How to Build an Audience: The Truth about Author Platforms

A potential client reached out to me recently, wanting help increasing his platform for his six-figure, nonfiction book launch this year.

“Wonderful,” I said, “what publisher?”

“I don’t have a publisher yet.”

“Oh, okay, so your agent is negotiating?”

“I don’t have an agent.”

“I see. May I look over your proposal?”

“Oh, I haven’t written it yet.”

The man had an elevator pitch but no book. Not even a proposal for a book. He runs a successful business, has a weekly radio show, and has published posts online with big names like Forbes. But a six-figure book launch? Yes, I did mention that radio show. And he wanted help promoting his niche topic outside of radio. He’s on his way to a six-figure platform.

But he also self-published two books about a decade ago. The two books together add up to only one hundred pages. One book has eight reviews. The other, eighteen. That history hurts his reliability rating. His body of work has some skeletons, and skeletons form poor support posts for platform.

The concept of a platform for intellectual property like a book manuscript confuses many of us. Let’s consider another scenario. You grow green beans in your garden as a hobby to feed your family. One year, your crop develops an especially crisp texture and flavor. You want to share. So the next season, you plow under your entire lawn front and back, plant your partial acreage with the legumes, harvest and can them, and take them to the big chain grocery store in your city. You give the store manager a taste test. She likes them. So you ask her to stock your beans on the chain’s shelves. She laughs.

Why can’t you sell your delicious green beans in the mainstream store? Well, first of all, you can’t immediately scale from your small production to a national chain, but also: Green Giant, Del Monte, and Libby’s.

I’ve overheard many a conversation at writer’s conferences where outraged nonfiction writers complain about their lack of access to publishers. Either the giants—the five big publishers—are too “blind” (and “stupid”) to notice their great content or the agents themselves are blocking the beanstalk gateway to the giants. But publishers and agents understand an inconvenient truth writers often want to ignore: we buy what we know. We buy what we trust, like those brand-name green beans.

Visibility and reliability require the hard work of building a platform. And yes, plenty of privileged voices and charlatans have more platform reach than they deserve and can publish unvetted opinions on topics they know little about. But most voices do actually reach their coveted positions the hard way, by cultivating their work and following over time; few lasting voices in the conversation grow their beanstalks overnight.

If you want to beat the nonfiction author platform “trap,” instead of searching for someone selling the “next, best, and proven to succeed!” magic beans, consider putting your money and time into the following three steps.

Grow Platform through a Body of Work

Green Giant, Del Monte, and Libby’s dominate the grocery store bean shelf, but each of these companies started small. Green Giant began in Minnesota in 1903 with local investors learning to can creamed corn and eventually peas. For decades, they stuck with their tried-and-true products as they also invested in research, new canning techniques, and adding other vegetables to the line.

Del Monte began in 1886 as California became a major producer of fruits and vegetables. The distributor initially packaged and sold a premium blend of coffee made especially for the Del Monte hotel resort. They eventually expanded into canning peaches and grew from there, emphasizing their promise of quality goods.

Libby’s began as a partnership between the Libby brothers and Archibald McNeil in 1868 Chicago, canning and selling corned beef. As their product gained popularity, their market share and their product line grew.

These brands each have more than a hundred years of proven history and established infrastructure over any upstart trying to gain market share today. So upstarts now have to show why consumers should change their loyalty.

The Christian nonfiction market works much the same way. Prolific author Chuck Swindoll started with a stutter that he learned to manage during high school. After forays into mechanical engineering and service in the Marine Corps, Swindoll invested four years in training at Dallas Theological Seminary, and then fifteen years in pastoral roles before publishing his first book. His body of work, produced with help from hired editors and writers, grew out of his decades of the weekly grind of research and sermon preparation, the development of a preaching and writing style that connects with his audience, and expansion into radio broadcasts and the educational and Bible study materials produced through Insight for Living.

Phillip Yancy had early success with books that came out of his toxic formative years in a racist, fundamentalist church and his years of reading and searching his way back into the church. But he also grew his faith and his platform by co-authoring three books with a renowned surgeon and working as a journalist in Chicago for twenty years.

Lysa TerKeurst, who has in the past ten years published several New York Times bestsellers, also began introducing herself and her message to a wide audience in 1995 through the Proverbs 31 radio spot. She built that platform for five years before her first book, and the majority of her success has come now in the second decade of her work.

I could go on and on about the writers who rule the shelves at Barnes & Noble and other bookstores, some of whom you will agree with theologically and many of whom you will not. These authors and speakers didn’t cook their beans with a flash in the pan; they layered flavor and quality with hard, constant work over decades. They made a concerted effort to reach people with relevance over time, and more importantly, through several venues or media formats.

So is there room for more authors on the shelf? Of course. We see new author works every year. But don’t think that you will get your first book on a shelf without years of undergirding work to support its merit. As author and writing entrepreneur Jane Friedman has written, “Platform grows out of your body of work—or from producing great work. Remember that. It’s very difficult, next to impossible to build a platform for work that does not yet exist.”

But what should that body of work look like? Depending on your topic and medium, some of the following could be a start:

• A series of articles connected by topic or theme and published in various journals or popular periodicals (print and online) along with a well-focused, consistent blog engaging with that theme or topic.

• Development of a speaking or teaching circuit that identifies you as an expert in an area. Start local and expand.

