Books and libraries...a few things to keep in mind

A few days ago Michael's Theft of Swords got a starred review from Library Journal and even better was picked as the scifi/fantasy "Debut of the month". Congrats Michael!

When I posted this on kindle boards some responses reminded me of some things that some indie authors might not be aware of so I thought I would bring them up here. Call it some "tips" about libraries.

• worldcat.org: can be used to see which libraries are carrying your books. Libraries that participate in the program have their book orders show up on this site. So put in your ISBN and you can see if your book is being carried anywhere.
  
  
• Recommendations: Whenever you see a post, or get a piece of fan mail that says "too bad your book isn't in the library" or some thing to that effect...write back and tell them to make a request. Libraries will often order books when a patron makes the recommendation - they have a library card in that municipality so their request has more weight.
  
  
• Recommend it yourself: I know an indie author who sold about 400 books and 350 of them were to libraries. This was a main goal of his so he would spend a bit of each day sending off an email to libraries. He compiled a huge list of libraries and kept track of those who carried the books by watching worldcat.org
  
  
• Reviews...Most libraries do make their selections based off of the big reviews. These include Library Journal, BookList, Romantic Times, Publisher's Weekly, School Library Journal). As an indie author you are not "forbidden" from these lists but it can be pretty daunting as there is only so many slots and your chances of making them are not all that great. If you make a go of it - make sure of a few things: a) You have your own publishing company as the imprint (not CreateSpace, iUniverse, Lulu, or any other organization which will immediately brand you "self-pubbed". b) set a "publication date" far enough out in advance to meet their deadlines - usually most of these places want to get a ARC 3-4 months prior to release so that means keeping your book off the market for a while so that your live date does not coincide with the date they received the book. c) Follow their submission requirements carefully.
  
  
• Usually you can make some inroads into "local libraries" through recommendations of card carrying fans or your own emails - if you do get selected...go down to the library and introduce yourself in person. Talk to a few of the librarians telling them about your book and that they carry it. Ask if you could leave some free bookmarks for people to pickup at the checkout counter. Ask to give them a free copy to read in the hopes they'll like it and recommend to people who come in. You can even find out if you can do a "in library event" where you talk about your book, or being a writer, or getting published. Libraries love to have events to get people to come in and sometimes they don't have enough resources to pull from.
  
  
• If you have bookmarks...or business cards...place one of them in a library book of a similar genre books. Choose the "hot title" and someone might stumble upon your book when reading another.
  
  

• Don't rely on the publisher alone...My hope is that Michael's traditionally published books (Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, Heir of Novron) will be in many libraries once they are released. But...I'm not going to count on it. I'm going to use worldcat to see where they "get in" then do my own promotion to other libraries to increase the exposure.

Just a few things to keep in mind with regards to libraries and using them effectively. I'd love to hear other ideas as well.

Branding #3...product vs. author brand

I think part of the reason that authors get a bit stumped when it comes to branding is they don't realize the difference between product branding and author branding and only consider one or the other. I'll propose you have to think about both.

Product Brand
Most people understand branding a product - Campbell's Soup, Coca-Cola. When developing the brand for a product you have a few things:

• Consistency of design
• Consistency of tag line/messaging
• Ability for easy classification
• Ability for easy recognition

One of the panelists at dragoncon kept mentioning that big, traditional publishers don't do author branding, they only understand product branding and I'd have to agree with this. A lot of the marketing activities are centered around activities such as:

• Cover design (product)
• Title of book (product)
• Tag lines (product)

These are all important activities that need to be done, and done well. If you are self-published you'll have to take over this side of things, but if you are published through another organization they'll take care of this for you.

Author Brand
Is what I've been focusing on in my other posts: Branding where to begin & Branding Part 2 The Basics and we'll have more on this important topic but for now I just want people to realize that there is a distinction between the two so let's get back to product branding.

