In my last post I chronicled the long and winding road I travelled to a contract for my new memoir. I feel incredibly lucky, but, as I’m sure you know, getting a book contract is only part of the publishing picture.
In the same message telling my wonderful agent that my memoir had been accepted, the kindly editor added a kind of warning, or at least a very strong recommendation, despite her enthusiasm for the book: "Nancy will have to work on her platform.” Platform?
I was not completely bewildered by the phrase—translated by the editor as the need for me to develop an “online presence.” I had heard it before. Indeed, I had entered the “platform” world with What They Saved. And shared my struggles with the process of self-promotion (at the heart of the platform) in this very column. I described the injunction to launch news of my work into the vast Internet ether as a sado-masochistic plot. A twisted plot in which I became my own torturer. After all, I was promoting “me.” So why was I complaining? And to whom?
I learned a lot and even enjoyed my book launch. So this is what "real" (read: non-academic) writers do! But now that I’m ready for another go-round in dizzying trade book land, I’m having that sinking feeling again. It’s not enough to write your book, you have to take it to market. It’s time to take out the whip.
At this point in my countdown, I have no idea whether I am successfully platforming, or whether my shameless self-promotion has accomplished what it is meant to. Has my online self come into existence? Will that make a difference in the book’s fate?
Is platforming even a verb? Maybe not, but hey, there’s tweeting, Tumblring, blogging, and Facebooking, just to name a few of the activities that have been urged upon me and that I’ve done, with a little help from my friendly publicist, who is a fan of Tumblr; ditto for Twitter. (To tweet: Pretend you are sending newspaper clippings to your friends. Remember, like your father used to do?) I comb newspapers and magazines looking for something to comment on. Oh, and there’s Goodreads. (Well, I would be reading anyway, wouldn’t I?) As far as I can tell, Goodreads is a place where my publisher gives away book galleys for free. (A good reader is someone who knows a bargain when she sees one?)
Um, should I participate in something that’s not a real word—tumblr?—to tumblr? (tumble +bumble+blunder?), though tweet probably is one by now, since everybody does it. Am I not contributing to the illiteracy problem in our country? Next I’ll be saying “awesome.” Every week, at the instigation of my web designer, I post a meditation on the diary page of my website, instead of preparing my seminar. My students can just check out my website if they want to know what I’m thinking!
At least I have eschewed LinkedIn (that must have been the inspiration for leaning in, another unfortunate coinage), and a few other web activities that are supposed to be good for one’s profile (platform?)
There’s also the fact, if we think about these words literally, that for a woman of a certain age, by which I mean a woman, like me, in her seventies, standing on a platform, or showing one’s face in profile, may not really be a selling point. And above all, no "selfies."
Only time will tell. For now, given my grouchy temperament and my Jewish anxiety genes, a shameful confession: despite immense gratitude that I’m finally publishing my memoir, I can’t help feeling I’d rather be home trying to write another book than out there (is there a there there?) trying to sell one. In the end, it’s less lonely.
A wonderful post. I'm sure most writers feel like Nancy. We'd rather be writing than promoting. I can't wait to read Breathless!
Great intelligent piece. Thanks for the simplification of Twitter "Pretend you are sending newspaper clippings to your friends. Remember, like your father used to do?" For the life of me, I can't get a grip on The Twitter! This helped.
Thank you for writing what I'm feeling, too. I'm as comfortable with "platform building" as I am in "platform shoes." But I know that has to change. Thank you for blazing a trail, even if it is grudgingly, and writing about it.
Oops, I think the advice was from Kelly. I'm another not-so-young writer and maybe I need stronger glasses :p
Loved this post! Anyone else feel a certain reluctance to Tweet when you remember the term "twitter-pated"? Nancy, I haven't signed on to Twitter yet, but am thinking I need to, and your comment gives me some idea of what I might do with it. Thanks!
How refreshing it was to read your post, Nancy, and to discover that I'm not the only one who feels a little overwhelmed - or sometimes under-whelmed - by the talk of 'online presence', 'tweeting'. 'facebooking', 'self-promotion' blah blah blah. I feel safer and more secure with my 'real self' and the 'real book' I wrote. I'm not fully convinced by all this pressure to 'have an online presence'. Maybe it works to some degree but sometimes there's an information overload which means you can't see the wood from the trees - just a whole load of voices saying 'buy my book'. I got my best review yet from a chance encounter with an individual person via the internet, not from some prolific 'online presence'. I'm a writer, not a marketing or promotion person. Like you, I'd rather be writing and not 'out there' in some anonymous and over-saturated cyber-space. best of luck with your memoirs, Nancy, and thanks so much for writing what, for me, is a very timely piece. I loved reading it :)
Thanks for the camaraderie--and the suggestions....
I'm already feeling less lonely....
I share your feeling that the solitude of writing can feel less lonely than "reaching out." In spite of that, I am following you on Twitter now. At the very least, you should tweet links to all of your blog posts. That is a relatively easy thing to do if you are already taking the time to blog.
Nancy,
I know exactly how you feel. I'm in my 60's and have spent my life writing many books...in the old traditional; long before the Internet. Not that that way was any better than the new way, believe me. Book signings and newspaper features, pressing flesh, were a pain also. I launched myself into the eBook, internet, etc., world six years ago when some of my new novels went into eBooks for the first time. I started setting up websites for myself. I hated/hate spending all the time promoting and "wasting time" pushing my books on the Web everywhere. My writer friends and I always have a running debate of how much it really helps. No one knows. I still don't Twitter, but I do Goodreads, Facebook, Kindle Giveaways and author/writer loops, post essays, and other things. And at my age (as I'm sure you feel the same way) it all seems so...artificial and trivial. So time consuming. And besides, a memoir, I would think, would be different than a fiction book...do you still need the same kind of platform for that? I, myself, have decided to finish this last round of promoting, and audio books I'm doing (which is even more Internet promo), and then stop cold on the "platforming" for awhile...and finally go back to writing book number nineteen. Good luck to you. Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Nicely done and congrats on book. It is indeed a whole new world out there. I've been a sporadic freelance writer since the 80's, but only started blogging in 2007 @58 (again sporadically). All this talk of finding your niche leaves me 'duh huh'. I'm a generalist - no niche in site, but since most everything I've published has come from the pages of my journal, I made my first e-book journaling and how to publish from it. Think I've sold 1 or 2 copies - my ephemeral platform definitely needs major work.