The Road More Traveled
If you’ve looked into the current self-publishing boom at all you’ve undoubtedly heard the advice that you must work on your platform to have any hope of being successful as a self-published writer. If you’re at all like me you probably seized on this mushy advice while also struggling to make sense of it. And struggling. And struggling…
At some point the thought may have occurred to you that while the advice is undoubtedly solid, it’s your ignorance of key terms* that makes it hard for you to seize this golden opportunity. What, exactly, is a platform, and how is it most effectively worked on?
Taking the bull by the horns, while also somehow following conventional wisdom, you equate your platform with your website or blog or personal appearances, and equate work on with writing and saying things for free so as to induce other human beings to care about you. (Over time, as you dedicate yourself to this apparently-but-not-really more robust definition of a platform, this exchange of labor and skill for attention may also convince you that you can profit by giving other things away, including the books or stories you naively intended to sell before you became so much wiser about self-publishing.)
At some much later point, when you’re lying by the side of the self-publishing road with an I.V. in your neck and blisters on your hands from crawling those last long miles, you may marvel that personal determination seems to have so little to do with success in publishing or self-publishing. While it’s certainly true that you can’t win if you don’t enter, it’s more likely the case that even if you enter constantly and do everything you’re supposed to do — including working on your platform, whatever that means — you still won’t win.
At which point, if you’re a good and decent sort, you will simply blame yourself for having failed. You will man-up or woman-up as appropriate and acknowledge that you never really figured out what your platform was, or how you could work on it. Being a decent sort, however, you won’t hesitate to encourage others to crack the code by working on their own platform, which will endear you to the next crop of earnest, hardworking fools determined to make a name for themselves with their writing.
Platform Defined
Having said all that, I think the word platform does mean something real, and that there are many ways for you to work on it that will help you sell books. The fact that it doesn’t mean what you think it means, or that it has, literally, nothing at all to do with good writing, or, in some cases, the ability to write at all, must immediately be dismissed as a curiosity, but that’s a small price to pay for success.
In all its incarnations, platform is an interesting word. Because no definition of the word meets the usage referred to in this post, I am proposing the following addition:
plat*form [plat-fawrm]
-noun
xx. Publishing. celebrity: Gary worked hard on his platform by giving nude readings of his book, “Dreams Deciphered”.
Now, whether a lightbulb just went on for you or not, it should be a little clearer why the word platform seems to make sense in some mushy, ill-defined way. If you think of celebrities as having high visibility, and you think of something on a platform as being more visible, then celebrity = platform and working on your platform means raising your own visibility.
(If you ever spend any time in politics — and I encourage you not to — you will learn that candidates for public office spend a good deal of time on what their advisers, aides and managers literally call visibility. Speech at the Ladies’ Auxilliary? Visibility. Kissing babies during a parade? Visibility. Lunch with the mayor? Visibility. Angry speech about hot-button issue that guarantees press coverage even though data conclusively shows that nobody actually votes the issue? Visibility. What’s also interesting here is that politicians traditionally embrace a platform of political views, which are ostensibly the equivalent of policy positions. In practice, however, political platforms are usually designed to placate or seduce supporters — meaning even here the idea of a platform relates more to marketing and celebrity than it does to the work product of politics.)
The Platform Advantage
To see how the platform = celebrity dynamic plays out in publishing (and self-publishing), let’s look at an exhaustive series of examples. For each of the following, imagine that the person in question has just written a book that they are hoping to bring it to market.
- Barack Obama — huge celebrity; huge platform
- You — no celebrity; teeny-weeny platform
I could go on, of course, but I think you get the idea. When you’re being encouraged to work on your platform you’re actually being encouraged to raise your visibility and celebrity. The more well-known you are, the more books you will sell. (And you thought there was no hard science behind all this platform talk.)
So what can you do to raise your celebrity?
Well, the good news is that there are a lot of options. In fact, you’re really only limited by your imagination and morality. Because pathological liars, narcissists and sociopaths have an unfair advantage here, I’m not going to go into specifics about things you might actually do to raise your celebrity lest anyone get any really bad ideas. I will, however, list a few names of people who currently have an absolutely dynamite platform and let you draw your own conclusions.
- Bernie Madoff
- Osama bin Laden
- Wall St.
- Balloon Boy’s Dad
- The Owner of the Indianapolis Colts
Again, I could go on almost infinitely, but I assume you get the point. Celebrity, like sex, sells. So whatever it takes to raise your celebrity is inherently a good thing for your publishing career. It won’t make you a better writer, of course, and it won’t increase the likelihood that you have something to say, but it will almost certainly sell more books than being you or caring about your craft. [Tip: if you’re short on time, work ethic and content to give away, there are myriad ways you can jump-start your platform by giving away your dignity as a human being.]
The Road Less Traveled
On the other hand, if you are still determined to put craft first I can offer you a faint silver lining. To the extent that celebrity trumps all else in publishing, you can’t compete. Sarah Palin will always get a book deal, even if she has trouble forming coherent thoughts without the literary support of a ghostwriter.
