Blog 601 – 04.13.17
The Building Of A Platform, A Stage, A Following

Two years ago I attended a two day writer’s workshop in Chicago. I attended because I had written a book about by beloved daughter, Emily Elaine White, who died unexpectedly at thirty-two years of age after a brief bout with liver cancer that she had named Norman and had intended on a Friday to fight and beat but had called me the following Monday morning with the most heart breaking words a parent will ever hear, “Daddy, I’m not gonna make it.” A little over a week later she was gone. I wrote a book about her called, “The Little Girl Who Sang Her Song To Any One Who Came Along.” The title comes from a Nora Jones song that Emily had sent me on one of her famous mixed CD(s) that describes my Angel Emily to a tee, right down to the “Crooked little smile on her face that tells a tale of grace that’s all her own.”

So I attended the workshop hoping to learn how to get my book published. Time was when one just sent a completed manuscript to a publisher who had a staff member read it and let the powers that be at the publishing company know if they thought it worthy of publication. Now days publishers do not want to see your manuscript they want to see a brief book proposal and a marketing plan. They are not even interested in your book unless you can prove that you have a plan to generate at least a guaranteed ten thousand sales of your book. I heard some good talks at the workshop and met several other writers but the most information I got about publishing was from a book they recommended called Platform by Michael Hyatt. Mr. Hyatt says the most important thing for any writer, artist, or salesman with a product or service to sell is to build a platform, a stage, a podium, a following. Even more important than having something, to say, sing, write, show or sell is having an audience or a market.

So after I got back from the writer’s workshop. I started my blog at: http://www.thencouragingword.co The domain http://www.theencouragingword.com was already taken. My motto came from a favorite cowboy song that I first heard as a boy, Home On The Range. A line from the song says, “Where seldom is heard a discouraging word.” I framed that sentiment more positively as, “www.thencouragingword.co Where often is heard an encouraging word.” My three fold aim of each and every blog is to write something: Entertaining, Thoughtful, and Encouraging. It is a noble goal, and when I pull it off it is a rewarding experience for writer and reader alike. Yesterday, I posted Blog 600. My goal if I live long enough to accomplish it is to post ten thousand blogs and long before that to have way in access of ten thousand loyal readers who might be interested in a bound copy or digital one of my book about Emily.

Four months after I began my blog in March of 2015 in July of that year I posted a chapter a day from the book about Emily. I started my blog posting Mondays through Fridays hoping to leave weekends open for travel, speaking, and or singing opportunities (Which may yet happen – I did have one man in Ghana ask me if I was available to speak to his group but I had to pass, I do have a day job and getting the time off was not feasible at that time). I posted the remaining chapters in the Emily book on the successive 15th (s) of the following months and had it completely out there shortly before July 2016. That July (July will hence forth be to me the month of Emily for she was born on the 15th and passed on the 20th, thirty two years later) I posted a chapter each day and two on the thirty first so the entire book was posted in the month of Emily 2016. I intend to keep putting it out there each Emily/July as long as my fingers work to push the buttons.

I wrote above that what you have to say, write, or sell does not matter as much as a platform, a stage, or a market for it, but I do not really believe that, neither do you. For you Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ancient Mariner, fans I am as he was. I have a story to tell and it is both my curse and my blessing that I want everyone I meet and many more that I may never meet, at least on this side, to know the little girl who sang her song to anyone who came along, Emily Elaine White. I care less that I am ever well known than I do that she is. She, I, we are already well-known in higher circles but I aim to see that my daughter is more widely known in lower and middle circles too. She is my hero and will be yours too when you come to know her. Look for her story, coming this July to a blog near you: http://www.thencouragingword.co
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White