You hear\/read a lot about the importance of establishing and building on a platform. What exactly is a platform? <\/p>\n
Your platform makes a case for your credibility as the author of your particular book. A platform involves your way of attracting readers. You can trace your bookselling success (or lack of) directly to your amazing platform (or lack of). If you have a valid and convincing platform, people will buy your book. If not, maybe not. For example, if you are thought of as an expert in your field, people will have more trust in you and will be more apt to purchase your book on the topic of your expertise.<\/p>\n
A platform is your reach\u2014how far and wide you are known by your potential readers. For example, if you have a large readership for your blog, newsletter, articles and other books in a specific genre, you can be fairly certain that you will be able to sell a number of copies of your new book in this genre.<\/p>\n
A platform includes your realm of influence. If you have a large following of people who use your products or services, who attend your lectures and who believe in the advice you offer, for example, you are most likely influencing many of them and they will trust you enough to purchase your book on this topic.<\/p>\n
Sometimes a platform comes naturally\u2014you sort of grow a platform without realizing it is happening. You develop it as a matter of your life course as a PE teacher and fitness advocate, a longtime author of genre fiction, a parent of an autistic child and a widely-known activist for mainstreaming kids with disabilities or a flower shop franchise owner and public speaker at floral trade shows, for example. But most of us with platforms must continually build on them in order to remain visible to upcoming generations and to keep up with technological and other advances in our industries\/areas of interest.<\/p>\n
Other times we must build our platforms from scratch. The retired bank president who sits down to write her first book focusing on child-related charities abroad, may be known in the banking industry, but will have to play catch-up when it comes to establishing a platform on the subject of her book. The grammar school teacher who decides to write a children\u2019s book has a ways to go in order to create credibility as a children\u2019s book writer if she has no background experience. The foundation of her platform is the fact that she is a teacher. But she will have to build from there.<\/p>\n
There are many steps to building a platform. I write about how to do this a lot. I speak about it. I frequently outline various steps to help authors recognize the cornerstones of their natural platforms and to continue building on them. A platform is such an important aspect of authorship that there should be more platform support systems for authors. <\/p>\n
With this in mind, I\u2019ve decided to start an online, on-demand Author\u2019s Platform-Building Course. I\u2019d like to hear from those of you who would be interested in working directly with me on building your personal author\u2019s platform. Leave your comment here or email me at PLFry620@yahoo.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You hear\/read a lot about the importance of establishing and building on a platform. What exactly is a platform? Your platform makes a case for your credibility as the author of your particular book. A platform involves your way of attracting readers. You can trace your bookselling success (or lack of) directly to your amazing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t