STEP #8: WEIGH WHETHER YOU ARE THE BEST PERSON TO WRITE THIS BOOK … NOW

Goal: Write an author bio, mission statement, and platform description, and evaluate if you are ready and qualified to write your book or if you need more qualifications or expert status or platform.

Who Are You?

1. Question: Why are you the best person to write this book?

2. Question: What makes you the expert on your topic? Your answer can be used to help craft your author bio.

3. Exercise: Write a third-person bio about yourself. Include all the pertinent information that highlights your qualifications and expertise. Include your most important or relevant credentials first and all other details in descending order of importance. Be sure to include your:

•  education

•  personal background

•  life experience

•  business (if relevant)

•  interests

•  passions

•  books you have published (along with the publishers and sales figures, if impressive)

•  awards

•  special skills

•  conferences you’ve attended or participated in

•  contests you’ve won

•  professional memberships

    At the end of the bio, include a list of quotes or reviews about your work from publications or opinion makers and letters or publicity that others would find impressive. Do this exercise in six parts:

•  Write a one-page bio.

•  Write a 150-word bio.

•  Write a 100-word bio.

•  Write a 75-word bio.

•  Write a 50-word bio.

•  Write a 140-character bio for Twitter.

    Note: A first-person bio works well on a blog if you want to be more personal. Some agents and editors prefer first-person bios for memoir; keep this in mind should you want to turn your business plan into a proposal later.

4. Exercise: Craft an elevator pitch or branding statement about yourself. You can do this by answering these questions: Who are you? How do you want to be known? How might your spinoffs help brand you? Will people recognize you by your name, a brand name, or something else?

5. Evaluation: Evaluate your bio to determine if it makes you look like someone qualified to write the book you have outlined and described in previous steps. Find three bios for authors of the competing and comparative book list you have already researched. Write your bio to the same general length as theirs. Then remove the names from all four bios. Have an objective individual who may or may not know you well read the bios and rank them in order of:

•  credibility

•  uniqueness

•  overall personality

•  which author’s book they would most likely purchase

    This will help you evaluate your bio and make adjustments based on objective feedback.

6. Evaluation: Ask yourself if you need to take time to get more experience, hone your craft, or obtain extra credentials to gain some authority. If so, list five things that will help you do so. Make sure they are realistic, obtainable goals that will truly help make you more credible.

What Is Author Platform, and Why Do You Need It?

7. Question: If you wrote your book today with your current platform, how many people could you immediately contact? Does anyone know who you are? How many copies would you sell today? This week? This month?

8. Exercise: Evaluate if you have the type of platform that will attract a publisher or make your book successful right away. To do this, list all the things you’ve done up until now and that you plan to do in the next six to twelve months that will help promote you and your book and give you visibility, such as:

•  speaking engagements

•  teaching

•  teleseminars

•  radio appearances

•  television appearances

•  blogging

•  social networking

•  podcasting

•  hosting a radio show

•  starting a forum or membership site

•  writing for publications

•  joining or participating in professional organizations

    Also, write down the number of people in each of your social networks, on your mailing list, on your blog subscriber lists, etc. When you are done, you should have a list of pertinent information with dates, places, names of organizations, titles of talks or articles, and numbers associated with your different activities.
   Now evaluate:

•  What is the size of your platform? Big? Small? Medium? How do you know this?

•  What is the engagement level of your platform? Do people comment on your blog posts, share your status updates, attend your webinars, and respond to e-mails?

•  How many of the items are related to or have taken place in your target market?

•  How many of the activities are directed at the audience you want to reach with your book?

    The answers to these questions indicate the real size or efficacy of your platform—and if you are ready to publish now.

9. Evaluation: Take another moment to carefully evaluate your visibility, authority, reach, and target audience using these definitions and questions written by Jane Friedman. Answer each of her questions. Then explain how you could improve each one over the next six to twelve months.

•  Visibility: Who is aware of your work? Where does your work regularly appear? How many people see it? How does it spread? Where does it spread? What communities are you a part of? Who do you influence? Where do you make waves?

•  Authority: What’s your credibility? What are your credentials? (This is particularly important for nonfiction writers; it is less important for fiction writers, though it can play a role. Just take a look at any graduate of the Iowa MFA program.)

•  Proven reach: It’s not enough to say you have visibility. You have to show where you make an impact and give proof of engagement. How are you doing this? This could be quantitative evidence (e.g., size of your e-mail newsletter list, website traffic, blog comments) or qualitative evidence (high-profile reviews, testimonials from A-listers in your genre).

•  Target audience: You should be visible to the most receptive or appropriate audience for the work you’re trying to sell. For instance, if you have visibility, authority, and proven reach to orthodontists, that probably won’t be helpful if you’re marketing vampire fiction (unless perhaps you’re writing about a vampire orthodonist who repairs crooked vampire fangs).

10. Question: Do you have a small platform adequate for a small, independent publishing house or maybe even a midsize publishing house?

11. Question: Do you have a large enough platform to approach an agent and a large publishing house or to self-publish successfully?

12. Question: Is your platform small or nonexistent or small and unengaged? Do you need to wait six months to a year—or more—until you have the kind of platform that will result in book sales and fans who will help promote your book?

13. Question: In what ways can you or are you willing to build your platform now? (Example: start blogging, build a mailing list, start a blog tour, get more media gigs, go out and speak, etc.)

14. Question: How much time are you willing to devote to platform-building knowing that this is one of the most important things you can do to change your status from aspiring to published author?

15. Question: How long will it take you to build a strong platform—one that guarantees success?

16. Question: Based on your last answer, when is the best time to write or publish your book? Now? In three months? In six months? In a year? (It’s best to publish when you have a strong platform.)

Do You Feel Compelled to Write and Publish Your Book?

17. Question: At this point in the Author Training Process, do you still feel passionate about your idea? Do have the impulse to write? Do you have a sense of mission or purpose? Do you feel you must write your book?

18. Question: What’s your goal with this book? What do you want to achieve by writing and publishing it?

19. Question: What outcome do you want your readers to achieve from reading your book? Why is it important for them to read your book?

20. Question: If you don’t feel passionate and inspired, why not? Could you just as easily not write your book as write it?

21. Exercise: Write a one- to two-paragraph mission statement that:

•  clarifies why you feel the need to write your book

•  tells your readers why you feel the need to provide this information for them

•  gives your book a purpose to fulfill

•  makes a publisher feel your commitment to help the book succeed

    Evaluate if your mission statement is strong enough to get readers, an agent, or an acquisitions editor “on board” with your cause or your sense of urgency—your need to fulfill this mission. Do you feel confident that you will carry through on making your book a success?