Create Your Writer Platform

The Key to Building an Audience, Selling More Books, and Finding Success as an Author

by Chuck Sambuchino

The title of this book is pretty self-explanatory. Every writer these days needs this thing called a "platform": a way for your readers to find you. Or, depending on how you look at it, a way for you to find your readers. There are so many books coming out every day now that, in order to sell anything, you need a way to differentiate yourself from all of the other writers out there. If you simply publish a book and post about it on Twitter and Facebook, you're essentially shouting into a room that's already full of screaming people.

You have to give people a reason to buy your book, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to build a platform, a.k.a. a brand for your writing. Get known in the world of writing (or whatever it is you write about) and let people know what they can expect from you. What kind of writing? What kind of topics? What is your take on these topics? Why should people read what you write?

This book touches on a lot of the basics of building a platform. Namely, that you have to provide value to your audience and you have to provide that value consistently. Sambuchino also stresses the importance of getting speaking gigs, but much like How to Sell Your Book Like Wildfire, I think this book was mostly focused on non-fiction writers. This is largely because Sambuchino has been writing and publishing mostly non-fiction books, but fiction and non-fiction are two very different animals. I have been sufficiently convinced though, that there are speaking opportunities for fiction authors as well, and those should definitely be taken advantage of.

Speaking of providing value, this book has one thing that I love that I have not come across anywhere else: a whole section of interviews with 12 different authors on how they built and maintained their platforms. This was excellent because otherwise, as Sambuchino points out, he can only provide his experience with platform and publishing and there are many routes one can take. Personally, I very much appreciated the fact that there were two fiction authors included in this section. It was great to see what they did differently from the non-fiction authors, as well as the things that seem to be universal.

Now all I need is to figure out how to write a blog that people will actually want to read. Any ideas?