Blogger: Rachel Kent
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Your Platform and Marketing Section
I know I touched on this yesterday, but I’d like to take a more in-depth look at what it means to have a marketing and publicity section. This section could make or break your book sale, especially for a nonfiction project. Even for fiction, you need to start now to build your platform. You can’t just promise in your proposal that you will have a platform when the book releases. You need to show in this section of your proposal that you already have a platform.
If this means starting a speaking ministry or some sort of outreach, you need to start now. If you need to build a blog readership, you need to think of creative ways to do that now so you can have good numbers for your proposal. Think creatively. Building your platform is like a pretest you must take to show that you can do the work to gather readers for your book. If people recognize your name without a book on the shelves, then you most likely can get them to purchase your book too.
Be sure to always tell the truth in this section. If you claim that you will purchase 2,000 copies of your book when it is printed, then you had better purchase those 2,000 copies. That promise was taken into consideration by the publishing committee when they decided to offer you a contract.
Other promises that are taken into consideration during the publishing committee meeting include: I’m going to start a website; I’m going to send a press release about the book; I’m going to approach these places to do book signings and interviews.
If you get a contract the publishing house is counting on you to hold up your end of the deal. They picked up your book instead of another author’s book quite possibly because you promised to do certain things in your marketing section that the other author didn’t promise or didn’t have the platform in place to be able to promise.
For some of you, especially you nonfiction authors, this might mean you aren’t ready to send your proposal.
But for all of you writers out there, what are some things you could do to build up your professional name before your book is published? Do you have a website yet? That’s one relatively small place to start; yet it can be effective in helping you to look professional and committed to writing.
If you have an author site, please feel free to post your link here! Thanks. 🙂
Terrific article, for both non-fiction and fiction! The best advice I got when I started out was: do SOMETHING to build your platform, no matter how small. Baby steps do count!
Another way to “build platform” is to be an active and beneficial member of a forum that would be interested in your book. If you write to mothers, be part of the babycenter.com forum. If you write Christian sci-fi/fantasy, be a part of The Anomaly or the Lost Genre Guild.
As the people from these forums come to know you over months and years, they will be more willing to purchase your book because you have made that personal connection with them. I read a book I normally would not pick up because of the personal connection I made with the author over on a forum I participate in.
I have submitted short stories to magazines. I have read that it can help to have something published to boost my resume but also that it will get my name out there. Is that a good place to start as well?
Rachel,
I’ve been waiting for you to hit this topic! Thanks so much! I’ve been torn about this particular part of the proposal. I’ve read not to put what you are willing to do but what you’ve already done to promote the book. I’ve been confused because I’m not sure what I can do! I have connections at bookstores, libraries and the radio, but to promote something in those places when I have nothing to give in print just yet doesn’t seem right. What do you think?
I’ve been thinking about my future “author website” a lot lately, but had been feeling like it might be premature at my stage in the process. I’m rethinking that now… I better go get started! 🙂
By the way, Rachel, I’m printing out all these posts this week and saving them. What great helps! Thanks a bunch!
I had a question I’ve heard others voice: What do I say on a website or blog when I have no novel to sell yet?
It helped me to remember that marketing is about providing a service and getting your name out in the process. Looking at it that way, I came up with two unique services I could provide, and each has a website to develop overlapping groups of followers.
I market my history curriculum (introduced in 2000) at http://www.discovertexasonline.com. This platform builds my reputation as someone who knows a bit about history, which is helpful since I write historical fiction. A blog and monthly newsletter add value for current customers and keep my name linked with my brand. This, along with a consistent presence at state book fairs, has led to a series of quarterly articles published in our state home school magazine, most recently a piece about how to make history meaningful and memorable.
To connect with the broader homeschool market, I teamed up in 2009 with five other ACFW writers and creative writing teachers. We launched http://www.aNOVELWritingSite.com–a free resource providing writing lessons for teens. We put the word out through homeschool support groups and sponsored our first contest last spring to encourage subscribers. The site gives us a place to share our titles, and multiplies the impact of articles, courses, or clinics by anyone in our pool of contributors.
Homeschoolers tend to be avid readers and distinctly Christian, and there are more of them than you might think! My platforms are definitely examples of vertical marketing, but they seem to serve a significant niche.
Hi, Rachel. Thank you for your answer to my question two posts ago about using older books for comparisons. This has been an extremely helpful series.
For unpublished fiction writers seeking representation, is it enough to concentrate on building an active blog or do publishers like to see “serious” writers with an actual web site already?
Thanks again for this series.
Heather
Lindsay, I’ve been thinking the same thing! Glad to know I’m not the only one! 🙂
The need to have a platform before being published is killing my chances. How can a full-time professional carve out time to do platform-building activities, especially if travel is involved? Where does the money come from to do that? I can do all those things when I retire in 7 years, 1 month, and 12 days…oh, wait, what are they changing the retirement age to? Better make that 9 yrs, 1 mo, 12 days.
