Do I really need a platform?
In the first part of this series, I mentioned a couple of books that I would be using as tools to help me learn how to market my writing. Create Your Writing Platform by Chuck Sambuchino and Guerrilla Marketing for Writers by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, Michael Larsen, and David L. Hancock. I picked up the expanded second edition right after I turned the first blog in.
One whole book is about building a platform as a writer. The other lists your platform as the first in a list of the most powerful weapons for selling your books. My name is JC Crumpton, and I want to invite you to come along on my adventure, learning how to market a book.
First thing: after reading a few chapters in these books, I realize I am not only marketing the books and stories I write, but I am more realistically marketing MYSELF. Writing that in all CAPS hurt. I don’t like to look like a braggart, but that drills right down to the heart of the issue. As a writer, you have produced a product you want to sell. You cannot get around it. I finally accepted it. I have three jobs: my day job until I sell more writing because I have to pay the mortgage; a writer because that is my passion and drive; and a marketer because readers cannot buy what they do not know about.
Then why do I need a platform? As a writer, I have won awards. I have a portfolio filled with certificates, and I have a shelf holding trophies and statues. So, what? They don’t mean anything. The reader perusing the shelves at her local bookstore doesn’t see my awards. What do they mean to her? Absolutely nothing. I cannot get her to buy and read my book if she doesn’t know about me.
Guerrilla Marketing for Writers lists the most powerful weapons in your arsenal as you (the writer), your books, your networks, and word of mouth. The book describes your platform as “your continuing national visibility in person or through the media to as many of your potential readers as possible.” This made me ask the question: How do I select the next book I’m going to buy? Much of the time it is because someone in my network of friends, family, and other writers mentions that one of my favorite authors has a new title out. The author. The network. The book. And word of mouth. Which is still the best way to sell any product.
Chuck Sambuchino describes a writer’s platform in Create Your Writer Platform as, “your visibility as an author.” In other words, if the readers don’t know about you, how can you expect them to buy your book? You can’t. He also says, “When you have something to say, what legitimate channels exist for you to release your message to audiences who will consider buying your books?”
Here, then, is the question: besides my friends and family, who knows I have a book of poetry coming out next week? It might be more accurate to ask how many people in my personal network even know? Not that many, I tell you.
I wondered how this could be accomplished. Some writer friends of mine told me they had started doing a podcast called Future Best Seller—check it out; they have some great episodes. How can this help me? They invited me to be a guest on their show. You bet I snatched that opportunity like a starving man grabs a slab of bread offered to him. I had a great time. We talked about my upcoming poetry collection Newspaper Reading and many other interesting things as well. That means everyone in their audience that didn’t know me does now.
Figure 1 clockwise from upper left: JC Crumpton, J.H. Flemming, my books, and Phillip Drayer Duncan.
There is my first baby step. Next, I had to discover a way to get people to talk about my writing. Most mornings I stop by a coffee shop to get a large, extra hot, hot cocoa with cinnamon steamed in. They know me by name up there. Better yet, they know I am a writer. I saw some of them in a bookstore and shared a story I had written with them. They read it and nearly everyone at the location read it. They asked me for more. I obliged.
Like most people, I have a favorite restaurant. Because I tend toward the OCD side of things, I usually sit with one of two servers because they know everything I like and how I like it. And I tip well. They know I am a writer. They have read my stuff. One of them even takes my cards and hands them out to other diners showing an interest in reading. On one recent evening, neither of them were available. The server I sat with asked, “You’re the writer, aren’t you?” Now, my writing is “making the rounds” at this restaurant.
Recently, I have had more chances to add members to my platform. Two weeks ago, I went to the camera store to get a wide-angle lens and ended up speaking with the assistant manager for almost an hour. He has my card. Today (as of this writing), I visited with my auto insurance agent. She has my card. Both said they were going to purchase the book.
This may not be as hard as I feared. I’m not obtrusive. I’m not overly aggressive. I try to identify with the person with whom I’m speaking, and then it happens to come up that I’m a writer. I don’t want to be pushy. That is one thing I hate myself. People constantly in my face saying buy my stuff.
It’s too soon to see any results, but this is a start. I want to write and not market…but I have to. Let’s do it together.
