4 Reasons Why Your Author Platform is Important (Even if it doesn’t help you sell any books.)

I’m often asked if I think it’s important to have a writer’s platform. Your platform was all the rage a few years ago, but now you don’t hear so much about it and most of the big sites and magazines don’t push the idea like they used to.

I still think a platform is important. Now I’m not saying that you must have a writer’s platform, and I’m certainly not claiming that it will help put you on the map as a writer, or help you get an agent. It most likely won’t.

Author platform is one of the most difficult concepts to explain, partly because everyone defines it a little differently. But by far the easiest explanation is: an ability to sell books because of who you are or who you can reach. (www.janefriedman.com/author-platform-definition)

The last two times I pitched to an agent, I asked if a platform (or lack thereof) influences their decision. Without hesitation, the answer was no. The book you’re pitching is the only thing that matters. Sure there are exceptions, say you have a blog with ten million daily readers and have a related book to pitch, or whatever, but in the real world, the publisher doesn’t care about your platform until after they publish your book.

So why do I think an author platform is still important?

Networking

Yes, you need to “network” with other writers. I know some of you are like, “eh, whatever,” but there are so many good reasons to make writer friends. Social media is one of the many ways you can meet other writers, and if you’ve got a great platform, you’ve most likely got a fairly active social media presence.

I’ve made connections with a ton of great writers on Twitter and it’s nice to have that forum for shouting out questions you might have on writing, or looking for a quick critique. And while my Facebook Author page has less than 1/10 of my Twitter followers, the connections I make there are deeper, and at least one of them has led to a publishing contract for a short story.

Routine

Keeping your social media accounts and blog active is a difficult, time-consuming activity, that can and will take time away from your actual writing. And, yes, that could be a bad thing. Time is your most precious resource when it comes to your writing career, and if you don’t manage it well, you might never reach your writing goals.

It’s extremely difficult to find the right balance between writing and “being a writer” and the only way you can succeed at both is to budget your time and stick to a schedule.

This is why creating a regular writing routine is the best thing for you to do. By scheduling a time for blogging and social media, and a separate time for actual writing, you’ll train yourself to fall into a regular writing routine, and with a tight time budget, you’ll learn to use your time more productively.

I’ll use myself as an example. With all of the stuff I work on, actual writing often ends up becoming last on the priority list. I came up with a new writing routine that has worked pretty well so far. Every night after the kids go to bed, I look at the clock and say “I have X minutes to work on stuff.” I divide X by 2, and spend half the time on the business side and half on the writing side.

These numbers work for me, but your may be different. If you don’t have as active of a platform as me, maybe a 50/50 split isn’t for you. Maybe 25 business, 75 writing. Or if you’re in-between books and trying to increase your online presence and work on marketing, maybe a 75 business, 25 writing split is for you.

Either way, find a routine that works and stick to it.

Practice

How hard is it to push out a daily word-count? Or even just to train yourself to write every day? Working on your author platform is a good way to help get yourself in the habit of writing every day. I’m a firm believer that the more your write, the easier it gets to keep writing.

A while back, I set a goal of 1000 total words a day. That includes blogging, Twitter, and Facebook. It’s worked well so far, and I’ve been adding to my next novel every day since setting that goal.

Preparation

How often do you hear about someone coming into a large sum of money and wasting it away in a matter of months. Or someone who has a youtube video go viral, but then fade away because they have no follow-up?

In those cases, they had no infrastructure ready for their fame. With writing, it can take years, or even decades to catch your break. If you’ve already got all of your writerly ducks in a row (webpage, social media, etc.) you’ll be prepared to hit the marketing plan running. And that matters to publishers. If you’re already doing it, they won’t have to. And since your real personality will already be shining in your nonfiction stuff, you don’t have to worry about your publisher creating an online persona (aka, corporate robot) for you.

And that is it for this post. Check back tomorrow, where I’ll share the sites and tools I use for my author platform. And until then, if you’ve got any thoughts on author platforms in general, feel free to leave a not in the comments section!