Marketing

Marketing 101: Author Branding

This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series Marketing 101

What is branding?
When we think about branding, it’s easy to think of all the work that companies like Coca-Cola or Pepsi put into their logos, commercials and jingles. And the American Marketing Association does use “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers” in the definition. While that’s definitely a part of it, the true definition of a brand is:

the sum total of all the interactions, impressions, information and expectations within the minds of people associated with a person, product, company or name.

It’s important to remember that branding isn’t just something we do on our blogs and Twitter accounts: it resides in the minds of other people. That’s not to say we don’t have any influence on our brands—of course we do. But if we don’t take charge of our brands, we won’t be able to make the impressions that we’re looking for on our blog readers, book readers and the rest of the public.

So let’s look at a few aspects of branding that authors can influence!

Tone
I hope most authors are familiar with tone from their writing: for highly dramatic scenes, we make sure our language matches the scene—we don’t use “poopyface” as an insult in an intense scene in a novel for adults (unless we really want to mess with the tension for comedic effect).

In the marketing presentation by Rob Wells that we referenced a few weeks ago, he talks about branding. (Page through—you’ll see Brandingi n big red letters, then a list of things branding isn’t, then a definition of branding. The next slide is what we’ll talk about.) We know there are dozens of marketing tactics we can use. But if we want to help people understand who we are and what we write, it’s important to think about our tone across media. There are tons of different tones we can strike—Rob lists hysterically funny, literary and erudite, mysterious and intense, folksy and warm, and hip and clever, just to name a few.

That doesn’t mean that every single Facebook page update, Tweet and blog post have to be completely folksy and warm or mysterious and intense. Just like in our books we can mix in a little of a different tone—even if we don’t write romance or humor, there’s often an aspect or subplot of romance or humor in almost every novel.

Which leads to another important question: do you have to match the tone of your books in your marketing? Simple answer: yes and no. The tone of a novel will almost always be different because we don’t generally address the audience, like we must do (or at least consider) in a personal marketing medium.

Appearance
Just like with a book cover, the visual appearance of your blog, Twitter, etc., plays a big role in setting the tone. Generally, the advice that I like is to match your design to your target genre. A dark paranormal author will have a very different design than a historical inspirational romance author.

Web designer Kathleen MacIver also covered this well in our guide to aspiring author websites (PDF).


Name
Yep, you can influence your name—ever heard of a pen name?

We see this most often in cases like J. K. Rowling: she used her initials (okay, her first initial and an invented second initial) because her publisher believed that boys would be less willing to read MG fantasy written by a woman, even with a male protagonist.

But you can also choose your pen name based on other factors: if there’s already an author or other celebrity with your name or something very similar, who you want to be next to on the shelves, hiding your identity (but honestly, this is harder and harder these days).

Make sure you’re consistent across platforms. It’s easiest to make your website/blog YOURNAME.com, but you also want to think about your Facebook page (your name, perhaps with “author” at the beginning or end), your Twitter handle, etc.

Tag line
I don’t think an a tagline is an absolute must, but it can be a nice thing to have to help signal to your visitors what kind of books you write. The tagline should be more about the type of books you write, or maybe the thing that sets you apart—your USP—in the genre rather than a single book you’re working on or that’s coming out most recently.

Vince Mooney offers some good advice on author branding & author tags, including these basic principles:

1. a tag line should reflect and support the author’s chosen brand.

2. a tag line should be original and not too much like another author’s.

3. a tag line should be memorable and intuitively attachable to that author. (By this I mean a reader might reasonably be expected pick the author’s tag line from a list of tags without ever having read one of the author’s books.)

4. a tag line should promise a benefit just as an advertising headline should promise benefits.

I have a few more general ideas on branding you can read here.

The bottom line
In his marketing presentation, Rob Wells covers the most important reason for branding very well. Studies have shown that Coke branding messages light up the brains of Pepsi drinkers just as effectively, and that the exact same drink served with expensive trappings is considered worth more money. By working to build a quality brand, by considering the perceptions of your audience, you can create that kind of emotional response, loyalty and perceived value in the minds of your potential customers.

What do you think? How do you see authors branding well?

Image credits: brand logos via Adam Crowe; Brand by Rupert Ganzer

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Technique

How to make characters your readers will love with the intensity of a thousand burning suns

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Or, you know, just really really like.

