Your Ever-changing Author Platform by Rolynn Anderson

Wisdom sharing time, team!

A colleague of mine, Mara Purl, and I are putting on an AUTHOR PLATFORM workshop at the InD’Scribe Conference. We’ve got a good handle on the talking points and I’ve developed a handout for attendees that encourages them to write down their ideas as we talk. We’ll have a wide range of experience in our audience…some of them in the biz as long as you have been.  We could use some tidbits from you!

We think the four ‘legs’ supporting an author platform are: GENRE, BRAND, GOAL, PASSION. The Hope: If an author can clarify for herself what she writes and can consistently articulate those premises to readers, she’ll find her niche…increase her readership.

Mara and I consider this a dynamic process. (Notice the table-top in my picture is quite worn :-) For example, my genre of choice these days is contemporary mystery with romantic elements.  (Used to be contemporary romantic suspense).  By examining my reviews and re-reading my own books objectively, listening to my editor’s comments along with my beta readers', I’ve see themes/patterns in my books I didn’t know where there.  As a result, I redesigned my website and aligned with new authors who were 'like me.' The path to pinpointing genre, brand, goal, and passion is quite a journey of self-discovery.

My questions for you…any one of these five or all:

1.  How much has your genre/brand changed over the years you’ve published?

2.  What do you wish you’d known about these concepts early in your publishing career?

3.  What’s your next step in polishing your author platform?

4.  What’s a author platform strategy that's worked for you?

5.  Critique all the above according to your experience. 

Thanks for your ideas, team.  I’ll be sure to give you feedback about what I learned from InD’Scribe workshops I attend (at InD’Scribe Oct. 4-7)!  Stay tuned for my blog entry on October 10. Cross your fingers for me, too.  BAD LIES is up for a Rone Award in the suspense/thriller category...at the conference.  Hope springs eternally!

Fire is Nice is coming out soon.  Here's the cover:

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Success: 19 Rendezvous in 33 Days by Rolynn Anderson

My husband and I are hanging out in Henderson, Nevada, because we wanted to see Death Valley to culminate our six-week trip.  That white triangle in the distance is Death Valley...it's really tough to 'show' the valley in a picture.  Go there.  It's magnificent.

For our last stop, we’re staying in a VRBO condo in Lake Las Vegas, a resort community built around an artificial lake.  The place is hopping eight months out of the year; presently, with temperatures in the 100’s, it’s quiet.  In fact, Luna Rossa, an Italian restaurant, our pick for last night’s meal, had very few patrons. The waiter explained the restaurant’s owner had just opened a $355 bottle of wine and was anxious to share it at $25 a glass…for the fun of it!  Oh my!  Delicious.  As was the meal.

So our intricate trip is over: Anacortes and Seattle, Washington; Portland and Bend, Oregon, Incline Village and Henderson, Nevada.  To connect with friends and family was one goal; to see some new sights (Crater Lake, Tahoe, Death Valley) was another.  Our new Acura MDX performed well; everyone we wanted to visit with showed up! (Below, my brothers and sister in front of our favorite Portland restaurant)

Get this.  We visited with 19 groups of people, a total of 69 friends or relatives in face-to-facers.  I can’t believe it! Amazing examples: I met up with one relative whom I hadn’t seen in 50 years; for the family reunion portion in Portland, 14 of us showed up from all across the country.

Yup! The crowning rendezvous was my time with our own, delightful, Jannine Gallant.  (Jannine tells me I’m the first R of P blogger she’s met in person!) When I posted a picture of Tahoe on FB, Jannine reminded me she lived there, and we arranged a meet-up.  Here we’re drinking wine together in a pizza place with a gorgeous view of Tahoe (King’s Beach) whose owner Jannine knows.  I got to meet one of Jannine’s daughters, who happens to work at the pizza place, and heard all about her older daughter’s experiences in college.  Of course we shared stories about writing and marketing.  I also learned about her gorgeous Tahoe, seeing for myself in a drive around the lake what a wonder of nature it is. (Here's a pic of the two of us, Tahoe in the background, as well as a pic of Tahoe's Hyatt, where my husband and I stayed)

Four more nights in Henderson and we’re home.  Can’t wait to get there; so glad we had a successful trip. 

What’s your most successful, surprising, or interesting trip, lately? And/or, who among our R of P bloggers have you met in person?

