A Platform is made up of things that will make the public aware of you before your book hits the shelves. In other words a platform is the begening of you marketing career, because 50% of writing is writing and the other 50% is marketing. Despite what you think publishers and agents do little to market you because the smaller publishers simply don't have the money, and they have other clients to attend to. If you manage to get a bigger publishing company like Little Brown, or Random House on your side then your marketing job will be less but still there.
So how do you build a Platform. Well it's quite easy to do in this age of technology.
1. Join a writing site like this. Don't do it just to market your book, but be an actual participating member. The people will respect you and may buy your book. (You should buy their book too)
2. Youtube is where everyone goes, so make your mark their. Again don't just market, give writing lessons. Talk about books and hit on major topics so that you can be known. They're our lots of writers on Youtube, subscribe and become friends with them.
There are many other ways and once you get published your marketing strategy will have to change a little.
Take this guy for Example http://www.branhambric.com/
His book hasn't even come out yet and he already has a following. A following he gained by platforming. He has a blog that is quite popular with Twilight fans, a Youtube in which he gives away prizes, a Twitter that has 11,000 followers and stakes in Myspace, and Facebook.
Winning competitions and getting published in small publications, such as magazines are also great ways to get noticed.
A platform will also increase your chances of getting an agent or being excepted by a publishing company. They like clients that already has the means of selling their books.
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