What's An Author Brand?

What is an author brand? I've been asking myself this but haven't had much of a chance to research the question. One of my Google Alters sent me a link to Laurel Marshfield's article, What's an Author Brand?

She writes:

Brands are those vague but persuasive associations we conjure up whenever we think of any well-known product. Mac computers. TIDE laundry detergent. Nike running shoes.

Brands are also the far more complex associations that come to mind whenever we think of well-known authors. Often, they’re a flash of images mixed with a dominant feeling, or a scene from a particular book montaged with memory fragments.

Here’s a small demonstration. Does the name Stephen King conjure something different for you than the name J.K. Rowling? What about Dan Brown, Elizabeth Gilbert, Jodi Picoult? Or Malcolm Gladwell, Joan Didion, Seth Godin? What association appears for a second or so when you first see each name?

People Aren’t Products

Whatever that instant of recognition is composed of, it’s there because that author’s brand put it there. Each association is complex and meaningful — unlike the association you’d experience for a brand of laundry detergent.

In fact, it’s that much-ado-about-nothingness which characterizes many product brands that makes it easy to imagine authors rejecting the B word as too schlocky, too commercial, too huckster-esque. So let’s substitute the word “story,” instead.

Your Brand Is Your Author Story

The author story (aka brand) refers to the complex messages authors put out into the world about themselves and their books — which we then absorb and retain in a highly individual way.

Suppose that you, like author Michael Cunningham, were interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air.” You talked about your struggles with writing, as well as your then-recent book, The Hours (later made into a movie starring Meryl Streep). You were articulate, charming, fascinating — someone any listener would want to know more about, because what you had to say was vivid and substantive.

So, you think, is that Cunningham’s brand?

Read the rest of What's an Author Brand?

10 Must-Read Fantasy Novels

I had someone (@AEMarling) ask me on Twitter yesterday, "What about fantasy most speaks to you?" Of course I took that as an invitation to reveal my inner cave man -- or cave woman in this case -- and replied, "All the cool stuff you can do!"

In fairness to me, I've been re-reading Jim Butcher's excellent Dresden Files series and what I like the most about Harry is his smart-aleck kick-butt ways combined with his, at times, irrational refusal to be bullied even if it means certain death. I then asked Marling how he would answer the question. He came back with:

Fantasy unhinges confining reality, manifesting age-old human dreams and desires. The early Homo sapiens might have paused in crushing each other’s skulls (30% of adults died of homicide back then OUCH!) and seen birds flying and imagined taking wing themselves, and this desire to fantasize, to daydream impossibilities may be written in our DNA. I suggest this tendency to entertain the absurd is our greatest adaptation. Without it, I do not for a moment believe we would have achieved air flight, learned how to restart a stopped heart, or cooked the Oreo pizza. (The last one proves fantasy can be used for evil…delicious, delicious evil.)
[Read the rest of the article here.]

I'd been owned. I had to laugh. That's a way better answer. Here's another one:

Fantasy of any kind tells us that the world we know is not the only one, nor the most enduring — and that truth can be anything but an escape or comfort.

That quotation was from David Orr. In that spirit, Lev Grossman has given us 10 fantasy novels that he says everyone should read. The first one is The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, one of my personal favorites. Click here for the others.

Google+ Forces Users to Reveal Real Names

At first blush, this may seem off topic for a blog about writing but what group of people use false names on a regular basis? That's right, we do. We call them pen names. Pseudonyms. We adopt them as part of our branding strategy, or because we want to keep our writing private from mother's and fathers, aunts and uncles, colleges and clients.

It seems that Google+'s policy of only allowing real names might make the service unusable for people who write under a pseudonym. That's too bad. Circles are great for sending information about ones different writing lines to only those people who would be interested in it.

Links:
- Google+ name policy 'frustrating,' Google confesses
- Use your real name or else. New social network will force Google+ users to identify themselves.. or leave the site
- Google’s Real Names Policy Is Evil
- “Real Names” Policies Are an Abuse of Power

Community Building, Gaga Style

How do you build a community? How do you find the common thread that will bring you and your readers together?

