Platforming an Audience

My start as a whitewater pioneer, the year approximately 1960.

Over the past year I have been advised repeatedly that I am unlikely to sell many copies of my memoir, RISK, unless I develop a PLATFORM on which to build an audience. I still can’t say I understand this on an intellectual level because I read a lot, including many memoirs, and I do not feel like I was influenced by the author's PLATFORM at all. At least not in a way that I recognized.  

Although I believe I have written a book worthy of reading, I also do not believe that what I do in my life, or my thoughts, merit putting out in the world in a constant stream of titled snippets.

I find it is better to indulge in social media, like caffeine, alcohol, and chocolate, in small doses.

So for now, the foundation of my PLATFORM will be my website and this blog. Like my memoir, the blog will travel along two separate, and occasionally intersecting channels. 

First, I will be writing about female change makers in the world of whitewater paddling. On this blog you will read  about a woman from Indonesia who has become a leader in integrating environmental sustainability practices in the commercial whitewater rafting industry and international rafting competitions. You will also  read about a trio of women from the USA who recently organized and taught the first whitewater guide school for women in India.

In addition, I will be writing about challenges, learnings, and successes of parenting, from the perspective of mothers and children who have been affected by childhood trauma. I plan to write about kinship care, atypical brain development in children, the effects of trauma on child brain development, and parenting resources like the book, ‘Loving Solutions. A Parent’s Guide to Raising Tough Kids (Special Applications to ADD/ADHD Kids)’. 

The confluence between the two channels of my blog flow will include the power of engaging in wild sport in wild environments. To be clear, I don’t intend to write about thrill seeking. I am, after all, a woman in her mid 60’s, and the sole provider and parent of a teenager. But I will write about the rewards of engaging and challenging yourself in the outdoors to build a personal PLATFORM of resiliency.  

So hopefully, you, as part of my book reading and writing community, will help the publishing of my book (a whole YEAR from now) avoid landing like a tree falling in the forest.  If you want to give it a shot, click on the link on my webpage, to become a subscriber.