Christina Katz is the author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform (Writer’s Digest Books). She started her platform “for fun” seven years ago and ended up on “Good Morning America.” Christina teaches e-courses on platform development and writing nonfiction for publication. Her students are published in national magazines and land agents and book deals. Christina has been encouraging reluctant platform builders via her e-zines for five years, has written hundreds of articles for national, regional, and online publications, and is a monthly columnist for the Willamette Writer. A popular speaker at writing conferences, writing programs, libraries, and bookstores, she hosts the Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville, Oregon. She is also the author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids (Writer’s Digest Books).

 

Q: What is a platform?

 

CK: Long story short: Your platform communicates your expertise to others, and it works all the time so you don’t have to. Your platform includes your Web presence, any public speaking you do, the classes you teach, the media contacts you’ve established, the articles you’ve published, and any other means you currently have for making your name and your future books known to a viable readership. If others already recognize your expertise on a given topic or for a specific audience or both, then that is your platform.

 

A platform-strong writer is a writer with influence. Get Known explains in plain English, without buzzwords, how any writer can stand out from the crowd of other writers and get the book deal. The book clears an easy-to-follow path through a formerly confusing forest of ideas so any writer can do the necessary platform development they need to do.

 

Q: Why is platform development important for writers today?

 

CK: Learning about and working on a solid platform plan gives writers an edge. Agents and editors have known this for years and have been looking for platform-strong writers and getting them book deals. But from the writer’s point-of-view, there has not been enough information on platform development to help unprepared writers put their best platform forward.

 

Now suddenly, there is a flood of information on platform, not all necessarily comprehensive, useful or well organized for folks who don’t have a platform yet. Writers can promote themselves in a gradual, grounded manner without feeling like they are selling out. I do it, I teach other writers to do it, I write about it on an ongoing basis, and I encourage all writers to heed the trend. And hopefully, I communicate how in a practical, step-by-step manner that can serve any writer. Because ultimately, before you actively begin promoting yourself, platform development is an inside job requiring concentration, thoughtfulness and a consideration of personal values.

 

Q: How did you come to write Get Known Before the Book Deal?

 

CK: I already had a lot of momentum going when I got the deal for a very specific audience. I wrote a column on the topic for the Willamette Writer’s newsletter. Then I started speaking on platform. When I gave my presentation, “Get Known Before the Book Deal,” at the Writer’s Digest/BEA Writer’s Conference in May 2007, Phil Sexton, one of my publisher’s sales guys, saw it and suggested making the concept into a book. Coincidentally, I was trying to come up with an idea for my second book at that time and had just struck out with what I thought were my three best ideas. My editor, Jane Friedman agreed with Phil. That was two votes from people sitting on the pub board. They converted the others with the help of my proposal, and Get Known got the green light.

 

Q: Why was a book on platform development needed?

 

CK: Writers often underestimate how important platform is and they often don’t leverage the platform they already have enough. At every conference I presented, I took polls and found that about 50 percent of attendees expressed a desire for a clearer understanding of platform. Some were completely in the dark about it, even though they were attending a conference in hopes of landing a book deal. Since book deals are granted based largely on the impressiveness of a writer’s platform, I noticed a communication gap that needed to be addressed.

 

My intention was that Get Known would be the book every writer would want to read before attending a writer’s conference, and that it would increase any writer’s chances of landing a book deal whether they pitched in-person or by query. As I wrote the book, I saw online how this type of information was being offered as “insider secrets” at outrageous prices. No one should have to pay thousands of dollars for the information they can find in my book for the price of a paperback! Seriously. You can even ask your library to order it and read it for free.

 

Q: What is the key idea behind Get Known Before the Book Deal?

 

CK: Getting known doesn’t take a lot of money, but it does take an in-depth understanding of platform, and then the investment of time, skills and consistent effort to build one. Marketing experience and technological expertise are also not necessary. I show how to avoid the biggest time and money-waster, which is not understanding who your platform is for and why – and hopefully save writers from the confusion and inertia that can result from either information overload or not taking the big picture into account before they jump into writing for traditional publication.

 

Often writers with weak platforms are over-confident that they can impress agents and editors, while others with decent platforms are under-confident or aren’t stressing their platform-strength enough. Writers have to wear so many hats these days, we can use all the help we can get. Platform development is a muscle, and the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Anyone can do it, but most don’t or won’t because they either don’t understand what is being asked for, or they haven’t overcome their own resistance to the idea. Get Known offers a concrete plan that can help any writer make gains in the rapidly changing and increasingly competitive publishing landscape.

 

Q: At the front of Get Known, you discuss four phases of the authoring process. What are they?

 

CK: First comes the platform development and building phase. Second comes the book proposal development phase (or if you are writing fiction, the book-writing phase). Third, comes the actual writing of the book (for fiction writers this is likely the re-writing of the book). And finally, once the book is published, comes the book marketing and promoting phase.

 

Many first-time authors scramble once they get a book deal if they haven’t done a thorough job on the platform development phase. Writers who already have a platform have influence with a fan base, and they can leverage that influence no matter what kind of book they write. Writing a book is a lot easier if you are not struggling to find readers for the book at the same time. Again, agents and editors have known this for a long time.

 

Q: What are some common platform mistakes writers make?

