RUE VOLLEY

USA Today best-selling author & Award winning screenwriter

Rue Volley is a USA Today Bestselling Author and award-winning screenwriter who is best known for creating compelling storylines with a multitude of twists and turns that leave her readers virtually speechless. 

She specializes in paranormal romances that include otherworldly characters who, regardless of their supernatural abilities, feel oddly familiar, or in other words, human. This, coupled with her easy reading style, wicked sense of humor, and excellent world building skills, has garnered her a fiercely loyal fan base over the past decade who support her regardless of what genre she chooses to write in.

Some of her best works include 13 Ways to Midnight, Hellhound, The Devil’s Gate, and A Vampires Tale of Blood and Light, all of which utilize her skill at piecing together compelling dramas that highlight her love for vampires, witches, angels, and demons across many genres including young adult, new adult, urban fantasy, and erotic romance. 

Rue Volley’s work seems to be synonymous with one phrase in the publishing world: Thoroughly addictive. 

She is accredited with two award-winning screenplays for film, Hellhound (original script, 2014) and Awakening (contributing screenwriter, 2015). IMDb: imdb.com/name/nm7043310/ 

As a graduate of Lindenwood University’s MFA program, I had the pleasure of chatting with Rue, via email, about her books and how she built her platform.

What are the biggest tips you would offer to students who want to get published and market their work?

The biggest things about publishing include a professional cover, professional edits, and professional formatting. Branding is also important because you sell yourself along with your books, so professional pictures, a logo, a beta team, and marketing material— like business cards, banners and merch for signings— matter.

Marketing budgets are key, so they need to save up. Email blasts providing through the top marketing companies are important and ad stacking (where your ads are overlapping) will help a book rank higher. Amazon also has an algorithm with reviews and your overall review ranking. The site will market your book to potential buyers once you got 50 reviews at no cost to you.

That’s great to know! Speaking of branding, what did you use to create your website?

I have my domain through Wix. I love them. [They have] easy html embedding and tons of add ins; plus, you can build a strong email list and manage it easily. I suggest Wix to all the authors that I mentor.

So, you have an email list for your fan base. How did you get your fan base?

You have to dedicate yourself to it. I began reaching out on social media first. I connected through posting in groups, doing giveaways, and offering free copies in exchange for honest reviews. I was one of the first authors if not the first to start sharing their links online. I got a lot of flak for it then. It was like we weren’t supposed to try to sell our books. So, I built my own groups and began to build. I treat this like a small business. I started gaining fans who loved my books and that’s where my team began. It started out with maybe 10 people, and now I have 40,000 on my fan page.

That was a brilliant strategy!

I didn’t know if it would work, but it worked for me!

Really, I think that’s good advice for Lindenwood’s students, especially since most are already social media savvy.

Exactly. They need to find which social media outlet works best for them and connect that way. Mine was Facebook. Very and many writers end up quitting. It isn’t easy. It took me years to build my base.

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Be sure to check out The Midnight Saga!

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For  business inquiries, please contact ruevolley@gmail.com.                                                         

Connect with Rue:
Website: http://www.ruevolley.com/ (Links to an external site.) 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ruevolley/  (Links to an external site.) 
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Rue-Volley-146299465525490/?fref=ts

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This interview was done by Molly E. Hamilton, a graduate from Lindenwood University’s MFA program. Molly is a Writing Specialist at Lindenwood University with a passion for helping students learn about the publishing world and getting their work to readers. She enjoys writing and doting on her dog, Oscar, an incredibly cute papillon.