Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Where's the time?

Eons ago, you could write a book, print it out, send it off in a book box and get a rejection or, if it appealed to someone, find an agent or editor. 

No longer so!

Now, you need an "Author Platform;" A presence on the web, really on the world, that says you are somehow connected, not just five ways to Kevin Bacon, but to half a million people you have never met in person. These are people who like to read your written word.

I do understand. It's a built in audience for your book. What I do not understand is how you have the trim to write a book, when you need to build a website, blog, tweet, LinkedIn, and be entertaining on Facebook, which I find to be quite a depressing site whose main function is to point out to me, "Am I REALLY related to these people?" I am already convinced that I did not go to school with half the people who say they were in my class. My memory cannot be that bad.

So, my apologies for being missing from my site for so long. I have been running another edit to cut wordcount. It has either tightened my work up or killed it dead. I have long ago decided I am not the person to judge my own work, so, in the near future I am thinking about putting up two clips. 1. from when I started the book, and 2. after twenty-five edits. We shall see, because right now I am focusing on my Author Platform.

I found a nice article on The Creative Penn. There is a ton of information on building your platform and what it is and isn't. One is A Definition of Author Platform by Jane Friedman.

Now, I know that I need "visibility, Authority, and reach." I think I also need about twelve more hours in a day. Guess I shall give up my afternoon nap. I cannot give up housecleaning as I gave that up long ago.