Covers
Everyone will tell you that a good cover is a key to success and I couldn't agree more. I'll actually do a lot more on covers but today I want to focus on one thing in particular...series. If you are responsible for the covers (self-publishing) the cover is going to be your MOST important branding signal and if they are in a series you have to spend more time planning them out.

I'm going to pick on A.P. Stevens for just a minute. I bumped into him on facebook (which reminds me...please "like me on facebook" as I need to get to 25 likes to add a username (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Robin-Sullivan/177995785609073). In any case he was speaking about his books and a promotion he did and I asked him for a link. here are A.P.'s first two books in his "White Wolf Series":

I gave A.P. a ton of advice about these covers, and I won't repeat it all here except to illustrate one particular point which is I would never think that these two book are book 1 and book 2 of a series.

Messing up the "in a series" branding is not limited to self-published titles. I publish, through Ridan, a great set of books by Leslie Ann Moore. Originally the first two books were published through a company called Avari Press. Here are their covers:

Again, I would never think these are the same two books. Even though the publisher used the same fonts for the titles and author's name the graphics are so different that I can't make any connection. Moreover, the first book looks like some kind of young adult book and the second looks like a Gothic vampire novel.

Now let's look at what Ridan did when we re-released this title.

Now these, not surprisingly are reflecting a single product brand. My litmus test on branding is that if a table was filled with 25 stacks of books could you tell which ones went together. I think people would pretty easily pick these out as "together". They would struggle a bit with the ones from Avari, but because both books start with Griffin and the fonts are the same they might eventually figure it out. In the case of AP's books. I'm not sure I could ever connect the two.

We'll be looking more at covers in future posts but for now these are the points I want you to walk away with:

• Your author branding is all about "you" - who you are, what you believe in
• Your product brand is separate and you need to present consistent visual cues to the brand
• If you have a series of books you have to apply additional care to make sure that your cover design can be coordinated across all the books.

More to come....

Author's Business Cards...Get Them...Use them

If you don't have business cards for yourself you really should. You can get free cards from VistaPrint (they charge you just for the shipping and put their promotional text on the back), but I recommend Gotprint.com some example pricing from them:

• $9.55 - 1,000 cards - 4 color front no back
  
• $11.00 - 1,000 cards - 4 color front and back
• $33.50 - 5,000 cards - 4 color front no back
• $38.70 - 5,000 cards - 4 color front and back

As you can see there is virtually no difference between doing two sided so splurge. Here are some of my business card recommendations:

• Have a picture of your book(s) - This is as high of a priority as your name
  
• Use a QR code - if you don't know what that is see my blog post about them
  
• Use your publishers logo - even if you've made your own publishing company putting a logo on the card will give you some added credibility (people won't know it's your own company)
  
• Don't give out your phone number - as a writer you need to control when/how you are interrupted
  
• Make it easy for them to identify your genre. Your book's graphic should do this for you but if someone (your or your publisher) dropped the ball on this then make sure they know your genre
• Have a tagline that differentiates your book from others
• Include your twitter, blog, and email - these are all acceptable ways to reach you.

To illustrate good business card design, let's look at Michael's cards:

BACK

Let's analyze what we have here starting with the back:

• Michael has three books so putting all of them on the back makes the most sense. If he had two, I'd still use the back but put the QR code next to them. With one, I might be inclined to put the cover on the front and the QR code alone on the back
  
  
• From the covers there is no mistaking these books from being in the fantasy genre. But we can augment this with a simple tagline which we did. I'll explain this particular tagline in my next post on branding.
  
  
• I included the URL and the twitter just to round out the back so that it looks like a little standalone ad.

Now the front

• Notice both the QR code and his current publisher's logo
• The three pieces of information to reach him
• A good, well balanced design (feel free to copy it for your own cards)

Once you have the cards here's the important point...get them out there. Here's some tips:

• Every time you pay a bill at a restaurant include your card - and tip well!!
  
