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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Platform » Page 3

Platform

What’s Your Platform Identity?

By Dan Balowon November 18, 2021
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A mistake for authors is defining their author platform as a list of people to market their next book on social media.

Can you imagine a pastor of a church looking out over their congregation during a sermon and primarily thinking who among them would make good contacts when the new building finance program is announced the following week?  Maybe some do, but I cannot imagine a worse way to approach life. We could fully expect some sort of bad future in store for the pastor and congregation.

If you view your author platform as nothing more than transactional relationships, it will fail. If you view it primarily as sharing your heart and caring for a group of people, it will have far more value and possibly be responsive when you have a book.

I’ll go right to the spiritual stuff, with apologies for the jarring transition.

Have you ever been in a group studying your identity in Christ when the leader asks those attending to “tell us who you are”? And members of the group default to gender, employment, relationship status, political affiliation, recovery status, and sports teams?

I have.

And this after an hour-long study of Scripture that clearly spoke about who we are in Christ, how one has a new life and a new identity.

Habits are hard to break.

Same with author platforms. Thinking of them only in terms of marketing potential is chasing after the wind. They are much more.

An author platform is all-inclusive, including all the elements we tell you to do in workshops and blog posts on this issue, like qualifications, branding, and messaging, but also other things that might not be obvious.

For Christian authors, the not-so-obvious things, which affect the success of your platform, are a host of “soft” messages that become obvious when you communicate on your platform:

  • What is most important to you.
  • How you deal with people who are unlike you or against you.
  • How you handle success.
  • How you deal with adversity.
  • Who you think you are in Christ.

These all roll up into your platform identity, which becomes obvious to all who follow you.

All are personal and subjective, which is why we usually ignore them when discussing how to build a platform.

Sure, there are best-practices for building a social-media following. But platform is so much more as you share your life with a group of people, interact with them, and once in a while mention something about your book.

In your platform, tell us who you are and let your identity shine through.

Maybe you are just one of the redeemed, given an opportunity to serve the Redeemer.

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Category: Platform

Why I Represent the Author: Agent Edition

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon October 14, 2021
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My reasons for representing an author may differ from why I read a certain book. Content: When I see something fresh and different, but not so far out that no one can relate, an author has my attention. Talent: Although my office must decline talented authors every day, writing talent will get authors a close look. Proposal: A professional proposal shows me the author has taken the time to learn …

Read moreWhy I Represent the Author: Agent Edition
Category: Book Proposals, Career, Pitching, Platform

Books, Hooks, and Good Looks

By Bob Hostetleron September 30, 2021
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I love hooks. As a writer, I work hard on my hooks. When I was a magazine editor, the hook was often the best way for a writer to make a good first impression on me. And now, for me as a literary agent, the hook is the first and one of the most important criteria I use in evaluating a book pitch, proposal, or manuscript. A good book hook will often prompt me to give a project a more careful, …

Read moreBooks, Hooks, and Good Looks
Category: Book Business, Book Proposals, Career, Get Published, Pitch, Pitching, Platform, Self-Publishing, Social Media, The Writing Life

What if Platform Is the Goal?

By Dan Balowon September 16, 2021
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We’ve been here before on this blog, discussing author platforms and how to get one. It’s a never-ending process, and it has always been a requirement for authors. If you find yourself talking about author platforms and believe “Gone are the days when an author could just write,” you are not completely accurate. Top authors from the “old days” were magazine or newspaper columnists with tens of …

Read moreWhat if Platform Is the Goal?
Category: Platform

A Literary Agent’s Wish List

By Bob Hostetleron May 27, 2021
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People often ask me, “What are you looking for?” It’s a natural question to ask a literary agent, even when the questioner knows that the agent has offered a detailed answer on the agency website (here, for example). After all, something could’ve changed. I may, since updating my interests, have suddenly decided to get bold, branch out, and try to sell a systematic theology in iambic pentameter. …

Read moreA Literary Agent’s Wish List
Category: Agents, Book Proposals, Craft, Grammar, Pitching, Platform, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life

Platform Planning

By Dan Balowon May 26, 2021
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The never-ending struggle of an aspiring author to meet the requirement of publishers for a big enough “platform” can be frustrating at best, or worse, discourage someone from writing at all. Platforms are always built on content, not the container. Social media doesn’t give you a platform; it is the content that causes it to grow–or not. All medias are simply channels to people, and using …

Read morePlatform Planning
Category: Branding, Marketing, Platform

Every Book Doesn’t Need to Shake the Earth

By Dan Balowon March 11, 2021
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If you look at any list of best-selling books expecting every one of them to be a literary masterpiece, you are probably setting yourself up for disappointment. “Are you kidding me? A book about famous racehorses of the 20th century is a bestseller? People bought that instead of my 1,200-page book on linguistic anomalies in Hebrew and Greek biblical texts? For Pete’s sake, half of the horse book …

Read moreEvery Book Doesn’t Need to Shake the Earth
Category: Encouragement, Inspiration, Pitching, Platform

Free Webinar on Building Your Author Platform

By Steve Laubeon October 19, 2020
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Why write a book no one will read? I have a theory that a book has no impact unless the book is read. But a book won’t be read until it is purchased. Even if it was given to you, someone bought it. Thus the power of your words begin at the point of sale. In today’s world, that means the book has to be discovered. No matter how good your book is, if someone doesn’t know about it, …

Read moreFree Webinar on Building Your Author Platform
Category: PlatformTag: Author Platform, Platform, Webinar

Writing in Multiple Genres, Okay? Not Okay?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon September 17, 2020
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The “Your Questions Answered” Series __________ In a recent Q & A, Steve Laube talked about how writers will pitch different projects to him in the same meeting:  a novel, a nonfiction, a devotional, etc.  He said that writers need to decide “what they want to be when they grow up.”  I’d like some clarity on why writing in different genres is discouraged.  As ideas come to …

Read moreWriting in Multiple Genres, Okay? Not Okay?
Category: Agents, Genre, Pitching, Platform, Your Questions Answered Series

How Big Should an Author’s Platform Be?

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon August 13, 2020
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The “Your Questions Answered” Series __________ PLATFORM. I read a lot of conflicting ideas about the importance of having a substantial platform: (1) It used to matter more but its importance is declining, but also that (2) a writer must have at least 5k followers on social media to even be considered for agent representation, and (3) some kinds of social media “count” more than …

Read moreHow Big Should an Author’s Platform Be?
Category: Platform, Your Questions Answered Series
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