What's your THING? 4 Steps to Building Your Brand

I love writing. I get a huge thrill when someone reads something I wrote and tells me they liked it--repeat customers who aren't relatives are the BEST!

But I never realized how much work, sacrifice, and embarrassment I would have to go through to promote myself. Selling yourself is awkward. Putting yourself out there is a huge risk. Some of you think rejection from query letters is a knife in the gut. Wait till you go to an event and don't sell a single book. Heart-wrenching! Why can't we just write a phenomenal book and be a big hit over night?? (I know, don't answer that)

I have come to terms with my lot in my writing life. Time management has new meaning after you're published. Since I love the writing and hate the marketing, I'm always looking for ways to make the latter easier so I can do more of the former!

One huge way to help get your books noticed is to Brand Yourself.
Your author name is your brand. Think about your favorite authors--you love reading their stuff and look for new releases by them. You like their style, their stories, their characters, and how they keep you wanting more! You have to make readers want that from YOU!

So here are some suggestions on
How to Brand Yourself:

• First, Know Yourself - What do you write? Do you like to read your own genre? Where do you live? Do you like to travel? What part of the process are you best at? Worst at? What do you like to do? Do you have a job? On the surface, these questions will help you form a solid AUTHOR BIO. Looking deeper, you will discover more about yourself so you can relate to your readers.
• Then, Know Your Readers - There's no stereotype for readers. They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors! Readers know what they like, and if they like what you write, you'll gain fans for life! To figure out what your readers like, you have to read the best sellers in your genre. If you read the genre you write, it's easy to do research!
• Now, Go Get Them! -  Go to Book Events--try to speak on a panel and let readers get to know you. If you write sci-fi/fantasy, try going to some Sci Fi Cons. Romance & YA have conventions and events too. For a younger age group, try speaking at a school or children's book fair. You have to get yourself out there.
• And Keep writing! - The more books you have out there, the more Your Name is out there and the more your fans will have to read and brag about, getting more people to notice you!

I'm still debating how to head up my blog to capture my brand. Here are a few great examples of Authors who have the right idea...

Stephanie Faris - Adorable Children's Author

Christine Rains - Scintillating Speculative Fiction

Elizabeth Seckman - Hopeless Romantic Writer

And my super cheesy SHOUT OUT OF THE WEEK!

Crystal Collier - YA Magical Journeys

I've known Crystal for many moons (ha ha). I love her whimsical posts, her sweet author showcases, and especially the "two truths and a lie" challenges. She's doing extremely well with an adorable houseful of rugrats and a bunch of books out there. Including her wonderful Maiden of Time series!

Crystal Collier is an eclectic author who pens clean fantasy/sci-fi, historical, and romance stories with the occasional touch of humor, horror, or inspiration. She practices her brother-induced ninja skills while teaching children or madly typing about fantastic and impossible creatures. She has lived from coast to coast and now calls Florida home with her creative husband, five littles, and “friend” (a.k.a. the zombie locked in her closet). Secretly, she dreams of world domination and a bottomless supply of cheese.

You can find her...
Amazon | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest


Hope you are in good spirits no matter what phase of the writing process you're in!

Author Branding Rebel!

I'm very excited to have Tyrean Martinson here today! She's turned the tables and written a "5 Reasons" post of her own...

Author Branding: When an author writes only one brand/style of fiction or non-fiction so that fans will “know” exactly what they are getting when they pick up that author’s books. A brand is meant to communicate the purpose of the author and to gain a steady, constant readership. None of this sounds bad, exactly, but I find myself squirming when I hear that I “must” have an author brand.

5 Reasons Why I Rebel Against Branding

1. I’m a natural, left-handed rebel. In kindergarten, my teacher told me that I must choose which hand to write with. I chose to write with my left-hand because I knew that would irritate her. I struggle with the urge to rebel every time someone says I “must” do something.
2. I fear that author branding means that I have to write the same kind of story over and over again.
3. I don’t want to create several pseudonyms to cover all the genres I want to write. Can you imagine keeping up a social media presence for several names?
4. I read a variety of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. All of those books influence my writing. My earliest influences included: the Bible, a book of fairy tales and nursery rhymes that I read until the cover fell off, Where the Wild Things Are, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Star Wars, Star Trek, Scooby Doo, my mom’s nursing books, my dad’s airplane magazines, National Geographic, Zane Gray, my grandmother’s real-life bed-times stories, and Shakespeare. (And guess what? With my favorite authors, I love to read outside my “normal” genres.)
5. I want to take a walk in a variety of character’s shoes. I love that sensation of stepping into a new world with a new character and not knowing what kinds of twists and turns stand between the character and the top of the story mountain ahead. When my mom used to say, “Take a walk in someone else’s shoes,” to remind me to have empathy for others, I daydreamed about what that would be like.

Photo Credit: Tyrean Martinson, Shoes from Martinson family members.
Can you guess which ones are mine? (Hint: I have teen daughters.)

What shoes would you choose? And, would you want to take the same walk every day in the same shoes?

Tyrean Martinson is an everyday writer, believer, and daydreamer who lives within a mile of the Puget Sound but who can’t see the water from her house (unless she climbs a tall cedar tree in her backyard). 

Her latest book reflects her love of taking a walk in a variety of character shoes.

Flicker: A Collection of Short Stories and Poetry includes most of the short works Tyrean Martinson wrote between the fall of 2013 and December 2015. These short works range from extremely short in length, from haiku and hint fiction to flash fiction and short fiction. Forty-eight of these works found publication in magazines before becoming a part of this collection, and forty-two new works reside in these pages, as well. Flicker contains an eclectic mix of types of writing, as well as subject matter, from light to dark, from real world to speculative worlds.

Currently, Flicker: A Collection of Short Stories and Poetry is on sale for 99 cents June 11th thru June 21st for Kindle and Smashwords readers. 

I enjoyed Tyrean's post and feel like a genre rebel myself! I'm so happy for her latest release!

Finally as promised, here's a picture from the Sci Fi Valley Con I went to this weekend - I had a fun and successful time!

My costume was pretty tame compared to some of the wild and elaborate outfits that paraded through the aisles - fun people-watching! and it was great to meet new readers!