August 18, 2016 
Stacey 
There was a blog post recently from Eric Smith that got a lot of attention around publishing circles. My colleague, Sharon, passed it around the office for all of us to see, and I thought it might be a good idea to share wider with our blog readers as well.
Periodically the conversation changes about what authors should be doing to reach their fans once they’re published or how to build up their fan base before they’re published. One of the nice things about the piece is that it gives a few examples of authors doing things that are effective.
When I’m at conferences or talking with prospective authors, I often discuss what I refer to as the “platform pie.” Years ago, you had a good book idea, you got it published and you built your platform around the book. Now, the book has to be one of the last pieces of the platform pie, with the others already in place when you sell the book. Other pieces of the pie include social media, traditional media (radio and tv), public speaking, and writing online and offline for blogs, websites, newspapers and magazines.
A good example on my own list is Amy Morin, author of 13 THINGS MENTALLY STRONG PEOPLE DON’T DO and the upcoming 13 THINGS MENTALLY STRONG PARENTS DON’T DO. Her writing career started with freelance articles, one of which, talking about Amy’s groundbreaking work on mental strength, went viral in late 2014. I sold the book that became 13 THINGS just a few weeks later after feverishly working on it over the holidays. She then took that success and extended her platform, writing for various publications, doing radio and tv interviews, and setting up speaking engagements in front of all kinds of audiences which eventually led to a Tedx talk and many other outlets to grow her platform.
It’s the end of summer and most of us are hanging on to the last few days before the busyness of September kicks in. This is a good thing to be thinking about while sitting on the beach, sipping ice cold cocktails, all the ways in which you can make your voice heard.
It’s unclear, at least to me, to what extent you’re referring to non-fiction or fiction writers. It’s my understanding that platform is nearly everything for non-fiction.
But how do you weight platform and novel when deciding whether to represent a debut fiction author?
Thanks!
Excellent point; \”platforming\” is a lot more important for non-fiction projects than fiction-let us briefly recall the desperate 9 Steps dad in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE-and as always Eric Smith does a great job of debunking a lot of the popular superstitions regarding social media as a turnstile pole vaulting tool for writers. (Waste of his time, of course-rather like explaining that that gluten allergies only affect a microscopic cross-section and that wheat protein\’s good for you) A writer\’s job is to separate the pay dirt from the river gravel and hope any reps and eds who see it know how to do the same. Obsessing over how many Twitter followers are out there is a good way to throw away more gold than you recover….