Today closes our first week of our Summer-Free-For-All. If you are new to our blog we normally have a monthly or weekly topic. But for this month we’ll be a little more scatterbrained in our approach (Stephanie’s going to love it!). We’ll still be bringing you advice and encouragement to get more writing done, even in the summer.
I’ve been thinking a lot about marketing and platform lately. I hope Tuesday’s guest blog with Christina Katz got you thinking. I posted the topic of platform to a children’s writer’s group that I’m on and was met with a resounding silence. I wasn’t sure if that was because no one knew what I was talking about or because no one thought children’s writer’s needed to establish platforms. Or if everyone is just trying to figure it all out like I am.
Then a few brave souls stepped forward and confirmed that children’s (fiction) writing is a strange dragon to develop a platform for. Yes, we do need platforms. No, we don’t need platforms.
So I got curious…and then sidetracked. One of my favorite authors is Gail Carson Levine. She doesn’t have her own website (meaning there is a site for her books, but it is hosted by Harper Collins). She doesn’t blog. She’s not on Facebook (her name is taken on Facebook, but by a fan, not her.) I know she is active in her local community—she teaches children to write at her local library. But, she’s been an author for awhile now, before all this platform talk really took off.
Hmmm, who is a newish author I like? Sarah Prineas. Her second book in her Magic Thief trilogy recently came out. My son and I fought over who was going to get to read it first. Curses, but I can’t read and drive home at the same time, so he won out.
She isn’t on Facebook either. But, she has a website (in addition to the Harper Collins website) and she blogs. So I hopped on over to her blog and found this gem: Living with the Dream. Posted June 3, 2009, one year after the day her first book was released. Her blog post is a wonderful reflection on the first year of a new novelist. A must-read!
And that’s when I got sidetracked. I’ll think about platform again tomorrow.
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5 users responded in this post
Yay, Shonna! Sidetracked is good. I always find wonderful things on those side trails. Great link. I just spent time reading it.
Now if I could just to find the way back to the main path. LOL!
I am always interested in the journey of a newly published writer. I am constantly thinking about platform and marketing these days and wonder why not all author’s don’t have websites. When I want to know more about a book or more about an author and cannot find a website for them, even a basic one, it’s always frustrating. I wonder how much website really influence the whole marketing thing.
thanks, Shonna, great blog, it’s always interesting what we find in our wandering. For instance, I found your blog! thanks for sharing. My muse is hot today so back to work!!
Hmm, even though I don’t have kids, I’m thinking I want to read some of these kids books! They sound fun! And I LOVED the Sarah Prineas post.
Update: Gail Carson Levine is now blogging! Here: http://gailcarsonlevine.blogspot.com/
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