J.E.S. Hayes has done a great job talking up social media and promotion lately. I figured for lack of another idea that I'd delve into one small part of the whole. Branding. Hmm.
The idea of a brand is actually pretty smart. After all, we want readers to find us. And an author who does more than one genre - say inspirational romance - might not want their die-hard fans to know they also write horror. Or erotica. Yeah, that might be a bit of a shocker.
That's a pretty funny quote. But while life might not be divided into genres, books are - absolutely.
Let's say author Jane Doe starts her career writing sensual romance novels, but then she's got a hankering to use her Engineering/Science degree to dig deep into the science fiction/fantasy genre. What's Jane to do? Will her romance readers love her new stuff? Probably not, unless there's sensual romance in there - but they also might get pretty bored by all the technical stuff. Plus, Jane's romance-themed website might not draw the geeks she's hoping to snag.
See how the pictures above clash? One possibility is for Jane to use a pseudonym - let's say J.J. Doe. Or J.D. Smith. Then Jane has double the work in keeping up both websites and social media promotion, but hopefully she's making enough money from book sales to hire that out. (Hey, it's possible! Don't we all wish.)
Another possibility is to create ONE website, with multiple pages explaining her different books. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, used a pseudonym (and tried to keep it secret) when she started the Cormoran Strike series of crime fiction as Robert Galbraith. The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm are very different, clearly. And before she split off, her website was totally geared for Harry Potter fans.
Now, however, her newly designed website handles it all. However, she does keep it consistent, and if you click the name Robert Galbraith above, you'll see a separate website. You don't need scads of money to do something similar if you're writing in multiple genres.
But how exactly would a "brand" play a role? You might think of something you personally love, and incorporate that in your website and social media. For me, it's the color purple - I love re-tweeting photos of purple flowers or whatever. And tea - I frequently find tea photos to use. You can see on my website that I also love riding bikes and flowers. I highly recommend M.K. McClintock at Potterton House Author Services. M.K. is a talented website designer, and I love my new "look" and multiple "brand" style. My home page reflects ME, and readers get a sense of what I'm like behind the various books I write. It's like a personal touch.
Now, what does this have to do with my westerns? Nothing much, but under my Books page, where the drop-down menu shows all the various genres, click on "westerns" to see how M.K. chose a totally different style. If you click "D.E. Ireland" under Books, you will see more of an English style. And again, under "Holiday Novellas" you'll see more of a winter style. I'll be adding a "Cozy Mysteries" featuring teddy bears under a different drop-down soon.
NOT that this is the best way to handle "branding" an author, of course. My writing partner and I still maintain our own website and blog, and I may end up with another website for Meg Macy's books - with a link back to Meg Mims. When I branched out, I truly branched out. But having an expanded "presence" on the web might give an author writing multiple genres more links for readers to find them. And that has got be an advantage.
Best wishes in branding your own multiple genre/multiple pseudonym books!
Mystery author Meg Mims earned a Spur Award from WWA and also a Laramie award for her western historical mystery series, Double Crossing and Double or Nothing. She also writes short stories for anthologies and is one-half of the writing team of D.E. Ireland for the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mystery series. Book 1, Wouldn't It Be Deadly, was nominated for a 2015 Agatha Award and Book 2, Move Your Blooming Corpse, is set at Ascot Racecourse. Meg is working on a cozy mystery series for Kensington that will debut in 2017. She lives in Southeastern Michigan, loves tea, books, Mackinac Island, cookies, and currently has a sweet Malti-Poo rescue.
And here's the hotel, the Sheraton Westport at the Westport Plaza - and a FREE SHUTTLE from the St. Louis (STL) airport, too, every half hour!
I can't wait to get to St. Louis and finally - FINALLY - meet some of the Western Fictioneers I've met and written with over the years! The schedule looks AMAZING. And don't forget to check out the reasonable price for the convention - trust me on that. This is YOUR CHANCE to 'gather round the campfire' with some of the best writers/published authors in western fiction.
