Trying an Import Again: f5304fcb062e17e4fe64525c228b670f

[alanajoli]

No, it doesn't make sense. It's a string of random numbers that, if my RSS feed works correctly, will mean I have a blog live on Tokyopop. I've got an e-mail in to the folks at Amazon Connect to see if I can get my blog imported there as well. My words, goofy and serious, will be everywhere! (This terrifies me a little bit, but I remind myself that "I Am the Brand" and therefore any place people see me means that I have a better chance for people to read my books.)

Out of curiosity, to the other writers who pop by and read this: how do you feel about the "I Am the Brand" philosophy. Is that true in your market? Do you cultivate the brand concept, or reject it?

Comments

[eyezofwolf.livejournal.com]

For what it is worth, here are my two cents on the matter...

I think that the "I am the brand" motto of pushing your books is a good one. How many different people will tell you that no one is going to love or care about your writing more than the author? Or how about how you need to push yourself out there to get your name noticed? I think it is a good thing, and I give you lots of credit for doing it.

Now, I should probably take my own advice one of these days. I am not great at putting myself out there. I have been doing a little bit, but I often am remiss about how I should do more. I am sure you will do fine - your words are enjoyable to read.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Dylan. I think you've actually done a great job at putting yourself out there--of all the people on author alley last year, you were the person who seemed most enthusiastic about your work, along with putting across an air of competence (rather than, say, disillusion, or "my mother loved my novel"). That's why I ended up taking your work home rather than someone else's.

You're also putting work up online for free, which seems like a good move to me. How has that worked for you? Do you feel it increases your visibility?

[eyezofwolf.livejournal.com]

Putting the story up there helps in some respects, but to be honest, I am not sure how well it is working. It is hard to gauge. The biggest problem I run into is that since it is a continuing story, it is hard for people to jump in in the middle. So I think I need to rework that... I have heard about people who come by to check it out and get turned off with all of the back stuff to read.

It is nice to have something out there where I can tell people "Hey, read this. If you like it, buy my book." I say that a lot at conventions and do get a bunch of people emailing me afterwards. I also know that I have a decent following because of the story. It gives people something to come back to.

As for my presentation at Cons, thanks for the compliments. The secrets I was told by another author were:

1) Don't sit behind the table
2) Don't sell your book
3) (added by me) Ask people about their stories and be interested.

3 is a big one. I have a habit of talking to less people in volume, but talking for longer periods of time. I like hearing people's stories and finding things to talk about. Of course, the flip side is I think that the ratio of sales to people talked to is higher, but I have no clue. It's just a guess.

[mastyrwerk.livejournal.com]

I like it. You are the brand, sister. Like it or not, you have to get your name out there. You have to go to signings, talk on radio, get interviewed for magazines, plaster your name on billboards or write it in the sky.

You are in the business of heads. The more heads that hear your name, the more will read your books. The more the books get read, the more heads will remember and recall your name.

I recommend getting involved in movements that appeal to you. Speak at conventions, charity events, fundraisers. The more you promote you, the more you promote your books.

Once everyone knows who you are, then you can become a recluse and live in a cottage in the middle of nowhere with 18 cats and just write.

Keep up the good work.
stefan!

[(Anonymous)]

Yes.

And no.

You are the brand, yes. But unless you are going to become a recluse and live in a cottage in the middle of nowhere with 18 cats and just write RIGHT NOW, you are going to have nothing to talk about or sell while being your brand.

Do the work first. Write something people are going to want to read. Be the writer, then be the brand--not the other way around. This Information Age we are in allows us all great opportunity that past writers never had. Too many people, however, get lost in the Era and forget that the brand is the means to the end, and not the end.

Shawn

[mastyrwerk.livejournal.com]

It goes hand in hand. You have to be a good writer so your books will sell.
You have to sell yourself if people are going to be aware that you are a writer.
Just doing the work isn't enough, but you still gotta be a writer.

Once you get your name out there and people finally read your stuff, then the quality of the writing takes hold. You still need to get them to read it in the first place. Hit the streets. Tell everyone you know about it. Send copies to people in the position to boost your recognition.

Or you can get an agent to do it for you.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Hee, or a marketing department at a mid-sized publisher. (Publishers that are too small won't have one, and publishers that are too large are busy promoting James Patterson.)

There's definitely a mix: create the content to promote, then promote the content. Whether that's online, at conventions, or in my local community... well, it's important.

melissa_writing just posted on her blog today about how she's not the product, and I agree with that. (This was in a response to someone who asked for a signed autograph--which is really more your neck of the woods.) I think actors actually may also be their own product, which requires even more work and face-the-public than author promotion. The same might be true of the music industry. Authors and artists at least can send their work out there into the world and hope that it's good enough to catch hold on its own. (But first, people have to know it exists. So here we are, full circle.)

[dmoonfire.livejournal.com]

That is a hard one. I think it depends on the market, really. In college, two of my gaming group were White Wolf writers. They weren't really known outside of a few credits, but they just fell into popularity and one of them has a dozen books on his credits and is the "special guest" at most of the conventions he goes. He just fell into it without a brand.

On the other hand, I have split efforts. For my other pen name, it was kind of falling into it, most of my sales were word-of-mouth and I have a small following but it is also very for a very niche market. My novel hasn't sold that much on that side, mainly because of a couple factors, mainly a publisher who closed their doors and didn't send books out, but also because it was hard to break out of that specific niche. But, if there is a brand, its fairly well established but I did no effort to really earn it. If I did, it was just moving from forum to forum, writing things that were interesting that got people reading more of my stuff.

For my mainstream pen name, I definitely feel the need for brand. Mainly because I'm a nobody in the market. Most of the rejections were based on my lack of impact on anyone's radar. I'm a nobody, and I think that has an impact on things. So, at some point, I'll probably have to make up a Brand new me :) and figure a way out of it, but I suspect it will be a lot of hard work when it does happen.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I think in the case of White Wolf (or Wizards of the Coast), the company becomes the brand--which means the game designers and novelists don't need to work quite so hard for their own name recogntion. There's always a reader like me who wants to collect the whole Eberron series of novels, and that's the brand that matters.

Keeping track of several self-brands... wow. I suppose if you're working with a very niche market, there's not a lot of cross-marketing that could be done. With all the work I'm putting into just one name, I can't imagine spreading myself out on several brands! It sounds like a lot of hard work already. :)

[dmoonfire.livejournal.com]

Actually, I feel having two distinct names is somewhat of a hindrance in general. The first one (not "Dylan Moonfire") has been around for easily fifteen years and has a bulk of my writing. It was only recently that I decided to get into the mainstream side of things and outside of what I consider is a niche market. (Then I end up writing a fantasy steam-age forensics murder mystery--I'm doomed to niches.) Mainly it was the scale. In that market, if I sold 200 books, I was near the top of the field. Kind of like writing quantum physics books where selling sixty was considered amazing.

The problem is that my other name would hinder acceptance of the new books. They are simply too far off the beaten path for cross-marketing and I think that scares publishers/agents almost as much as being an "unknown" in life.

The other problem is division of labor. When you take both names together, I've written two dozen stories and a novel every year for the last five years. I have been published 6-7 times with stories. I simply can't use any of that to try getting published with Wind, Bear, and Moon or Muddy Reflections.

There is also the problem of I like to talk about my life. And I am hesitant to talk about both names together, mainly because people start asking what I mean by my fifth novel instead of my "first novel" because then people ask me what my first four novels were. :) And why I have so much trouble getting WBM or MR published after I was already published once before.

I wouldn't recommend it though. I'm committed to continue at it, for a few more decades at least, but it really isn't the easiest on me or my mate.