Team Tuesday: @Sammielee46

Greetings Prosers! OK, who blinked and made it Tuesday again? Another week has gone by, so that means you get to meet another member of the Prose team. So welcome to this week's Team Tuesday, where we're in the UK again to talk to the one you all know and love. It’s time to find out more about the lady who has the unenviable position of having the buck stop with her. Meet @sammielee46

P: How did you get involved with Prose?

S: I came across Prose whilst searching for writing apps on the App Store, I joined, posted, and immediately fell in love with the platform. I ended up talking to Jeff Stewart about what I did for a living which ended up becoming a phone call with Jeff. The rest, they say, is history. I have been on the Prose team for over a year now and I couldn’t be more proud to work with such a wonderful group of creatives.

P: Why Prose?

S: Prose is a huge leap in the right direction. Prose takes the meaningless nature of social media and gives it purpose, thought, and meaning. Conventional social media has its benefits, but with those benefits there are also huge drawbacks. I was sick of reading what people were eating for breakfast, were drinking whilst they sat idly watching TV; I had enough of reading passive-aggressive, pointed statuses laced with venom, whilst the gossip-mongers circled like vultures around the carcasses of the Serengeti. I wanted to read creativity and raw passion; I wanted to read things that helped me escape that monotony, that furthered my passion for the written word, amongst people that appreciated words and their use. That is where Prose came in. That is why Prose.

P: What is your role?

S: I am the Director of Marketing and Media. I manage the team and the initiatives we bring to your screens. I get stuck in with anything and everything, and love it, too! Copywriting and content creation and curation is a huge part of what I do, along with managing the Prose accounts both in app and across the social spectrum. If you contact Prose via email or DM, it’ll either be me or Paul that you speak to. I spend a lot of time liaising with external agencies, such as actors, literary agencies, editors, publishers, in the hope to further our exposure to the big wide world of literature. I tend to write internal blog pieces, or partner with some of you lovely people to get content for said pieces. I work with Paul on our social media strategies, and scheduling of content. Email newsletters are my bag, too, which I can’t attest to enjoying much, especially when the software doesn’t want to play nicely! I project manage all initiatives and pull all of the pieces together for roll-out. Hosting the team meetings is always fun and it gives us all a chance to speak about the great things, and not so great things, that we have all been doing during the week. I also get the pleasure of liaising with the board members each week and catching them up on everything marketing and media! Proofing and editing, formatting and publishing, you name it, I’ll do it!

P: What are your hobbies and passions?

S: You won’t be surprised when I tell you that my biggest passion is words and how we use them to portray a message or a story. I love to write. Poetry and fiction are my main go to’s. I read voraciously, using the words of others to inspire me and my growth as a writer. Aside from all of that, music plays a huge part of my life, along with my two children and four dogs. Oh, and my ever-annoying cat.

P: What is your favorite literary genre and why?

S: Any type of poetry, depending on my mood. For fiction, psychological thrillers. I love the sick and twisted stuff.

P: What is the world of marketing like?

S: Ever-changing. Challenging. Rewarding. Marketing in the social sphere has its benefits and drawbacks. I’ve been in the marketing industry for eleven years now and it has changed so much since way back when. I love organic growth, and I love how that correlates to the effort you put in. There is always a way to build your brand without having to spend money on advertising. We’ve done it with Prose! After having worked with numerous indie authors, one thing I have come to realise is the world of marketing is often confusing and difficult for writers, and this is something I hope to address to help you all gain huge audiences in the coming months.

P: In a perfect world, what will your life look like five years from now?

S: Prose will be the household name for social media, I will spend my time travelling between the US, the UK and beyond, and our awesome team will be ever-growing, bringing ground-breaking technologies to screens near you!

P: Do you have a favorite author, challenge, post, and/or portal on Prose?

S: This question isn’t fair, but, my favourite Portal would be the Poetry and Free Verse Portal, along with the Stream of Consciousness Portal. That will all change once more residents of HMP Peterborough start submitting their content, you’ll not see me for weeks! Okay, that’s a lie, you’ll still see me as Prose everyday!

P: What is one thing about Prose you’d like to share with its community?

S: How awesome we are, but then you already know that. Jokes aside, I would like everyone to know that we are working hard to make writing and reading on Prose the best experience ever. We have some really exciting updates coming up soon, and I cannot wait for you all to see them! I would also like to let every Proser know what an honour it is to watch them grow as readers and writers, by using the connections they make here, and the technology we provide.

P: Imagine you are in the process of writing a book; what is the title, and brief synopsis?

S: Now, that would be telling. In my almost non-existent spare time, I am writing a novel, I am eleven chapters in. It’s a dark storyline that explores a topic that may be too raw to touch, but, ever the rule breaker, I’m still going there!

P: What’s it like working with an international team?

S: Exceptionally rewarding, often frustrating, eye-opening always. It’s rewarding to think that we can conduct business 4.7k miles away from our colleagues, and actually be closer professionally and personally than what we would be if we shared an office. When we do something good, we do it really bloody good. We celebrate, from one side of the pond to the other, lots of awesomes, dope as fucks, and other american phrases are used. We celebrate as a team, a family. It’s often frustrating because of the time difference. Eight hours is a long time to be ahead. Especially when you catch a tech problem and know the only person who can fix it is asleep. That sucks a lot. The US team also often forget how far ahead we are over here, so cue a lot of late night / early morning talks. Good job, Prose is everything to me! Eye-opening - spelling, sayings, it has all been a learning curve. In fact, if any Proser fancies collaborating on a US vs UK blog piece about just that, shoot me an email or DM.

P: Any closing thoughts?

S: LONG LIVE PROSE, please follow me on Twitter (@sammielee46) and Instagram (@slthomasauthor), and finally, I talk too much! Sorry!

So there you go, lovely Prosers. You know a bit more about the lady at the helm. Go follow and interact if you don't already. More next Tuesday!