• Drop them in every "free lunch" drawing you find - someone goes through those cards and just might go - hey this looks interesting. (After all how many times do they meet an author)
  
• See someone on a computer train or bus reading a novel in your genre talk to them for a few seconds and leave your card with them
  
• If you have any casual conversation where you happen to mention that you write don't leave without passing out a card
• Are you a speaker at a panel of a conference, tell people to come up afterward and get your card
• Going out to dinner with a friend and a bunch of their friends you don't know - given them a card when they ask you "what do you do"

For such a small expense, you really need to get yourself business cards. Make them attractive, and use them often. Besides, on those days when you're feeling kinda blue take out a card and remind yourself what you are in this for.

Branding - Part 2 - The basics

So, based on some emails from my last post on branding (Branding...where to begin) as well as comments in that post it seems that people struggle with "branding" so let's take a step back.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."

The important part here is distinct. Let's break that down a bit...

Adjective: distinct

1. (often followed by 'from') not alike; different in nature or quality
2. Easy to perceive; especially clearly outlined
3. Constituting a separate entity or part
4. Recognizable; marked
5. Clearly or sharply defined to the mind

Starting out this way shows a few things that really resonate with me.

Uniqueness
Just like snowflakes no two people are alike. We are all different from one another. Some conventional wisdom says "align yourself with something people already know". You've heard people pitch their books this way:

• It's like Mad Max meets Jaws
• A combination of Aliens, Driving Ms Daisy and Benji.
• and so on.

While I understand the need to "classify" yourself I think it's better to stand out to spend your limited words on letting people know what about you is different. If we try to brand ourselves by following the brands of others we are "followers" not "leaders.

Easy to perceive; especially clearly outlined
Have you ever watched a television commercial and said to yourself .... I have no idea what they were selling (was it the jeans of the hot guy, the car, his glasses?) This is an example of a message working against what you are attempting. Does it meet the first requirement (unique) probably - but to me this is marketing gone astray. It's done so some big ad exec can put it in their portfolio - look how cutting edge I was...but ultimately did was it effective. Which means did people embrace the product or the idea...nope because they had no idea what you were talking about.

Recognizable; marked
Ah..here's a nice concept. You want to be easy to recognize. You want people to immediately - go - Hey that's from Robin or Michael or whoever. Once you start to become "known" then people will gravitate to you when they see (recognize you).

Clearly or sharply defined in your mind.
This is the final goal...(not sales btw - those are results not goals - thank you Simon Sinek). Your brand is going to give people an impression about you (and later your work). Your goal is to show them what you are.

Some people shudder at the concept of branding...."I don't want to brand I just want to be me" they wail. Well guess what....you're way ahead of the game because that's what branding is ... showing the world who you are and what you're about.

Branding should be effortless. Because all you have to do is be yourself. Since you are here reading this blog we can use me as an example. If I were to think of words that I "hope" people would think about me they would be.

• Intelligent
• Passionate
• Supportive

Did I do market research to determine if these words "resonate with people"? Then carefully craft this blog to showcase this? Nope. I'm simply doing what I do and trying to be self-aware as to my strengths.

But then again - I may be completely delusional. (I've been accused of this in the past). So tell me some of your impressions of me (good and bad) as it will help me to know if I'm on the right track or not and can be used as a baseline for as we go on to the next post on branding.

Branding...where to begin

So, at BookExpo America, Dragoncon, and other writer's events I've been to lately all the experts are saying the same thing...branding...branding...branding. But I think many people don't know what means or where to start.

If you want to understand branding - you should be listening to Simon Sinek. (Go to the video page of this blog to see some great things from him. He's really got it right.

Simon points out that many companies or people decide their brand by looking at the marketplace and seeing what is hot or what people are looking for and then they build their brand around that to maximize income...WRONG....buzzer goes off thank you for playing.

