Why This Book Was Written
This book is a product of years of collecting strategies, best practices, pre-digested routes, and major elements in getting up and running with a solid author platform. It will be a relief to be able to do my job more efficiently, to be able to simply hand authors this book and say, “All of your questions about the author platform are answered in this book. Just follow the 14 steps.”
The beauty from an agent’s and author’s and publisher’s perspective is that this is a complete system that covers all the bases. We’ve identified 14 steps that work together to supercharge author visibility and audience. Once a platform is built, it has a magnetic power of its own and can be expanded. We’ve found that author platforms impact sales in major positive ways, which affects the bottom line for everyone involved in creating books. The motivation for taking the time to create this book is that our authors demanded it, knowing that an effective author platform directly increases sales and publishing opportunities.
For decades, I have been listening to authors’ concerns about platform and promotion. As they work hard on their books, consulting, and other day jobs, they wonder, where will they find the time to research, much less create a successful author platform? Finally, the time has come to answer every question, concern, problem, and complaint right here, under one roof.
Our Unique Experience and Value to Authors
You’ll find a unique and valuable perspective here. We wrote this book from two unique perspectives and sets of experience that will benefit you in many ways: more than 30 years of my own publishing experience and background helping give voice to authors’ ideas via books, coupled with an equal number of years of tracking and understanding technology, right as it’s being created, by my coauthor, Mike McCallister. Mike is personally dedicated to simplifying and clarifying technology and making it accessible to all. There are many online short articles and blogs about how authors can use tech, but these pieces are often written by those who are still figuring it out, not having come from the depth of experience offered here. Misinformation online is frustrating at best, time wasting at worst, and can set authors in the wrong direction to the point of losing motivation to finish creating a cohesive author platform.
As a former editor at top publishing houses for a decade and current literary agent for two decades, I’ve worked closely with trendsetters, idea makers, and inventors of the technology we use today, alongside writers, many of whom have given voice to clarifying tech tools. Over many years, I’ve worked to create success for authors in every way possible, which has led to many millions in book sales. My publishing work has included all aspects of the book creation process, from nurturing ideas to editing, acquiring, and promoting the final book products. Far beyond agenting, I’ve created, responded to, and applied audience building and promotion strategies for authors who have proved successful at the element that gets book deals secured: building an author platform.
Mike McCallister, my coauthor and author client, is a technology wizard and pro writer who has lived and breathed the Internet since the World Wide Web was born. He can offer a perspective that few people have, showing you tips, tricks, and techniques hidden all over the web that you can in turn use for maximum outreach and maximum return of audience loyalty. We’re sharing our decades of combined experience in publishing and technology to dispel confusion, zap misinformation, and help author clients to succeed with a minimum investment of both time and money.
Our Unique Agency at Waterside
We’re a top literary agency in the USA, and as a team of agents, we’ve been involved with multimillions of book sales over the years. We’re still doing something very right at the leading edge of publishing, even as we build bestsellers in today’s chaotic publishing climate. I still place 100+ books a year from my own desk into contracts, including a large percent of revisions of books that sold so well that we updated them multiple times. The fundamental understanding of what publishers are looking for, and understanding what audiences need, are the driving forces that move us along on the cutting edge. You can see some of the successes our authors have had in the stories concluding the chapters of this book.
Our agency platform at Waterside has been built over three decades. Our own database of author clients numbers in the thousands, and with each author comes our connection to their network of author friends, colleagues, and associates. The Waterside website has solid traffic along with newsletter subscriptions. The appreciation notes and thanks we receive as Waterside agents often show up online through ebook publications. While showcasing our numerous contributions in the trade, they also help widen our audience outreach online. My own LinkedIn network, which I’ve cultivated over years, reaches over a million targeted and interested individuals through connections and groups; my Google+ circles include a variety of publishing-related groups and thousands of authors and their networks. Our book now has a growing Facebook fan page along with a budding blog and website enhanced by incoming links and Twitter. For years Waterside Conferences were well known in the publishing industry, bringing authors and publishers together to exchange ideas. Our website, massive author network, and longstanding relationships with publishers are fundamental measures of Waterside’s well-established social presence and authority in the publishing industry. Top-selling titles and expansive series such as the For Dummies line began with Waterside clients. Our agency of author clients is more akin to a tribe-type membership who we listen to and dialogue with regularly. Our major success and top ranking in the publishing industry was built on longstanding relationships with authors and publishers, resulting in mega book sales over the years.
Our Author Clients and Publishing Partners
Our biggest inspiration has come from working with the amazing cutting-edge thinkers who have shared their techniques, ideas, and best practices with us. It’s through this group of exceptional writers, thinkers, innovators, and pioneers in new publishing techniques (that we’re proud to call clients) that we’re able to articulate proven methods here to propel you to your goals.
We’re greatly appreciative to all of the many authors who have shared their successes and insider knowledge over the years, and to the talented and dedicated publishers, editors, and marketing departments who have shared their time, insights, and long-standing and in-depth knowledge. We are privileged to work with you. It’s a monumental task to acknowledge all of your contributions over the years that have made their way into this book of solutions for authors. A heartfelt thanks to all of you who have helped transform these ideas into book form!
—Carole Jelen