Write Nonfiction NOW!

To Write Your Book and Get it Published, Build Your Platform NOW!

I just returned from speaking and working as a “book doctor” at the San Francisco Writers Conference. I’ve attended or worked as a volunteer at this particular conference for six years! This was my first year as a presenter.
If I could pass along just one bit of information I heard stressed over and over again at this conference I’d offer this one: BUILD YOUR PLATFORM NOW!

This tip isn’t a new one by any means, but each year the state of the publishing industry makes the need for platform more and more important. And this remains true whether you want to publish your book traditionally or independently. However, each year writers have more and more ways to build that coveted platform without even setting foot outside the door.

That’s right. You can actually remain at home in your lonely garret simply writing and still build a platform…but…and this is a BIG BUT…you must get out into Cyberspace. You must become a social creature–even if you do this only via social networking. You must blog, tweet, comment, post, update, link, etc.

Of course, getting out and speaking helps, too. You’ll find, though, that participating in social media increases your odds of getting speaking gigs.

And then you must put the information about your platform in a truly great proposal that has been preceded by a truly phenomenal query–both of which have to contain the most outstanding pitch ever.

That’s not too much to ask of a writer, is it?

I know this task feels overwhelming, but every writer can accomplish the “feat” of building a great platform.  I’ve been whittling away at a platform for quite a while myself, and now I actually have one big enough to attract an agent and, hopefully, a publisher. I know a lot about pitching and writing proposals as well. Some of you may have even been at the conference’s pitch contest, which I helped judge, or come to talk to me about your proposal during the book doctor sessions.

I’d like to help you get your writing projects and career off and running this year. Please visit my website to see the range of services I offer, including writing coaching, publishing mentoring, workshops and teleseminars–and help building your platform.

Don’t wait to build your platform. If you want to write your book and get it published, start building your platform today.

Nina's New Blog for Nonfiction Writers: How to Blog a Book

There’s a new blog at CopyWright Communications in addition to this one! It’s called How to Blog a Book.

More specifically, I’m blogging a book about how to blog a nonfiction book. So, if you’re interested in blogging a nonfiction book yourself, check it out!

JD Salinger's Death Reminds Us that Sometimes We Need Only Write a Good Book

The other day I wrote a post about author J.D. Salinger’s death for my Jewish Issues Examiner column, but I didn’t think too much about what his passing on January 17, 2010, meant to me as a writer. Then, today I happened upon author Mitch Albom’s column in the Jewish Word Review. (If you recall, Albom wrote Tuesday’s with Morrie.) His words got me thinking.

While today writers–especially  nonfiction writers–constantly feel pressured to go out into the world and become visible, J.D. Salinger provided a phenomenal example of how successful an author can become without ever setting foot outside the house. (Well, to be more exact he did set foot outside his house initially after publication of Catcher in the Rye. Only later did he become a recluse.) In fact, Salinger didn’t want fame at all. He just wanted solitude and anonymity. Despite this fact, his work received great acclaim. Catcher in the Rye, his best-known novel, has sold millions of copies since it first was published in 1951–even though Salinger basically went into hiding.

To me, Salinger’s success provides a testament to the fact that good writing sells even when a writer doesn’t promote his or her book. Yet, he wrote his books in a very different publishing environment.

Now, Salinger also wrote fiction. Fiction writers today might still find success with good writing. A fantastic novelist will likely will find an agent, a publisher and an audience.

These days, however, you need more than just good writing to succeed as a nonfiction writer. You need:

1. a marketable idea
2. a great pitch
3. a platform
4. a superb proposal
5. chutzpah (or the ability to go out and market yourself and your work with total abandon)

Notice, I don’t have good writing on this list. An average nonfiction writer can hire an editor to clean up his or her writing and make it sufficient–or great. Also, someone who doesn’t like to write can hire a ghostwriter or can “speak” a book and have the tapes transcribed and edited into a book. Thus, good writing, while required in the long run, no longer constitutes a required element for the person wanting to produce a nonfiction manuscript. Agents and acquisition editors look at those first five elements and then they look at writing ability. If an editor can improve the writing, the manuscript might still sell. And if the manuscript is purchased, the published book, once well edited, will sell as well.

One day I posted a question on LinkedIn asking editors and writers what social media outlets they felt worked best to promote writers’ work. Many of the writers spoke strongly about their view that writers must only turn out good writing to promote their work. They need only write, they said. “Let your work speak for itself and for you.”

I protested, “You’re wrong. That’s not enough anymore. Writers, especially nonfiction writers, must promote themselves.”

Although I still believe that, J.D. Salinger’s death definitely reminded me that writers do, indeed, need to write–and to write well (or to get a good editor to help them write well).  It reminded me that every once in a while a writer–even a nonfiction writer–simply writes a really great book and that act is enough for that writer to get noticed–to get picked up by an agent or a publishing house or to find a vast readership for a self-published book. It also reminded me that writers can build platforms based almost (notice the word “almost”) solely on good published writing, and today we have many more places to publish our work.

Sadly, though, I think the days of the reclusive writer might have died long before Salinger took his last breath.