Louis Marino, author of 5 Things Lady Gaga Can Teach Marketers About Community Building, writes about what folks can learn from musicians like Lady Gaga about building communities. I've paraphrased his points and whittled them down to three because this post is for writers and, lets face it, we tend to be a just a wee bit less social. I mean, have you ever heard of Nora Roberts groupies? ;)

1. Engage people with similar interests. Deliver a great experience that relates to something your fans are passionate about, something they will share amongst themselves and that will contribute to building the soul of the movement.

2. Be vulnerable. Know who you are, your strengths and weaknesses. By being honest and open about who you are you will attract those like you, people who can relate to you, and who you can relate to.

3. Your readers are your boss. Go out of your way to honor them, to show them that they are essential.

LM writes:

I worked for five years at Island DefJam, a label that has a wide-ranging artist roster covering everything from hip-hop to R&B to country. You might think that a rapper from Brooklyn wouldn’t have much reason (or desire) to connect with a country crooner out of Arkansas. But as it turned out, the opposite was true--I soon saw that they were actually a very tightknit community. No matter their genre or origins, these musicians unfailingly came out to support each other, watch each other’s performances, hang out backstage, share ideas, and make music together. It was clear that they truly loved and respected each other. That steady support and genuine respect formed the basis of their community. As do all communities, they shared common interests and a like-mindedness that was real and authentic.

These artists applied this unspoken value for community to their fans as well. One thing that I noticed always separated the great artists from the rest was their absolute devotion to their fans. They didn’t view their fans as walking wallets--for them, their most important task was to make sure that every fan experience was meaningful and memorable. They understood that it was the fans that make the artist a success. Essentially, they knew the fans were their bosses.

That's how these music artists carefully cultivated strong communities of fans that felt cared for--because they were. Those fans were loved. And the secret to that artist/audience love was always authenticity.

LM notes that this is true for Lady Gaga as well. Lady Gaga doesn't view being involved with her fans through social media as drudgery. For Gaga, her fans are her community, she is loyal to them just as they are to her.

The key to building community is loyalty and here I'm not speaking about a fan's loyalty to an author or to a celebrity, but the author's loyalty to their fans. Even though Gaga has millions of fans (35 million Facebook friends and 10 million Twitter followers) she acts as though she is a member of a small, intimate and fiercely loyal community.

In the comments to LM's article Claire makes the comment that communities aren't made, they are facilitated. She writes:

As for authenticity - you don't create communities, you facilitate them. That's perhaps semantics, but it's an important distinction. Communities do spring up themselves, but taking an interest and facilitating them is the best way forward. Gaga does that in so many ways and it's an extremely positive experience for fans. ... Talk to them, get involved in their community and support what they want to do with it.

Food for thought.

Let's Get Digital, by David Gaughran

There is an excellent article about David Gaughran's book, Let's Get Digital, over on Mark Williams International.

David's book receives a glowing recommendation from indie-publishing success story Sibel Hodge who writes:

If you want to self-pub, you absolutely have to read this book. When I started out, I didn’t have a clue about all the things that an Indie author has to get involved in. It’s not just a question of writing a fab book – that’s the easy part! The hard bit is what comes next…

I didn’t have a clue where to find covers, good editors, how to market effectively and gain lovely readers and fans. PRC, MOBI, Epub sounded more like a scratchy disease than anything to do with e-pubbing. I had to learn it bit by bit and very slowly, but in LET’S GET DIGITAL you get you all the information you need in one place. David’s done all the hard work for you!

And the authors who contributed their stories to this book will show you that it really is possible to be a success as an Indie self-pubbing. Their experiences are uplifting and truly inspirational.

So do you want your manuscript sitting in a dusty drawer somewhere, or do you want to live your dream? If so, you need to get a copy of this book!

Click here to read the article: Don’t Believe The Hype – David Gaughran Separates Myth And Reality About Indie-Publishing

If you would like to buy David's book, here are the links. You can even get it free!
- Amazon UK
- Smashwords
- Free PDF file

Amazon Cracks Down on Spammers

Certain news stories make me want to get up and jump for joy -- without, of course, breaking anything! A little while ago I published a couple of posts about Ruth Ann Nordin (Stolen Books and Amazon Piracy) and how someone had the audacity to begin selling her books as their own. They didn't change her name as the author, they just started selling her books without her consent and without feeling the need to share any of their profits with her.

