Facebook, Twitter, and blogging (along with other social media sites) are great ways to connect with writers, readers, agents, and editors. We know that we need to filter what we say so we don’t damage our reputation and books sales. But what about the private groups we join, where we’re supposed to be able to chat or ask questions about the publishing industry? How open can we be there?
Not long ago, members from one author group became upset when it was accidentally discovered that an author in the group was also a popular agent. Members of the group felt betrayed, because they were saying things that they didn’t necessarily want someone directly involved in the publishing industry to hear.
A similar incident happened to me. I was going to share something with a group I’m in, but then changed my mind at the last moment. And good thing I did. What I didn’t know at the time was that there was someone in the group I didn’t want to share my news with—for good reason.
With more and more agents and editors becoming authors, we have to be careful what we say. The person you might be complaining to could end up being the agent or editor you wanted to query, and you’re just turned them off. Or you might announce something prematurely, not realizing you’ve just announced your news to the “wrong” person.
Do you monitor what you say in private groups when sharing your news and concerns regarding the industry? Do you think that industry professionals should make it clear that they are agents or editors (I’m not referring to freelance editors) when they’re in a private group with other writers?
As writers, we know the benefits of social networking. It enables you to build a platform and develop relationships that will help you when you publish your book(s). Unfortunately, not everyone understands the purpose of social networking. They see it only as a way to (shamelessly) promote their books or service. They miss the meaning of SOCIAL.
I recently discovered that there’s a software that tells people with Twitter accounts when people aren’t following them back. And what do they do if you don’t immediately follow them back? They dump you faster than you can say, “Twitter.” Are we heartbroken? Nope, because these people obviously didn’t care about us to begin with. They only followed us to up their follower numbers. They are users. And notice how ‘user’ rhymes with ‘loser.’ Need I say more?
Now when someone follows me, I wait two weeks before checking out their profile. If it still says, “Follows You,” I follow the individual back. If it doesn’t, I move on.
What are some of the more annoying abuses of social networking that you’ve seen? What strategies have you used to counter poor social networking etiquette?
For many writers, once we’ve made the decision to pursue a writing career, we become so focused on finishing our book, we often don’t think about what comes afterwards. And with more options available to us than a few years ago, it’s important that we look at the big picture, no matter where we are in the pursuit of publication.
How to Publish and Promote Your Book Now! By L. Diane Wolfe is a thorough guide that will benefit writers, no matter where they are in the writing process. It covers everything you could possibility want to know about writing and beyond. In total, there are eighty-four chapters, each ranging between two to three pages. Topics cover all aspects of traditional and self publishing, social networking, marketing, and promotion. And with each topic, the book explains everything you need to know so that you can make the choices that are right for you and your project.
Chapters include:
Pros and Cons of Traditional Publishing
Going the Traditional Route
Business Setup (i.e. what you need to know if you’re self publishing)
Developing a Website
The Media
Reviewers
Where to Send Review Copies
What to Expect From Reviews
Newsletters
Because each chapter is short, you won’t find the level of information that you might find in a book or online workshop focused on that specific topic (for example, writing newsletters). But it is a great resource for figuring out what you need to do to succeed. The book is also filled with links you can click on for additional information on various topics. This makes the book invaluable, regardless of which publishing route you choose.
Have you thought much about promotion, regardless of where you are on the publishing path? (and that includes those of you writing the first draft of your first novel).
Note: I’d like to thank L.Diane Wolfe’s publisher for providing me a copy of the book for the review.
Available February 5, 2012 Publishing/Marketing, 214 pages $14.95 Trade paperback ISBN 978-0-9827139-5-2 $4.99 Ebook ISBN 978-0-9827139-9-0 Available in all Ebook formats
It doesn’t matter if your books are traditionally published or self-published (or both), you’re the main force responsible for marketing them. One of the best forms of marketing available is social media. But with so many different ones available, how do we know which will benefit us the most when promoting our books, and how do use them for maximum benefit?
