Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Someone get me a hammer!

Platform is getting to be a dirty word in my house. My husband, because he doesn't pore over the (seeming) millions of agent and writer blogs and sites that I do every day, just does not get the concept of platform. He can't understand the shameless self-promotion that a writer must engage in to be successful. Everytime I mention the word, he shrugs and gives me the 'whatever' look.

I must admit, I've been sweating this. I'm so busy revising my WIP for the three (yes three - squeee!) agents that want to see it that I just haven't had time to blog. I don't Twitter and I use Facebook only for keeping in touch with friends and family. I've moved twelve times in twenty years which means that I have a very large, geographically diverse network of friends and colleagues, but I've not developed it as a tool for promotion. And truthfully, I don't like the idea of doing something just because I should, particulary if it doesn't feel natural.

So it was with great relief that I read Nathan Bransford's blog on the subject (I also saw it on Shelli's fantastic blog).

A few days ago, I was contacted by the fiction editor at the magazine that has published a few of my short stories. She wanted to know if I was interested in writing a three-part serial for them (about 12,000 words), or maybe just submitting a few more short stories. As this is a well-known woman's magazine in the UK with a high circulation (350,000), it would be great exposure. And I started to think, maybe I should just focus on writing to build my platform, at least for now.

5 comments:

  1. Hey, returning your visit - really glad I have, too. Wow, three agents is wonderful. I spent four years writing my first novel and only managed to get one agent interested, still not managet to get anyone to swallow the whole thing. I had to laugh when you mentioned your husband's response to your "platform" talk - my husband's not overly impressed with the whole writer thing either. I started trying to build my writer cv towards the end of last year and I'm putting some effort into it this year, even though I know it's eating up my writing time, because I just realised no one is going to take me seriously as a novelist if I have nothing to show for myself.

    Best of luck with the agents, I'm thrilled for you.

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  2. Thanks for coming by, Rachel. I long for the days when an author could write a great book and then sit back and be a recluse, writing away in a little cottage somewhere while shunning the press and ignoring the reviewers. (OK, not really, but it would be a bit easier if we only had to focus on how good the writing is.)

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  3. Good points here. I read Nathan's blog post, too, with relief. Just blogging and following blogs is enough for me, right now. It's part of the social networking opportunities I enjoy. I'm not ready, yet, for Twitter or book focused Facebook.

    Congrats, on the agent requests!

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  4. There's nothing better than writing to build your platform! Nothing!!

    Congrats on being asked to do that! Go for it. :)

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  5. Thanks for coming by!

    Elle, I'm with you. To tell the truth, book-focused Facebooking feels like a bit of an intrusion on my personal life (lots of pictures of family on FB, lots of comments flying around that aren't exactly professional).

    Elana, what a concept, eh? Writing to build a platform! Now if only I could come up with a suitable idea for the serial...

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