AnotherChild.com
So what’s the point of AnotherChild.com beyond the interesting aspect of a group blog about a specific subject? And how does it relate to my book project? Two-fold:
1. Build an audience, which is part of building a platform. This is an audience not just for the topic-at-large (see #2 for more on that) but an audience who will theoretically know about the book before it IS a book and be so darn excited that they will help create a buzz. See, basically these days publishers want you to give as much proof possible that you’re going to give them a sure thing. Actually what they want is IMpossible proof of a sure thing but they don’t let a little thing like impossibility stop them. Platform is the author’s proof that she is, indeed, this sure thing because she’s already speaking to zillions of people who are hungering to have this person’s offerings in book form. If I can say, “AnotherChild.com is the go-to place for support about the challenges of trying to add another child to your family and I founded it” and then back that up with snazzy stats, that will be a help.
2. Prove that there is an audience for the topic. The first interested agent became uninterested after he decided that infertility was infertility period. His exact words? “But you don’t get different treatment, right? So really secondary infertility is the same thing as primary infertility.” Well, no it’s not. (Never mind the interesting and pervasive idea that infertility is defined by infertility treatment — I have an essay working on that sitting on my hard drive right now.) And there are a lot of reasons primary and secondary are not the same (some practical, some emotional, some borne out by statistics and some borne out by anecdotes). This is also why I’ve been doing so much research. His misunderstanding is my problem and it’s my obligation to explain why he has it wrong. He won’t be the only one who will misread me if I don’t explain it well. By having this blog I can say, “See? There’s an audience for this. They know it’s different.”
It’s all about audience. Prove there’s an audience by building an audience. Very circular, that, but so goes the whole platform obsession. (Goes the advice: Become an expert. How do you become an expert? Write a book. How do I get a book deal? Become an expert…)
The reason I made the site a group blog is because I still spend time putting “secondary infertility” into blog search engines and I thought it might be nicer to put as many of us as I can into one place to make it easier on the next person looking for support. So really the site is tangentially related to the book but ultimately they’re two different — but supportive — projects. (Originally I built a forum but forums are so hard to get going and to maintain so I scrapped it in favor of a blog.)
In short, I do have an ulterior motive (book deal) and I know that the blogging world is about up-to-here with ulterior motives so I thought I’d be upfront about it. But you know, one reason I really want to write this book (and still want to write it after I put the idea away for two years thinking I just couldn’t stick my head in my grief oven-again) is because when I was going through it, I really wanted to find a book like this on the shelves. And my friend Jennifer Margulis says that’s the best reason to do it.
Also, some people who are dealing with secondary infertility once dealt with primary infertility, too. (i.e., me) I think it’s a fascinating topic and I had no idea how complicated or emotional it might be until I found myself faced with it. Some of it, of course, is revisting all the primary infertility.