Tuesday, May 22, 2012

In The Demon's Head: The Beauty Of Your Own Platform






In The Demon's Head #25 : The Beauty Of Your Own Platform
May 22, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to this late edition of “In The Demon's Head” I'll be honest today's issue is a LOT later then normal because me being the short sighted tunnel vision fool that I am, forgot it was Tuesday. I'm very excited to announce first off that I am over 500 views for the blog which excites me. I plan on starting next month and trying to see how many hits I get in a month. Second, Liz found a new app that is call Wattpad and I'm now officially a member of WattPad and Red Room. I intend to have all of the pieces I currently have available up on both of these sites by the end of the night. Last I'd like to once again thank Jennifer Chow for her interview with me that went live this past Sunday you can check that out here.

Now all of the things I've listed above add together to help make what's becoming my platform. Add that to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and I'm slowly turning the wheels to help me take my writing career and launch it to high levels. But as it stands I know there are some people out there that don't really understand what a platform is, how it works, and why they need one I was in your shoes one time, so I'm here today to kind of explain these things and why it's always smarter to start on one long before you need it.

What is a Platform?

A Platform is basically just as it's name suggest, a way to launch your career. Musicians, Comics, Writers, almost every type of entertainment field out there these days requires you to have a platform, which is to say that you are required to already have established a fan base before people will even take a look at you. It didn't always used to be this way but with technology and Social Media on fire it's becoming more and more critical to have a platform in place when chasing a dream.

How Do They Work?

Platforms are basic diving boards in one way or another. As a writer they can make a major difference depending on what avenue you decide to take your career. If you decide to self publish, a strong and defined platform can give you a leg up on the competition. If you have 5000 Facebook Page likes, and a the same number of Twitter followers, that gives you 10,000 possible potential customers. If you decide to go the traditional route this gives you a potential customers as well only this time your not handling the entire process but it shows that your have a way of getting people to buy which can lead to larger advances and better book deals.

Why It's Smarter to Start Before You Need One
I've been writing for quite a while and for the longest time I never realized that I needed a platform for my writing. I started working with a group on Facebook and while it didn't seem to work out that well for me in all honesty because the group settings got stupid, I started a page and a twitter page that I use to this day. I have also began using different ways to promote my writing including WattPad and Red Room as I said earlier. It's a great feeling to help promote everything that I'm doing. Why I say that you want to work on your Platform before you need it is because it doesn't form overnight, so start building and promoting now. Never think it's too early.

Platforming is a challenge that everyone needs to improve their writing career. So as I'd like to say, promote and platform early and often.

Thanks everyone, that will do it for this Tuesday's edition of “In The Demon's Head” Sign up in the box above with your email to have new issues sent directly to your inbox. You can also sign up via your favorite reader, and you can share the blog or post on your favorite social media sites with the new tools above. Finally, there's a paypal donate button on the top left. If you like what I'd do I'd love any kinda of donation that you might want to throw my way.

Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

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4 comments:

  1. Never heard about WattPad and Red Room until now. What are your thoughts about them?

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  2. Honestly, I'm no longer a fan of Red Room and have since stopped using it. When I wrote that I didn't know a lot about it and thought that maybe it would be an interesting place, and for someone with some sense and time to learn it, it could be. I however, don't really like to waste a whole lot of time trying to learn formats of websites and that's why I love Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. On the flip side WattPad is FANTASTIC. It gives you a free forum to write your stories and share them with people, it has a fan/fan of system like the follower system from Twitter but it's something that's easy to use and great in my eyes. Also, another good one is Good Reads, I know I didn't mention it in this post but I've learned how to use it and will likely post stories up there as well. I haven't had a lot of success with either yet but you need to saturate the market as with anything. Hope this helps out a little.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks. That's really helpful. Haven't used Goodreads in awhile, and only as a fan.

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    2. Its a great site and easy to use I love goodreads it's a good way to help out your work out there

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