What I Learned About Building an Author Platform or. . . the Best Class I Took in College

June 30, 2020June 30, 2020 / Eve Messenger / 3 Comments

Hey, I’m two classes away from completing my BA degree in Creative Writing and English. Yay! It’s been a long, long road.

I wish I could say the peer writing workshops were where I learned the most but, alas, those were a bust since many students weren’t familiar with how to critique fiction, and even fewer were familiar with my genre, YA fantasy.

The class I did learn the most in, however, was “New Media Writing and Publishing.” When I say “learned the most in,” that doesn’t mean I totally know how to apply it all yet, but the course pushed me to explore important concepts like who I am as a writer, what my books are about, who’s most likely to read my books (target audience), and how to reach them. The idea is that an aspiring author should create an author platform before publishing books so she doesn’t come across as a desperate stranger hawking her wares but, rather, has built connections with her target audience beforehand.

That’s the idea. Author brand, platform-building–it all sounds a bit jargon-y and hardsell-y, but it’s a reality for anyone wanting to build a career as a novelist.

The gist of the class is developing an author platform means lots of soul-searching, research, and hard work to answer the following quesions:

What is unique/memorable/engaging about me, my interests, and my life experiences?

2. What kinds of stories do I tell? Genre, vibe, themes, characters, etc.

3. Who is my target audience? (FYI: YA fantasy readers are predominantly female with an age range of 12 to 65.)

4. What does my target audience like? What are their interests? What books, authors, and websites do they enjoy? Why?

5. How and where can I engage with my target audience? What do other authors do to engage target readers and how can I do that in a way that is unique to me? What information, experiences, connections, insights, entertainment can I offer my target audience even before my book comes out?

Then use the answers to those questions to:

1. Create your website or blog in a way that will appeal to target readers.

2. Focus on one to two social media channels (at first) where you can comfortably stay engaged.

3. Then go forth, engage with people (don’t just “like” their posts–comment, ask questions), build relationships, and network in a way that is true to who you are as a person and as an author.

Check out these two shiny resources for more information on building an author platform.

Create Your Writer Platform: The Key to Building an Audience, Selling More Books, and Finding Success as an Author

Like all Chuck Sambuchino’s books, Create Your Writer Platform is brilliant and funny. Sambuchino’s tips on how to genuinely engage with people online are golden. Just be warned that some of the social media references are a bit outdated since, y’know, the Internet grows and changes faster than the Blob.

Class of 88: THE BLOB: A Subversive, Hard-Edged Remake with Some ...

Also check out iWriterly’s interview with Brittany Wang. It synthesizes so much of what I learned in my author platform-building class. You’ll get great insights into online engagement by hearing super smart, eloquent Brittany Wang talk about her experiences as an author on Instagram.

Happy Platform-Building!

–Eve Messenger

When a GREAT book finally makes its way back up the TBR – Eleanor & Park

June 14, 2020June 14, 2020 / Eve Messenger / 5 Comments

Eleanor & Park was published back in 2012, and it’s been on my TBR for ages. But as so often happens, even great books slip and slide down that TBR. Here we are now in 2020, and I’ve finally read Eleanor & Park.

Rainbow Rowell’s book made me feel ALL the feels. If I’m being honest, it triggered me, which was unexpected. I don’t resent it, though. I’m grateful when books make me feel deeply, even if those feelings aren’t always positive ones. This book let me hold deep emotions in my hand and inspect them, which ultimately leads to healing.

Here’s what triggered me. The way Eleanor learns to exist in the world reminds me so much of my own experiences. Eleanor’s stepfather Richie is a destroyer who crushes everything Eleanor holds dear. I grew up with a destroyer too. I understand how Eleanor feels in her crazy home life, and I understand how, even at school where Eleanor might have found sanctuary, she only experiences more torment from peers who see her as unusual, the irony, of course, being that Eleanor comes across as unusual because her home life is so bizarrely awful.

