I read a lot of kid lit blogs, including many that feature interviews with industry professionals of all sorts. One of the most common questions in these interviews is some variation on this theme: how important is it for writers to develop an online platform? In this usage, “platform” describes having an online presence via the full range of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Most of the writers who appear on these blogs or maintain them by definition have said platform. However, agents and editors answer the question in radically different ways: some say platform is essential to getting published and then selling books; others don’t really value platform and reply that writers should spend their time writing.
I’ve always liked the second answer, partly because I’d rather spend my time writing and partly because I find daunting the prospect of developing an active online presence for myself as a fiction writer. Yet, I’ve noticed that more and more of these industry professionals are extolling the value of platform, some with great enthusiasm, others only grudgingly. Like it or not, we writers need to be available online for others in the industry and for our readers. The theory is that without the platform there will never be any readers.
If book signings and school visits were once the way many children’s authors spread the word about their books, then virtual versions of those events can only spread the word to a wider audience. Moreover, no one’s going to invite me for a school visit until my book has been published, but I can blog about my book right now. Maybe a handful of people follow my blog. They like what they read. They tell some friends or ping back. More people read my blog. Suddenly, there is a community following my book before it’s even available to read. This is a good thing, I think.
So, I do think writers should spend their time writing, but hanging out online building a platform can’t hurt, might help, and, at the very least, is more social than writing, which is so very solitary. Thus, I plan to make this blog more active. As a platform, it’s been a piece of particle board that I left out in the yard through a few rain storms, but I’ll toss some cinder blocks under it, reinforce the wood, and see what happens.