In 1999, I answered an ad from a young man who was looking to start up a regional monthly periodical for seniors (who are vastly underserved in most markets, short of Medicare and hemorrhoid ads), and he was hunting for experienced article writers. To make a long story short, I took him some of my work, he hired me on the spot, and within a couple of weeks he asked me to be his editor-in-chief. Well, I didn’t know where this gig was going to take me, but I was a brand new empty nester, I wanted to get back into writing, and the money was decent, so I dove in without reservation.
Even though I wasn't a senior myself, it wasn't long before I was working with six regular columnists, giving assignments to freelance writers (as well as to myself), and helping to build production layouts with a wonderful graphic artist. I think I learned how to do everything at warp speed, but I was very comfortable in this little niche I’d created for myself…until the owner discovered he had a serious health issue. When the day came that he asked me to run the whole shebang – and swore he couldn’t sell the paper if I didn’t come with it – I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life. But, once again, I decided to roll with it. He had to sell and move away, which broke my heart, and I was left pretty much on my own.
That’s when I learned to collaborate creatively with other writers, graphic artists, computer geeks, production people, even cartoonists – and I learned to love it. It was a shock to this loner-by-nature to discover that I actually enjoyed holding writers’ meetings in my home, editing other people’s work, selecting photos for particular stories, looking for new ideas for future assignments, and planning – with my team – upcoming issues. I learned beyond a shadow of a doubt that when my brain is working alone, it isn't as much fun and it doesn’t work nearly as well as when a group is bouncing ideas off each other.
Fast forward 26 years. In the span of those years, I’ve collaborated with three other people to help them write their own books, and wrote two novels of my own. I decided that while ghostwriting isn’t for me (I have to be in charge of my projects), collaborating with an expert when marketing my books is by far the best way for me to go because I don't know that much about it. Once I got over my fear of a spammer cleaning out my bank account, especially since I work on a limited budget, I began to draw up a list of attributes that were important to me. After several months of searching, then vetting the finalists by contacting their clients and asking for written recommendations, I settled on a young team of marketers and tech geeks who call themselves Veridion Smart. They've been the answer to a prayer I didn’t even know needed answering.
The last two weeks have been so much fun for me. Even though I have to have extended periods of solitude when I’m working on my upcoming book, JOURNEY OF THE HEART, this has been a blast because we’ve been building a marketing campaign around my two last novels, WHISPERS THROUGH TIME and TIP THE PIANO MAN, which I haven’t really pushed until now. My main partner in Veridion Smart writes the taglines and builds the pictures after I’ve selected them, and he does amazing work because he writes the punchiest, most powerful short sentences ever. Patient and always encouraging, he’s helped me rebuild social media platforms so that they’re more interesting to the average scroller, and we’ve much more to do together when we finally finish that. It’s a total, heartfelt collaboration that has meant the world because I know that my novels are almost as important to him as they are to me.
We have a true creative collaboration, and I didn’t realize how much I missed that.
*For more information on Veridion Smart, feel free to contact me on either of my Facebook Pages (www.facebook.com/ronni.hoessli or www.facebook.com/rosettadianeauthor) or through my email at thompd2011@gmail.com.