Platform building?? Yeah, that ...

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.

The only exceptions are for ‘name’ authors who are already best sellers – and even they are expected to have ‘platforms’ that include blogs, web sites, social media, and spin-off activities, although their platforms usually come after the books are written or published.  J.K. Rowling, David McCullough, Stephen King and Agatha Christie never ‘built platforms’ – they just wrote and let their publishers do the marketing.  But be assured, all but the dearly deceased Ms. Christie have platforms now.  And even she probably has at least one posthumous web site plugging her works (like they need it, at this point).

What they don’t tell you is that much of this ‘platform building’ is horribly time consuming and doesn’t pay for itself (or maybe doesn’t pay at all, period) – so you have to have 1) another way of making an income in the meantime, and 2) you really have to love what you’re doing and be damned good at it.  You also have to leave enough time to actually finish writing the book for which you’re building this elaborate, time-consuming ‘platform.’  Which means that all of this is a very carefully constructed balancing act that might collapse at any moment (unless you have a Daddy Warbucks or ‘angel’ patron waiting in the wings, which we don’t).

How do I feel about all of this?  On one hand, it’s a kick doing spin-off activities like creating podcasts and doing videos – no doubt about it.  I love it.  I’m also very proud of the film we made recently did on the Jewish West Side in the north Lawndale area of Chicago – we all are, all having contributed to it – and I think we’ll do a good job with the next films.  On the other hand, we now need to do this in a way that makes us some money so that I can finish writing the book (I’m freelance with no permanent income, whereas the other guys aren’t).  Then we can develop a marketing plan to promote it while we make more films related to the material we’ve developed.  I could easily see doing more of this for the rest of my life – if I can find a way to afford it.

The folks who said ‘Do what you want – the money will follow’ never lived through a recession like this at a time when journalism is also falling apart, victim to shortened attention spans, publishers who look only to short-term profits, and the vagaries of the Internet, where everyone wants everything for free.  You don’t get good journalism or good documentaries for free.  Yeah, Keith has been talking about how we made this film for free, but it was nothing of the sort:  Joe and I invested tons of time and research in this; all our time – mine, Joe’s, Keith’s, Luke’s, Dr. Cutler’s and Mr. Dolejs’s – is money, and the production equipment and facilities were provided by the college, which had to pay for them.  That money came from somewhere.  I, for one, spent time on this that I probably should have spent on earning a living instead.  No way was any of this ‘free.’

I’m still looking for the answer on how I afford to do what I know is clearly a good thing.  Let me know if y’all have any practical help on that.