Out of the mouths of babes -- nonfiction platforms explored
Or at least out of the mouths of hot young lifeguards.
I took a book along with me today when I went to the pool. It's all about how to write nonfiction book proposals. Handy, because I'm writing one. As I was checking in at the front desk, one of the lifeguards asked "what sort of nonfiction book are you proposing?"
I told him, and he immediately replied "Are you involved with that locally?"
So, you see, even teenage lifeguards realize that when writing nonfiction, you need some sort of platform. And not a diving platform, either.
No, when writing nonfiction, a platform is the term used to describe some correlation between your life and the book you're proposing. Since the lifeguard brought it up, we'll use swimming as the topic, and hypothesize a book about learning to swim.
To have a valid platform, you'd need some or all of the following qualifications, or something pretty darn terrific along the same lines:
1. Experience swimming. Nobody wants to read a book about how to swim written by someone who can't swim. Maybe a memoir, but not nonfiction.
2. Experience teaching swimming. Or lifeguarding. Or experience swimming and teaching something else. Like gym class.
3. Experience writing about swimming. Like say you're the local columnist assigned to cover swim teams. That'd help, but you'd still have to connect up how it is that you're qualified to teach people how to swim.
Got the idea?
So, in my case, I have to be sure when I write my proposal that I explain my qualifications to write about my topic, particularly since my proposed book is aimed at teens and tweens, and I am, well, not one. Still, the qualifications are there, and with only a slight spin, I can look hyper-qualified. But that's the key to building a platform -- finding the actual qualifications you have and linking it up so that you sound like a valid, logical choice to be the author.
Now that I've thought about it more, I've got my platform nailed, and I'm ready to dive in -- to my proposal, of course. I'm not quite ready for the diving platform yet.
I took a book along with me today when I went to the pool. It's all about how to write nonfiction book proposals. Handy, because I'm writing one. As I was checking in at the front desk, one of the lifeguards asked "what sort of nonfiction book are you proposing?"
I told him, and he immediately replied "Are you involved with that locally?"
So, you see, even teenage lifeguards realize that when writing nonfiction, you need some sort of platform. And not a diving platform, either.
No, when writing nonfiction, a platform is the term used to describe some correlation between your life and the book you're proposing. Since the lifeguard brought it up, we'll use swimming as the topic, and hypothesize a book about learning to swim.
To have a valid platform, you'd need some or all of the following qualifications, or something pretty darn terrific along the same lines:
1. Experience swimming. Nobody wants to read a book about how to swim written by someone who can't swim. Maybe a memoir, but not nonfiction.
2. Experience teaching swimming. Or lifeguarding. Or experience swimming and teaching something else. Like gym class.
3. Experience writing about swimming. Like say you're the local columnist assigned to cover swim teams. That'd help, but you'd still have to connect up how it is that you're qualified to teach people how to swim.
Got the idea?
So, in my case, I have to be sure when I write my proposal that I explain my qualifications to write about my topic, particularly since my proposed book is aimed at teens and tweens, and I am, well, not one. Still, the qualifications are there, and with only a slight spin, I can look hyper-qualified. But that's the key to building a platform -- finding the actual qualifications you have and linking it up so that you sound like a valid, logical choice to be the author.
Now that I've thought about it more, I've got my platform nailed, and I'm ready to dive in -- to my proposal, of course. I'm not quite ready for the diving platform yet.