Platform Building for Authors [30-Minute Video Interview]

Last week, I was a guest on The Author Hangout, a video interview series and podcast with the folks at Book Marketing Tools.

We discuss a wide range of issues, including author platform, blogging, and self-publishing. Here’s a brief snippet about my thoughts on platform:

It’s what I consider the long game. It’s trying to build a readership that’s going to be with you for not just one book, but for every book that you write—or for every story that you tell or every product or service that you develop. So platform goes beyond a single marketing campaign; it’s about developing your audience. For that reason, it tends to be very organic. It’s not like a one-time event. It’s something that you’re going to put a little bit of effort into on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. And certainly there will be campaigns within that, tied to very specific books. Platform building is – I like the term audience development, which comes more from the nonprofit world, about thinking about how one reader’s value extends over a very long period of time.

Click here to watch or listen to the 30-minute interview, or read the full transcript.

Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.

Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.