The Writer’s Platform: Build It With Just 2 Key Components

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

An online devotional for writers

A Word From The Word

This letter is from Paul. I am writing to God’s holy people at Ephesus. (Ephesians 1:1, NLT)

A Word For Writers

A writer’s platform is a forum that you use to connect with your specific set of readers.

“Publishers and agents seek writers with credentials and authority,” says editor Jane Friedman. “They are visible to their target audience as an expert, thought leader, or professional.”

But before you throw your hands up in despair at building a writer’s platform because you are just starting to accumulate readers – thereby lacking credibility and visibility – understand a bit of history.

Prior to the age of the Internet, agents and publishers rejected nonfiction manuscripts when authors lacked a public stage, a professional network, or celebrity status – in other words, a writer’s platform. The reason was simple. An author who appeared regularly in public has a built-in vehicle to make more sales. An author without visibility sells fewer books.

Fast forward to today. A writer’s platform is not limited to those in the public eye. It can be cultivated by the average Joe. You can build your platform through your blog, podcast, social media sites, television, radio, guest posts, newsletters, and any other means. Your simply need:

• Credibility: you have reliable, helpful, insightful information to share.
• Visibility: you are able to build a following using the tools at your disposal.

In Bible times, too, writers did not need to depend on agents or publishers to gain followers. Paul built a writer’s platform using credibility and visibility. He planted churches across the Mediterranean and mentored other leaders. His focus was on that specific set of readers. Once he established credibility, he continued to be visible to these congregations and individuals by using the tools available to him back then – public speaking and letters. Today we have evidence of his writer’s platform: 13 epistles on Christian doctrine and Christian living.

A Wise Word

Build your writing platform on credibility and visibility. 

A Word To Pray

Gracious Father,

Thank you for establishing credibility in the biblical authors and making their message visible through Your Word. Show me the forums where you want me to cultivate readership. Help me write credibly to them and continue to make my content visible to them. 

In Jesus’s name, Amen.

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