Seriously, the publishing industry’s requirements for an unpublished author to pre-develop a platform is the equivalent of saying, “Don’t even bother if you have a full-time job, family responsibilities, church responsibilities, community responsibilities.”
Crummy buttons!
I have been building a platform for a year now. I blog and do book reviews. I have a branding statement and I blog based on a certain scripture. I write both nonfiction and fiction, but my heart is in speculative fiction. I’ve built up a readership of 700-900 readers a month.
Since I have to have an online presence, I chose it as my main ministry to reach out to lonely and hurting people. In the process, I have made friendships and it’s been gratifying. God has helped me grow during the whole process. That part was unexpected. I have probably worked 20-30 hours a week building a profile, doing reviews, learning about the market, social networking, and visiting other blogs.
I have a business plan to get published by finishing book one of one novel series, then work on book one of another novel series. Right now I am working on a nonfiction devotional for women of faith’s writing contest which will be done on November 29. When both book one of my two different novel series are completed, I’ll create a book proposal and locate an agent using the different books (in case one publisher or agent likes one idea better than the other).
I have plans to attend a writers conference for the first time armed with both book proposals by next summer. God willing the economy won’t prevent me from attending.
I am also a member for the past two years of American Christian Fiction Writer’s Association or ACFW.
I started a blog and launched a website two years ago. I’m so glad I did. Who wants to learn that stuff when they’re signing a contract and dealing with new responsibilities from editors and agents? Not me!
Unpublished authors shouldn’t be intimidated to launch a website. It’s a great tool. They can include a biography with their credentials, degrees, and list any writing associations they belong to. A proposals page lets editors know what genre books they write. If the writer has a blog, she can link to it. Also, the website should include a way to contact the author.
Personally, I consider blogging extremely effective. By taking the time to make connections with other bloggers, you’re building a support group. These friends will support you, whether it’s by helping promote your book or just by coming back and leaving a comment, and of course, you’ll want to support them.
But this takes time. There are ways to get followers quickly, but it’s much more important to make genuine connections than build your numbers. A number isn’t going to review your book. A friend will.
Sorry, this is a subject I’m passionate about! So glad you posted about this!
http://www.jillkemerer.com
I guess I should add that I’m doing what I can from office and home to build a platform. I have a blog: davidatodd.blogspot.com. As soon as my son gets home for Thanksgiving and lends a hand I’ll have a website. I have 115 articles posted at suite101.com, and around ten articles at buildipedia.com (for real money). But I suspect these would all be considered meaningless by most publishers.
Great post Rachel! I have no technical experience and I was able to create my own author website. Even if you’re not published, you can still post the first page of your novel. Just make sure it is absolutely the best you can make it. An about the author page is good.
I started a blog with two other writers. This allows us to cross market our audience, plus, we each only have to post twice a week, but we have new posts going up daily. I believe I’ve gotten just as much out of the blog as my readers. God is good!
Make sure you purchase your domain name now! Even if you’re not quite ready to put your website up. I used the web hosting service Vistaprint. It’s very user friendly, no coding, and very inexpensive with a professional product.
http://www.melissaknorris.com
http://www.faithchatsblogspot.com
To help build up readership on my blog, I have participated in blog carnivals as I can. The ones I participate in are typically devotions. It provides such great writing practice: I’m given a general topic to write on, have a deadline, and those who link up like to read each others’ posts. The posts I have linked to a blog carnival are the ones that have received the most hits for me so far. Blog carnivals can be found in all sorts of places, through other writers or through organizations and churches. (One example: A few of the ladies with Proverbs 31 Ministries do devotion carnivals on their blogs – http://www.proverbs31.org to find each woman’s blog.)
A question for Rachel if you get the chance: When you are proposing ideas on how to market your book, what are ways to strike a balance between things you can do beforehand and things you promise to do once a book is published? I imagine that a publisher wants to see more things that you do beforehand rather than after, is that right?
Thanks again for yet another incredibly useful post!
Rachel,
So far, because I don’t have a book in print, my website is only a blog. I try to write things of some lasting value, and I pay attention to my visitor stats. I figure that I can write on a wide range of topics because my “brand” of fiction also ranges over a wide collection of topics. I know that even if I haven’t blogged anything new in a week or two, half-a-dozen people a day will find me by Googling something I’ve written about over the previous six years. Anytime I add something new, I link to it from my Facebook page and see the numbers jump up twenty-or-thirty. If I write about a hot topic (like the recent elections), I’ll leave a quick comment (and my link) in the discussions at the end of newspaper postings, and see my count jump to sixty or eighty. Last week I wrote a piece about growing Chinese Dragon Fruit in my sun-porch and left a link from a rare fruit growers’ newsletter. That brought me a dozen or so hits. I know these numbers aren’t all that impressive yet, but I see it mainly as a way for me to learn how it’s done.