In her book Social Media Just for Writers, Frances Caballo focuses on several popular social media sites*. She explains how each one works and the ins and outs of them, provides step-by-step instructions for setting them up (including screen shots so you know what she’s talking about), and shares tips for promoting your books through the individual sites. Her advice is sound and I liked that she’s against spamming. She warns you when certain activities are considered spamming. Some of this is subjective. There are a few things that she suggested that I prefer authors don’t do. For example, I’m tired of the countless number of Facebook or Goodreads event invites that land in my inbox. Most are deleted unread.
One thing I appreciated with this book is the easy to follow format. This is perfect if you are not technically inclined. Also, Frances includes lists of apps for each of the social media sites and explains the pros and cons of them. Until Social Media Just for Writers, I didn’t realize there were so many of them. For those of you who blog, there is a list of resources you can use for locating royalty free photos. This is very important if you don’t want to end up being sued by the owner of copyrighted material.
In addition to the chapters on social media, there is a chapter on offline promotion with some helpful suggestions. A glossary has also been included to make your life easier when figuring out the different terms associated with the different social media sites.
Overall, I loved this book and am thankful I had the opportunity to review it. I recommend it to everyone who is a writer, no matter where they are in the publication process. The sooner you get started being seen the better.
Have you read any social media how-to books created for writers? What forms of social networking do you enjoying using?
I’d like to thank Frances Caballo for sending me a copy of Social Media Just for Writers: The Best Online Marketing Tips for Selling Your Books for an unbiased review.
*The following are covered in the book: Facebook, Facebook author pages, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Picasso and Pinterest, and blogs. Unfortunately she doesn’t cover Tumblr, which is now popular with teens.
GIVEAWAY: If you are interested in winning a copy of the book and live in the USA, please let me know in the comments. And make sure you include your email address if it isn’t attached to your blog account.
Unless you’ve been wandering lost in a desert for the past year, you are aware that the publishing industry is rapidly changing. With it, the number of self-published, small press, ebooks, and traditionally published books being published each week is dramatically growing. What does this mean? More people are trying to gain the reader’s attention. The same reader we want to check out our own new release.
Elana Johnson blogged last week on how we’re starting to suffer from a social media hangover. Promotional activities (blog tours, giveaways, interviews) that used to be effective are now turning people off. Some readers still enjoy them, but most don’t bother to read the posts. I don’t. Katie Mills also talked about this change. Based on comments from their posts and other places, as well as personal experience, this is what I’ve learned:
Covers are important. If your cover looks amateurish, no one (other than your mom) will be interested in your book. When you send the JPEG file to be used on another blog, make sure you send one of high resolution; otherwise, it will look blurry and amateurish.
A compelling title always tromps a dull one.
Make sure your blurb is tight and interesting. If your blurb is dull and vague, I’m not going to read your book. I’ve seen a number of self-published books lately with great covers and boring blurbs.
Don’t irritate people with your promotion. As we all know, this is a serious issue with Twitter and Facebook. If you want people to pay attention to your new release, then please avoid spamming. If you DM someone who just followed you back, you can guarantee they WON’T read your book (or blog) if you tell them to.
Use Goodreads wisely. Goodreads is a great way for people to find out about your book via word-of-mouth. Plus, fans of your books can check the site for the release date of your next novel. It’s also a good way to invite your “friends” to your book-release party. However, I often delete the announcements (unread) unless I’m excited about the book or the author is a friend of mine.
Word of mouth is your best promotion. Not long ago, a blogging friend mentioned Easy by Tammara Webber on her blog. We started talking about the book. Because of that, I bought it and read it right away (even though my TBR pile is out of control). I then told my CP, who also read it even though her TBR pile is as bad as mine. We both love the book and have told others about it.
Be selective with your blog tours. You are better off having your book reviewed on a major book blog (if possible) than swamp your blogging circle with a blog tour. According to the comments on Katie’s and Elana’s posts, most of us avoid reading posts that are part of a blog tour, especially when a number of the blogs we follow are part of the tour. The exception is if the topic is of interest to us. Then we stop to read it.
Keep your promotion small, unless you can spread it around so it’s not hitting the same people again and again. Every so often, subtly remind us about your book. I might not buy it right away, but the reminder later on might be all I need to pick the book up. This is more effective than over promotion, which tends to turn some people off a book.