My favorite television show of all time is Law & Order (Vanilla, please). I have literally hundreds of episode plots memorized. I cannot tell you how many times I have had a family member ask me, “Remember the episode where X & Y happen in the first 15 minutes? How does it end?” And I know the answer. (If you’re not yet impressed, remember that these are highly crafted mysteries, people. There are twists and turns and reversals and complicated legal maneuverings.)

My two favorite characters are Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach, may he rest in peace) and EADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston). Every time I remember that Jerry Orbach passed away, I get a little sad. Although personal lives of the characters are not a major focus of the show, I teared up watching the episode where Det. Rey Curtis retires the other day. I flat out cry when I watch Lennie walk out of the office the last time. When Jack reunites with his daughter—and they just meet for dinner in the last minute of an episode—I am just as moved and verklempt as he is.

Yeah, I’m a girl. It’s okay.

But I didn’t fully realize my devotion to these characters, specifically Jack, until the other day when I read an article describing his successor as “a force of nature” who was riveting, and you never knew what he might do next.

I didn’t dislike the new character, but to hear that, I took umbrage, to say the least. To be fair, again, Jack had like six times as long as this character did in that office. But it’s taking all my restraint NOT to list the truly creative and sometimes insane things Jack did as EADA.

What is it about Jack that inspires that kind of loyalty from a fan like me? It’s not the actor (I do like him—but that’s because of the role). It’s not the legal maneuverings (though they make things interesting). I don’t even think it’s what he does or how he does it. It’s that he’s 1.) passionate and 2.) unpredictable.

“Unpredictable? But—but—but—our characters have to be consistent,” you might say. You’re right—well, you’re not wrong. After all, as far back at Aristotle’s Poetics, we’ve been taught that characters must be consistent.

But, Aristotle argues, they must also be “consistently inconsistent.”

And what does that mean? (Well, Aristotle means that if a character is an inconsistent person, they should always be similarly inconsistent. But that’s not really helpful.) I like to use it to mean that a character’s actions should be consistent with who they are at their core—if they are a fool, they shouldn’t suddenly become the soothsayer, or vice versa—and at the same time, they should be surprising to the audience.

The reason I love Jack McCoy (and the reason this blogger [whom I managed NOT to lambaste for his/her personal preference] loves his successor) is because we never knew what he might do next—except that we did.

We knew they wouldn’t jump off a building to win a case (that wouldn’t work). We knew they wouldn’t give up lawyering to sing with the Met, paint at the Met or play for the Mets. We knew they wouldn’t kill someone. We knew they wouldn’t go bungee jumping or out to a nice, peaceful lunch or on a pleasant family vacation (shown on the show, that is).

We knew that they did have a code of ethics and morals, but sometimes the end justified the means (and sometimes, they decided it didn’t—and we respected them all the more). We knew that they would think and be resourceful and try again and if necessary lie and mislead and fudge and regard things “from a certain point of view” a little in the pursuit of justice. We knew they’d fight against bad guys, their lawyers, and even each other for the greater good.

We knew that they would do almost anything to win when they knew they were right.

And we couldn’t wait to see what unexpected, unconventional and unbelievable thing they’d do next.

The intensity of a thousand burning suns, okay, maybe not. But it certainly worked to keep viewers tuning in for an hour a week for twenty years—and Law & Order airs in syndication and spinoffs around the world. They did something right.

What do you think? How can you make your characters consistently inconsistent—and memorable and lovable?

Sam Waterston photos by Sharon Graphics

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Marketing

Marketing 101: Tailoring Your Marketing Strategy to You

This entry is part 6 of 8 in the series Marketing 101

Because it won’t work without you!

We’ve talked about strategy before, and quickly mentioned how important you as an individual are in your marketing strategy. At the risk of repeating myself, I’ll say again that beyond knowing your book and what’s unique about it better than anyone else. Your role in your own strategy is the key player, the mover and shaker—and yes, the marketer.

What does that mean for your strategy? It means that you’re going to have to stick to things you know how to do or are willing to learn. It means that you need to focus on tactics and campaigns you enjoy, do well, can reach your audience through, and, yes, have the time for.

Last time, I noted how important it is that you look at your past Internet habits as a clue to what kind of Internet marketing tactics might work well for you. But first, of course, you need your strategy to guide you.

You’ve already got your unique selling proposition statement and you already know how your book fits into the market—what it’s like and what it’s different from. You know why it appeals to your potential audience—and now it’s time to figure out how to apply strategic information to your tactics.

