Mostly unrelated to this post, for the last two weeks I’ve had the chance to exchange a few emails with one of my favorite author’s publicity people. I’ll offer up more details next month, it’s not nearly as extravagent as it sounds, but I have to say, I can only hope to have someone so fantastic on my team when I get into things like book publicity (You know, when I get into things like having a published book or two).
But branding. I hear this word tossed around a lot. In some instances, it ties in to genre and platform. And I know some authors pour a lot of time and effort into all three before they even toe the line of getting published. For me, personally, I’ve always had a hard time with that concept.
Because so much will change between now and when my books become available. Or could. Nothing is set in stone at this point. So how do I brand myself? Or limit myself to a single genre? Or build a platform?
I figured it out the other day. The answer is going to be different for every single person, so this is only the answer for me. It’s nothing so blatant as making sure I have a brilliant, fantasy themed blog, or only writing books about Loki (which is good, since I’ve only written one of those), or gathering hoards of minions friendly followers.
It’s more behind the scenes. It’s a subtle thing that really only I, and my amazing CP’s and beta readers would notice.
See, earlier this year I wrote a book. (I’ve actually finished three this year, and am moving on to four, but who’s counting, right? 😉 And I loved this book because it pretty much just popped into my head a fully formed idea. I had an outline and then an entire novel in a month.
And then I started getting feedback, and as novels are prone to do, it changed. A little at first, and then by massive leaps and bounds. It’s no longer the same story it start out as. It’s not even the same genre, it doesn’t have the same tone, or theme.
I’ve struggled a lot with this book. Not as much with it as with some of the others. But I had a revalation the other day. This book isn’t what I write. It won’t be something I’ll make similar stories of in the future. I won’t be able to hold it up and say ‘this is my vision and all my stories will follow a similar theme and this is what I will be known for’.
Because for me, it’s that different.
I don’t think that’s how I want to introduce myself to the market.
Don’t misunderstand, I still think the book has it’s merit and value and I would love to see it out there. But for now, for not only creative but professional reasons (not writing profession, day job profession), it’s not how I want to dip my toes in the water.
I’ve moved on. I talk about shelving and trunking novels. That’s not the case with this one. It’s just on hold.
What makes you set a book aside, knowing you haven’t given up on it, but now’s not the time?
Mostly things like “we have to potty train this month or we will all go crazy” is what makes me lay a book down. Or “that would be interesting to write, but I’d have to invent a third pseudonym because it’s so completely, totally different from the stuff I want to write every day”.
If your odd book comes out under a pseudonym I don’t know about, though, maybe you could tell me what the pseudonym is?
I don’t know. I have a hard time putting books down.
I tend to set mine aside when I can’t think of anything more I can do to improve them, but no one seems interested. I figure I can always go back later if I have a genius idea.
But it’s hard to try and think that you have to be a brand. I like writing all kids of styles and genres and it’s scary to think that if I sell a historical romance first, I may end up having to write more historical romance when what I love to write is very dark YA contemporary.
My first book will never see the light of day and I wouldn’t want it to. I would hate for that to be the one book someone read from me and have that make the decision for them on whether or not I was worth reading from in the future. 🙁 It’s not a bad book, but it’s not what I want people to think of when they see my name on the cover.
I’ve done that with my historical novel at the moment. Even if it’s another (the 3rd) pen-name, I’m not really working on it anymore. Hopefully I’ll get back to it next year… and then, because I won’t be writing many of those (takes a lot of time to do the research, LOL), I might actually pitch it to trad publishers. Or maybe I’ll indie publish it. I don’t know. I like the story, but it still needs work. And it’s not my main “brand” either…
Barb
Branding as an author is tough because most writer’s are not stuck on writing one particular theme or type of story. We like to explore and don’t want be only thought of as an author that writes a certain type of book.