If you’re going to do an interview, KEEP IT SHORT. Most of us don’t have time to read to a 750-word plus interview, unless it’s by our favorite author. Personally, all I care about is the book. Write a great story and I’m sold.
Make sure your book is professionally edited. Later next year, I plan to release a New Adult novel I’m currently working on, and plan to have the book professionally edited (that includes structural edits, line edits, and copy edits). Why? Because I want the word-of-mouth to be good. Need I say more?
Start working on your next project. The best promotion for your last book is your next one. I loved Easy so much, I had to read the first book in Tammara Webber’s Between the Lines series. I’ve already read the first two books and can’t wait to read the third one.
Remember the purpose of social networking. The key word here is social. This is your chance to make genuine friendships. Friendships that could eventually lead to positive word-of-mouth about your book.
How do you decide what books to read? Are there any forms of promotion that especially turns you off? Do you have any other suggestions for getting your book noticed?
Social networking is a wonderful thing. It enables us to make new friends, find beta readers and critique partners, keep up-to-date with new books and publishing news. But when misused, the outcome can be frustrating for all.
We all hate spam. Some authors believe that as long as they aren’t telling you to buy their book, they aren’t spamming. But what about the following?
Thanks to the sales of my book, my kids can now go to college.
My book is #17 on Amazon and still climbing.
I love it when fans write to tell me they adore my book.
When a dog is abducted by pirates . . . . [link to Amazon inserted here]
Translation: Buy my book Buy my book Buy my book Buy my book
Once in a while these tweets aren’t bad. Authors have to promote their books after all. But if someone checks out your profile and the majority of your tweets are like the above, the person might not follow you. One of my friends saw tweets similar to these by one author. She ended up unfollowing the author. Why? Because she felt the person was self-absorbed.
During WriteOnCon, agent and YA book blogger Pamela van Hylckama Vliegsaid, "1 out of 10 tweets should be self promo. No more!" Numerous people on the forum agreed with her. They unfollow authors who violate this unwritten rule. Remember, never underestimate the intelligence of your follower (like in the case of the above tweets). The moment you do, you've lost them.
For examples of authors who use Twitter wisely, check out: MaureenJohnson JohnGreen JaniceHardy
Is there anything that you’ve seen authors do on social network sites that irritates you?
Remember in high school when your reputation meant everything? Maybe you had a reputation you didn’t know about or one you didn’t deserve. Like the teen everyone is calling a slut, because some guy spread a rumor that she’s easy (How can you tell I read Anna and the French Kiss this weekend???)
In high school, I was incredibly shy. If a guy spoke to me, I’d come close to fainting (sad, huh?). It wasn’t until I was in university that I discovered people thought I was cold and self-absorbed in high school (I think that’s what the guy told me, right before he ask me out on a date!!!!).
These days our reputation means everything to us writers. Thanks to social networking, you do something and the news of it spreads faster than a grass fire in a strong wind. And like what happened to me in high school, you might not even be aware your reputation is tanking. Last year I wrote a post about a nameless individual. It was amazing how many people knew who I was talking about. Not good news for that individual.
I’m currently in an online writing course that was the inspiration for my post on broken promises last week. Turns out, even beyond the class, the instructor has a bad reputation. Wish I had known about that. After what happened in her first course, I gave her a second chance. I thought she was going to improve. *tattoos naïve on forehead* She didn’t.
While some people don’t seem to give a damn about their reputation (or don’t try to do anything to improve it), there are some writers who do what they can to make the world a shiny place. They don’t do things to benefit themselves. They do it to benefit charities, teens, kids, or other writers. They love to pay it forward.
So, what can you do about your reputation? Now’s the time to determine how you want people to perceive you, then make sure you do what you need to do to gain (or maintain) that reputation. It’s a lot easier to build a good reputation than it is to repair a damaged one. Just ask Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Lindsay Lohan.
Which kind of reputation do you want? Have you given much thought to how other people perceive you?
