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EPISODE INFO:
The words “author platform” can make any writer roll their eyes. However, it’s also one of those important aspects of being a writer that isn’t much about actually being a writer. 

Luckily, today’s guest makes author platforms fun! 

So if you want to improve the quality and quantity of your author platform this year, there’s a simple framework my guest today used to get more than 20k followers on social media. 

And honestly, it’s way simpler than I expected it to be.

Tori’s new novel, THE HOST, is out now. It’s a phenomenal thriller that I’ll let her talk about, but it’s one of those books that gets under your skin and you just can’t seem to get it out. 

She also shares the harrowing story of how the book came to be, and her method of finding the right kind of followers on social media.

BIO:
Some of Tori Westminster’s closest author friends joke that she lives in a bunker, much like the one in her book, THE HOST. She doesn't often leave the house because she lives with chronic illness and a neurological disorder that involve extended periods of intense pain. During those periods, she has learned to distract herself with stories. These stories and characters have kept her spirits up when her body failed her.

Outside of writing, she’s homeschooled her gifted children and do her best to keep up with her adventuring family despite her physical limitations. They're even willing to cart her around the wilderness in a wheelchair when necessary, so she doesn’t miss out. They go the extra mile for an experience.

Tweet me @DavidRGwyn

Transcript

T000-Tori

Tori Westminster: [00:00:00] I have had my writing group and I have people that I talk to every day that check in on me that have helped me figure out weird pieces in my book that You know, that I just joke around with and, you know, when I have crappy days, they make me feel better. That fill every little nook and cranny of my writing life.

It's amazing. 

David Gwyn: The words, author platform can make any writer roll their eyes. However, it's also one of those important aspects of being a writer that isn't much about actually being a writer. Luckily today's guest makes author platforms fun and easy. So if you want to improve the quality and quantity of your author platform this year, there's a simple framework. My guest today is going to share that she used to get more than 20,000 followers on social media. And honestly, It's way simpler than I expected it to be. I'm David Gwyn and [00:01:00] agented writer navigating the world of traditional publishing. During this first season of the thriller one-on-one podcast. We're going to focus on building the skills necessary to write the kinds of thrillers that land you and agent and readers. During the season, I'll be talking to authors agents and other industry professionals about the best way to write a novel. 

If you want the experts secrets, this is where you're going to find them. Last week on the podcast, I talked to cozy mystery expert, Natasha C Sass. 

Natasha C. Sass: But I wanted very specific for myself, very specific Steps to take in order to write a cozy that was going to work for readers. And so that was my goal. And it made, it just made it easier for me to write. So when I wanted to write my books, it was, it, I just open up my own workbook and I'm like, okay, next step, next step.

This is what I should have, you know, in the next scene 

David Gwyn: If you miss that episode, it's linked to the description. 

Some of Tory Westminster's closest author friends joke that she lives in a bunker much like the one in her book, the host, which is out now. [00:02:00] She doesn't often leave her house because she lives with chronic illness and a neurological disorder that involve extended periods of intense pain. During those periods, she has learned to distract herself with stories. These stories and characters have kept her spirits up when her body has failed her. 

Tori's new novel, the host. Is out now, and it's a phenomenal thriller that I'll let her talk about, but it's one of those books that gets under your skin and you just can't seem to get it out. She also shares the harrowing story of how her book came to be and her method of finding the right kind of followers on social media. Let's get right into the interview. 

Tori, thanks so much for being here.

I'm really excited to chat with you. I 

Tori Westminster: am so excited to be here. Thank you for inviting me, David. 

David Gwyn: We have known each other for a little while. We're in the same writing group. So I've gotten to see kind of the whole process of, of your novel coming out, and I'm really excited to share with everyone today about what, what that was like.

So your newest novel, The Host, which is out now, can you tell us what it's about? 

Tori Westminster: It is about two [00:03:00] people who have been trapped in a bunker. A reclusive philanthropist who just hates people. And a British actor. Just crushing together people who are opposites. And For a thriller, it's a little bit funny to put together people who don't want to be together, the outgoing and the introverted.

And I love to just put people through their paces in a high paced novel where I just don't give them a break for two seconds. It's just been really fun to write. 

David Gwyn: Yeah, and I know this has been a process for you where you have, and I, I hope I'm not giving anything away here, but you have maybe some sequels and everything coming up.

