THE PLATFORM

Let's take a look at blogs. What are they up to, what are they good for, why do folks have them?

There are people out there who are compulsive communicators. They have to say things to other people. Sometimes it may not even matter what they're saying. They just want to be heard. Their blogs are more like personal diaries they've decided to share with the world.

Others have axes to grind. Or maybe lots of axes, a veritable hardware store of edged implements. They need to make points, to educate, to enlighten. They have Important Stuff to say.

And yes, their points can be ground to a sharpness resembling the tip of a needle. With barbs: When the point is made, the needle goes in, and stays.

The point may be concerned with the intimate and personal or with humanity on a global scale. Keeping in mind all politics are local. Is this how the world's mind gets changed? The guy is saying: Let's find out.

Moving away from the ideological, we approach the commercial end of the spectrum. Some blogs exist to sell widgets and services that repair or tweak widgets.

Other commercial blogs are meant to be platforms where a personality can present itself to the world—with a commercial end in mind. There's money involved, somehow, down the line. Maybe a very long way down the line.

This blog is supposed to be such a platform. It's not a very good one, let's face it. (Though I'm pretty sure I could make it worse.)

I put up the occasional post, and that's nice (read: minimal), but there's a bunch of other stuff I should be doing. At the very least I should be posting more often, maybe even welding those posts to a reliable schedule.

I should be more engaging, soliciting comments and questions and so forth. I should be running contests and tossing prizes around. I should be promoting the blog by offering to guest on other, actually successful blogs. (You could ask: What's in it for them? A day off, that's what.)

There's lots I could (should) be doing. So why aren't I? The short answer: I'm busy. I've got a lot of crap to write.

The slightly longer answer: I'm pretty much an idiot.

(Being an idiot may impact other areas of my life as well. It's hard to tell [being an idiot and all].)

One of the things platform-savvy folks do is offer some token in exchange for collecting email addresses. Then they mass-mail to those addresses when they have "exciting" news to disseminate.

I have to say, that sounds like a lot of work. Also, what I consider "exciting" (i.e.: I could end up making some money) might not seem so exciting to the folks on the list.

Which brings us to one of the nastiest parts of being an indie pubbing author. You don't just have to write the damned books, you have to try to sell them to people. And to sell them, you have to help those potential buyers find your stuff.

Visibility is key.

It can be a lot easier if you turn indie with a huge trad-pub following, especially if you've got one or two successful series going. Make the first volume perma-free and announce the coming of MONKEY MAN number eight (or whatever). Let the inertia of your established career scrape a furrow across the belly of the World Wide Web.

If you're being trad pubbed right now, get your platform up right away, while existing books can promote it. (Your publisher will thank you, for now.) Then go indie and take your following with you.

Someone once said the establishment of the platform should precede the first book by two years. Any of you guys ready to plan that far ahead?