One of the topics I cover in my programs for academic authors is how to show a publisher that you are the right person to write the book you’re proposing. To begin with, just knowing enough about your book’s topic to even write a decent proposal in the first place establishes that you are qualified to write the book. So hopefully you’re already off to a good start.

Sending your proposal to a press that’s a good fit also implicitly communicates that you understand your field and the publishing landscape within it. But you’ll also probably have a component of your proposal that’s devoted to straight-up spelling out why your name should be on the cover of the book in question.

What should go in that “author information” section of your scholarly book proposal? The first building block will be your credentials, e.g. your advanced degree(s) in the field in which you’re hoping to publish, some extended research experience on the topic of your book, and possibly a teaching or research post at a scholarly institution.

The other thing you’ll want to cover is your “author platform.” This term sometimes gets thrown around in ways that make it feel synonymous with “the number of followers you have on social media,” but that’s not quite it.

In publishing, your author platform is your ability to move copies of your book based on the fact that you wrote it. Social media might be one aspect of your platform, because it allows you to reach people who presumably already take an interest in you and the things you write. But as a scholar, your platform also includes the extent to which you’re establishing yourself as an expert in your field.

If you have a record of presenting at conferences, publishing in other venues (like journals or blogs), winning awards, and otherwise being active in a way that gets your name and research expertise out there, that all contributes to your ability to sell books and speaks to your work’s appeal to a defined target audience.

The idea of being recognized as an “expert in your field” can feel impossibly unattainable to a grad student or fresh PhD. I know, I’ve been there, and I’ve felt like that. But the bar for a first-time author with a scholarly publisher is probably not as high as you imagine.

All you need to do at first is get a few people to recognize that you’re doing quality work on your topic. Present at a couple conferences—you’re already building a platform. Publish a journal article—more platform. Substantively contribute to discussions on Twitter or a listserv—that’s platform, really!

The snowball effect can be quick, and once you’ve said yes to a few things that get your name out there, the invitations will keep coming. And don’t feel like you have to get accepted to the “best” panels at the biggest conferences or amass tens of thousands of followers on social media. A small network of people who will definitely go out and read your stuff and tell their friends about it can be just as powerful as a huge network of people who vaguely remember who you are.

You can talk about all of this in your book proposal. Choose a few key pieces of evidence that demonstrate that some people somewhere care what you have to say about your topic. Write up a paragraph or two and leave it at that.

Acquiring editors at scholarly presses are not expecting every author they sign to be an established superstar. On the contrary, they may get more excited about discovering someone who is at the start of their writing career and just beginning to develop their reputation as an important thinker in their field.

What publishers are expecting are authors who are serious about reaching readers and willing to put in some of the promotional work to make sure that happens. If you do have a track record of using social media effectively to share your work, many publishers will appreciate knowing about it, even if it’s not something they require when making acquisition decisions.

Do you need to come up with a full-fledged promotion plan to include in your book proposal for a scholarly publisher? No. It will be a nice bonus if you signal that you’ve considered promotion and how you might collaborate with your press on it, but I wouldn’t stress out about it until your press brings it up.

You will eventually be asked to fill out an author marketing questionnaire, so it will help to be prepared with some ideas as to how you can get your name and work out there.