Two Important Questions Every Author Must Answer

Do you know who you are?

And why people like, follow, and hire you?

Those may sound like ridiculous questions to ask — especially the first one — but what I’ve seen is that many entrepreneurs can’t answer these questions without rambling. A lot.

In Author Platform Builders this fall I’m hosting a series of one-line pitchfests.

The rules are simple — members of APB say who they are in 30 seconds or less.

Then our guests — a book editor, a literary agent, a publicist — rate them on a score of 1 to 10.

Our members did great at the first pitchfest.

So much so that I wondered if we even needed a series!

But then, in the second pitchfest, the rambling started.

And this is when I was glad of two things —

1. We had a few more sessions to work things out.
2. These clients hadn’t written their books or proposals yet.

You see, when entrepreneurs don’t have the answers to those two basic questions — who they are and why people love them — it’s hard to build the audience that literary agents and traditional publishers want.

And, when entrepreneurs don’t have that audience, they lack the clarity needed to write an amazing proposal and a bestselling book.

So, do you know who you are and why people like, follow, and hire you?

Or could you use some help?

Cheers to your success,

Meghan