WESTERN FICTIONEERS 2015 CONVENTION SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30
1:00 MUSTERING THE TROOPS: INTRODUCING THE WESTERN FICTIONEERS
2:00 ROMANCING THE WEST (Kathleen Rice Adams, Kat Martin, Meg Mims, Cheryl Pierson, Jacquie Rogers)
BADGES & BAYONETS: LAWMEN, RANGERS AND THE CAVALRY (James Griffin, Robert Vaughan)
3:00 WRITING ABOUT INDIANS WHEN YOU’RE NOT ONE (Dr. Troy D. Smith)
THE YOUNGER GANG: TARGETING THE Y/A MARKET (James Griffin, TBA)
4:00 THE DOCTOR’S BAG: MEDICINE & SURGERY OF YESTERYEAR (Dr. Keith Souter)
6:00 WELCOME RECEPTION
7:00 DINNER – “A FICTIONEERS HOEDOWN”
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31
8:00 CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
9:00 LIVING LEGENDS PANEL (Robert Vaughan, Robert J. Randisi, Dusty Richards, Frank Roderus)
10:00 TAMING SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER NECESSARY EVILS (Kathleen Rice Adams, JES Hays, Tom Rizzo, Jacquie Rogers)
WHAP! BAM! PAW! PUNCHING UP YOUR FIGHT SCENES (Robert J. Randisi, Frank Roderus, Robert Vaughan)
11:00 I SAID DRAW! GRAPHIC WESTERN NOVELS (Dr. Troy D. Smith)
LITERARY AGENT Q & A (Cherry Weiner of Cherry Weiner Literary Agency)
LUNCH BREAK
1:00 PUBLISHERS PANEL (Mike Bray of Wolfpack Publishing, Cheryl Pierson of Prairie Rose Publications, Dusty Richards Golway Publishing , Duke and Kimberly Pennell of Pen-L Publishing, Dr. Troy D. Smith of Western Trail Blazer Publishing, Louella Turner of High Hill Press)
2:00 WRITE ‘EM UP, MOVE ‘EM OUT: TIPS FOR SELLING YOUR STORY (Dusty Richards)
THE “RIGHTS” SIDE OF THE LAW: LEGAL LABYRINTHS (W. Michael Milom)
3:00 DECONSTRUCTING CUSTER (Steve Kohlhagen, Robert Vaughan)
BUILDING A FRANCHISE: SERIAL NOVEL TIPS & TRICKS (Robert J. Randisi)
4:00 THE CIVIL WAR AND THE WEST (Steve Kohlhagen, Dr. Troy D. Smith)
HOLLYWOOD WEST: THE SCOOP ON SCREENPLAYS (Courtney Joyner)
5:00 PUBLIC MEET & GREET/BOOK SIGNING
7:30 DINNER – “AROUND THE CAMPFIRE”
Wear your over-the-top
cowboy and cowgirl duds for Halloween!
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1
8:00 CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
9:00 WOLF CREEK: BEHIND THE SCENES (Dr. Troy D. Smith)
10:00 COWBOY CHURCH
COWBOY CHURCH!! Wow, I can't wait to hear some good ole Cowboy Preaching - wonder if we'll have to sing the old hymns without hymnals?
COME ON OUT and MEET the legendary Western Fictioneers! Here's some of the authors: Troy D. Smith, L.J. Martin, Cheryl Pierson, Kathleen Rice Adams, Robert Randisi, Dusty Richards, Robert Vaughan, Frank Roderus, Jacquie Rogers, Keith Souter, Tom Rizzo, Meg Mims, James J. Griffin, Chuck Tyrell ...and many more! And grab their books and autographs at the Western Fictioneer Book Store.
Chances are this is a phrase you’ll hear more than once during any given week.
In fact, it’s a good bet that whenever two or more people are gathered in the same general vicinity someone is bound to reel out a story of a recent experience or retell someone else’s story from their own perspective.
Storytelling is the world’s greatest indoor and outdoor sport. Oral storytelling has been around, of course, since humans began grunting. Way back then, people used words, drawings, gestures, and facial expressions to entertain, educate, inform, and even inspire.
The best stories were told and retold--epic stories of ghosts and gods, legends and heroes, war and love. Travelers tucked these stories into their memory banks and carried them to other lands and cultures where they exchanged them for even more stories, which they brought home to share.
Good storytelling requires an attentive audience.
Today, attention spans aren’t what they used to be, which is why the best oral stories tend to be brief and vivid so listeners can engage as many senses as possible. On the other hand, we’ve all been in situations when you'd like to implore the storyteller to “puh-leeeeze get to the point!”
Economy in storytelling is a special skill. Especially in writing. Choosing the right words to tell a story is a challenge most of us face, whether writing a short story or novel—although economy of words isn’t usually a priority consideration for someone trying to churn out a 40,000- to 80,000-word novel.
When I worked in broadcast news, I learned to write “fast and tight”—to tell a breaking story in as few words as possible, written in a way that provided listeners with the sense of a complete story.
