If you are thinking of writing a book—or even in the middle of writing one—and you don’t yet have a forum that allows you to connect with your target audience, you’re not alone. In book parlance, this forum is called an author “platform.” 

A platform is important for many reasons but especially so if you are planning to approach a traditional publisher. The size of your platform, i.e. your “reach” will be a critical factor on whether your manuscript is accepted—no matter how good it is. 

I’m writing a book (no more shoemaker’s kid) and these daily posts are my way of building a platform, i.e., attracting a group of people here on LinkedIn who like what I have to say enough to like and share my posts and who will be eager to opt in to my email list in exchange for an exclusive piece of content (TBD).

I resisted building a platform forever because I don’t do anything half way and I knew how much work and commitment this would take to do it—and I wasn’t wrong. 

I’m not beating myself up for not starting this sooner, and nor should you. I didn’t think I had enough to say either until I collected everything I’d already said over the past 10 years in articles and posts for other people, advice locked in client reports, and on my tiny blog. It was 20,000 words. Once I saw that, I was like, “Well, heck. I guess I do have a point of view after all. Let’s go!”

If you are thinking of writing a book—or even in the middle of writing one—and you don’t yet have a forum that allows you to connect with your target audience, you’re not alone. In book parlance, this forum is called an author “platform.” 

A platform is important for many reasons but especially so if you are planning to approach a traditional publisher. The size of your platform, i.e. your “reach” will be a critical factor on whether your manuscript is accepted—no matter how good it is. 

I’m writing a book (no more shoemaker’s kid) and these daily posts are my way of building a platform, i.e., attracting a group of people here on LinkedIn who like what I have to say enough to like and share my posts and who will be eager to opt in to my email list in exchange for an exclusive piece of content (TBD).

I resisted building a platform forever because I don’t do anything half way and I knew how much work and commitment this would take to do it—and I wasn’t wrong. 

I’m not beating myself up for not starting this sooner, and nor should you. I didn’t think I had enough to say either until I collected everything I’d already said over the past 10 years in articles and posts for other people, advice locked in client reports, and on my tiny blog. It was 20,000 words. Once I saw that, I was like, “Well, heck. I guess I do have a point of view after all. Let’s go!”

Not ready to make this huge commitment? I understand. But if you ever want to have a book, you have to get in the ring and start figuring out what you really think and collect those thoughts in one place, even if it’s just a paragraph a day in a daily journal that lives on your computer to start.