• A body of sermons or podcasts broadcast beyond regular church attendees through several venues (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, iHeartRadio, and other proprietary sites)

• Publication of academic research in peer-reviewed journals along with reaching out to fellow writers/researchers on your topic for conversations in more popular-level venues like blog forums, podcasts, interviews, conferences, and periodicals.

• Cowriting with or working for popular brands and platforms with similar interests and themes.

You may already have your book written, but creating consistent quality work connected to other trusted sources before you publish and launch will give your book a boost in visibility and credibility. You will be a known entity rather than an unknown one.

Grow Platform by Giving and Attracting

I see so many “can’t fail” schemes for launching a book. But they do fail. Most of these “instant success,” “tried and true” methods for being the next viral sensation and bestseller rely on roping people into email lists through gimmicks and sending out untargeted social media blasts. They even have email templates for how to psychologically persuade people to click on click-bait.

Yes, you might get some attention with these tricks, but it’s not the kind of attention that lasts. Approaching a book launch by shouting “Look at me, look at me” will twist the arms of friends and family but few others. Friedman says, “It’s about making waves that attract other people to you—not about begging others to pay attention.” Narcissism grows old. How are you really serving others and putting others first? Are your ideas relevant to your email list and social media followers? Does your book boost your ego and agenda, or does it serve and inform?

With a “giving and attracting” approach rather than a “look at me” approach, you won’t have time to whine about the attention the brand names receive; you’ll be too busy promoting what some of those brand names have to say to the audience that overlaps with your target audience. You’ll be culling information from all the noise to help your target readers spend less time trying to sort through it all themselves. You’ll be paying attention to individuals within your target audience, getting to know them, and engaging with them through online discourse, conferences, and other opportunities to network. When they know you care about them and their causes, then you will have earned the right to be heard. This crowd, unlike the people who signed up for a free download, will stay loyal and grow over time.

Dream Small to Grow Big

In a writing course during my undergrad years, my crotchety, pipe-smoking professor came into class one day and spent the entire hour reading entries from a writer’s market resource. He narrated the same words page after page: “no submissions from first-time authors,” “published authors only,” and other parallel statements to the “must have a platform” requirement of today. We left the classroom in silence, shuffling our feet to the beat of a dirge, wondering if we all should just stop paying the high tuition costs for his class.

He meant to get our attention, and he did. We would need to do more than write good essays and books; we needed to develop some savvy about our industry and learn how to break in through small wins that would lead to bigger ones. Submit to the school publications. Move to a local paper or periodical. Seek employment where we could grow our writing and publication network and find people with an affinity for our genre and topics. Use our skills to serve other people and entities and gain a reputation and portfolio that way.

Keep in mind that in our current era, many independent writers struggle to make a livable income solely by writing. The market just doesn’t bear up for every person who wants to make a living selling their own books. Most have to supplement through speaking engagements, editing, copywriting, and other jobs. Quality matters, of course, but also visibility, reliability, and marketing—in other words: platform. The publishing of a book, especially a nonfiction book, must be part of a larger vision and effort.

Should we dream big dreams about six-figure book launches? Of course. But on a day-to-day basis, also dream small. Those canned green beans might not land on national grocery shelves, but the fresh ones could sell at a local farmer’s market and potentially in local stores. Successful sales breed more opportunities.

Friedman says, “Nonfiction authors shouldn’t despair if they feel like their platform is nonexistent. You may simply need to reconsider what type of publisher is a good fit for your book. Small presses, and especially university presses, have more interest in the quality of your work than your platform.” I often advise clients to go ahead and send good proposals to the big agents and publishers. Who knows? But I also advise them not to plant all their seeds in one hole in the dirt. Cover the field. Look for the best soil and water regularly.

A Final Note about Platform

I recognize that my news about author platforms may not be the feel-good, instant-hack read we hope for. I feel a bit as though I’ve grown a flowing beard, slipped a pretentious pipe into my tweed coat pocket, and caused you to shuffle your feet miserably to your next writing project. So let me leave you with a final note about someone famous who understood these three rules about getting the word out about his message.

The God of the universe lived and grew about thirty years on earth establishing the groundwork of his integrity, character, and focus on God’s glory. At twelve, his society’s age of accountability, he began making himself known as a thought leader in the venue of the thought leaders of his time, not by whining for people to come and look at him but by joining the conversation where the leaders were.

When he was ready to launch his main message, he worked hard, prayed hard, gave of himself, made himself available, and presented a message that served his audience rather than a message meant to gain celebrity, power, or wealth. He knew his audience and he knew where to reach them; he also knew who his audience wasn’t and didn’t waste time trying to woo the big guns that wouldn’t even take a look at what he had to offer.

He developed several thousand followers, but like many artists, his true message didn’t gain widespread fame until after his death. But he considered this lengthy process worthy enough to be his life’s work. His books have remained on the frontlist for more than two thousand years. Still relevant. Still thought-provoking. Sold in hundreds of languages. That’s how you build an audience. That’s platform.

Go and do the same.

Sources

Jane Friedman, “A Definition of Author Platform,” blog, Jane Friedman, July 25, 2016, https://www.janefriedman.com/author-platform-definition/.

Charles R. Swindoll, Saying It Well: Touching Others with Your Words, 1st ed (New York: FaithWords, 2012)

“About Philip,” Philip Yancey website, accessed April 14, 2021, https://philipyancey.com/about.

“From Lysa | Proverbs 31 Ministries,” Proverbs 31 Ministries, accessed April 14, 2021, https://proverbs31.org/from-lysa.