Creating a Brand and Going Too Far

As a writer hoping to create a brand someday (Jean Oram–the author of a certain type of book) I keep my eye open for how people create their ‘brands.’ Over time I have picked up little tips on what seems to work and what doesn’t. Or to put it more aptly other words, what pisses of the potential buyer and what doesn’t.

In the past 24 hours I have discovered a method that plain and simply pisses me off.

Okay, let me back up a bit.

First of all, I live in a town of about 11,500 people. If you have even a whiff of famous on ya, I’ll hear about it. You can’t keep a whiff of fame under wraps around here. For example: OHMIGOD! Did you hear? Joe was in the same room as Wayne Gretzky!!! I know! Instant fame status for Joe.

So, you take someone who is working to build their music career and guess what, the whole town is going to know about it. Especially when you have your own charity golf tournament in town. You sing for free at the local dealership (still haven’t quite figured out why on that one–I think it may have been a fundraiser). You are in the paper every other week for something or other (no, seriously). You have your name plastered on this, that, and the other thing. For example: OHMIGOD! You donated five dollars to the library, we’d better put up a sign touting your famous support! (Okay, he hasn’t donated to the library yet. Probably because another singer has her name on the library’s coffee shop. And get this, when she popped by the other day for a latte–they made her pay! How completely and utterly wrong is that?)

Anyway, recently this guy has been popping up like he’s the mole on the hardest level of whack a mole. Which was okay. He’s got a business to run, a family to keep, no hard feelings.

Until this week. We’re talking over-the-top, annoying, spamming the town. Why? Because he wants to be voted fan’s choice or something. (I have been trying exceedingly hard to block out everything to do with him.) The town paper put out a special commemorative paper on shiny paper–sort of a collector’s item type thing–and he’s in there three times. I open my mailbox and there is a flyer asking me to vote for him. I drive into town there is a sign asking me to vote for him. I go to the grocery store, there are flyers under windshield wipers asking us to vote for him. I pay for my groceries and the cashier hands me my receipt and a flyer to… yeah, you guessed it.

I wish I was exaggerating. And while I know it makes me petty to admit this, but it is to the point where I want to go online and vote for someone who is NOT him.

So, the lesson I’ve learned by watching this guy is that there is a fine line somewhere between getting your name out there and being an annoying bother. I have seen some authors do a fabulously fine job of getting their name out there as well as the name of their book without it all being, ‘my book, mybook, mybook, ohmigoddidyoureadmybook?’ And there have been some where every tweet, blog entry, conversation and online post has been ‘my book, mybook, mybook, ohmigoddidyoureadmybook?’ Again, that fine line.

Where do you think that fine line is between just enough and too much?

Story Concert: Robert Munsch

A few weeks ago I heard one of my all-time favourite authors do a story concert. Canadian childrens’ author Robert Munsch. He is the author of fan-tab-ulous tales such as The Paperbag Princess (kick butt princess who saves the prince), The Mud Puddle (what would happen if a mud puddle jumped on you), Angela’s Airplane (what would happen if a five-year-old accidentally flew a jumbo jet), The Playhouse (when decorating a playhouse gets a bit out of hand), and about 30 or 40 more other fun stories.

If you have ever heard Robert Munsch tell a story (I started with LPs, but these days you can hear him online–drag Mortimer (about a boy who won’t go to sleep) onto the listening spot to experience Robert first hand), his story concerts are pretty much exactly like that. He has so much emotion, voice, character, actions, and audience involvement that hour whizzes right by. If you close your eyes, you can still see it.

As an author, how can we make our readings that much fun? Seriously, it was FUN! (And not just because I am  totally still a kid inside.) How do we get out audiences involved? How do we get them predicting the next line so they say it out loud with us? How do we make them laugh and want to dance? How do we bring them down to that quiet place and the next moment bring them so far up they feel as though their chest is going to burst open from all that love and joy that’s pushing out of it? How do we do it?

That’s what I want to know. How.

Back to Balance… and Marketing

A few weeks ago I mentioned that one of my current goals is to balance things in my life in order to rejuvenate and celebrate the joy in what I do every day. (That’s not to say I’ve been miserable, simply that it’s incredibly easy to get swept up in the myriad of ‘shoulds’ and forget to have a complete and utter blast.)

As if hearing the cries of aspiring (and published) writers, literary agent Nathan Bransford posted his ideas on marketing and balance. The long and the short of it is that writers should have some sort of Googleable web presence, but that trying to do ‘everything’ in terms of promotion–and there are a zillion ways to do this these days–you are going to dilute yourself and not do anything well.

Here, here.

It all comes back to balance. (I love it when things come full circle.)

Jean Oram

Create Your Badge

Lately, I’ve been reading here and there little somethings that reflect my own thoughts on Twitter and Facebook and all those ‘follow/friend’ social networking opportunities. That is: Don’t follow everyone just to count coup. (There is an actual term for those who do this, but my brain is letting me down.) Their advice (and mine too): Follow those you are genuinely interested in.

In other words: So what if you have 1200 followers? If you are following 1200 people we know exactly how you obtained those 1200 followers. You can’t possibly read all those tweets and create a true relationships with those followers. My warning is: Don’t kid yourself into believing all those followers are a true platform and that they are all going to run out and buy your book if you ask them to (if you are an unknown).

Interesting fact that I can’t back up (it’s in a book around here somewhere–Later note: Here’s an article on Dunbar’s Number): People bottom out around 150 relationships. After they reach that threshold, they are unable to maintain and sustain more relationships. True relationships take time, energy and memory making them genuine and rewarding for all involved.