(I wanted to list all the wonderful writers/authors/bloggers that deserved their awesome reputation, but that made for one very long post, I’m happy to say. But if you know someone you would love to mention, please do so in the comments). :)
Grabbing the reader’s attention. This is the goal of our first line when we craft our opening chapter. The all-important first line will encourage the reader to either abandon the book or read the next kick-ass line (and hopefully the rest of the book). We spend hours sweating, crying, tearing our hair out, trying to nail that first line. But what about the first line of your blog post? Have you given it the same consideration?
When checking out my overflowing dashboard, three things determine which posts I’ll read and which will be ignored (assuming you aren’t one of my blogging friends). The first is the title. If the title doesn’t spark my interest, then the first line had better be good or else I’m moving on to the next post.
Many of you have your blog connected to your Twitter account. Remember, your opening line is what will show up in your tweet (along with the title). Make it interesting and someone might check out your post. Make it interesting and someone might retweet your post and help grow your followership (on Twitter or your blog or both).
So, what’s the third thing that will snare my attention? Lolcats trump all. Put a lolcat picture in your post and I’m all yours.
Do you pay attention to the first line of your blog posts? What makes you check out a blog post among the ocean of others?
If you’re looking to spice up your writing, check out today’s QueryTracker.net blog post on rhetorical devices. They’re my new best friend. You’ll be surprised at how many you already know.
And now for my guest blogger, Marie Rose Dufour. Drum roll please . . . .
<<<3
Contract! Yes! Whoo-hoo! Open the champagne, baby, because someone liked your work enough to offer you a contract. Week, months, and sometimes years of work is now going to be validated in print. My husband and I celebrated on the waterfront, toasting to my hard work for this book over.
Not! What I didn’t realize at the time was that writing the actual book was the easy part. The hard part came afterwards and it’s called promo, promo, promo. In this economy, more and more publishing houses are relying on the author to promote their own books.
So here are some tips on promoting your book:
• Create a budget (I know this sounds unreal but real advertising costs money. If you are a first time author, it’s all about getting your name out there.)
• Create a “promo folder” on your computer with a jpeg of your book cover, blurb, excerpt, head shot, and purchase links. (Having everything in one folder is a timesaving in case someone last minute asks you to blog, or interview you. You just pull up the file.)
• Make sure you are “social networking” (Facebook, My Space, Twitter). You want to use these for some free advertising.
• Design promotional items (A big thing in the romance circles right now is trading cards. I hear they are big at conferences. Think of these as your business cards.) (Yes. I love using these as bookmarks.)
• Arrange to do guest blogs! (Just what I’m doing now. And I’d like to thank Stina from the bottom of my heart for hosting me today.)
I hope someone finds these tips helpful. It was wonderful guest blogging here today. Please leave a comment and e-mail address and I will pick a person to win a copy of Fated Mates. Enjoy!
Book Blurb: We know that we are no longer alone in the universe. Descendants of Earthly ancestors have returned to find the other halves of themselves, their destined mates. Dragon, a scarred Serralian warrior drawn to the planet of his ancestors, never believed the Goddess had a mate for him but no matter what he believes, he’s unable to resist the pull of the planet deep within in soul.
Liz, a curvy teacher who escaped an abusive marriage three years earlier is afraid to take another chance on love. Tired of being a bystander in her own love life, she participates in an ancient ritual to identify Serralian mates. Taking that chance changes her life forever. Can these two people overcome their pasts to become each other’s true Fated Mates?
Author blurb: Marie Rose Dufour is a first time (and hopefully not the last time) author. She writes erotica for Secret Cravings Publishing. Her first book, Fated Mates was released last month. She lives in Rhode Island, USA with two very curious cats and a husband who swears he’s the inspiration for all of her heroes. Her book is available through her publisher and Amazon.
With the growing number of self-published writers and the dwindling marketing dollars for traditionally published books, authors have to be creative if they want to grab the attention of potential readers. This is probably how blog tours first came to be. The problem is everyone jumped on the idea. Each week at least two hit my dashboard full force.
Here are some blogging tips to get your book (or a book you love) talked about:
Targeting Blogs
The first bloggers to ask are your friends. But don’t feel bad if they say no. Not everyone wants to host a blog tour. If you approach someone who isn’t a good friend, please make sure you send them a personalized email. One author sent me a link to a form to fill-in if I wanted to participate in her tour. That’s all that was sent and it wasn’t personalized. It was instantly deleted. #blogtourfail.
