When we began writing our Route 66 book, we were told early
on that book publishing had changed in recent decades and we now had to ‘build
our platform’ and have a following before any publisher would take us
seriously. Really?? (yeah, that was our reaction) Sort of a Catch-22: it used to be that the marketing effort
following publication of your book was supposed to drum up publicity to gain
you a following, so that people would buy your book. Now, apparently, book publishers are a lot
fussier and expect you to gain a following before
you’ve finished writing the book, let alone found a publisher – in fact, you
have to have that platform and following before most publishers will consider
doing business with you. And that’s
assuming they like your book idea and manuscript in the first place.
