The “platform question” is a continual thorn in my side for two reasons. The first is that a platform is the last thing a debut novelist or children’s writer should be thinking about. The second is that, for everyone else, there is no specific following that guarantees acceptance. While platform can be boiled down to numbers, mostly it is an abstraction, meaning publishing invented it—don’t forget that. You convince agents or editors you have one, and if that makes it sound like you need to possess some kind of magical quality, then yes you have the right idea.
But let’s back up and talk about that first reason.
(You can catch up on all the previous columns here!)
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals. Her latest book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (University of Chicago Press), received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with numerous organizations to bring transparency to the business of publishing.