Imagine your book is in the world, and it’s something of a masterpiece. It keeps getting heralded as a breakthrough in its space, a gift.
Now imagine that everyone who buys your book sits down with it and starts reading. When they finish it, they start over. Then they read it again. And again. In fact, that’s all they do for years and years—read and re-read your book. They neglect their hygiene and their most important relationships to read your book. They skip meals.
Would that make you happy? Is that what you want?
Of course not. Which is to say your book is about more than your book. It’s about transformation—the shift you want your readers to experience after engaging with your work.
It’s easy to see how this works in nonfiction, which often overtly points beyond itself. “Try this in your life,” nonfiction says. When I read Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller, I was eager to implement his guidance in my business. When I started reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, I wanted to try some of his lifehacks that very day.
But I think this is true for fiction as well. When I read The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, I came away with a renewed appreciation for the fragility of life. When I read Carrie by Stephen King, I wanted to do a better job of seeing and reaching out to the marginalized of society.
Don’t get me wrong. Your book is a massive part of your effort to make a difference in the world. It is likely the most potent force you can muster for making your readers’ lives better in some way. At the same time, your book is undeniably part of a larger project.
What does this have to do with platform?
A lot of writers think of platform as a necessary evil, a means to an end—the end being selling a book. They draw a dark line between writing on the one hand and platform-building on the other.
This framework makes building an audience feel like a chore. And if building a platform takes time and involves setbacks, as it inevitably does, then the whole thing begins to feel downright Sisyphean. Why post? Why grow an email list? What’s the point of writing blog posts if the net result is just a few more followers? That’s not going to sell many books!
I want to suggest a different approach: to see platform-building not as a sideline task, but as a continuation of your core work as an author—guiding readers toward transformation. A book is powerful, yes, but it’s part of something bigger. By sharing messages, stories, and posts that invite readers into the change your book brings to life most fully, you can build more authentic, engaged communities.
This approach not only makes audience-building more meaningful, it also tends to result in stronger book sales—because readers can sense when an author is motivated by service and connection rather than sales or obligation.
Endless ways to engage
Let’s say you’re writing a memoir about a crazy bike trip you took with your lover, and one of the big messages of the book is: “Take more chances! We’ve only got so much time, so make the most of your one, precious life.” Long before the book releases and well after, you can be publishing blog posts, sharing social media updates, and sending emails that inspire people to do just that. Maybe you highlight people who live peculiarly good lives or share about simple changes that have brought fulfillment in your own life.
Let’s say you’re writing a novel that drives home the message that our natural world has the power to sustain us if we take care of it. You can be creating or resharing videos that support that message—before your book releases and after.
In other words, since your platform-building is service to a mission that is larger than selling books, the possibilities for sharing engaging material are endless.
Some questions to consider:
- How does thinking about your platform in this framework change the way you think about building an audience?
- How does it influence the things you want to do with your social media presence or your email list?
- What are the most effective ways, apart from your book, that you can help readers begin experiencing the transformation you want for them?
Gathering, not just selling
At the end of the day, as book-marketing expert Tim Grahl points out, building a platform is about gathering together people who like to geek out about the same stuff—whether that’s space travel or time management or the hope of an afterlife.
If you gather folks around a mutual interest that is also central to your book, you will be advancing the change you want to see in the world while also promoting your book
