Excerpt
Speaking is an art, science, and experiment. The art of speaking involves knowing how to work a room and how to make your points as effectively as possible. The science of speaking involves managing the details of a speaking engagement, such as working with organizers, creating presentations, and knowing the ins and outs of webinar platforms like Zoom. The experiment of speaking is understanding that your field, the strategies that resonate with audience members, and the needs of organizers are always evolving, and you have to evolve along with them.
As an author, you have an advantage over other speakers because you've already mastered two of the most important parts of successful speaking: organizing the story you want to tell your audience and finding the right words to tell it. To excel as a speaker, you'll want to refine other skills, such as negotiation (for when you establish the terms of your engagements with organizers), design (for developing the visuals you use to supplement your words), and professionalism (to ensure that each engagement satisfies organizers and audiences and leads to more opportunities).
From Page to Platform will help you do all that and more. Whether you are a beginning speaker looking to break into your first engagement or an experienced speaker seeking to improve your craft, you've come to the right place.
How This Book Was Born
We—Matty Dalrymple and Michael La Ronn—are both successful authors and in-demand public speakers. We met at the Writer's Digest Annual Conference in New York City and discovered we share a passion for speaking.
One evening, at a New York restaurant and after a day of each presenting several seminars, we got to talking about how we had landed our engagements, the strategies we had each used, and pitfalls we had avoided based on missteps earlier in our speaker careers. At one point, one of us said, "We have enough information here for a book!" The other said, "We do!"
And so From Page to Platform: How to Succeed as an Author Speaker was born.
Who We Are
Matty began her experience as a speaker in her corporate life, when she facilitated two-day seminars for new employees about tools and techniques they could use to operate more productively within the company's values. She honed her perspective about what it takes to be an excellent speaker when she coached executives on the stories they would tell at these seminars about how these practices had contributed to their professional and personal successes.
When she began her writing and publishing career, many of her early speaking engagements were part of author readings—an often-overlooked outlet for using a place on the podium to spread the word about your work. Once she launched The Indy Author Podcast and began publishing non-fiction books, she gained the opportunity to share her expertise in the writing craft and the publishing voyage in venues like in-person writers' conferences and virtual webinars.
Her books and the podcast provided evidence of her professional commitment to her topics, helping her secure engagements; each engagement led her audience to her books and podcast; and all the parts of her author business benefited from this virtuous cycle. The speaker's fees she earns provide a valuable addition to her multiple streams of author income.
Michael is the author of over 100 science fiction, fantasy, and self-help books for writers and an internationally acclaimed public speaker. He also runs a popular YouTube channel called "Author Level Up," where he provides advice for writers.
He built his writing and speaking career while raising a family, working full-time as an executive in the insurance industry, and even attending law school classes in the evenings. He perfected his speaking skills alongside many other responsibilities, and he exercises those skills in all areas of his life.
About the Book
As we worked on collecting material for the book between these other commitments, we didn't rely only on our own experiences but tapped into professional colleagues for additional perspectives. Mark Leslie Lefebvre shared his experience with speaker's bureaus. Matty's husband, Wade Walton, shared his expertise as a video producer to inform our best practices for headshots and video presentation.
We've assembled all that information into what we believe to be the most definitive guide available for authors interested in moving from page to platform.
