Move over 2007 version, the 2008 Guide to Literary to Literary Agents is about to hit the shelves!
I contributed an article called, “Almost Famous, Start Building a Platform to Garner More Attention and Respect.”
Here’s a teaser from Editor Chuck Sambuchino’s GLA blog.
I met Chuck at the BEA and Writer’s Digest/BEA Conference and he is a super-nice guy, who enjoys seems to genuinely enjoy helping writers seeking publication.
I’ve also been writing about platform development for The Willamette Writer this year. All of these columns are reprinted in Writers on the Rise. If you are interested, you can pull up the whole series by clicking here. (It will come up in reverse chronological order, so scroll down to the bottom to read the series in order.)
I also started teaching a class that focuses on platform called Platform Building Basics for Writers that I’ll be offering again starting October 3rd. If you are interested, you can find more info here.
You may be wondering, “What’s all the fuss about platform? Can’t I just write well and let that be enough?”
Well, I’ll let Writer Mama editor Jane Friedman from Writer’s Digest answer this question for me. Not too long ago she told me this:
Platform development is more important than ever for writers seeking publication.
More important than ever. You might not like hearing this. You might feel like developing a platform on top of everything else you have to learn is simply asking too much. But I’ve been growing my platform alongside my writing career for years and I am here to tell you that not only is it fun, it’s also extremely gratifying.
So, as I teach in my platform class, try to keep an open mind. No one is asking you to do anything that compromises your integrity.
It’s just that the days of the isolated writer slaving away in obscurity are over and a new day has already dawned—the day of the multi-tasking writer, who keeps introversion and extroversion in balance.
And to that, I say, Amen.
