Author's Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books

The buzz word in publishing houses and at writer's conferences these days is platform. As in, What is the author's platform? With more than 175,000 new titles published each year, publishers want to sign authors who are capable of helping to sell their book. The platform may be that the author is a widely syndicated columnist, is the internationally acclaimed expert in his field, or is a highly sought-after motivational speaker. Or perhaps the author is a New York City television news anchor. These types of platforms make a publisher's mouth water. But what about authors who aren't widely known or acclaimed? How does the ordinary guy build a credible platform? The answer: the Internet. Today you can build an international platform right from your kitchen table even if your kitchen table is in Manhattan . . . Kansas. AUTHOR: Stephanie Chandler is an author of several business and marketing books including "The Nonfiction Book Marketing Plan: Online and Offline Promotion Strategies to Build Your Audience and Sell More Books," "Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field and Promote Your Service-Based Business," "LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business," "From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks, and Information Products," "Booked Up! How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book to Grow Your Business," and "The Author's Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books."