Last week, I was a guest on The Author Hangout, a video interview series and podcast with the folks at Book Marketing Tools.
We discuss a wide range of issues, including author platform, blogging, and self-publishing. Here’s a brief snippet about my thoughts on platform:
It’s what I consider the long game. It’s trying to build a readership that’s going to be with you for not just one book, but for every book that you write—or for every story that you tell or every product or service that you develop. So platform goes beyond a single marketing campaign; it’s about developing your audience. For that reason, it tends to be very organic. It’s not like a one-time event. It’s something that you’re going to put a little bit of effort into on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. And certainly there will be campaigns within that, tied to very specific books. Platform building is – I like the term audience development, which comes more from the nonprofit world, about thinking about how one reader’s value extends over a very long period of time.
Click here to watch or listen to the 30-minute interview, or read the full transcript.
Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman) has nearly 25 years of experience in the media & publishing industry. She is the publisher of The Hot Sheet, the essential newsletter on the publishing industry for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2019.
In addition to being a professor with The Great Courses (How to Publish Your Book), she is the author of The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal.
Jane speaks regularly at conferences and industry events such as Digital Book World and Frankfurt Book Fair, and has served on panels with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund. Find out more.