Platform Shlatform

The very word makes me want to go lie down, but every writer who wants more than just her spouse and mother to read her book (much less buy it), needs to have a platform. A platform is what I bring to the table, a promise to publishers that I have a network, a following, a series of conduits for getting the word out whenever I publish. It’s the self-generated professional alliances, civic memberships, lecture gigs, teaching gigs, radio and TV gigs. My bookclubbability.

[Placeholder for whingy paragraph on how I didn’t get into writing to be my own flak and shouldn’t publishers be responsible for publishing, which implies promotion, etc. etc.]

After much hand-holding and prodding by tech-savvy consultants, I’m inching towards world domination tweet by tweet, and now that I know my way around blogs, facebook, twitter, shelfari, booktour, and linkedin, the next step is definitely a book trailer. But how? Every reenactment/dramatization I’ve seen borrows its cast and camera techniques from America’s Most Wanted, and the best of the soundtracked tearjerkers make me feel manipulated in a way I’m willing to have happen exactly once, preferably by the book itself. If anyone out there has great trailer models, holler…. In the meantime, here are a few of my favs:

Dreaming in Hindi

I Am in the Air Right Now

Head Case