But Eleanor also has strength. In being strong and not letting the destroyer kill her spirit, Eleanor allows her true nature to shine. For this, she is rewarded with beautiful Park.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-1.png — Artist: Simini Blocker

There’s so much more to love about this book. I HIGHLY recommend the audiobook, by the way. Rainbow Rowell’s writing is so, so good, especially her humor and the way she describes people. (I enjoyed Eleanor & Park much more than Fangirl.) I also adore everything about Park’s mother Min-Dae, especially [SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT HERE] when Min-Dae realizes she too has judged Eleanor–even though her own upbringing in a large, poor family was not that different from Eleanor’s.

I love Eleanor’s strength and Park’s goodness.

I love that I finally read this book.

XOXO

Eve Messenger

P.S. Just one question: Why is Eleanor depicted as so skinny on the book cover?!

Samantha Francine, YA Fantasy, Oppressed & Oppressor

June 7, 2020June 8, 2020 / Eve Messenger / 2 Comments

As I write this, I wonder how I–a YA fantasy reader and writer who is white–can possibly have anything worth saying at a time when my country’s streets are filled with Black Lives Matter protesters being fired upon with teargas and flash bombs, thrown down, choked, clubbed. Well, you’ve seen the news. You know.

But today I will share three things with you: two of my favorite YA fantasy books and an image from the Black Lives Matter movement that I can’t get out of my head.

Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes and Marie Lu’s Legend are (in my humble opinion) perfect YA fantasy books with noble characters and tight, compelling plots. Like so many YA fantasy books, protagonists fight against a powerful oppressor. Both books also feature main characters from opposing forces: one is from the oppressed class, the other from the oppressor.

Laia from An Ember in the Ashes works with the Resistance and will do anything to save her brother, even work as a slave for an evil commander. Elias is a member of the elite. As a “Mask” for the Martial Empire, Elias is an assassin trained at the highest level. Despite Laia’s misgivings, she and Elias form a relationship, and we learn that Elias never wanted to be a Mask. He is a good person who uses his privileged status to help Laia—though even he must be careful to avoid severe punishment.

In Marie Lu’s Legend, June is the brilliant, logical military cadet from an elite family. While seeking her brother’s murderer–whom she is told is a member of the oppressed class–June encounters Day, the Republic’s most wanted criminal. Cocky and compassionate Day is about as different from June as can be. The two characters begin the story at cross purposes but, like Elias in Ember, June has compassion. She is not inherently a bad person, just indoctrinated by the oppressor.

As the pairs of opposing characters in each novel build a personal connection, characters from the privileged class (Elias and June) open their eyes to who the oppressed really are as people. June learns that Day is not the person the Republic portrayed him to be. Elias learns that his training as a Mask can make him a great help to the Resistance.

“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.” —Maya Angelou

This brings us to the powerful image I mentioned earlier. During this time of Black Lives Matter protests there are many moving and disturbing images, but today I will write about this one.

On the right is Samantha Francine, an African American woman faced with an angry white man in Whitefish, Montana. Samantha Francine stood with her sign near town hall with sixty other protesters when this burly white man, well over six feet tall, stormed the group, yelling epithets and knocking signs from protesters’ hands. He got into the protesters’ faces, one after another, clearly looking for a fight. When he got to Samantha Francine, she planted her feet, pulled her glasses up, and looked the man square in the eye.

Samantha Francine said she was not afraid. Her single white dad had taught her and her siblings that life would be different for them because of the color of their skin. She said he constantly reminded them that “No matter the threat, always look them in the eye so they have to acknowledge you’re human.”

Samantha Francine remembered.

Judging by the man’s threatening posture and actions, he was full of anger and hate. When he looked into Samantha Francine’s wide open eyes, did he really see her? Might there come a day when the man feels remorse for evoking such fear in peaceful people?

In fictional worlds, members of the oppressive class are able to find redemption to the point where they decide to work to end oppression.

I pray this is possible in the real world too.

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” —James Baldwin