 

CK: Here are a few:

 

• They don’t spend time clarifying who they are to others.
• They don’t zoom in specifically on what they offer.
• They confuse socializing with platform development.
• They think about themselves too much and their audience not enough.
• They don’t precisely articulate all they offer so others get it immediately.
• They don’t create a plan before they jump online.
• They undervalue the platform they already have.
• They are overconfident and think they have a solid platform when they have only made a beginning.
• They become exhausted from trying to figure out platform as they go.
• They pay for “insider secrets” instead of trusting their own instincts.
• They blog like crazy for six months and then look at their bank accounts and abandon the process as going nowhere.

 

I’ll stop there. Suffice it to say that many writers promise publishers they have the ability to make readers seek out and purchase their book. But when it comes time to demonstrate this ability, they can’t deliver.

 

My mission is to empower writers to be 100 percent responsible for their writing career success and stop looking to others to do their promotional work for them. Get Known shows writers of every stripe how to become the writer who can not only land a book deal, but also influence future readers to plunk down ten or twenty bucks to purchase their book. It all starts with a little preparation and planning. The rest unfolds from there.

 

Q:  How can a fiction writer apply platform concepts?

 

Just like nonfiction writers, fiction writers need to begin working on a platform long before the manuscript is complete. They can follow all the same strategies I describe for nonfiction writers in Get Known. It’s not like if you write wonderful fiction, that’s the end of the line. Most fiction writers cross over to nonfiction writing fairly easily.

 

Typically, after their book is published, fiction writers will often spin off a series of topics based on their book that they can explore to help promote themes they’ve written about. Other things fiction writers often learn from their writing process include knowledge of a place, familiarity with a topic from their research, insight into a time period, a truth or phenomenon that may be mostly unknown to the general public, universal human themes, a particular time or phase every person experiences (like coming of age), or the creative process itself. These can become promotional opportunities (sometimes even paying ones) that spark book sales.

 

Q: What are three things my readers can do today to get started building their platforms?

 

CK: Don't start building your platform until you have clarity and focus. Otherwise you will likely just waste your precious time spinning your wheels. Or worse, fritter away your time with online distractions (and trust me, there are plenty!).

 

But once you know what your expertise is and what you are doing with it and for whom, then consider these three steps:

 

Start an e-mail list: Who are the people who like to hear about your writing success? Why not start a list in your address book with them and keep adding to it as time goes by. You can start by sending out simple regular announcements of good things that happen—just be sure to get permission. One way to get permission is to send an announcement about your work out to everyone you know and tell them that they can unsubscribe if they don’t want to be receive future messages from you on the topic. I strongly recommend that all writers read Permission Marketing by Seth Godin.

 

Create a simple website: Although social networking is fun, a proper writer’s website is not a Facebook or a Myspace page; it’s not even a blog. So save the detailed descriptions of your quirks and faves for the social networking you will do after you’ve built yourself a solid website to publicize your genuine writing credentials (creds) across the ethers while you are sleeping. And if you don’t have any genuine writing creds yet, getting some is an important first step. The step-by-step instructions are in Get Known.

 

Blog when it makes sense: Blogging can be great for writers assuming three things: 1) You have ample material to draw on and time to blog regularly. 2) You take the time to determine your appropriate audience, topic and your specific slant (or take) on your topic for your specific audience. 3) You don’t plan on starting a blog, blogging like mad for six weeks, and then disappearing from the face of the blogosphere without a trace. Preparation can prevent this common pitfall from happening to you.

 

Don’t forget that platform development and building takes time. Once you are ready to get started, just do a little every day and you’ll be amazed what you can accomplish over time.

 

Some very good advice here. I did have one editor imply that I didn't have the right "platform" for my covert ops team book because I'd never been in the field myself.

This is a very good article and one I really believe in. I have several sites and work hard on twitter to establish my name where I have over 20,000 followers on my various sites.
I am starting a new novella series that I hope will last for a long time and a platform definitely has to be used to sustain it.
Thanks for this article.

Beth Gray
www.bethgray.us

Terry, maybe there's another subject in your book that you could talk about? Or else the writing life always works as an author platform. It's harder with fiction. Beth, I'm impressed: 20,000 followers. What's your secret? And what platform do you project?

Really liked this post. It's great to hear someone get down to the essentials of building a platform.

Helen
Straight From Hel

Good morning, everyone! I'm so happy to be here. Thanks, Nancy for hosting.

I appreciate the comments so far. Platform has definitely become an integral part of every author's business. So there's not much chance of by-passing the process and hoping for agents and editors to be eager about our work. I'd also like to hear about how Beth has cultivated a solid following. We can all really benefit from sharing our platform-building habits!

Great blog Nancy, thank you.
I do a lot of blogging, its' the cheapest way to get known. And you meet a lot of others. So you also are networking.
But this is wonderful, solid, information to go by. Sounds great Christina. Thanks.

Thanks, Nancy and Christina, for shedding light on a complicated subject!

Hope our paths cross again! I host a bi-weekly chat on Twitter called #platformchat and I also publish a free e-mail newsletter on platform building called "The Get Known Groove." I hope you will take advantage of these free resources. Now I'm off to select a scholarship recipient for my upcoming class--all these in the name of expanding my platform. How about you? Happy platform building! And thanks for hosting, Nancy!

Thank you for the valuable information. It is the most comprehensive I've seen in a long time.

As an umpublished author I guess I better get going on this. Very informative. Thank you.;)

Nancy always has SUCH great advice, counsel, ideas about building ''the brand,'' ie, your name as an author. This is a terrific nuts-and-bolts look at how to do that. Kudos, Christina Katz (and, Nancy, of course!)

Thanks, Deborah. I don't think you need any help building your brand. You've already established an identity with your Florida mystery series.

Thanks for the additional comments!