They’re what publishers ask about your platform.
by Andy Scheer
Would you like a large publisher to say yes to your book proposal?
To increase the likelihood, make sure you can say yes to most of these diagnostic questions, recently provided by an acquisitions editor for a larger Christian publishing house:
“I could love the writing, but if the author platform doesn’t look promising, I couldn’t take it to our publishing committee. We’re using this list with all agents and non-represented authors now.
- What is the author’s sales history? (If the author has been previously published, we need to know houses and numbers and years of publication, as well as the sales numbers being specifically broken out with hard goods to indicate whether trade or mass, and with e-books, is any of the total promotionally priced or free?)
- Does the author have a website?
- Does the author blog? How often?
- Does the author regularly guest blog? Where? How often?
- Does the author have a newsletter? How often does it come out?
- What are the author’s numbers for social media? (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram)
- Is there anything else we should know about what the author does to raise his or her discoverability quotient?
- Are there any known names who would be willing to promote the author’s work through endorsements, recommendations, reviews, etc.?”
As you prepare your next proposal, or consider strengthening your platform, these are all questions you can’t afford to ignore. For your sake, and for all the audience you’d like to reach, I hope you can say yes to most and cite specific numbers.
