Read This If You Want Your Book Out NOW

When Lauren Marie Fleming sent her first book out to publishers, she was rejected over and over and over again.

People loved what she had written, but the universal rejection was, “go work on your platform.”

And of course they had no advice on how to do that.

(Luckily, you have me, because I do.)

What Lauren decided to do — in addition to the usual stuff, like making sure her website looked good and her social media was updated — was to connect with people.

She started purposely and intentionally creating relationships with colleagues and competitors.

She was purposely kind, supportive, and generous. Connections became friends and those friendships became reciprocal, even deeply supported. Working in the film industry and for celebrities, Lauren recognized that there was power in the relationships she had built with the colleagues she saw every single day in her “normal” job.

Over time, friends became community. And that community became part of her author platform.

Lauren knew that platform was key because the friends she had who published books without an audience, without significant marketing, and without a plan in place — went nowhere. So she decided to double-down on community, building her…