{"id":702,"date":"2011-03-17T14:47:15","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T21:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/?p=702"},"modified":"2012-08-31T13:23:05","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T20:23:05","slug":"the-question-of-how-%e2%80%93-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/17\/the-question-of-how-%e2%80%93-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Question of How \u2013 Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
Almost two years ago an agent said she liked my work, said it was interesting, but because I was a first time book author I would need to build a \u201cplatform\u201d. So I found out what a platform was: the author\u2019s preexisting popularity and potential customer base which tells the agent whether the book is worth taking on.<\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Then came the all-important question \u2013 HOW does one build a platform? More searching gave me the following list:<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Be (or become) an expert in your field. <\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Establish a strong online presence via an author website, a blog, and social networking.<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Write articles for major commercial magazines.<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Be approached as an expert source for other people writing about your subject.<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Offer seminars and establish yourself as a speaker.<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Hire a publicist who can help with media exposure.<\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Not too long ago I contacted an author who\u2019s about my age, with a not dissimilar memoir, not a celebrity, and without a huge portfolio of published work to his credit, and I asked him how he got published (his memoir rocketed to the top of both the LA and NY Times\u2019 Best Seller List). His reply? <\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cI knew a vice president at Disney who convinced the agent to take me on. Together they helped me with my memoir and then sold it to Harper Collins who then arranged television, radio, and print exposure for me.\u201d <\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/div>\n
Funny \u2013 that advice I got about getting on Oprah doesn\u2019t seem so much a joke now.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost two years ago an agent said she liked my work, said it was interesting, but because I was a first time book author I would need to build a \u201cplatform\u201d. So I found out what a platform was: the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writinghelp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions\/705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}