Well, actually, no we don't. In fact, it's probably safe to say that the only ones who hate platform are the ones who don't have platform. It's high school and the head cheerleader's new perm all over again.
Frustration is easy to understand, though. Platform is harder than ever to acquire with the rise of the Internet and particularly with the rise of blogs. When we set up blog tours for our authors, blogs with one or two hundred followers are considered successful, places that will make good potential blog tour "stops." In the unbelievably noisy Internet age, a couple hundred people professing to listen to your noise is fairly impressive.
But what does that translate to as far as platform?
Platform, as it applies to publishing, is about whom you impress with your numbers. Publishers. And, unfortunately, a couple hundred isn't going to cut it. To get publishers' attention, regardless of whether you're debuting or a self-pubber trying to transition to print, you have to command the attention of thousands.
The definition of "publisher" is not as hard and fast as it once was, though. That affects your platform strategy. We'll finish out the week with a short series, covering the anatomy of a non-fiction and a fiction (no, you novelists haven't escaped this scourge) tomorrow and Friday.
I really need some motivation on the whole blog thing. Somehow I managed to "break" my template futzing around in the code. I ended up with a header of some musty old books, and it looks like I'm channeling Miss Havisham.
ReplyDeleteI think if I had a slick blog (cool header, background), I'd be more motivated to actually ... well, blog. Just getting it in order could take the better part of a day. :(