Jeff Greenwald

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I’m getting out of my writing room long enough to take Jeff Greenwald’s Page to Stage class at the San Francisco Writers Grotto.

It starts Jan. 17. Sounds like fun. I think there are still spaces available. Join me???? Here’s the link.

Jeff  is a journalist, author and stage performer. And he’s got a book out called Shopping for Buddhas. Sounds like an interesting guy. Let’s see if he can turn me into Tina Fey in four short weeks.

Seriously, I have an agenda here. I’m pretty happy with the state of my book, Finding Holy. It’s 95% written. OK, 90%. It only needs tweaking and the filling in of a few modest holes.

But I’ve got at least one agent and multitudes of editors and publicists at book publishers, big and small, telling me that Platform, with a capital P, is everything. One editor even told me that it’s easier for a publisher to fix up a book that is mediocrely written than it is to get attention for a book and author who’s got no platform.

OK, what’s Platform? It’s your credentials to write a book (which I have), but it’s also the ready-made, identifiable audience that a writer brings with her when she or her agent approaches a publisher. Giving talks, leading workshops and getting onto NPR are mighty helpful. (So does keeping this blog, btw. Help my Platform; send the link to your friends!)

Soooo. In the interest of strengtheining my Platform, I’m off to Jeff’s class next week. Let’s hope he can make me a star of stage and screen. Or, better yet, a published author.

To be continued . . .