The Problem: PLR
Around that time there was a spate of articles about folks using Amazon's Kindle store to sell Private Rights Label (PLR) content. What is PLR content? I'm sure someone else could give you a better description, but imagine that you have a book to sell, "The Final Word On Widgets". Someone comes up to you and says, "I'll pay you to let me take your book, edit it a bit so it looks different, and then re-sell it." You say sure as opposed to "Heck no!" and they take your book and re-package it in a number of ways (different cover, different order of the chapters, etc) and sell each of these repackaged books on Amazon hoping that because they just uploaded 1,000 books that they'll sell something.

And, surprisingly, they do!

I'm not sure why anyone would sell their content to re-packagers, but obviously people do, so I suspect there's a lot about PLR that I don't understand.

The Good News!
A lot of folks were getting nervous because Amazon didn't seem to be doing anything to stop scammers from selling re-packaged content. Worse, some re-packagers weren't picky about legal niceties such as owning the content they re-packaged: enter the Ruth Ann Nordin story.

Not to worry. Yesterday Amazon announced that it was cracking down on re-packagers by sending out this letter to suspected offenders:

Hello,

We’re contacting you regarding books you recently submitted via Kindle Direct Publishing.

Certain of these books are either undifferentiated or barely differentiated from an existing title in the Kindle store. We remove such duplicate (or near duplicate) versions of the same book because they diminish the experience for customers. We notify you each time a book is removed, along with the specific book(s) and reason for removal.

In addition to removing duplicate books from the Kindle store, please note that if you attempt to sell multiple copies or undifferentiated versions of the same book from your account, we may terminate your account.

If you have any questions regarding the review process, you can write to kdp-quality@amazon.com.

Best regards,

Kindle Direct Publishing
http://kdp.amazon.com

Laura Hazard Owen (Amazon is Finally Cracking Down On Kindle Spammers) did some investigative journalism and went over to one of the forums where re-packagers like to hang out and talk shop. One writes:

I was less than a month from hiring a VA [virtual assistant] and scaling this up. I guess I dodged that bullet! Phew!

Another says:

Lol if it didn’t work on Amazon. Try Barnes and Noble (NYSE: BKS), as well as iBooks, maybe they don’t have much content police in their management. :)

Here is hoping that Barnes and Nobel and the Apple Store follow Amazon's lead. Quickly!

Credits:
- The letter Amazon sent out to suspected re-packagers of content was from Laura Hazard's article, Amazon Is Finally Cracking Down On Kindle Spammers, as were the two quotations, above.
- Photo credit: DVD Reviews

Scrivener: A Great Tool for Writers

A couple of days ago, The Book Designer had a marvelous blog post about why Scrivener was the ultimate program for writers. It was as though this article was written for me since I have been thinking about switching from Word to Scrivener.

Here is the link: Scrivener: The Ultimate Multitool for Writers

A Blogging Start-Up Kit

You've never Blogged, Tweeted or Facebooked but now you're ready. What to do?

First, congratulations! This is a big step, it's a lot of work, but if you're a writer, or thinking about becoming a writer, building a platform is expected and essential.

Blogging
It seems that the most popular blogging platforms are www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com. I chose to use Blogger.com rather than Wordpress.com because, while both are free to use, Blogger doesn't make one pay to take down advertisements. I know of people, though, who have a flourishing blog on Wordpress and couldn't be happier with the service.

Google Analytics. This is essential. It shows you, on a month to month basis, how the traffic on your site changes as well as what sort of traffic your site attracts.

Twitter
You have your blog set up so it's time to get a Twitter account. In my opinion, if a writer had to choose between blogging and tweeting, I'd say tweet. After I tweet a link to one of my blog posts I get a spike of traffic that represents folks visiting my site to read the article.

Twitter drives traffic to my blog and my blog gives me a way to share longer pieces of content with my readers, but if I only had a blog ... well, who would read it? My friends and family, sure, but Twitter gives me a way to reach out to people I don't know. It gives me a way to connect with people looking for the kind of content I provide. Okay, that's my plug for Twitter. :)

Before I move on, here are some links to sites that help you gauge what sort of impact your tweets are having:

- Twitter Counter: While you're there, check out Twittercounter's Twitter Profile Checker and get recommendations on what to do to attract more followers.

- Tweetreach.com: Tells you how many people your tweets have reached.