Moving from strategy to tactics

(Just in case you missed that the first time)

A lot of people out there will tell you that you must must MUST do X, Y, and Q7. But worrying about what someone who doesn’t know you or your audience thinks you “should” do—and forcing yourself to use tactics that crush your soul—is seldom a recipe for long term success.

In that vein, I’m not going to tell you that you have to use email, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, blogs or any other online or offline tactic. (Don’t forget about offline marketing!) Instead, we’re going to talk briefly about how to identify the tactics you want to use and how to figure out the best way for you to use them.

We’ve already mentioned using tactics that you’re comfortable with or willing to learn. Using that to narrow down your options is a good way to start. Let’s use Twitter as an example, and assume that you’re already comfortable with Twitter or have taken a little time to learn. (And yes, we’ll probably discuss Twitter as a tactic some time in the future on Marketing Mondays.)

The first thing you’ll want to do is observe. Watch how people use Twitter, both for marketing purposes and for personal purposes. You’ll note that on Twitter—as on many other platforms (and in person)—constantly talking about yourself and your book is generally considered bad form, and it’s a turn off for many people.

You’ll also see how people form friendships and connections on the site, and hopefully jump in and form them as well, moving into a connect phase. With social media, it’s usually the personal connections that count the most—something I hope you’ll see if you observe 😉 . These personal connections can be the most important part of your strategy. Look for people who are part of your audience, whom you would actually like to talk/Tweet to. Their Tweet streams look interesting, and they’re having conversations you’re interested in. You can also use site features like Lists (or groups on other sites) to look for people with similar interests, and watch how they converse with one another, then connect with them as well. Remember: we’re talking about building real connections, not just saying, “I’m going to target you because you are in my audience! Now I will address you as an audience but will never actually respond if you happen to acknowledge me! Prepare to be spammed!”

Ahem.

Once you’ve observed and connected, you’ll want to implement your observations. Maybe you saw someone with clever Tweets about their characters, or who retweeted good reviews in an interesting way, or whose site you checked out just because s/he was so friendly and helpful.

Naturally, you’ll also want to highlight your USP when it’s appropriate—perhaps in a quick reference in your Twitter profile. (Note that there, it’s less obtrusive—you’re kind of supposed to talk about yourself on your profile, after all.)

Using a marketing model

You can also identify a book—in your genre, similar in style, or in some other way comparable to yours (or it’s not really very useful: don’t try to emulate Harry Potter with your futuristic thriller!)—that you feel was positioned and marketed very well.

Then investigate how it was marketed: stalk follow (the social-media-ly acceptable way 😉 ) the author and look back at their Tweetstream/Facebook timeline/blog from the months leading up to the release. Search out where they were reviewed. Find groups/pages/lists on social sites that liked or discussed the book. And hey, why not see if you can find anything about the offline marketing? As you do this, think about how you can do this the same, but different for yourself: maybe the same blogs/readers/sites/events, maybe something similar more targeted toward your audience or book.

If you’re very, very lucky, you might even be able to track down something I’ve seen all of one time: an ARC that actually featured a brief overview of the marketing plan on the back cover.

Thinking outside the box

As my friend Rachelle Christensen mentioned last time, the same, but different is as important in marketing as it is in writing. We want plot lines that fit into the successful structures and formulas, that are familiar enough we can understand the events of the book, but aren’t the same old clichés we’ve seen a jabillion times.

The same thing goes in marketing. If every book is marketed with the same mix of commercials, end caps, billboards, blogs and social media, it becomes easier and easier for them to run together and potential readers to tune those out.

Thinking outside the box is a great way to attract some extra attention to your book . . . although that attention might not always be positive, depending on how far outside the box you go (just like when you break genre conventions).

I can’t tell you what to do when I say think outside the box. I do recommend brainstorming and keeping a file of marketing tactic ideas. Just like when you’re plotting and freewriting, don’t censor yourself. You can always delete dumb ideas later, but sometimes even the stupidest stuff can spur you on to greater creativity.

Once you’ve generated and developed those ideas, really evaluate them before implementing them. Will they fit in an existing framework—is this possible on Twitter? Is that too self-promotional for the Goodreads crowd? Is this just too far out there for the blogging crowd?

Don’t be afraid to be adventurous! Just take a little extra care when you’re doing something “not so traditional” (because we have such long-standing traditions on teh Interwebz) that you won’t alienate your potential readers.

What do you think? What else belongs in a marketing strategy? How do you figure out what tactics are right for you?

Image credits: social media strategy by Matthieu Dejardins; connections by Matthew Anderson, Montage Communications; think outside the box—Lefteris Koulonis

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Technique

Write that Novel 3!

