Do You Need to Build a Platform? Yes and No.

It's time to discuss the elephant in the room: Author platforms and what to do if yours is small or non-existent.

Welcome to a new week of Publishing Confidential. Today, we will talk about author platforms and what to do if you have a modest one or don’t have one. This newsletter edition is for paid subscribers, so if you’d like to access all of the information, please consider upgrading from free to paid.

“Do I need to build a platform?” The answer isn’t 100% yes or no, so I thought I’d write a piece about what I consider when considering author platforms. Authors become anxious about platforms, so I hope this edition of Publishing Confidential addresses some of that.

What is an author platform?

An author platform is not solely limited to social media. It includes speaking engagements, TED Talks, newsletters, bylines, coaching, and more. It is the size of your audience and how you serve them. To understand an author’s platforms, one must look at them holistically: Does your website have good SEO (search engine optimization)? Do you include links to your social media on your website, in email, on LinkedIn, and within your newsletter (I am guilty of not doing the latter)? Do you have business cards with all the above included? Is your branding consistent? This means, does the font on your website align with the font in your email or newsletter? Consistency is vital; your audience will recognize commonalities in your branding assets (book cover, logos, fonts, images, color schemes).

Your author platform includes topics you are known to discuss. For example, I discuss book publishing on LinkedIn, Substack, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. I spend a lot of time on Threads and have noticed that it isn’t the right place to discuss the publishing business. Instead, it is an excellent platform to post about books—specifically books and not the book world.

Why are author platforms important to publishers?