The majority of people who come to me for help with their nonfiction book proposals have one issue in common: They have nothing to fill the platform section of the proposal. This may seem a small problem. After all, it's just one part of the proposal and has nothing to do with having a good idea or being able to write well. In actuality, this section of a nonfiction proposal can mean the difference between getting an agent or publishing contract or being turned away. Plus, when an aspiring author wants to approach agents and publishers ASAP, having done nothing to begin building an author's platform poses a large problem. Platforms are not built over night.
What does a platform consist of? It consists of a large mailing list, huge numbers of followers on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, impressive numbers of blog readers and visitors to your website, an active speaking schedule, a popular podcast, radio or television show, and numerous appearances on radio and television shows, as well as sizeable groups of people who attend your talks, teleseminars, workshops, etc. It can consist of one of these elements or a combination of these elements.
Here's a platform-building element that's manageable for any writer: a newsletter. Yet, most writers don't bother to take it on. Why? Because it's time consuming and requires follow through.
How do I know this? Because I'm at fault of starting newsletters and...well...not following through with them.
I'm so busy doing other things, like blogging, for instance, that the newsletter falls by the wayside. However, a newsletter offers writers and aspiring authors a phenomenal and fairly inexpensive—and really not too time intensive—way to build a mailing list.
What's entailed? On a regular basis—weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly—you produce a newsletter chock full of great information related to your book's topic. When I say "chock full," I don't mean that you have to create a 50-page newsletter. If you send out a newsletter weekly, you may only need to write one article. If you send it out once a month or quarterly, you'll want to adjust the content accordingly. Yet, you still don't have to produce something with content comparable to a national magazine. A few really great articles do the trick.
Assuming that you have a website, you will want to have sign up forms on your website. A great way to get people to sign up for your newsletter is to offer something free in return for their subscription. You can also do this from a blog.
You can send a newsletter simply by email. However, there are services that allow you to produce really nice newsletters, send them to a list, and that also track your new subscribers as well as those people who unsubscribe. They also provide analytics on your newsletters. A popular one is ConstantContact.com, which is what I use. Another popular one is Icontact.com. AWeber.com is more expensive but offers a host of services, such as auto responders for sending out free gifts to your subscribers. (I may soon need to bite the bullet and switch to this service!)
Aspiring authors can build platforms—build mailing lists—with newsletters by doing two things: sending them out regularly and providing useful information. The first takes some effort and scheduling; the second simply entails writing about what you know.
If you want to build your mailing list with a newsletter, try using these four tips:
1. Include tips, tools and helpful advice. Your newsletter should be a service piece. If readers find it indispensable to getting their jobs done or achieving their goals, they will subscribe—and tell people they know to subscribe. You also can advertise your services, classes, products (books!), teleseminars in the newsletter. These become helpful "tools" as well.
2. Include a "forward to a friend" option in your newsletter or a "share" button. This allows your readers to tell other people about the articles they find most useful. This is a great way to gain new subscribers. They can send your newsletter on by email or notify others via their social networks.
3. Put a subscribe notification with a free offer of some type—give away a report, ebook, coaching session, podcast, etc.—on every page of your website. Yes...every page. I hardly received any subscribers from my website until I implemented this tip. (Of course, you need to have traffic on your website as well for this to work.)
4. Come up with a publication schedule for your newsletter and stick to it. (I need to take my own advice on this tip.) Allow your readers to expect your newsletter...to look forward to it. In other words, first give them a reason to want to read your newsletter, and then get them to look for it in their email box on a certain day. The only way people will continue subscribing or tell others about your newsletter is if they get familiar with it. And, yes, you might lose a few people because of the frequency of your newsletter; some people have newsletter overload. Don't worry. You'll gain the readers who really want to receive the information you are providing.
If you do this, you will find that your mailing list will slowly but surely increase. A large mailing list used to be the true foundation of an author's platform. You can build a platform this way, especially since you are a writer. Writer's, of course, write.
Author Resource:
Nina Amir is a speaker, author, writing coach, and publishing mentor who blogs at Write Nonfiction NOW! Aspiring authors hire her to help them move past their fear and frustration about the publishing process so they can reach their dreams of getting work onto paper and into print. For information on hiring Amir as a coach, mentor or speaker, or for a FREE 15-minute coaching or mentoring session, visit Copy Wright Communications.
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