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Looking for a story idea? Here are a few titles that just might get you started.

  • Courage in the Face of Commas
     
  • All’s Well That Doesn’t End in Murder
     
  • It’s All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses Their (His/Her) Life
     
  • Romancing the Keystone State
     
  • The Top Ten Things I Really Shouldn’t Have Had for Breakfast
     
  • Zen and the Art of Golf Ball Fishing
     
  • Monster Sandwich
     


So write that novel—but what’s the plot? Share your craziest idea for a book with any of the above titles in the comments!

Photo by Malik M. L. Williams

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Technique

Fulfilling audience expectations on every page

As we’ve started to talk about marketing, we’ve mentioned how important your genre is. Your genre gives you a built-in audience—with built-in expectations of books in that genre. Those expectations will vary with the genre. In genres that have a fairly standard plot formula—romance (cute meet, conflict, HEA), mystery (crime, investigation, unmasking the criminal), etc.—that’s certainly part of the expectation, but in every genre there are even smaller expectations that we must fulfill to give our readers a good reading experience.

On the macro level, as we talked about in marketing,

we give readers an experience they want: excitement, fun, connection, contemplation, novelty, etc. That “emotional interest” that nonfiction creates is built in for fiction: it’s emotion itself.

Or as author/blogger/marketer Kristin Lamb wrote also last week:

Why do readers buy fiction?

One of the reasons readers are so loyal to authors is because of how that author’s stories made them feel. James Rollins makes me feel like I’ve had an exciting adventure. Sandra Brown makes me feel love is worth fighting for. Amy Tan makes me feel hope and power. J.K. Rowling’s stories make me feel heroic.

Fiction authors are brokers of passionate emotion.

While these emotional experiences are important on the story-level, we need to remember the experiences readers want on each page, or we run the risk of readers giving up on our books long before we can show them the story-level emotional experience.

Rewards Per Page

While we might not be able to fully capture heroism or adventure on a single page, or on every page, there are many, many other emotional experiences that “reward” readers on every page. Vince Mooney points out that a reader “is buying a ‘basket of feelings'” (though he narrows this to romance readers, I really feel it applies to all genres). Beyond the overall payoff of the plot, Vince says that every page should hold “rewards” for the reader—and after studying more than a thousand novels (hello, corpus literature!), he’s come up with 100 types of page-level rewards for readers.

Here are a couple of my favorites rewards he shared on Prairie Writer Chicks and Seekerville:

  • Give the reader new experiences, or interesting little factoids
  • Anticipatory Events (AEs): create situations in which the reader looks forward to finding the resolution. (And paying them off, especially quickly.)
  • Sparkle—beautiful, fresh writing
  • Humor


Vince also suggests looking at your own manuscript to find how many rewards you’re giving to your reader per page.

While the ones he lists on those blogs are fairly universal, there are going to be many rewards that vary by genre. Just as the emotional experiences readers are looking for depends on the genre, the payoffs and rewards do, too.

For example, in a romance, a romantic gesture, especially one tailored to these characters and this situation, rewards not just the characters but the readers, too. (EX: after a fight, he sends her favorite flowers, rhododendron—or better yet, mindful of her flower and food allergies, he sends a GFCFSF cookie basket.)

In a mystery, on the other hand, finding a clue is a type of reward. It can be even better if it’s a clue only a very attentive reader would notice—if the main character is distracted or has a very good explanation for it (making your characters look dumb to make a reader feel smart is not a reward—it’s actually frustrating for the reader). This might be considered a variety of an anticipated event.

And as with all other genre expectations, the best way to figure out the rewards that are most applicable to your genre is to read widely within your genre.

What do you think? What kind of rewards do you see in your genre?

Photo credits: I <3 Mr. Darcy by Jamelah E.; rhododendron by D. Mott

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Marketing

Marketing 101: When do I start?

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This entry is part 5 of 8 in the series Marketing 101

So, now that we’ve established that we’re designing marketing strategies instead of aimlessly using disparate tactics and touting the emotional benefits of our novels, let’s talk about when we need to start marketing. The answer is pretty simple: today. And also tomorrow.

Before you sell a book

Before you sell your first book, you can begin marketing. A lot of that marketing will be in the form of query letters, pitches and other interactions with publishing professionals. But once you’re ready to query, you’re ready to market the one thing you do have: yourself.

