Your platform is your way toward winning over readers.
A few years ago a friend of mine began writing a series of blogs, as a way of writing her book – she hadn’t begun a blog before she’d had written her proposal and signed a book contract.
To her astonishment, her blog postings grew in popularity, and by the time her book came out two years after she’d begun her blog – while writing her book – her readings were packed with fans, and her book became a national bestseller.
What had she done?
She’d engaged with readers.
She wasn’t a writer who started with a blog. She started with the book idea and then thought to use a blog to build her audience while writing her book.
Now her blog posts are must-reads, and she has learned that as she writes her books, she must keep in touch with what her audience says to her, how they respond to her posts, and even to use their suggestions.
Since that first bestseller, she’s had a couple more.
And she hasn’t stopped blogging.
Her platform began when she’d signed for what became her fourth book, but now she knows how important that platform had been to that success of that particular book and to her new and future books.
Build a platform.
Engage with your readers.
You might not have a book yet, but you have the workings of a book if you begin to blog and tweet and upload your thoughts through a variety of social media sites so that you can not only work out the argument or trajectory of your book, but you can use your interactions with your readers to make your book better. And to make those readers into book buyers.
My friend learned this out almost by hazard. You can do it from the start.