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:

http://rolynnanderson.com

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rolynn-Anderson/188767867821613  

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/rolynnanderson

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4990049.Rolynn_Anderson

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/author/rolynnanderson

What Hat Do You Wear? by Betsy Ashton

I've recently read a beta copy of a new coming-of-age book by a debut writer. He wrote a sentence that caught my attention and won't let go: "Try on as many hats as you like until you find one that fits. That’s the one you’ll wear the rest of your life."

The story goes on to talk about the hat you wear in public and the hat you were in private. The one you wear in public is what you do, your job, your role in society, your role in family, etc. The hat you wear in private is the one that guides your heart.

I personally wore many public hats: wife, teacher, student, consultant, et al. Each hat held a special place in my development, but by themselves, they weren't enough. Don't get me wrong. My wife hat is the most satisfying one of all. I've worn it for over 35 years. The teacher hat didn't last as long as I'd hoped, not that I wasn't qualified, but I sought college-level teaching positions right about the time President Nixon (remember him? Tricky Dick?) cut federal aid to education and jobs vaporized.

The consultant hat began after the teacher hat blew away. I held a series of ultimately well-paid positions in several companies over 30 years. I enjoyed my work, but I never defined myself as a consultant for Blap Consultancy. Never to myself or to people I met. It was a job that became a career but was never a passion.

After one egregious day when the moon was transiting Planet Poop, when my colleagues were cranky, and when the client was crankier yet, I curled up in my hotel room immediately after a dinner-for-one and dragged out my laptop. Before I knew it, I'd written a short story about the day, complete with outrageous behavior and a protagonist that had to be me...

I was hooked. I'd found my hat, and a very private hat it was indeed. I wrote early in the morning before we had to be onsite at the client's offices, after hours, on airplanes, at home. I wrote every spare minute I could find. I wrote an office romance that still sits in cyberdust, although I think I'll resurrect it. I feel more capable of trimming it and underwriting it (yup, too much purple prose and too many mechanics of sex) now. 

I wrote a saga about the women who form the core relationships with family and friends. That's way too long (350K words), but I designed it as a trilogy. It may yet see the light of day in a vastly trimmed-down version.

While I was still working, I began the query process and racked up 109 rejection letters from agents. Guess they knew my books needed serious help. I found a sympathetic agent who helped shape my first publishable novel. When she asked if I was thinking about this as a series, I paused a few beats too long.

"Of course, you are," she said. "Of course, I am," I replied. She told me to write brief synopses for two additional books--"a paragraph or two is enough"--and them back to her as soon as possible.

And thereupon, the course of my passion was clear. I was to be an author. I was to write and publish. I was announce to the world that I was a serious author. I was to wear that author hat proudly and loudly.

What hat do you wear?

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Betsy Ashton is the author of Mad Max Unintended Consequences and Uncharted Territory, A Mad Max Mystery. She has a new short story, "Midnight in the Church of the Holy Grape," in 50 Shades of Cabernet. Her works have appeared in several anthologies and on NPR.