Today, thanks to social media channels, even the non-professional writers of society are learning to express themselves with brevity.
Text messaging, Twitter, blog comments, chats, and other electronic communication formats demand a minimum number of words to get a point across.
Magazines get into the act, as well, in different ways. For example, the other day, while skimming a local city magazine, I saw a column labeled, “One-Sentence Stories.” The column featured six stories, these two among them:
“A woman allegedly smacked his sister-in-law across the face with a dead catfish in a domestic disturbance in Lufkin.”
“Aggie legend Johnny Manziel was photographed in an Austin swimming pool, sprawled across an inflatable swan and guzzling from a champagne bottle.”
These and the other four sentences weren't really stories. I’d classify them as statements or, at the very least, story-starters. Valid stories usually contain action, conflict, and perhaps resolution.
Telling a story in the fewest number of words possible is generally referred to as flash fiction.
The most intriguing Flash Fiction challenge is the Six-Word Story. Books - yes, books - have been written about writing Six-Word Stories. Entire websites are devoted to the concept. The idea has inspired a literary movement proving that lots can be said in few words.
The idea started, according to literary legend, when Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a short story in only six words. No doubt you’ve read the six-word story somewhere along the way:
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Hemingway supposedly bet a table of other writers ten-dollars each that he could develop an entire story in six words. After the money was produced, he wrote the six words on a napkin, passed it around the table, and collected the money for winning the bet. Whether the story is true or not remains unanswered. Its accuracy has come under fire a number of times.
Regardless of the reality, the idea of writing a six-word story represents the ultimate challenge in storytelling.
Check out the website, Six-Word Memoirswhere contributors from all walks of life use six words to tell the story of their lives. The results are mixed, but many are quite creative.
And everyone, regardless of the quality, should be applauded for their effort to Say It In Six.
Confining our creative efforts to six words forces us to be more selective in word choices. Sometimes, it’s as frustrating as it is challenging. But it’s a good way to focus and refine your thinking. Here are a few I attempted:
Financial markets collapse. Penthouse to poverty.
She aimed. She shot. He bled.
Santa Claus arrived, left no gifts.
Fugitive family rescued from sinking yacht.
No use crying over dreams unfulfilled.
The genie appeared. Granted no wishes.
Give it a go yourself.
Consider this a participatory blog. In the Comments section below, leave your own six-word story.
_____
Tom, author of the post-Civil War action-adventure Last Stand At Bitter Creek, is working on his second novel. Soon to be released are several works of nonfiction:
The StoryTellers, Interviews with Writers about the Art of Fiction
Tall Tales from the High Plains & Beyond (three volumes)
Many moons ago, writers wrote (longhand or via typewriter - that's Louis L'Amour, by the way - before the desk computer or laptop). They wrote from start to finish, printed off the pages, boxed it up, and sent off their book (to an agent, editor, or the proverbial slush pile.) Once they signed a contract, writers started the next book. Did they worry about promotion? Nope. Did the publisher routinely take care of the book's cover? The print run? Distribution?
Yup, yup, yup.
Things are a bit different now. Some western writers are hanging on to the "old ways" by their fingernails. A blog, what's that? Why do I need a website? Tweeting is just plain silly, like teats on a bull.
Some writers believe they'd rather not put a "face" to their name, especially on Facebook. What's so social about Social Media? Writers might believe it robs them of precious writing time.
While that might be true (and some people waste hours on Facebook), you can say the same about answering the telephone, watching television, playing video games, reading others' books, exercising their horse, even sleeping. "Call me old-fashioned, just don't call me late to dinner."
It's all about networking. Surely you've heard that term. And while life happens, so does change. And friends -- the times, they are a-changing.
The most successful business man is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it is good and grabs the new just as soon as it is better. Robert Vanderpoel
Every writer -- no matter the genre, no matter how young or old -- has to consider they are IN BUSINESS. A hobby doesn't fly with the IRS. So every serious writer needs the basics besides a solid plot, characters and a finished manuscript. YES, a finished manuscript, because writers rarely sell on proposal (unless you're already published with a good sales track.) You want to sell, and make money doing it. Right?
First off -- will you use your real name? Think about what "public" really means. If you prefer privacy, come up with a pseudonym. And consider the idea of "branding" -- just like the old days of cattle ranching. Say Double-Bar L aloud -- it rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? -- versus a surname difficult to pronounce or spell. Think about the bookshelf, too. Top, middle or bottom? Where do you want your readers to find you? Remember, many readers purchase on-line now so that's not as important as it once was.
