Author's Guide to Building an Online Platform

The buzz word in publishing houses and at writer's conferences these days is platform. As in, What is the author's platform? With more than 175,000 new titles published each year, publishers want to sign authors who are capable of helping to sell their book. The platform may be that the author is a widely syndicated columnist, is the internationally acclaimed expert in his field, or is a highly sought-after motivational speaker. Or perhaps the author is a New York City television news anchor. These types of platforms make a publisher's mouth water. But what about authors who aren't widely known or acclaimed? How does the ordinary guy build a credible platform? The answer: the Internet. Today you can build an international platform right from your kitchen table even if your kitchen table is in Manhattan . . . Kansas.