Member-only story
There’s a hole in your platform.
I can say that without ever having met you.
There’s a hole in every platform.
That’s partly because publishers expect a lot.
An email list. Speaking. Media. A one-man-band.
Well maybe not that last bit. But agents and editors do expect a lot.
I used to be pretty harsh with my clients back in the day — before I tried to build a platform myself. Now I know from firsthand experience how hard it is to build an email list, and participate on social media on the regular, and pitch media and figure out how you’re going to ever get a speaking gig and oh yeah what about writing the actual book? Or working at what gives you the authority to write a book in the first place?
So I’m not going to give you shit.
In fact, I commiserate. There’s a lot to do in order to build a platform, and it takes an awful long time. That’s why I’m gonna let you in on a little secret.
You don’t have to do anything about that hole in your platform.
A perfect platform is not what publishers are looking for. And you probably couldn’t accomplish that anyway unless you’ve got some magic Internet Marketing machine that no one knows about.