- Topsy Social Analytics: Tells you how many times your tweets were mentioned.

- Klout Score: Klout will give you a score that is based on your Score Analysis, your Network Influence, your Amplification Probability and your True Reach.

- TweetGrader: Gives you a grade out of 100

- TweetStats.com: Lots of interesting stats. For instance, looks at your tweets according to number of tweets and time of day

Facebook
You've got a blog and you're tweeting up a storm, the next step is to take out an account on Facebook. I'm going to admit that I should do more with Facebook so this section is as much for me as it is for anyone.

A little while ago I wrote an article on how to set up a Facebook page. I like fan pages because it removes the uncertainty of whether a writer intends their page for real-life friends only or whether they are inviting anyone who is interested in their work to connect with them.

Content
After you're blogged and tweeted for a bit you'll find yourself looking for new content. I've found the best source of content is other bloggers and news feeds. Below are the sources I've found most useful.

Blogs:
Joe Konrath: A Newbie's Guide to Publishing
Dean Wesley Smith
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Passive Voice Blog @PassiveVoiceBlg

News Sites:
The New Yorker
Salon

Apps:
Hootsuite
Flipboard

Misc:
Google Alerts. Interested in who is talking about you? Your book(s)? To start out with, create an altert containing your name and one for each title you have available.

This post is by no means in-depth. My goal was to give a person new to blogging and tweeting a few useful links, links that I wish I had known about when I started.

Cheers, and good blogging!

The Secret of Amanda Hocking's Success

Kristine Kathryn Rusch hits the nail on the head. In her words, Amanda Hocking has "major storytelling chops".

Critics loathe folks who can tell stories but whose prose isn’t English-major perfect. Once Hocking got her deal with St. Martins, the literary critics all downloaded a copy of her e-books then came out guns blazing, calling St. Martins stupid for buying such a seriously bad writer.

As usual, the major literary critics—the same folks who dismiss James Patterson and Nora Roberts as hacks—fail to understand what readers read for. We don’t read for beautiful language (well, some of us do some of the time.) We read to be entertained. We read to get lost in a good story. We read to forget about the plunge in the Dow and the European Debt Crisis and the war in Afghanistan and the Somali famine. We read so that we can relax after a long day of searching for a job, or trying to figure out which bill to pay, or taking care of our ill parents. We read to go somewhere else.

Hocking takes us there. So does Patterson. So does Nora Roberts. Some do it with better prose than others. But they all take us out of our lives for the time we’re inside the book.

The writers who, year after year, continue to sell books through indie publishing or traditional publishing tell great stories. Bottom line: those writers aren’t really writers. They’re storytellers.

Read the rest of Kristine Rusch's article here: The Business Rusch: Comparisons

When I bought My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking -- it was the very first ebook I bought, by the way -- I couldn't put it down and finished it that day. Yes, I wanted to find out what happened at the end of the story, but it was more than that. She got me to care about her characters, about her universe.

The Key To Being Talented: Work Hard!

Dean Wesley Smith writes that talent is "only a measure of craft at a certain point in time and nothing more," and that the way you become talented is by hard work and lots of it.

From Dean's blog post:

In school I hated writing because I was so bad at it. If I had listened to all the people who told me I had no talent for writing, I would have quit four decades ago. No, make that five decades ago, because all my early report cards said I had no talent for writing.

Now, after millions and millions of words practiced, many books and stories published, I get comments all the time like, “You are a talented writer, of course you can do it.”

Or one I got the other day. “You have the talent to write fast.”

Well, when I started to get serious about fiction writing, it took me hours and hours to do one 250 word page. Then that page would be so poorly written and riddled with mistakes that it got tossed away more often than not. (Remember, I was working on a typewriter.) Yup, I was a “naturally talented” fast writer. NOT!
....
The real bottom line is that to get past this myth, you have to believe in yourself and ignore everyone else’s belief system about you. Learn from others, but ignore what they say about your “talent.” Because the moment you take that alien belief system into your own mind and believe it, either good or bad, you are doomed.

Although I am a big fan of Dean's blog, this particular blog post is a gem. If you're a writer who has ever been intimidated by the question, "Am I talented?" this is a must-read. Enjoy!

Head on over to Dean's post: Chapter 12: Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: The Myth of Talent

Photo credit: DesignSwan