Face it, most of us recognize each other’s names and avatars from the blogs we most commonly visit. Reach out and go beyond this group. Only then will more people find out about your book and won’t suffer from blog tour fatigue (especially since not everyone is a fan of them). This is why it’s vital to start growing your network early and not just before your book launch.
Look for blogs that deal with topics approached in your book. Maybe someone has a special interest in horses and would be interested in your novel situated on a ranch. And this means the blogger’s followers might be interested in the story, too.
Be Unique
Try to come up with something that hasn’t been done before. Okay, you can stop laughing. I know this is challenging. Everyone can do the same old thing, but that won’t necessarily grab bloggers’ attention as the market becomes saturated with traditionally and self-published books. Maybe you can tie it into the theme of your book. Lisa and Laura Roecker had great success with their launch because everyone knew about the pink-hair theme they had going, which was inspired by the cover of The Liar Society. The theme even ended up on Twitter.
Timing
We can all appreciate how much work blog tours are for the author. My suggestion is to not cram your tour into one week (maybe spread out over a month) and to save some posts for a few months AFTER your book is launched.
Repetition
The books I tend to buy are the ones I hear about again and again, over the several months (but not in the same week as with the typical blog tour). This is why I loved Christina Lee’s spotlight on debut authors last week. It was a chance for those who participated to remind you about the debut books we loved this year. Books you might have forgotten about since their launch.
Does anyone else have any suggestion as to how to make a blog tour rock or to create interest in a book months after it’s been launched? What has made you want to read a book (and actually do so) after seeing it mentioned on a blog?
(note: Wow, who knew my sales and marketing background as a pharmaceutical sales rep would be so useful?)
Last week I conducted a survey to see how bloggers in our writing community feel about blog tours and to get an idea as to how effective they are.
Remember, you can’t generalize the findings to bloggers at large. Nor can you generalize the finding to readers, period. The other weakness of the survey is that if you write YA, it’s not going to tell you how effective blog tours are with teens.
Also, I only asked four questions. Some questions could be further expanded on based on your answer to the previous question. However, I wanted to keep the questionnaire short so more people would answer it.
What the survey will tell you is how the individuals who responded (fifty-five in total) felt about the topic. This is not a non-biased group, randomly selected off the street. These are individuals who are, most likely, committed to blogging as a form of social networking. Someone who checks out a few blogs as a lurker might not necessarily share the same view as those who participated in the survey.
Results
Of the individuals who check out blog tours (4% never check them out), 52% check out those held on their friends’ blogs, 31% check out the tour if the author is a friend of theirs, and 56% check them out occasionally (i.e. the bloggers and authors were not friends of the individual.) (note: more than one answer could be selected).
Of the individuals who hadn’t already planned to buy the book before the blog tour started, 64% ended up buying a book they saw showcased on a tour and 31% didn’t. The question was not applicable to 5% of those who answered the survey.
Of the individuals who hadn’t already planned to buy the book before the blog tour started, twenty-two bloggers checked out blog tours only held on their friends’ blog and/or if the author was a friend of theirs. Sixty-four percent of them (n=14) ended up buying a book showcased on a blog tour. Thirty-six percent (n=8) didn’t. The result didn’t change when you factored in the individuals who also followed blogs tours occasionally (in addition to the above two categories).
Of the twenty individuals who occasionally follow blog tours (i.e. the bloggers and authors were not friends of the individual), 80% (n=16) bought a book showcased on a tour.
Of the individuals sitting on the fence about buying a book before the blog tour started (twenty-three individuals), 74% ended up buying a book and 26% didn’t. Remember, the individuals who said ‘yes’ might have visited blog tours for fifteen different books, but only bought one of the books showcased.
Sixteen percent of those who answered the survey decided not to buy a book showcased on a blog tour even though they had planned to before the tour. Ouch on that one if you were the authors.
Because I don’t want to make this a super long post, part 3 will be next Wednesday.
I know, the picture has nothing to do with the post. But it was too darn cute!
