Platform Defined--One More Time

In the right-hand column of these entries on The Writing Life, I have a Google search tool. If you search for the word "platform," then it will show up these pages of entries. From a comment on yesterday's entry, Krista asked for a definition. I've written about platform before but I thought I'd take a different approach and give you some insight from some other people.

A quick Google search took me to some articles on this matter and I hope something that will be of help to you. I was interested to see Joe Wikert's article from May 1, 2005 titled Blogging as a New Book Platform. Joe is a Vice President and Executive Publisher in the Professional/Trade division of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. He's talking about the role of blogs in helping authors raise their visibility in the marketplace.

One of the more interesting articles came from Rick Frishman from Planned Television Arts called The Newest Barrier to Being Published. For this article dated March 14, 2008, Rick interviews a number of people in publishing in different roles. The article shows in detail the emphasis that publishers put on authors having a national presence or platform.

I was interested to see the ideas from Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen about How to Build a Writing Platform. I like the emphasis in this article that a platform can be built.

Michael Drew has an interesting article: Your Marketing Platform--No Longer Optional. If you want to do some serious reading on this topic then follow this link because you will be amazed at what Drew has put together. If you want to about Drew's reputation putting people on the top of the New York Times bestseller list, then look at this link.

Don't let these articles about platform discourage you. Instead hopefully they will empower you to take action to raise your own visibility in the marketplace.