So tell me about how you came up with this story that now is like, you know, encapsulated in this novel but has something that is like maybe a little more long running. 

Tori Westminster: It's actually. A more unusual story than most people have. I have [00:04:00] a chronic illness and sometimes when that flares up and it gets a little worse than normal, doctors haven't really figured out how to help me and I get stuck in bed for a Sometimes it's days, sometimes it's weeks.

And when this arrived in my brain it was about six or seven weeks that I was stuck in bed just in a very high level of pain. And they just. couldn't do much for me and I couldn't read, which is my thing. I couldn't watch TV. I couldn't listen to audio books. I was just stuck by myself in the dark for an extended period of time and I had to distract myself.

And I distracted myself by creating a world outside of where I was. And this story is what came out of that. And I [00:05:00] went through and what if they, what if this happened? What if that happened? What if they did this? Huh. I wonder. And it just, after seven weeks, I had a four books series. Wow. That was well plotted out.

And by the time I came out of it and was, not pain free, but, you know, functioning better. I was like back to the keyboard and write it out. And I didn't realize until after I had written the whole book that the captivity portion of it kind of mirrored my being trapped in a room that never once crossed my mind, which is not very self aware myself.

But that. Yeah, that's where this story came from and they kept me from focusing on the pain that I was in. Which I guess is why I torture my characters. [00:06:00]

David Gwyn: I feel like when, when we write, it's not until we get to the end like that. We get to the end and then we look back and we go, wait, that's That sounds like, or mirrors, or is a metaphor for whatever you were going through at that time in your life.

I think that's really interesting and really powerful for people to think about, that even though you were going through this difficult time that you were able to, make it into something. That was really, obviously, it's something that you're proud of, something that you worked really hard on.

It's something that you get to share with people, and I think that sometimes as writers, we think that these things that we struggle with are stopping us from, from writing. I mean, like that, you could have looked at that. You could have, you know, stayed in your room for weeks and said, Oh, man, I don't get to write now because of this happening.

And instead, you, you. Change the narrative of that in a lot of ways. I think that's that's really important for people to think about when they think about their own lives. Like where are you struggling that maybe you can turn it around into something really positive for your writing career.

I think that's great 

Tori Westminster: Tori. Very much. I'm really trying to see this as [00:07:00] a way to 

Get the stories out to people and share the stories that got me through difficult times. Yeah. 

David Gwyn: Yeah. So talk a little bit about your writing process. So now you have this idea and you're sitting down to write. Are you somebody who like flies through a first draft and then you edit a bunch of times or are you somebody who kind of works at the editing process while you're writing?

Tori Westminster: I really do fly through the first draft. The first draft goes down very quickly, and I don't edit it. I am a plotter, so I have an outline, and I can do a first draft in a couple of weeks typically. But, I will edit it. So many times that I just about have it memorized. And I will go through and I will have one draft that I edit just for emotions, one that I'll edit just for sensory description and one that I will edit just for overused words.

That's a really important draft for me because I do that a lot. [00:08:00] For all of us, for all of us. Oh, it's such a crutch. It's horrible and embarrassing. And then after. A couple of those versions, I will send it to a friend who will kind of look at it for a developmental angle to see, hey, does this make sense?

Did I lack connections? Is it missing something you said? Something about A was going to happen and then it never happened in the end or B didn't connect here And this character just dropped off the face of the planet, you know, does everything make sense? I was very careful with this one because it was my first novel and I called a friend of mine who is a psychiatrist about, it was so much fun and she was very helpful about [00:09:00] what would people act like if they were trapped and what, what would happen to them under particular circumstances?

I'm not gonna get into it because it's halfway through the book, but if X, Y, Z happened to a person Under these circumstances, what would the response be? And if a criminal did X, Y, Z what, what would cause that? What would their childhood look like? Am I, am I off track here? And from the technology aspect, because I went really specific into what was going on in the house and how I managed that.

Like, is this. realistic. How can we do this? So I talked to someone who builds forward thinking technology and is in the tech industry. And I read deep into the FBI procedurals and how they function [00:10:00] as a unit and what do they do. And there's a woman who is. retired from the FBI and she's an author and she writes about how authors get it wrong and how they get it right.

