The dream of many authors is to get an agent and a contract (and advance) from one of the big five publishers.
If you want to increase your opportunity with your book, you need to have an author platform. Simply put, a platform is where you are visible with great market reach and influence. This increases your value to a publisher due to greater possibilities of selling books… and lots of them.
To some authors the concept is clear, yet the majority are confused by what it actually means. This confusion can lead to inaction on the part of the author to build a platform.
“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.” Jane Friedman.

Be a Serious Player

If you want to be taken seriously as an author, you must develop and grow your platform. It was in the nineties that agents and publishers began rejecting nonfiction books due to the author not having a substantial reach.
Many authors assumed that the publisher would take care of getting them in front of their readers, when in fact, the publishers were, and still are, more likely to work with authors who are proactive in creating a market presence.
Now, more than ever, an author must have a platform to achieve their greatest results with a book.

Putting Together Your Platform

Two main areas for your platform are your visibility and your target audience. In order to optimize your efforts you need to focus on these two areas.
Visibility simply mean this; where will you be seen? You can project your opportunities base on where you’ve appeared in the past such as guest blogging, featured articles, interviews on podcast shows, radio and television. Visibility is also directly related to your social media platforms.
Target audience are those people who are most likely to be interested in your information. These are the people who view you as an authority and influencer.

Activities that create your platform

Building a platform requires ongoing, consistent action. To assure you take consistent action,  create a visibility checklist. Each day, do something to gain visibility and market reach. The more consistent you are, the better.

• Content marketing
• Blogging
• Interviews
• Speaking
• Collaboration

Content marketing

Content marketing is a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that builds your authority, influence and market reach.

Blogging

Blogging is the process of writing content for your blog and/or as a guest blogger.

Interviews

Interviews can be done by way of podcast shows, radio shows, television, live stream, or print media.

Speaking

There is plenty of opportunity to speak and present. Online you can do teleseminars and webinars. Offline, they can be small, intimate groups, or large groups where you are a keynoter. Speaking is one of the best ways to build a platform

Collaboration

Partnering with industry influencers is a great way to increase your market reach and build your platform. Recently, I partnered with the owner of a video company. We were both able to increase our influence and market reach due to our collaborative efforts.

Time Takes Time

Building your platform takes time. It’s not going to happen without continued effort. It’s a mistake to think you can do something once and get the type of result you are seeking.
Think of it this way, if you were to do  one thing every day for a year, your results will likely be lightyears ahead of most authors.
Whether it be a blog post, guest blogging, radio interview, article marketing, social media posts, videos and livestreams, and speaking engagements, when you do something each and every day, your market is going to notice.
So will publishers and agents. When you have a lot of content online that is of high value, you become a minimal risk. Actually, when done right, you become an in demand expert.
Go Deep
Want to dig deep into building your platform? Join me on Wednesday, October 18^th for a private training for members of the Book Accelerator membership program. For only $37 a month you receive the live training and a full suite of training on how to launch a book. This includes a backend membership area with dozens of videos, PDF files, checklists and cheat sheets.
Best of all, there’s a 100% money back guarantee.
Go to www.anatomyofabooklaunch.com