According to publisher and agent blogs and recent writing conferences, the big word for writers who want to get published is spelled P-L-A-T-F-O-R-M. A writer who wants to be seriously considered for sponsorship or publication is expected to have a following of people who are interested in his or her work. The handy convenient way for them to check this is through the internet: Social networking sites are a click away and have handy numbers of "friends" or "followers." Whether these numbers actually mean anything is in question in my mind, but apparently it is important.
So, being a writer who would like to be published someday, I am supposed to build a platform for myself from which I orate and expostulate and create and share. This sounds fantastic! An intuitive difficulty, however, is that I can't share anything that I ever want to submit for publishing. If it hits the internet in its complete form, a work is generally considered to have already been published and won't get picked up. Any work that I do share, therefore, is going to be work that I don't want published, which means it's not my best work and probably won't make me as attractive to readers as I would like. I question the merit of this system, but I have no choice but to embrace it.
I HUG YOU, WRITER'S PLATFORM BECAUSE I LOVE YOU! Squeeze. -- Okay, well maybe not quite that enthusiastic of an embrace. It begins with a handshake, and a peck on the cheek, les bises. We'll see where the relationship goes from there. Right now I'm at the practicing-in-front-of-a-mirror stage, as I don't think anyone is reading this blog at this point. But I swear, platform, as soon as you manifest yourself, I'll be really good at embracing.
How I have decided to handle this situation is to write in this blog regularly, and write it for you, the reader, as opposed to myself. This is not a personal journal; I don't expect you to be interested in the daily goings-on of my life. It is my task and goal to write here what I think will interest you. My ideal situation is that you are entertained or intrigued, while I practice finding the fascinating in the ordinary. (More on finding the fascinating in the ordinary later.) Whether this blog becomes a workable platform (I'm still not exactly sure what the requirements are) or not, we will both come off better for it.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
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Well, there are a few of us reading this blog at least :) I am not on such good terms with Writer's Platform. We have a mutual agreement to dislike each other but still work together if we want to accomplish anything. Is it working? I think a bit. Building a good list of followers is a start. There are so many ways to continue building but it's great that you're already thinking about doing this. I look forward to seeing what else you have to share with us!
ReplyDeleteI am excited to see what kind of things you give us to chew on. I don't know exactly what a writing platform is, but I am happy to be part of it if it means I get to read your writing. I would love to see you published someday. Will having followers on Blogger really actually help?
ReplyDeleteHere's another member of your platform!
ReplyDeleteCount me in on helping you build that platform. It's the least I can do. I'm enjoying your blog thus far. Do keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThere were some excellent articles on platform in the latest Writer's Digest if you've not had a chance to read them yet.
Thanks, you guys!
ReplyDeleteAnd a special thanks to NWA for reminding me to renew my subscription.
A few little tips:
ReplyDeletethe newspaper/magazine industry is shot currently so they'll take second-time work if you want visibility in print.
Don't put anything online you dearly want to protect - obviously - but Creative Commons can offer you a bit of protection.
Throw some creative stuff online that you don't mind not getting published. It's a loss-leader but people like you for it.
Hope that helps :)
My only advice is to blog for the sake of blogging. So many people seem to bounce in and out, and some people seem to just blog for the sake of having a platform. That does not feel right to me. If you write about cool stuff that interests your ideal reader, because you love what you are writing about, that passion will show. There are so many blogs with a ton of followers, but almost no commenters. That always makes me wonder. I hope that people that share your interests find your blog, and that they keep coming back.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck!
Rebecca - Thanks for the tips! I'll start phasing in some creative material soon... Though it'd be nice if those butterflies in my belly went away!
ReplyDeleteDave - Thanks for that. All of this I read about having a blog and a twitter and facebook and myspace just so an agent will take you seriously smacks of a kind of blatant self-selling that doesn't sit right with me. If I publish a book and actually have a product to sell, it might be more agreeable to me.
The way I see it is that even though this marketing aspect was my initial reason for checking out the medium of blogging, I can see how helpful and fun it will be as I get into it. I'm already enjoying posting and reading, and the back-and-forth in comment threads. I appreciate your input!