Writer Wednesday: Brand Yourself by Jean Joachim

BRAND YOURSELF

            While I am no expert on social media, I do have over twenty years of marketing experience behind me. Not only direct marketing, which is selling direct to consumers, but I understand a bit about branding, too, from working for major ad agencies. We authors need to understand branding, because we are our own brands.

            

 Yes, you are a brand, a writer of a certain type of fiction, maybe even two types of fiction, like contemporary romance and paranormal romance, or historical romance and erotic romance. Whatever your genre or genres you represent something to the reader as sure as if you were Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or Windex. You are an author a reader can count on to be consistent, create a book she wants to read again and again and again. You should be counting on that, too. Because the biggest, hardest sell you’ll have is the first one. Once they read and like your book, they’ll come back to read everything you write. Don’t believe it? Look at Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries or Ed McBain or James Patterson who churn out mysteries like boxes of mac and cheese or Nora Roberts or Debbie Macomber. You’ll become a known quantity, dependable, important to a reader.

            The most important thing you can do is introduce a reader to your fiction. Here are a couple of ways to encourage that first purchase:

-          Cultivate the bargain shopper – some people will buy any book for $.99. They are only risking a buck. Run a short-term sale. I ran a sale, reducing the price of an ebook I self-published. I listed it on the big Kindle Fb page which reaches 800,000 people (Kindle Product news) more times than I was supposed to. Yes, I was harassed by a few Facebook Kindle site police who threatened to report me as spam. But I ran the sale for two days, promoted the heck out of the book, a sensual romance, and sold 80 books. I figure those 80 people will be willing to pay more for book two in the series.

-          Give readers a taste of your work for free. Another way to bring in readers is to blog. Show people what you can do with the written word. Put out free reads on your blog. Self-publish a free read on Kindle, then post about it everywhere you can. There is a blog that promotes romance writers called “Six Sentence Sunday”. The link is  http://sixsunday.blogspot.com/.  You sign up there. On Sunday people come to the blog to check out writers and click on your link to read your sample.

Post six sentences from a current book or work-in-progress plus a link back to the original six sentence blog. Include your blurb and buy links. I’ve had excellent traffic from this and as many as 24 comments on my post in one day. Try to find something controversial to post, not just idle description, something leaving them hanging or with a question, six intriguing sentences.  You want them to come back for more or buy the book to get more.

-          Get your name out in the world of writers and readers by joining forums and groups. Get to know people. Be nice. Ask questions not relating to your book. Give up the promotional you and just be you. People will like you and become interested in your books. Try yahoo groups, goodreads and kindle forums. All of these groups have romance reader and writer groups. I’ve sold a few books this way in very little time.

-          Get on Twitter. Although I can’t explain how this happened, traffic to my blog with 600 words from a new work-in-progress was limping along on my blog. I promoted it in the usual places to no effect. Then I wrote a tweet for a free read of the sequel to my current book. I posted the tweet not only to my followers but also as a reply to everyone I was following, or almost everyone. Within a matter of minutes I doubled my traffic on the site! I wish I could tell you why. I don’t know. I did it late at night. I tried it again the next day after two pm and got the same results.

            The point is to get your name and work out there. People will get to know you and love you. One of my most successful blogs is Confessions and Lies Wednesday. I can’t reveal where I get my stories, but some are funny and some are moving. The traffic on Wednesdays continues to grow as people become aware of the topic.

            Think of ways to brand yourself. Brainstorm with other writers or friends. Get your work known, get your name out there and you will sell books.

Thank you Jean for you insightful and informative post. To find out more about Jean's ideas and books check her out here.

Character Monday: A Half Cheyenne Woman and a Texan...Bowchicawowow

Hi everyone, my name is Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ George, the one from Lizzie and the Rebel. Stephy Smith said you were interested in knowing about me and no one speaks for me so I told her I'd handle it.

