I know a pastor who was given a 3-book contract, a previously unpublished pastor, had no idea what he wanted to write about, but was told “We’ll take care of that by listening to your sermons.” At about the same time a young author sent me a manuscript that was rejected by the same publisher because he had no platform, but they did agree he had very good content. It’s time that Christian publishers gathered together with some authors and some social critics to talk about what’s going on. 

Publishers are concerned about platform, and how to measure that is changing. Evidently Mark Driscoll has a new line of books with Tyndale called Resurgence, and I provide below the questions being asked of potential authors about their platform.

Publishers are businesses, of course, and they want to make money on each book. They want to accomplish this ethically and reasonably and efficiently and abundantly. OK, within reason, that’s fair.

I have some concerns.

First, I’m not convinced twitter followers measures platform accurately or adequately. One can, after all, ramp up one’s twitter followers simply by following others over time — it may take work but one can easily increase one’s “followers” — who may not be followers in the sense publishers want.

Yes, if a given potential author has built a following on twitter over time — through ministries, etc — that number may measure a platform. But I would wonder what a pastor’s church’s size (as a platform) and a pastor’s twitter followers (as a platform) have in common.

Second, platform publishing is the single-most discouraging element of publishing I have seen develop in my career. Why?

Because platform is the clearinghouse before the book’s content.

Because the bigger the platform the easier the contract, which means the content of the book is not the clearinghouse nor the major reason for the contract.

Because big platform does not promise the person is an author or has something to say.

Because the first (author issue) is why we now have ghostwriters, which disgusts plenty of us.

Third, platform publishing means those without a platform have almost no chance of publication. Which is the problem: decision to publish ought to be based far more on the content of the book proposal/book than the platform.

Read More