Does a name/brand matter? Yes. Readers need to find you, unless you're Louis L'Amour, Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. It's a fact. Your name is ON your book, and "brands" that PRODUCT as yours. And readers want to do more than crack open the spine. They want to know more than the story. They want to know YOU, the writer. And that means taking to "social media."
So. You're an author, with a book -- or several. A WEBSITE can be cheap, and sometimes easy. But they often LOOK cheap and easy too, so consider that if you're working your way up the ladder of success. A website can be your first investment. It's relatively cheap to buy your "domain name" for a year -- and cheaper for three years. Avoid the URL of "authorname" followed by blogspot.com or wordpress.com because people will remember "authorname.com" a lot easier. You also need an ISP like GoDaddy or Hostgator or some other host for your website, paying a set amount per month. You could also hire your grandkid, a friend or someone who knows what they're doing to "set up" your website. Shop wisely, because you ought to know how to maintain and update your website once in a while.
Next, consider a choice between Twitter and Facebook. Unless you're willing to tweet (and that means NOT constantly promoting your book - keep that to once or twice a month) about anything and everything, avoiding politics, religion and sex, AND re-tweet other followers' 140-character tweets, forget it. It's useful to get your name out there, but not necessary. FACEBOOK will do a lot more for an author. Caution: if your timeline is filled with gross photos, jokes or rants between family members, change the setting to private. Keep that stuff far away from your author name/brand. I've often seen authors rant on and on about the school parking lot idiots, or their a**backward relatives, or spout F-bombs and worse, and thought, "Whoa. That's not professional." Remember -- keep your author name *sacred* and stay on "topic."
How? Create an AUTHOR PAGE and profile. Post updates of your books, reviews, print or ebook giveaways, writing tips, etc. Think visual, too! Share other writers' inspiring photos, quotes or interesting ideas about books, reading, writing or whatever might relate to your book. For example, when my western mystery Double Crossing debuted, I shared all kinds of information about trains -- with photos from the CPRR.org website, details about the Pullman Palace cars, maps of the cross-country transcontinental railroad route, menus of the station houses along the way, etc. Quick visuals often "tell a story" faster than a long stretch of words. Even this blog post has visuals to give the eye a rest and add color and interest.
Which leads to the last option I'll share about Social Media possibilities -- and in my opinion, is the most fun. PINTEREST -- what is it? Think "virtual corkboard" or "scrapbook" only on the web. See the "sharp point" on the bottom of the P? Yup. PINS.
It's easy to become a member, too. It's similar to Facebook in networking potential. And it's also a way to spend hours exploring ideas for characters, costumes, places, food, celebrities, films, books, whatever your little heart desires. The minute Pinterest appeared, I signed up. Hey, I'm an artist and love visuals!
How can you use Pinterest to your advantage? I typed Pinterest.com into my browser, and then typed "western books" into the search bar -- VOILA! Click here to see. From book covers to film posters to baby shower ideas, it's all there as a visual feast. It's also pretty
self-explanatory to create your profile and "boards" before adding "pins" -- for example, either uploading your book covers from your computer or inputting the URL of the purchase links from Amazon, B&N or Smashwords. I recommend the latter, in fact, because it's another way to nudge readers to buy. To the left, the graphic shows a sample profile with boards.
I can hear the grumpy (cat) men whining aloud. "Why, why, why would I bother to use Pinterest? It's mostly for women! Men go to the bookstore, they buy my books, I'm fine." Uh, huh. Sure. But don't men want *more readers* to buy their books? Why limit your readership? So get over it. Say YES. You'll thank me for it. Check out my book board by clicking here if you want to see. Then check out the rest of my boards while you're there.
The same goes for women -- I'm here in Western Fictioneers to network with a lot more male writers and readers than my books would normally reach. It's not easy learning to juggle all this "social media" with a writing career. How can you do it?
Time management, of course. And knowing your limits, because you can't cover the Ponderosa in a day on horseback. The same goes for networking. Unless you're as famous as the late Louis L'Amour, who has a website and videos about his career, and a staff to keep his name/brand alive.
Hey, great idea. Maybe one day...
Mystery author Meg Mims lives in Southeastern Michigan with her husband and a 'Make My Day' Malti-poo dog. Meg loves writing novels, short novellas and short stories, both contemporary and historical. Her Spur and Laramie Award winning Double series is now among the Prairie Rose Publications book list. Meg is also one-half of the D.E. Ireland team writing the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mystery series for St. Martin's Minotaur. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
