Platform
I've been hearing a lot about platform lately from children's writers (most of them fairly early in their careers). And I've been considering "platform" for the standard, garden variety children's writer.

Platform for a writer means the value of your name in marketing. This means do you personally have a fan base who will buy a book just because it has your name on it. James Patterson had platform (which is why someone published the blindingly bad Christmas picture book he wrote). Jan Fields does not have platform. The folks who recognize my name are not the same people who are likely to buy children's books JUST because my name is on it.

And I still firmly believe children's writers don't have to have platform to get their first book published. On top of that, I've seen not one jot of evidence to suggest that platform is necessary or even important to selling your first book.

Does this mean I think publishers don't like authors to be proactive about selling the book. Do I think this means I think your publisher would rather you DIDN'T do school visits, author talks, writing conferences, blogs, a website, etc. NO, I certainly do not believe this. I think all of those are great things to do when your book comes out. Heck, I think turning your car into a bat to sell BATS ON THE BEACH was a brilliant thing for Brian Lies to do and I think he's the cat's meow. His marketing efforts combined with a FANTASTIC picture book worked together to put him on the New York Times Bestseller lists and that does offer him some platform (though really, the bats might have more platform with actual kids.) Did he do any of this before he got published? Uh, no.

These are "after the sale" things and over time you can get some "platform" out of them. That's because platform is really all about you. Is there something about your name that sells books? If there is...sure, you're going to be that much hotter a commodity, but for a children's writer, the way to get your "name" to sell books is to write a lot of excellent books, sell them one at a time to good publishers, and then do the standard things to support each book until one day you wake up and people know your name.

People chasing platform before the sale are probably just investing time that is better used elsewhere. Children's book buyers are probably not going to know your name until you sell some books (unless you're building platform by winning American Idol or starring in the next Twilight movie).

Within a very limited sphere, I have name recognition...but that doesn't matter a scrap to children's book editors. For me to sell a book, I still have to write a good book that an editor will believe in. Same as everyone else. And from that step forward, I will be building a useful platform, not by chasing platform, but by doing what writers need to do -- write the best books they can.