However. If what you care about is writing, and in particular storytelling, you have a shot at competing on the merits today that you wouldn’t have had a few years ago. The reason for this is that the marketing machinery previously used to raise the visibility/celebrity of other writers has broken down. You as a romance writer or literary author are no longer up against a stacked deck guarded by industry gatekeepers protecting franchise writers. Today, all but the most famous (meaning most bankable, not most talented) of your competitors are in the same boat. Even long-time mid-list old hands are having to figure out what their platform is, and how to work on it, and that puts them on an even footing with you.
Assuming that there ever was a paying audience for the kind of stuff you write, you now have access to that audience directly, and can — at least in part — rely on the quality of what you write, rather than the q-score for who you are, to determine your success. You may succeed and you may not, but believing in and improving your craft vastly increases the likelihood that you will attract attention for your skill set as opposed to your celebrity — which could also lead to offers from publishers, or work-for-hire opportunities.
The choice is yours, of course. I’m going to go the craft route, but only because I wouldn’t want to belong to any group of celebrities that would have me as a member.
* In your later years, after life has beaten you down, you will realize that advice which is devoid of recognizable terminology is no advice at all, and you will either chuckle or shake your head at this realization depending on your disposition. If you still have a fair share of your marbles, and if what you foolishly wanted all along was to be a good writer, you may also realize that mushy advice is the hallmark of the guru, the salesperson and the con artist, and that what you really could have used was the utility and reliability of craft. Again, depending on your disposition, you may or may not punish yourself further by noting that bridge builders spend very little time attending motivational seminars, but lots of time on math.
— Mark Barrett
This is a really great article, and it made me realize that not everybody knows what platform is or means. To me it’s always been a combination of your audience (or your reach more specifically) combined with your unique selling proposition. But you summed it up, it’s basically “mini-celebrity.” Getting your name out there, getting known, publicity, PR, etc. etc.
It didn’t occur to me though that this understanding of what platform was was fairly foreign to people. What you say about blogs and websites and etc. That’s “part” of platform (i.e. I’ve had an agent, a book reviewer, and a radio show host all contact me from finding me on the web somehow through my free ebook or website, and probably no doubt also because I have a loud mouth and tend to pop up in a lot of places on the interwebs), but I suspect that a lot of people just don’t take it to it’s final conclusion… they don’t make that leap of it being about raising visibility. Or about creating an image. Because if everybody sees your name but you don’t have some coherent sound-byte way for them to identify who you are and what you do, you’re no farther along in the platform game.
This post really opened my eyes about the fact that this is not completely obvious to everyone, as far as what the word “platform” even means, so I’m going to be more careful when I discuss platform on my site and podcast, to make sure I’m expressing what platform “is.”
Hi Zoe:
“It didn’t occur to me though that this understanding of what platform was was fairly foreign to people.”
I think it’s more than fair for an industry to develop its own lingo, and for people who move into that industry to have to learn what those new terms mean. Sometimes, however, terminology is used more as a bullet point than a craft tool, and I think that’s what has happened with the word ‘platform’.
I saw this kind of thing in horrifying detail in the interactive industry, where everyone talked endlessly about interactivity, yet no one knew what it meant. Even today, in a nuts-and-bolts gathering of grizzled interactive-industry veterans, you would be unlikely to find two people whose definitions agreed.
With ‘platform’ I think a similar effect has taken place, and the word has become a buzzword rather than anything useful. To the extent that you may be able to do something to correct this trend, I thank you.
very nice! (and i have to first thank you for using myriad in the way that doesn’t make me twitch.)
i’m a bit of a dick, though, in that i have to disagree with the point that we are all now on equal footing. we isn’t. i don’t know what magic pixie dust certain of us loudmouths need to get more attention. i am willing to whore myself at least just a little, but it seems i’m having a hard enough time plying my trade, despite, well, you know where you can find me.
so why some and not others?
we must build our own platform. well, most certainly that seems like the most logical plan, with or without the assistance of a publisher and agent machine. what would others think to do? i’m afraid i don’t understand the use of the word platform, while i understand the purpose of its use.
what i appreciate most about your post is the ‘mushy advice,’ which is most universally applicable to independent writers and signed ones, alike. advice sans judgment is what is lacking most.
thanks, again, mark, for a thought-provoking article!
~jenn
@revolucion0
and buy my book http://29jobsandamillionlies.com just so that i can be a total slut.
Hi Jenn,
“…i have to disagree with the point that we are all now on equal footing.”
Fair enough. I probably shouldn’t have been so declarative. How about ‘a more equal footing’? Or: ‘less disparity’ between the haves and have-nots? I wouldn’t object to any modification.
“so why some and not others?”
I think this is a different question, and one that bears close scrutiny by anyone involved in the fine arts who seeks creative approval, or in the commercial arts who seeks financial reward.