Yesterday I wrote a quasi-review of Debbie Macomber’s new book, with an account of how Wendy Lawton arranged for the book to include an anecdote that I wrote here at Between the Lines. My Facebook link has brought 12 hits in 24 hours. (It will be interesting to see how many hits come over from the link here:
http://blog.briantcarroll.com/2010/11/right-place-at-right-time.html)
My experience with the value of a book review is that it will continue to draw occasional traffic, even a year from now.
My blog has two addresses. The primary location is blog.briantcarroll.com
However I have a lot of interaction with friends in China, where the government frequently blocks websites. Therefore I have a proxy address that gets me over the Great Chinese Firewall:
http://echo.discurs.us/briantcarroll/
Whether I will ever sell any books in China, I have no way of predicting. But I’m ready if it happens. There are 1.2 billion readers there, many of them trying to learn English and to find out about America. 🙂
Chip MacGregor taught us a lot about the importance of ‘platform’ at the Write! Canada annual conference. I have been working since August 2009 on building an accessible site, posting over 230 articles for people to read. So far 75,000 people have dialed in to http://edhird.wordpress.com My greatest response has been to my Benjamin Franklin article which has had 15,000+ hits and my Winston Churchill article with 12,000+ hits. All this is in preparation for my upcoming next book: “Restoring Health in the 21st Century” http://restoringhealth21.blogspot.com/
We did read Brian’s personal blog comment and note there’s an error in the link. You should be able to get it here:
http://blog.briantcarroll.com/2010/11/right-place-at-right-time.html
Salena, yes, articles are a good starting place.
Jessica, at this point you are promoting you and not a book. Building a platform for yourself shows the readership and publishing world that you have something to offer in book form.
Heather, starting a website is a good idea even if you have a blog. It’s possible to link the two together as well and then you are likely to get more traffic.
Caroline, I think you should include in your proposal as much as you can about what you are doing already and what you will do when the book comes out as long as you are actually going to do the promised publicity and marketing.
It’s probably too late for anyone to see this, but my website is http://www.janetanncollins.com and I have two blogs. http://onwordsblog.blogspot.com is linked to my Facebook page and the posts appear there. I also have another blog about special needs, http://janetanncollins.blogspot.com and a couple of days ago I started a Facebook group, Special Kid Carers for people who care for and about children with special needs. I plan to copy and paste relevant posts from the second blog there. My newest release is a picture book about children with learning disabilities but the group is intended to help people, not just try to sell my book.
David, I have no idea how authors and writers balance everything that is required of them. Yikes! I’m glad to see you’re already taking good steps in building an online platform.
Thank you to everyone who’s commented! I’m really enjoying reading the comments this week!
(I apologize for the bad link. Hopefully this has it correctly.)
Rachel,
So far, because I don’t have a book in print, my website is only a blog. I try to write things of some lasting value, and I pay attention to my visitor stats. I figure that I can write on a wide range of topics because my “brand” of fiction also ranges over a wide collection of topics. I know that even if I haven’t blogged anything new in a week or two, half-a-dozen people a day will find me by Googling something I’ve written about over the previous six years. Anytime I add something new, I link to it from my Facebook page and see the numbers jump up twenty-or-thirty. If I write about a hot topic (like the recent elections), I’ll leave a quick comment (and my link) in the discussions at the end of newspaper postings, and see my count jump to sixty or eighty. Last week I wrote a piece about growing Chinese Dragon Fruit in my sun-porch and left a link from a rare fruit growers’ newsletter. That brought me a dozen or so hits. I know these numbers aren’t all that impressive yet, but I see it mainly as a way for me to learn how it’s done.
Yesterday I wrote a quasi-review of Debbie Macomber’s new book, with an account of how Wendy Lawton arranged for the book to include an anecdote that I wrote here at Between the Lines. My Facebook link has brought 12 hits in 24 hours. (It will be interesting to see how many hits come over from the link here:
http://blog.briantcarroll.com/2010/11/right-place-at-right-time.html
My experience with the value of a book review is that it will continue to draw occasional traffic, even a year from now.
My blog has two addresses. The primary location is http://blog.briantcarroll.com/
However I have a lot of interaction with friends in China, where the government frequently blocks websites. Therefore I have a proxy address that gets me over the Great Chinese Firewall:
http://echo.discurs.us/briantcarroll/
Whether I will ever sell any books in China, I have no way of predicting. But I’m ready if it happens. There are 1.2 billion readers there, many of them trying to learn English and to find out about America.
OK, I have a dumb question. How do you purchase your domain name…or what is the safest place to go to purchase it?
Salena,
Not a dumb question. I used http://www.godaddy.com They will let you know if your domain name is available and then let you purchase it. The “com” names are a little more expensive than say “net” or “org”, but I think it was like $23 for two years or something. I know several authors who use godaddy and none of us have had any troubles. Hope this helps. 🙂
Melissa, thank you so much for the advise! 🙂 🙂
Lynn, I am anxious to check out the websites you provided. I too write history. Fiction, but I focus on real facts. My novels take place in Texas during the 1860’s.
Also my mom and I homeschool my son so I was excited to hear about your involvement. I will be recommending your site to our local home school group.