Building Your Platform with a New “P” Word–Potential

Editorial Representative, Guideposts Magazine

Teaching an Afternoon Workshop, Reviewing Pre-Conference Manuscripts and meeting with writers at the 2016 Mount Hermon Christian Writers’ Conference, March 18-22.

BUILDING YOUR PLATFORM WITH A NEW “P” WORD–POTENTIAL

You’re hard at work on a novel or nonfiction book. You sign up to attend the conference and are eager to discuss your work with agents and publishers. Along with feedback, get ready to hear this question, “What’s your platform?” Right now you might have to say, “I don’t have one,” but you can change that.

Don’t despair. Everyone has a platform. It is built on YOU! And you can start right now to construct yours or add to what you already have. Friends, family, acquaintances, even other writers, are a great beginning. And it’s what I call the new “P” word: Potential.

Start small and add to it weekly. Join Twitter, or Pinterest, or any of the social media sites. How do you get started? Google “how to get started on (blank)” in the search bar (insert one of the following into the blank space: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest). You’ll be amazed at the information that pops up to help you.

A large platform doesn’t happen overnight. A novel doesn’t get written in a day, and thousands of followers and friends don’t just drop out of the air one night. Layer your platform one step at a time, like building the foundation of a house, or constructing a novel. You may already have a Facebook account. Build it up by making friends outside of your circle of family. Not on Twitter? It’s not hard, but like everything else, there is a learning curve. The same with Pinterest or any of the other sites. Take time now to invest in your platform, then look forward to those meetings at the conference.

Set goals and work toward them. Do a little bit more on social media than you have done in the past. Post a few times a week on your sites. Taken one small step at a time it’s not so scary, not so insurmountable, not the big bad “P” word you thought it to be. You can answer an agent or publisher the next time they say, “What’s your platform?” with the following response, “I’m building it, and it has great potential.”

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Can you name three things you’re doing to build your platform?

Come meet B.J. Taylor at the 47th annual Mount Hermon Christian Writers’ Conference, March 18-22, 2016.

Ready to learn more about Platform and work with a mentor to build your writer’s platform? Join us for the Pre-Conference Next Level Clinic and participate in Kathi Lipp’s Platform Workshop.

Click here to register for the Next Level Clinic and the Main Conference!