For the past few years, I’ve attended SCBWI and RWA conferences and workshops, knowing one day it will be me up there, presenting. Of course, before I can get to that point, previous experience will be crucial. So when the opportunity arose to be involved in an upcoming writer convention in my city, there was no way I could say ‘no’. Okay, Angela Ackerman (The Bookshelf Muse) wouldn’t have let me say ‘no’ if I tried. *grins* Add author Janet Gurtler and we became the kickass team excited to be on the panel for What is YA? Being the anally organized individuals that we are, the three of us got together to hang out at the beach to discuss the thought-provoking questions I would be asking them (and the mystery guy who had also volunteered to be on the panel). Things were looking great. At least they were until the night before the event. Janet noticed in the brochure (which none of us had read because it was too confusing as a PDF file on our computers) that there was a FIFTH individual who would be joining us. The rest of us are members of the SCBWI but she wasn’t, so she hadn’t been listed on the email sent to us within the organization. Unfortunately, she had been told by the organisers of the convention that each person would present for five minutes on the topic. I told her it was fine if she wanted to do her presentation first, then we do our Q&A as originally planned. Worked for everyone else. But when the woman went to present, after I explained to the audience what had happened, she said, “Apparently I was not part of the clique.” Now this could have been funny, considering we were presenting on writing YA. It could have been, but she chose, instead, to use a voice obese with sarcasm. This left a nasty taste for everyone involved, including the audience. Fortunately, beside this little incident, the panel went extremely well and we had a blast. Okay, Ms Hissy-Fit didn’t, but that’s okay. We did our best to include her. Has anyone else had experience presenting at a conference, or will be doing so in the near future? For more information on the topic of public speaking for writers, please check out my Querytrack.net blog post today.
Several months ago, I read a post that caused a lot of controversy within the writing community. I’m not going to mention the individual’s name since she left a not-so-nice comment on one of my friend’s posts, and I don’t want to deal with that attitude here. Blogger Alert, anyone?
So what was this controversial topic? This individual felt that non-published writers shouldn’t write about, well, writing. In her view, only those who are published are qualified to talk about it. Apparently the rest of us, because we aren’t authors, don’t know how to write.
I disagree.
I don’t follow author blogs, with a few exceptions. At this point, the only way authors can grab my loyalty is to write kickass novels. Do that, and I’m all yours. I don’t care if your blog is the most awesome thing on this planet. If your book doesn’t meet my expectation, I’m not buying the next one.
The blogs I do follow are by unpublished writers. These are the individuals whose books I hope to see on my bookhelf one day. Many of them are agented. Others aren’t. A number of them have something in common. They blog about writing. They blog about tricks they’ve picked up in how-to books on writing (and give credit where credit is due). They blog about things they’ve learned through critiques and from conferences. And they share their advice in bite-sized pieces.
To those of you who blog about writing, I applaud you. My writing is a hundred fold better because of you. Although I showcase a lot of great blogs during my Cool Links Friday, I wanted to give a shout out to the following blogs/bloggers:
The Bookshelf Muse Christina Lee Laura Pauling Creepy Query Girl (Katie Mills) Paranormal Point of View (Lisa Gail Green. She’s published but I’m still including her here.) Adventures in Children’s Publishing Operation Awesome YA Stands Oasis for YA Lydia Sharp
Question: Do you feel that only published authors can blog about writing? Have you ever shared writing tips on your blog?
Last week disaster befell me. No, I’m not referring to the #Bloggerfail in which my follower widget vanished. (But that did suck big time!).
No, I’m referring to the disaster of all disasters that can strike a writer doing a school presentation on Power Point.
I think my two tips on preventing/surviving an epic disaster say it all:
1. Email the presentation to yourself. That way, if the teacher can’t download it onto their laptop from your flashstick, they can hopefully download it onto the computer from your email.
2. Practice your presentation before you go, that way, if the above happens, you can wing your presentation until the teacher figures out how to access your email (because the school server is being a pain in the you-know-where).
So there you go. Two tips that will save your butt when you do a class presentation. :)
If I were to ask you what your author brand is, could you tell me?
