Grael Norton

Listened to an interesting presentation last night at the Arizona Book Publishing Association monthly meeting.   Grael Norton, publishing consultant for Wheatmark, Inc. in Tucson, shared with us the ins and outs of creating a book platform.

What is a platform?  It’s the people who know you and like what you do.   Your fans.  It’s how people hear about you and your projects.   

Platform building in the digital age is cheap and can grow even when you’re not working on it.  The beauty of the web is that it keeps a record of your activities.    You can use a money site like Amazon or Barnes & Noble to sell, and drive traffic to your own blog/website as well. 

The key activity or component is followup, he said.   Keep in touch, test market new book ideas, collaborate with readers, and announce new titles.  You can even use your blog to work on your book or ideas publicly.

Tools to help you create your platform include emarketing tools such as Constant Contact, and customer relationship management software, such as salesforce.com or Goldmine. 

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