What's in a name?
In this day and age of profit margins and publishers looking for the "sure thing" with every single book they publish, we (the toiling and starving writers) are left holding the bag of marketing tricks. Since we writers have to now wear a second hat more often than we'd like to, this begs the question: How do we market ourselves?
If this a question of branding, the same way that VW and Nike and Home Depot have managed to create loyalty in who wants their products? To be honest with you, I don't really want to be known as a brand. I don't want people reading my books because its just what they do, the same way that one would make the mind-numbing decision to go to Wal-Mart just because it is the first name that comes to mind when their deodorant and mouthwash run low.
Reader loyalty is much different. The concept of loyalty denotes a sense of consciousness, a feeling that one has made a decision based on sound judgment rather than one based on pseudo-instinct. (This is the power of branding - the ability to tap into the same parts of the brain that encouraged our ancestors to avoid the big, toothy predators of the earlier periods.)
Now back to my question: How do we market ourselves as writers? While pounding the pavement, signing books at events that are best graciously attended by more friends than fans, and handselling over your blog/website might work for some, this isn't going to get anyone very far. The battle is waged in the networking, personal and professional. This strategy is based on who you know, and as awful as it may feel to some, there will come a time when who you know plays a big role, if not the pivotal role, in getting recognized as a writer.
The best advice I can give, if I have any worthwhile to give at all, is to mingle with other writers. Go to conferences. Wander around a city filled with cafes where writers hang out. Get an agent. (a good one.) Get an MFA (a good one.) But most of all, and this is important to remember, never let the writing become the marketing tool. Write for yourself first. If you write it, the fans will come.
If this a question of branding, the same way that VW and Nike and Home Depot have managed to create loyalty in who wants their products? To be honest with you, I don't really want to be known as a brand. I don't want people reading my books because its just what they do, the same way that one would make the mind-numbing decision to go to Wal-Mart just because it is the first name that comes to mind when their deodorant and mouthwash run low.
Reader loyalty is much different. The concept of loyalty denotes a sense of consciousness, a feeling that one has made a decision based on sound judgment rather than one based on pseudo-instinct. (This is the power of branding - the ability to tap into the same parts of the brain that encouraged our ancestors to avoid the big, toothy predators of the earlier periods.)
Now back to my question: How do we market ourselves as writers? While pounding the pavement, signing books at events that are best graciously attended by more friends than fans, and handselling over your blog/website might work for some, this isn't going to get anyone very far. The battle is waged in the networking, personal and professional. This strategy is based on who you know, and as awful as it may feel to some, there will come a time when who you know plays a big role, if not the pivotal role, in getting recognized as a writer.
The best advice I can give, if I have any worthwhile to give at all, is to mingle with other writers. Go to conferences. Wander around a city filled with cafes where writers hang out. Get an agent. (a good one.) Get an MFA (a good one.) But most of all, and this is important to remember, never let the writing become the marketing tool. Write for yourself first. If you write it, the fans will come.
posted by Tim Kenyon at
11:10 PM
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