In many areas of business or ministry, before beginning to do something, staff members typically test whether the service, product, or approach can work in practice. At the very least, some level of research is conducted to ensure interest exists in what they are doing.
Listening to feedback and identifying potential challenges is always wise before starting out. The only exceptions might be whether those involved are experienced in a specific field or have acquired knowledge through years of work.
Even churches have been known to engage with their community in some way to be assured they are not out of step with the needs of the people they serve. It’s called “proof of concept.”
An author platform, like it or not, should be considered as an author’s proof of concept. It proves people are interested in what you have to say or write. It also proves to a publisher who might consider investing in your work that others are interested in what you do.
When a publisher reviews a book proposal, a common approach to making a decision is based on the answers to two questions:
Will thousands of readers feel this author is writing something worth reading?
Will thousands of readers pay a reasonable price for it?
A track record should answer the first question, as an author platform proves the concept. The publisher will also ask:
Do potential readers show up when the author speaks?
Is there substantial engagement with their social media?
Are people reading the shorter things the author writes, so they will likely read the longer pieces?
If the answers are positive, a publisher will move to the salability question and decide on whether to publish or not. Eventually, it is a financial decision if everything else is positive.
Platform development also allows an author the opportunity to pivot in a new direction or make changes should it become apparent that there is little interest in the initial direction. This is a lot better use of time than finding out after spending a thousand hours writing a book that no one is interested in.
Seems like simple good stewardship of resources.
The desire to have a book published often causes an aspiring author to skip some of the hard questions that are answered by spending thirty minutes per day on a platform/proof of concept. Publishing is already an imprecise field; ignoring the process leading up to publication rarely, if ever, works out well.
(Feel free to insert a few exceptions from the last 25 years here to disprove the above point.)
Any professional writer should have a long list of projects they can write, so the fear of running out of something to write can’t be an excuse not to engage with readers before writing a book.
Suppose you have something urgent and important to communicate. In that case, books may not be the best medium, as they take a considerable amount of time to write and even longer to publish effectively.
The message you have is more important than the medium you use. Books have a great purpose, but so does a monthly newsletter emailed to subscribers.