The simple and direct answer is that success in any artistic endeavor is first and foremost a result of dumb luck. Take the most talented creative mind of any generation, birth that mind into a miserably poor community of miners subsisting on choking black dust and the odds are that any creative output will be lost, if there is any at all to lose.
Now, as humans we can’t get out of bed in the morning if we acknowledge the sheer randomness of life events, and how those random events affect us. Storytelling is in itself an effort to control this chaos through the creation of logical narratives. Religion — all of it — is designed to supply purpose in what religious adherents feel is an otherwise purposeless world.
But the ugly flipside to all of this logical purpose is the human tendency to believe that we can control what happens to us if we’re just smart enough and work hard enough — and that’s not true. Everything you do is a crapshoot to one degree or another, and anything you do in the arts (or commercial arts) is a crapshoot ten orders of magnitude more crap-shooty than anything else you can think of doing.
Want guaranteed success and money? Do what everyone else does: find yourself a product to sell, lie about the bad qualities of the product and extol the good qualities of the product, then try to stay one step ahead of the people who’ve figured out you’re a liar.
Anyway…in answer to your unasked question: be thankful that you have the chance to express yourself in your art. Work hard for whatever your definition of success is, but remember that every day is literally a roll of the dice, and that the real reward is in the doing. Because if it’s not, you’re doing the wrong thing.
Your two last sentences, and also your very “straight-forward-no-BS” main post is what makes me subscribing yours.
I am from Indonesia, and I have always longed to be a writer, even at this age of 30-years old, because I (and many people have also told me) have so many ideas in my head that I would go insane if I don’t put it out & share to the world. But however, I’m still a newbie in it, and especially all the unfortunate ‘technicalities’ stuff that every writer needs to learn, to succeed.
I especially like your point about ‘mushy’ advices, and this is why I’m thankful that you’re NOT one of them.
Looking forward to read more of your posts/article/sharing on Writing.
Hi Niki,
I’m glad you found the post helpful.
I think the best advice any writer can receive is to keep almost all of their effort focused on writing. You might be able to manufacture interest or sales in the short term by staying completely abreast of the market and latest trends, but none of that will make you a better writer. And you’ll always be chasing the technological tail of the industry.
If you focus on your work and keep at it over the long haul, I genuinely believe readers will find you.over time. You certainly have to make yourself available, but that’s pretty easy these days.
Good luck. 🙂
What’s a guy who hates networking going to do in an online world that demands of an indie publisher/writer/maker of things to be a relentless promoter? I have been a secretive writer published by Viking-Penguin N.Y. I’ve been an international promotional copywriter. I know both worlds; does the online world demand the same impossible blending of two separate skills and/or desires?
I have a native distaste I have for personal exposure in a public place. Even if it is the online world. Yet if you don’t jump up and down and yell, I Exist! – how will anyone know I exist… what to do, how to handle?
(As it happens, I just posed a blog about this subject today–“Anti-social social media, commercial need, and the storyteller”–and how I’m going to handle this platform thing… Don’t mean to drag anyone away from this site, but if you want to read the rest of what I started above….
http://bit.ly/4Uld4I
I have all the sympathy in the world for your predicament:
https://ditchwalk.com/2009/11/24/the-writers-prompt-copy/
And I don’t think there’s an easy answer. I do think, however, that we can put a halt to some of the implicit and erroneous conclusions that we all leap to as writers in the wilderness.
1) I think it’s true that you can never do enough promotion, but what does that really mean? It means that the need for promotion is insatiable. Sure, a very few people actually become ‘overexposed’ in the media and need to dial themselves back, but you and I aren’t going to have that problem. Which means we’re going to have to come to terms with whatever ‘enough’ promotion is for each of us as individuals.
2) Being effective matters, good timing matters, but again, how do we control those variables? I say we can’t. We can simply try to put things out there and hope that others react — as your post suggest. But the more time spent putting things out there the less time we have for making those things, so it’s always a balancing act.
A corollary of all this, for me, is that I view the rah-rah types who are constantly exhorting me to ‘do more for myself’ as not simply annoying, but threatening. They are trying to get me to think that I’m letting myself down by not following their advice, by not attending their online workshop, or flying into their seminar.
I don’t like that kind of emotional blackmail, and I don’t like anyone who approaches me or my work on that basis.
I’m working hard to figure this stuff out from the point of view of writer-as-realist. I’m not looking for a billion dollars or fame. I’m just trying to eke out a living.
And yet I can still never do enough….
Great post, made me laugh. In the right way.
Your take on platform is interesting, and I have to say I hadn’t heard it in this context before. I am at the moment studying a Graduate Certificate in “Multi Platform Content” at AFTRS, the term gets a lot of blank stares and requires explaining, but has rather a different meaning to yours.
Really enjoyed your post, thanks 🙂
Thanks for the compliment, and I’m glad you laughed. 🙂
Words are made and remade almost constantly. I think ‘platform’ in publishing became a euphemism for celebrity because it implied (and favored) the use of technology. No harm in that, but for a long time it really wasn’t clear to me what was being encouraged.