I’d heard the term before, but until I recently read social media guru Kristen Lamb’s blog, I hadn’t given mine much thought.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, a brand is “an identifying marked burned on livestock or (especially in former times) criminals or slaves with a branding iron.”
Oh, wait! Sorry. Wrong definition. You don’t need to rush off to your local ranch and ask them to burn a symbol on your butt. I mean you can if you want, but it’s probably not recommended. And I’m not sure how effective it would be for selling your novel.
Anyway, after checking my old marketing textbook, I decided to skip on sharing its super dry definition. Instead, I consulted a number of great resources on author brands. And of course, they all had differing opinions as to what it means. But here’s the basic gist of them.
What’s in a Name?
The first thing you need to consider is your name. According to Kristen Lamb, this is your brand. Because of this, she recommends your name is in your blog’s URL. Mine is. Is yours? She also suggests your name is in the title of your blog. Okay, I fail on that point. And until I started writing this post, I didn’t realize my name wasn’t even on my blog. #majorbrandingfail. It’s now in my sidebar.
What’s Your Niche?
Shelli Johannes Wells talked about the author brand during WriteOnCon last year. The writer brand describes how people view you based on your books. Maybe you write YA paranormals. Great. But so do so many other YA writers. What differentiates your style from someone else’s?
For example, Kiersten White (Paranormalcy) writes humorous YA paranormals. When we pick up her books, that’s what we expect. Problem with this is what will happen if her next series is much darker? (btw I’d still buy it since I love dark paranormals).
Do you have a style you like to write in? Maybe humorous, dark, or suspenseful. If you blog, can you incorporate your style into your blog? Lisa and Laura Roecker are a perfect example of this. Their witty, entertaining voice captures the hearts of their blog followers. And you can expect the same from their novel, The Liar Society.
Who Are You?
Author Roni Loren explained that your book and genre are only part of your author brand. The real you is the other part. What does this mean?
Be yourself.
Of course if the real you is rude and obnoxious, then you might be headed for trouble. One hundred years ago it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Now thanks to social networking, it can be your ultimate doom, especially if editors discover this (and they will) before they offer you a contract.
Shelli Johannes Wells also covered this in more detail during WriteOnCon.
Obviously these three things aren’t as clear cut as they sound. What happens if you’re published in several different genres? When you say Stephenie Meyer, most people think of sparkling vampires. But she also wrote a successful adult science fiction novel (The Host). This is why a number of authors, such as Nora Roberts, write different genres under different pen names. Each one has a different author brand associated with it, but she’s still Nora Roberts.
Before you freak out at the thought of having more than one brand, Meg Cabot and Richelle Mead both write YA and adult novels, and each has only one brand.
So what about you, do you have an author brand? Is this something you’re considering, or are you going to wait to be published first?
As far as I know, I’m not being stalked by some crazed guy in my neighbourhood. And I’m not referring to the wonderful lurkers who follow my blog or who follow me on Twitter. I’m talking about one annoyingly persistent dude who keeps trying to 'friend' me on Goodreads.
I love Goodreads. It’s an amazing resource for finding out what everyone’s reading in your genre. You follow people (friends) with similar tastes as you, and you get updates as to what they’re planning to read, what they’re reading, and what they thought of a particular book. This is how I keep up-to-date with the new and upcoming releases. It’s a brilliant idea, especially if you’re new to a genre.
The one downside is that you get frequent updates (lists) of what your friends are reading (etc). To make it easier on my inbox, I only follow those individuals who read what I read. If you don’t read YA (or romantic suspense), I’m not going to follow you.
But one guy just doesn’t get it. I keep “ignoring” him (Yep, it’s a button you can click on when you get a friend request.), and a few days later he’s friended me AGAIN.
Sure, we have some friends in common, but that’s it. So please stalker dude, quit trying to friend me. Because until you start reading the books and genre I love to devour, you and I, seriously, are never going to happen.
Is anyone else having problems with stalkers (and I don’t just mean on Goodreads)?
If you’re dealing with a real one (the kind that poses a threat to your safety), please check this out.
Update: Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I finally figured out how to send him a message. Hopefully he get's the hint now.