Speaking of an interesting trip.  Here’s my story about tourist whose plans go wrong, very wrong…in Aix-en-Provence France: CÉZANNE’S GHOST http://a.co/bQdl7jp

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Tricks to Keeping Friends for a Half Century by Rolynn Anderson

As some of you are aware, I’m on a journey to reconnect with friends/relatives from the Pacific Northwest.  Not a task for those with iffy organizational skills.  I have thirteen groups of friends and family with whom to connect in less than three weeks. 

I’m watching myself taking on this task with a measure of pride, because my mother never taught me the skill.  On our many trips cross-country (we followed Dad, an Army officer, everywhere), my mother’s modus operandi, was to call the friend or relative as we approached his/her residence…about 50 miles away from his/her home.  If the person answered the phone, my mother suggested a drive-by (an hour stop at the most).  If the friend or relative weren’t home, Mom would shrug her shoulders and say: “I tried.” Later she’d jot a letter to the person we’d failed to see, saying she’d been in the neighborhood, as if that excused her lame try at a contact.

Nope. Not me.  I started working out our itinerary months ago, checking to see who was in town and when the best meet-up times would be.  We even set up a hotel-stay in a location that made it easy for us to go visit friends.  A step further: we were invited to stay overnight with two different couples…something we do rarely. 

Such an itinerary isn’t easy, especially when planning rendezvous points.  Which restaurant is lovely, not too expensive, and central to each particular group of friends? What do the reviews say about food and service?  Is there parking? Do they serve wine? Is the food generic so all would find something on the menu to like? Is the restaurant quiet enough to allow comfortable conversation? (I picked this restaurant because it had a gorgeous side-room...and if we met here at 4:30, we'd have it to ourselves...wouldn't need to pay rent!)

And I forget to mention: If friends come on a ferry, what’s the best time for us to hold the lunch/dinner, and who picks up the ferry passengers and drops them off? (We’re in ‘ferry country,’ and in high summer season, with big crowds and days of fog that delay the ferries, we’re talking complications! Forget about driving on a ferry…foot passengers have the only chance to make it to the other side on time.)

So far we are doing well.  Six groups visited…seven to go.  Ferry rendezvous tomorrow.  I’ll let you know if the last half of the month (including a one-week family reunion) goes as smoothly as the first half.

How about you?  What’s the most intricate trip you’ve ever planned in an effort to connect with friends and family?

Speaking of intricacy.  Here’s my story about tourist itineraries that go wrong, very wrong…in Aix-en-Provence France: CÉZANNE’S GHOST http://a.co/bQdl7jp

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I Wish I’d Known Sooner: Life Hacks by Rolynn Anderson

Recently I learned the term ‘hacks’ from Wild Rose Press whose marketing director had authors contribute to a book of hacks as a gift to readers. These are life hacks as in short cuts or nifty tricks to make life easier. Since hacking earns a malevolent connotation these days (Russian Hacking, Target card hacking, etc.), I’ve had to make two camps for ‘hack,’ one positive and the other negative.  Let’s stick to positive and pay some good hacks forward

Deviled eggs.  Love them.  Hate peeling all those eggs and wrecking half of ‘em.  Guess what, if you steam the eggs for twenty minutes, they peel like a dream!  I ONLY FOUND THIS OUT TWO MONTHS AGO!  Think of all the time I’ve lost and stress I’ve suffered badly peeling eggs for half a century. (Oh sure, I tried adding salt or vinegar to the boiling water, peeling eggs under running water…don’t think I hadn’t tried every ding-dang method.)  How did I miss the news about the steam method, which is so slick and sure, I’ll be deviling eggs by the dozen.  Happily!

Waterproof mascara.  Discovered that early on.  No raccoon look…no dribbling gray stuff when tears come.  Love it.  16 hour lipstick (Covergirl).  I put lipstick on once a day.  Done.  Binder clips on the roll-up end of toothpaste.  All perfect hacks that I’ve used for decades.

So all you have to do today is contribute a hack or two that makes life easier for you.  And me.

Meanwhile, to take a look at a hackles life, enter my hero in CÉZANNE’S GHOST http://a.co/bQdl7jp  He’s an American tour guide in Aix-en-Provence, France, and over the last months, three young women from the U.S. have disappeared on his watch.  Where are they, and will there be a number four?

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