Is Your Audience/Platform Big Enough?
This platform question is one of the more aggravating and frustrating issues most writers face. Either they try to explain it away, overestimate it, or avoid it entirely.
A publisher is not asking whether your topic has a large audience in theory. They are asking whether you can reach enough of that audience in practice.
There is a difference.
Many proposals mistakenly claim a sizable readership—“millions of Christians,” “thousands of leaders,” “anyone struggling with …”—but fail to connect that audience to the author. The assumption is that if the audience exists, the book will find them. It rarely works that way.
Your platform is the bridge.
Platform is not celebrity. It is not about being famous. It is about access and trust. It answers two questions: How many people are you currently reaching? and How many of them are listening?
A large but disengaged following is less compelling than a smaller, attentive one. Ten thousand readers who consistently open your emails, attend your events, or engage with your content are more meaningful than a hundred thousand passive followers.
Publishers look for evidence of this, not your eventual intent. A mailing list. Speaking engagements. Podcast downloads. Social engagement that reflects real interaction, not inflated numbers. These are indicators that your audience is not hypothetical but is already forming around your voice.
This is where many proposals falter in their marketing section. They lean heavily on potential: What the author plans to build, where they hope to speak, and how they intend to grow. But publishing decisions are made on what exists now, not what might exist later.
That does not mean you need a massive platform. It means you need a credible one. A clear path between you and your readers.
It also means understanding your audience. Who are they, specifically? Where do they gather? What are they already buying? And why will they listen to you in particular?
A strong proposal does not separate the audience from the platform. It puts them together. It shows that the author not only knows who the readers are, but is already in conversation with them.
If your audience is large but you cannot reach them, it does not help you. If your platform is growing but undefined, it does not persuade. The goal is not only scale. (Having 44,000 followers on a single social-media platform is meaningless if there is no engagement. Remember, we know there are ways to buy followers and inflate the data.)
In the end, a publisher is not just acquiring a book. They are investing in your ability to bring that book to readers.
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5 Questions Your Proposal Must Answer Series:
Question 1. Is Your Audience/Platform Big Enough?
Question 2. Is Your Idea a Book or a Magazine Article?
Question 3. How Is Your Book Different (And Is It Different Enough)?
Question 4. Will Enough People Pay for Your Book?
Question 5. Why Should You Write It? Why Not Someone Else?
I think this series will help a LOT of writers.
But not me, because all I now need to say can be put into a sonnet, and no-one reads poetry anymore nohow.
***
In the dark, here, with the pain,
in this endless aching night,
I am alive and I remain
for I have seen the Shape Of Light.
The ugliness of what afflicts
has its grim reality,
but loveliness likewise exists
and that truth is enough for me
to look unto the coming dawn
with joy and a boundless hope,
not for troubles to be gone,
not that I can merely cope
with hurts I know are still to come,
but that I’ll dance with the Laughing Son.
Another beautiful and inspiring piece. Thank you and God bless you, Andrew.
Thanks so much, Sy!
((hugs)) and prayers, Andrew!
Probably time to learn how to build a platform.
I’ve been out of the writing arena for a few years and now I’m starting over. I have a brand new blog and I’m on social media. But no subscribers or followers yet. But would not having a platform matter with fiction proposal?
Anything helps. Imagine if there are two good proposals from two different novelists. One has zero platform, the other has a viable one. Both stories are well written and captivating. Which one would the publisher choose? Which one would have a better chance of having better sales on day one?
That scenario could answer the question.
Steve Laube: Thank you for the reply. I think they would choose the one with the viable platform. But when you’re starting over it takes a long time to build a platform. But what if one of the proposals has a good marketing plan.. would that make a difference?
Thank you for a very helpful and practical article. I look forward to the rest of them.
My question is, how do you go about getting readers interested in following and interacting with you when you do not even have a book to offer because you are still trying to get it published? Is it not putting the cart before the horse?
I love how you explained this, Steve. Clear and easy to understand! Thank you!