While I do know people who have had editors approach them based on the excerpts on their websites/blogs, most of our audience before we have a book (or a deal) won’t be agents and editors. You definitely need to make your online presence professional, especially if you mention your site in your query or email signature—but you also want to keep in mind your audience, often other writers.

One way to do this, obviously, is a blog. You do NOT have to blog about writing unless you really want to (I did and I do). But when you’re ready to enter publishing, a blog is a great way to start putting yourself out there, making yourself known. We’ll be talking more about blogging soon, but one more note before we change the subject: I also recommend approaching blogging before a book deal as a way of networking. Make friends with other writers! Aside from not feeling like a lonely schizoid, you can help and get help from writer friends in strengthening writing craft, finding critique partners, researching and just having fun.

If you feel your writing is ready to submit to agents and editors, then it’s probably ready to put a sample up on your site, too. Because that’s what it’s all about, right? However, you don’t have to treat your blog audience as potential book buyers. They may or may not be—and before you have a book, they won’t be.

When you have a book!

Whether you’re going with a traditional publisher or self-publishing, marketing a book falls pretty heavily on the author’s shoulders.

Naturally, once you have a book in the works, you want to start working on promotional plans. Of course, with a traditional publisher, you will probably have a long lead time—and even you will probably get tired of hearing about your book by the time it comes out if you spend a year or two in hard sell mode. It’s a weird state of limbo—and where I find myself now. My biggest marketing activity right now is polishing up my strategies and tactics for sometime next year. But whenever I can share some good news about the process—a release date, turning in edits, a cover—of course you know I will!

But as your real live release date gets closer, you’ll want to start putting your bigger plans in action. A couple years ago at the LDStorymakers writing conference, author Heather B. Moore recommended this timeline for marketing an upcoming release:

6 months before release: get endorsements—blurbs on the book and on your website (yes, even before the book comes out)

4–6 months before release: line up newspaper reviewers and prominent blog reviewers for a national release and get those ARCs out ASAP

3 months before release: line up reviewers—newspapers and blogs—for regional releases

1-2 months before release: schedule launch events and book signings

Also prepare your marketing materials (bookmarks, fliers, postcards, etc.) well in advance! Check on your printer’s schedule and allow plenty of lead time to have your materials in your hands (or in bookstores) when your book gets there, or a few weeks before.

When your book releases:

  • Get books to remaining reviewers (some don’t want ARCs)
  • Hold a book launch at bookstore, library or other location that is related to your book
  • Issue a press release (you MUST hit on something unique and interesting—AKA a hook—to have any hope of getting this published) or a news item—line up writer friends to feature your announcement in their newsletters
  • Schedule future book signings—talk to store owners

Now, this timeline is built for a traditional publishing schedule. If you’re self-publishing, you don’t necessarily have to wait 6 months to drum up interest first—but starting your marketing 3-4 months before your release (a bare minimum of one month) is definitely a good idea to help get your name and your book out there.

You don’t want to pour too much promotion effort into a book that might not ever see the light of day, and you don’t want to overwhelm the good information and content on your blog with self-promotion—but there’s most lkely something for you to market right now, whether that’s yourself or your upcoming release.

What do you think? When did or will you start your marketing?

Photo credits: handshake—Lea Hernandez; calendar—Tanakawho

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Publishing, News & Contests

Author photos!

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Yesterday, I paid a friend to shoot me. Fortunately, he used a camera.

Okay, so my photographer isn’t just a random friend. He happens to be Jaren Wilkey, the 2011 Photographer of the Year for the University Photographers’ Association of America. (Just in the 2011 UPAA print competition, six of his photos also won prizes/honorable mentions including two 1st place finishes.) I’ve seen him take lots of pictures before—and had him take some great pictures of my family—but after working with him yesterday, let me tell you, the man knows his stuff. I mean, just check me out (and these are just straight from the camera):

(okay, I photoshopped fixed my hair a little in this ^ one)

These are three of the just under 500 photos we shot in 90 minutes. I am now armed with reaction shots for any possible blog topic. For example, murderous rage:

I will say this a thousand times: if you have the money or the contacts, get a professional to shoot your author photos. (And the same thing goes a million times for your wedding photos. Still grumbling about mine.) There is no substitute for someone who understands how to really work a camera and use lighting and backgrounds and poses to make you look your best.

In case you’re wondering, taking your author photos is pretty cool and can be a lot of fun, but no, it doesn’t make you feel like the real deal (yet).

Any faves here? How do you want to do your author photos?

In case you missed it, photos by Jaren Wilkey

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