I am a 21 year old half-Cheyenne, half white woman who lives on a mountain. It gets brutal at times in the winter with all the snow whipping around. When I was young, my ma and pa divided our time between the mountain ranch and the mansion in Mountaintown, Colorado. Together they decided my brothers, sisters and I would have the best of both worlds. They hired fine teachers for art, music and our other studies when we were at the mansion. When pa would find orphan’s on the street he would bring them home and give them a job and place to live. In the summer, we stayed on the mountain and my mother’s people taught us about nature, how to protect ourselves, gather herbs and hunt and prepare our food.

Those were good times before the nasty old trapper came in and killed my family… excuse me while I pull myself together. (Wipes nose and dabs the tears from her cheeks.) Now, where was I? Oh yes, I was fifteen when this took place. Everyone at the mansion thought I should stay there with them. Able, my adopted brother never liked the mountain and with him being in the mansion, I chose to return to the ranch. Many times in the last six years trappers tried to steal my land. They knew I was up here by myself, they just didn’t know I could keep them from taking it away from me.

The mountain is a special place. It holds the spirits of my family and ancestors. I can feel them watch me as I check on the cattle or track wild animals. They were there with me when I found the wolf I call Spirit. He had a determination to live like no other wild animal I’ve come across. It was me and him, running wild and free on the mountain until I found the soldiers. I was ready to go to war until I found those men. I let the mountain lion live to rid my part of the mountain of what I believed was an evil trapper. I was surprised to find the men in uniforms.

I loaded the men up on a travois and took them home with me. I didn’t know if Frank was going to make it or not, but I had to try and help him. Spirit took a liking to the man, even if I wasn’t that fond of him at first. He sure was handsome, even when he was icy, muddy and caked with forest debris. When I got that man cleaned up I don’t know what happened. I was in control of my heart and the next thing I know he was. I tried to keep him away from it, my medicine wasn’t as strong as his so he walked right up and stole my heart without a word or a touch. I never let anyone come close to me before. I never realized how lonely I was on the mountain. It was a part of life. But, I couldn’t risk letting him go.

Wow Lizzie you have an extraordinary story and you resolve and inner strength is amazing. Stephy also invited Frank  to chat with is but he isn't a small talker just an FYI. Thanks for coming Frank...

1.       How did you get on the mountain? I hooked up with my cousins after the war and they led me to that mountain.

2.       Where are you from? Texas

3.       What is your earliest memory? Mother’s rose gardens

4.       What are you afraid of? Women and bullets, they’ll both change your world without notice.

5.       Why did you join the war? To fight for my beliefs.

6.       When was the last time you cried? You're getting a little personal aren’t you? When I thought Lizzie would die.

7.       Have you ever come close to dying? Many times during the war.

8.       What’s the last nightmare you recall having? I have a few from the war.

9.       Have you ever had your heart broken? Only after I met Lizzie.

10.   Have you ever broken another’s heart? Not that I’m aware of.

11.   Are you a good spouse? Lizzie thinks so and that’s all that matters.

12.   Are you a good parent? I hope someday I will be.

13.   Have you ever stolen? No.

14.   What was the last lie you told? What kind of questions are these? I would say ‘everything's going to be all right’.

15.   What makes you laugh? Lizzie

16.   What do you read? In the war it was letters from home. Now whatever Lizzie brings in.

17.   Have you ever physically harmed anyone? I was in the war, what do you think?

18.   Have you ever saved someone’s life? I don’t think so unless you count carrying their bodies to the hospital.

19.   Do you believe in God? yes

20.   Do you pray? yes

21.   Do you have any superstitions? yes

22.   Do you trust easily? no

23.   Do you fall in love easily? I only been in love once and that is with Lizzie.

24.   What kind of work do you do? Ranching since the war.

25.  What secrets are you keeping? Too many to mention. The war keeps a mind from digging things up. Can I go now?

Lizzie and the Rebel by Stephy Smith. 

Thanks Stephy, Frank and Lizzie for your time.