distractions that keep us from writing, and possible solutions.
3. Create a weekly writing schedule.
4. Set up your rules of public engagement.
Will you join me?
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Very interesting perspective.
I am unclear, however, in what she suggests for actually building a platform. She says not to get a blog started, and not to advertise a service until you are the “go-to” person about a topic. It is unclear however, how to become the go-to person on a topic.
She suggests teaching classes, but this is hard to get into if one hasn’t become the go-to person for something, especially in a small niche.
And, publishing magazine articles on a topic is not easy. Getting into mainstream magazines is very difficult, especially if one isn’t yet established as a go-to person, or if a niche does not lend itself to mainstream publications.
I think that her perspective is one way to go about it. But there are many ways.
I think she is right that becoming the “go-to” person is essential for creating a platform. But that can be done in a number of ways, and depending on one’s niche or expertise, it will call for different approaches.
So, I don’t think you having dived in without doing all of these things first is a bad thing at all. All that you’ve done has added up and has become part of your experience and your direction. You need to just get out there and know what your expertise is and then own it completely. Then know your niche and where the people are in your niche, and what they care about.
So, I agree with a lot of what she says, but not all of it. And, it’s certainly made me rethink some things I’ve done, and am doing. So thanks for posting it and keep posting!
Tammy Takahashi´s last blog ..Homeschool News Roundup January 2010 – Arrests, New Legislation, and Children’s Rights
Thanks, Tammy, the zen approach is such a relief. I guess there’s always more than one way to skin a cat, and for me, I needed to blog to develop the mindset and ability to reach for these goals. And, it’s due to this online presence, that I’ve met awesome writers like you who inspire me every day!
yes, i dove in headfirst, as well! i am actually closer than i have ever been to developing my platform, but i need to flesh out real specifics. blogging is definitely helping me, too. but i do worry that i don’t have much to offer and those that happen along my blog will not think it is worth their time… and then once i have more substance on it, no one will bother. i guess i was working off the ‘if you build it, they will come’ approach, but i clearly have my work cut out for me.
so i am on board, in some fashion. my list of challenges might be slightly different, but i am psyched to be working parallel to you.
deb williams´s last blog ..Psst… Get Over Here Before It’s Too Late! And Make Yourself Useful, While You’re At It.
Deb,
Putting ourselves front and center as we do with our writing is a risky business. Some days, I feel like I’m back in high school: they like me, they hate me, they really, really like me. And, the more I put into it, the more I fear rejection.
I suspect every writer has those days, at least I hope so!
Anyway, I can tell you, that I enjoy your blog, and it’s on my “A” list in my Google reader. You’re writing is very honest, and far from insubstantial. Actually, I admire how you keep on going and maintain a sense of humor despite living with your child’s chronic illness.
So glad to share this trip with you!
Very interesting reading. I just found out that we have a great “platform” for our book and I didn’t even know what a platform was, so sometimes these things can work out by accident.
The literary agents found me which I think is perhaps the best and easiest way to go about it. Publishing is going through such a massive change today, I’m not sure there is just one way to do things any more.
I never knew the rules & the rules keep changing. LOL. It was never part of my plan to be a writer or author, although friends have been urging it for most of my life as I do have lots of good stories.
My biggest problem is having time to keep up the “platform”, write the books AND travel the world while having plenty of time with my family. That’s what has my attention these days.
I LOVE what you do Sandra!
soultravelers3´s last blog ..Our 3 Best Kept Family Travel Secrets!
Thank you for sharing such an interesting perspective. There are a lot of great ideas here, and ones we can all learn from.
There’s so much information on this subject out there right now, and I’ve come to the conclusion that each of us has to connect the dots in our own way. We each have unique experiences and backgrounds, which must be taken into account before choosing a direction. The world is changing so quickly that it’s hard to keep up with it! I do think planning is the key to the success of any long term project, but sometimes you need to just jump in and make mistakes. That’s how we learn.
Dawn Riccardi Morris´s last blog ..Connecting the Dots of Lifelong Learning
Soultraveler3 – Thank you! I think modern writers need clones to do all the stuff they’re supposed to do, and still find time to write. I’m glad that there is no one script for success, as doing all that we could or should do would send us all into the looney bin. By the way, I’m enjoying watching your success from afar. You have such an interesting story, definitely worth sharing to inspire us all!
Dawn – You’re absolutely right! And, I think, too much deliberation keeps us from accomplishing goals that we would never even imagine if we weren’t there in the fray.