Now, a little clarification on my rant–there is nothing wrong with using social networks and gaining a following. You don’t have to know someone’s favourite colour or know their lineage to have a relationship that will result in them supporting your endeavours. In fact, I recommend building online platforms and using social networking sites. I guess what I am trying to say is: keep it genuine. As Nathan says, if you don’t ‘feel’ it (blogging, tweeting, etc), your audience is going to know. So, do what you are good at. Do what feels genuine and it will get you a whole heck of a lot farther in your promotion or platform building.

Nobody can do everything. And nobody can do everything well.

Jean’s book montage

Jean Oram’s favorite books »

So, another tough question for you blog readers–where is the balance between writing and promotion? How do you keep it fresh when you are blogging and tweeting and facebooking? Or do you?

A Professional Image and Twitter

Twitter is a great resource to connect with others and provide short updates on what’s up in your world. It’s an easy way to engage your audience and share a bit about yourself and your projects.

However, with all great resources comes the possibility of abuse, or overuse. Here are a few tips on how to maintain a professional image:

* Be professional.You are creating a brand and anything you post reflects back on you and your brand. (By professional, I mean things like use proper grammar, put your best face forward, don’t trash the competition, ensure you have a link to how to contact you, etc.)

* Decide what image you want to convey and stick to it.

* Decide how much of your personal life you want accessible to strangers. Anything you put out there (online) is fair game for a future interviewer or journalist. If you don’t want it in the papers or on TV, don’t put it out there. If you become famous, do you want your family in the spotlight or poor-taste jokes you made three years ago finding their way into the spotlight? Think ahead.

* Post a nice profile picture. Any picture you put online (or someone else does) could find its way into print, even if you only post it for a day or two. Nothing on the Internet is ever really gone. If you are tagged on Facebook, it is possible to untag yourself so those pictures don’t show up in searches.

* Don’t trash others. If you are cornered or really want to vent, take extra care to be diplomatic in your response. Or even better, change the subject and later vent to someone who will take your secrets to the grave. Note that what you say reflects back upon you in more ways than one. If you discuss certain traits about a person, the listener automatically and unconsciously attaches those traits to you. So, if you say someone’s writing sucks, they attribute that trait to you. Plus, it looks really bad and can lead to making you unlikeable–think of the reaction there has been over Stephen King dissing Stephanie Meyer and her writing skills.

* Don’t overdo it. Nobody wants to read 40 tweets by you every day. Not even your mom. (Sorry, it’s true.) We don’t need to know that you are in line at Starbucks or that you just pulled a foot long booger out of your kid’s nose. Well, maybe we do want to hear that so we can call The Guinness Book of World Records on your behalf.

* Be helpful when you can.

* Don’t keep posting the same things over and over. Don’t keep posting the same things over and over.

* Don’t shamelessly promote yourself at every turn. People will naturally become interested in you and your books if you engage in conversations that aren’t  all about you and your work and if you act as a resource. If a topic comes up where you can slide in some information about your book, by all means provide a short pitch and a link to where it can be purchased. But try and be subtle. For example, “One of the toughest secondary character experiences I had was writing Katie for my recently released book Caviar and Lemon Drops. Katie busted right into the scene and I had to go back and work her own POV and conflicts into the story. While it was a pain, it was well worth it and I feel she gives my story that extra kick it needed.”

* Worth stating again is grammar and spelling. If you are sloppy about your grammar and spelling, people are going to assume you are a hack. Every thing you write reflects back on you. And for Heaven’s sake, use caps. Yes, I am saying capitalize ‘I.’

* If you post your work online, make sure it is your best.

* Try not to swear. I know. Sometimes it can be f*%$ing hard, but you don’t want to risk offending someone when there are other words you could use to show your feelings.

While these tips are aimed at Twitter, they apply to all facets of social networking, both on and offline. Good luck young grasshoppers. May the force be with you!

What Makes for a Good Book Trailer

Yesterday, while I was watching book trailers (short videos to advertise books) on YouTube, I began to compile a list of what makes for an interesting book trailer and what doesn’t. (For you marketing types out there, here’s a hint, take someone with a flu-addled brain and see how long they can stay interested or focused on your trailer.)

Honestly, some of the book trailers were awful. They were boring, didn’t show/tell what the book was about, were too long, were dry, and essentially would not sell the book. Here are a few important things to consider (from a viewer) if you are considering making a book trailer for your book:

1) A book trailer should give us an idea of the plot, who the characters are, what they want, and what stands in their way.

2) We should be able to figure out whether we are the intended audience.

3) Viewers should be able to figure out the book’s genre.

3) The book trailer should appeal to the intended audience. Men tend to like moving images. Women tend to like something that makes them ‘feel.’

4) Don’t use a lame, soft, lulling, flat voice for your voice over. Hire a professional.

5) They should not look cheap (like they are made with PowerPoint and pixely images), even if they are.

6) Move it along! Don’t make each slide of text stay on screen forever.

7) The right music can make your whole trailer.

Don’t go over much more than a minute, particularly if you are creating a ‘slide show’ trailer.

9) Tell us the title, author, publisher, and where we can get the book.

Movie trailers are commercials. Think of them as such. It should be at home on TV, not just YouTube or emailing to friends.

Book Trailers

Book Trailer are like movie trailers, only for books. They can be a relatively inexpensive way to drum up buzz about one’s book. A few years ago, there were very few of them out there, but now if you do a search for them on YouTube, you can find quite a few. Some, naturally, are much more entertaining than others.

What I’d like to see are awards for book trailers. What shall we call them? The Booker Prize? Nope, taken. The Oscars? Nope, also taken. Hmmm. I’ll have to think on that one.

Here are a few that are worthy of mention:

Bent Art:

Funny Parenting book:

My all-time favourite (there is a short version, but I like the long one better):