And I was like, that's the book I need to read. And to make sure that I was walking that line between fact and fiction. So I made sure that I collected all that. Correctly. And then I went into line editing. 

David Gwyn: Wow. So, yeah, I mean, that's a, that's a very complete process for a book. I mean, to go from first draft through multiple edits , that's intense. What was the, is there a point of the process that you found maybe had the biggest impact on the story? Is there one that stands out where you were like, You know, they're all important, obviously, but is there one that made the biggest impact on your story?

Tori Westminster: I sent my book to a professional editor for a developmental edit, [00:11:00] and I feel like that turned a corner and it went from being a hobby to a profession and it was. It, it changed everything. She was the one who stopped and said, This needs to be on bookshelves.

You have what it takes. And she showed me where things needed to be adjusted. And she saw the things that I couldn't see. That I was just, I had my blinders on and I was, I was not going to see. 

David Gwyn: As writers, we have those blinders and it's nearly impossible to, to remove them yourself.

If someone really has to show them to you, I feel like is the only way to get past those. 

Okay. Let's pause there for a second. 

So far Tori has shared her inspiring story about how to turn life's curve balls into writing inspiration. I'm sincerely so impressed by her [00:12:00] perseverance and her dedication to her writing. She's also talked about some of the edits that writers really have to go through in order to make their book the best they can be. The reality is we all need that kind of work. You need to find people to read your work and give you feedback. 

It's really the only way to improve. This serves as the perfect segue into my new referral program. Refer three friends to the thriller 1 0 1 newsletter. And I'll personally give you feedback on your query letter and first five pages. Absolutely. For free. The link for the referral page is in description. 

Sign up three friends and save yourself a ton of money on a critique. And the next part of the interview, Tori is going to share not only her method for getting more than 20,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. She's also going to share her mindset because the reality is not all followers are created equal. A, crypto bought doesn't buy thriller novels. So, how can you find the right followers that improve your writing life? Let's find out now.

So, I want to shift gears a little bit because you have an [00:13:00] impressive social media following and platform. And and I think a lot of people who interact with you, I think that the important thing point out about your social media following is that 

it is all around the writing process and writing community. And I think that that's, that's really important and really powerful and I'm sure people would ask you a million questions about how to do it. And so I'm going to ask you those questions that people want to know. So, and it's like this really, I think that.

The thing that we really want to talk about, too, is like that how genuine the relationship you have is with certain people in that in that community. I think that's really important. So someone sitting there right now and they like have just joined Twitter or their Twitter, you know, presence is not where they want it to be.

What are your tips for writers who want to build a community around themselves and increase their social presence the way that you have? 

Tori Westminster: Okay, so Number one is not to just follow any random person. The numbers are not, they don't mean anything. What [00:14:00] I wanted and what I really appreciate is the relationships that I've built.

And how I've found that is when I scroll through my. Feed on Twitter, and when you find a conversation that you genuinely enjoy reading through, like somebody asks When they ask a writing cue and it interests you, and it's an unusual question, and you find yourself kind of down the rabbit hole of reading the answers that's where you go and You start liking the responses, and follow the people whose responses you enjoy.

Those are the people that you want to start following, and see where it goes. It might go nowhere, but those are the people you might end up being friends with. You might not, but let's start there. [00:15:00] And if you do that on a daily basis, and then start engaging with those people, you're filling your feed with people that you have.

Like mindedness with people who are also writers who are also struggling and I did that every day I mean consistently you get up you have a time when it takes two seconds. I swear You have a specific time every single day where you get up and you look for that one feed where there's you know a million responses and just like and follow only the ones that you actually Thought were interesting.

You don't have to like them all and follow them all because that's just filling your Follows with junk you will end up building relationships with genuine people And I have met some of the most amazing people Like that I don't have those relationships with. I just, [00:16:00] I wish these people lived in my neighborhood and would line my block because they're fantastic.

David Gwyn: Yeah, I found this too for writers, it's so unlikely that you have someone who's in your neighborhood or in your family who's a writer. It's like this, this thing that we have to go out and find people. And I think that's really , the important thing that I pulled , from hearing that answer, which is that this isn't a , scammy way of just creating inflated numbers of followers.

This is about like finding people who you genuinely want to interact with. And I think that's, that's a really important part of that message. 

