Modern authors are told repeatedly that we have to promote our
own work by any means necessary. Those means always include – but aren't
limited to – a website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, and a zillion other social
media avenues that have been created in the past 15 minutes. Apparently that
contact with the public which can be used to sell books is an author's
platform.
During today's presentation, Wilcox suggested that smart
authors volunteer details about the dreaded platform when they're
sending out query letters to literary agents and editors. When I heard that, it
reminded me of the time that an agent asked what my platform was after
I submitted a query to her for a nonfiction book. At the time, I was unclear on
the concept. My first thought was that the agent was supposed to help me built
a platform by securing a book deal. Yes, go ahead and laugh; I was naïve.
Needless to say, hearing people talk about their
platforms today made me feel guilty about how I neglect both my blog
and my Twitter account. I regularly talk myself out of posting by asking why
anyone would want to read the ramblings of a stranger when they could instead be
doing anything else on the planet. But it seems that putting material out there
for the public to read is exactly what having a platform is all
about.
No one reads it, but at least you can say that
you're making the effort. At least you can write in your submission letters
that you have a blog, and it's possible to post a link to it on your website. At
least it makes you seem like you're not a complete Neanderthal when it comes to
technology. Maybe it even makes you appear to be a serious writer. And if
nothing else, it demonstrates that you have a clue what a platform
is. Which puts you head and shoulders above where I was not too long ago.