Tori Westminster: Yes, we want genuine relationships, people you want to talk to people who care if you're there or not. I have, been sick and I, I will get a flood of messages.

Where did you go? What happened? That's, you know, people who actually care, not just numbers on social media. [00:17:00] That's, that's what's, what this is really about. And that's what I've found. 

David Gwyn: Can you talk a little bit about your, you did some daily posts for a while some creativity stirs.

Like, can you talk about what that was like and, and how that helped you even find more people and engage with more people? 

Tori Westminster: Yeah, we've still got that going actually. Every day I try at the beginning of the month, have them scheduled. So I don't forget because, you know, Life. Yeah, life happens. But I have two posts that I've been threatened if I stop them.

One is for goals. And it started last year. And so that we've been doing this for over a year and it, we started it with writing goals, but we've decided that it's just whatever goal you have for the day. You post your goal and then how did it go throughout the day. But the other requirement is that you cheer somebody else on because we want to keep it positive and we want.

It to not just be self focused, but to be focused [00:18:00] on other people and create community. So we have collected a great group of people that are just cheerleaders. So, it doesn't matter if you wanted to write 50 words that day, or, you know, a thousand. Or even more, but you know, people are cheering you on.

There are some people who are like, I want to put pants on today. And we're like, go get them. Let's do this because some days that's hard. And we've created a great community there. And I had a month where in August I was in the hospital. And. I was not able to get those up consistently and people would just post on my timeline their goals and, you know, cheering me on.

And it was like the posts weren't there, but they were just throwing it on my timeline. It was wonderful. And the [00:19:00] creativity stir, I still have going where I will post an image and people are, it's just a prompt meant to get us out of our heads because when you get stuck in your Manuscript and you can't move forward sometimes just writing something that's completely unrelated Can get you unstuck.

Yeah, and so it will be a random photo and you just write a tweet length story Related to that, and I was doing themes for a while, and there are people who write in all sorts of genres. And we kind of got them, I'm a thriller writer, and I lean towards the scarier. And we've got people who write romance, and histories, and you know, all sorts of different genres.

And we've got them a little bit moving into the horror, because they're like, This is fun 

David Gwyn: and so bringing [00:20:00] people to the dark side, we 

Tori Westminster: are. And so they enjoy kind of some of the, the darker things. But there's, you know, all sorts of fun little things that come out of it. This month we're doing poetry and it's.

It's really pushing some people, whatever the photo is, you, you can choose whatever form you want, but it has to be in the form of poetry and it's getting interesting. 

David Gwyn: Yeah, that's really fun. So that's, that's great. That's such great advice for people. And again, I think it's, it's really about people finding a community.

And I think after finding the community online for me, my writing. improved and my writing career advanced. And I think that a lot of people are finding that when they find their, when they find the right fit. So my last question for you, Tori, is just where can people find you? Where can people look you up?

Tori Westminster: I am on Instagram, Blue Sky. [00:21:00] Threads. If, if it's out there, I'm, I'm there, I am not on Tik TOK because I don't want my face anywhere, but anywhere, but there pretty much I have a link tree on my profile. So you can find all my little things on there. 

David Gwyn: If you're listening to this, I'll link to all that stuff, especially if you're interested in the post that Tori does, the creativity stir setting your goals. I highly suggest, I mean, if you think about what she's been saying about how to find people in the writing community and how to interact, like that's a great post to start and look through and , find people who are also interacting.

And definitely go check out the host. Go buy it right now. I can't recommend it enough. I'm so excited for people to read it. So go dive into that and, and Tori, this has been so much fun. I really appreciate you taking the time to chat. 

Tori Westminster: Thank you so much for having me. 

David Gwyn: Okay. So that's it personally, I'm going to work on this in 2024 because Tori makes it sound so manageable and honestly fun to grow an author platform. Don't miss out on finding your new writing friends.

And if you [00:22:00] implement this, start with me and Tori. As a reminder, go into the description for this episode and share the thriller one-on-one newsletter with three friends to get feedback on your query letter and first five pages. Next time on the podcast. I'll be talking to Elle Grawl. All about her newest novel. She's always so much fun to talk to and shares the kind of actionable advice that I use to improve my writing. So make sure you subscribe. So you don't miss that episode and I'll see you next week.