Simon's key is that you don't make a brand and try to attract people to it. You find what you believe in, expose your own beliefs, find what gets you excited and what you are passionate about and tell others...this then IS your brand. It's not something you create it is something that you are. Then...and here's the magic...the people you attract will already be aligned with you and you don't need to convince them to do business with you...they'll want to because they belief what you believe.

Sounds simple right? Yes it is but trust me, I've been in business for 30+ years and I can't tell you how many people don't understand this very simple concept. I've worked for many companies that have paid thousands of dollars to bring in consultants to help them create a brand. I've had to pass by posters of "mission statements" that all sound the same...basically a pumped up variation of:

"To be the preeminent supplier of xyz by providing exceptional customer service".

Blah!

This is not a mission. A mission is something that drives you from your toes to your head. What gets you excited about getting out of bed everyday. It's what you enjoy doing more than anything else and devote your whole heart and soul to.

Anyone who had read this blog can see pretty quickly what my passion is:

"To help authors navigate the changes in publishing such that they can quit their day jobs and do what they want to do most ... write for a living and provide inspiration and entertainment for the people who love reading their creations"

So...today's assignment....think long and hard what gets you fired up and make this the cornerstone of your brand. I'll be posting more on brand building over the next few posts.

Bell Bridge Books: Another small press who "gets its"

So I'm fresh back from Dragoncon and exhausted as it is quite an event but I wanted to share with you all one of the discoveries I found while there.

Bell Bridge Books (Belle Books) - is a small press that sponsored the Writer's Conference portion of Dragoncon. I sat in on several panels that members of their organization were on and I was so excited to see another small press that "gets" what is going on with the changes in publishing and is doing well.

I wasn't "consciously" aware of Bell Bridge when I went to Dragoncon but when I got back to my hotel room I "looked them up" and then the pieces clicked into place. They are one of the presses that did fabulously well with the Sunshine Deals and as a result of that got several of their titles in the top 100 and even the top 10. Also according to their website they have three books that reached #1 (an accomplishment for any book and especially well done as there are few small press offerings that can say this.

I recently saw on Kindle boards that one of my fellow KB'ers, John Hartness, signed a book deal with them. I'm very excited for both parties as I think this will be a very good fit and based on the little bit John told me, Bell Bridge is willing to think outside the box and are not threatened by a hybrid publishing approach.

So...I know that Ridan is not not open to submissions, but for those that think a small press might be the right approach for you - I would recommend Bell Bridge as someone to put on your list.

Bios continued - the short form

Well, I'm back and utterly exhausted. Between the Dragoncon convention(Congrats to Ridan author Nathan Lowell who won a Parsec Award), our research trip to Death Valley (yes it was 124 degrees!!) and our extended stay in California (thanks to Hurricane Irene) we are back.

I'm utterly swamped with all manner of things as getting Internet was virtually impossible in the wilds of California and at the convention. But I need to finish up my blog on bios so here goes....

In my last post on the subject Bios...is yours working for you? I covered the long form where you want to forgo the standard where you live, grew up, went to college, or how many pets you have. But now let's talk about the short form. Most notably your twitter bio which gives you 20 more characters than a tweet (160 - but this also includes spaces).

What you say here will really depend on where you are in your career and, like all good bios should change as your success as a writer, and your platform evolves.

It's now September and the "indie" versions of Michael's books are officially out of print and the life of a big-six author is about to start. If he puts out some of his future books through self-publishing then he'll be switching to a true hybrid author but for now the only books that can be ordered are the Orbit books so he is "just" big-six - so guess what - I just updated his twitter bio.

@author_sullivan: Orbit Author: Theft of Swords (Nov) ● Rise of Empire (Dec) ● Heir of Novron (Jan) ● No ancient evils, just unlikely heroes and classic fantasy adventure.

Let's dissect this a bit so you know why I made the choices I did.

• In most of publishing there isn't a lot of publisher loyalty - in other words most readers won't care if you are published by Simon & Schuster or Penguin - in most cases they won't even know. But this is not the case for genre fiction. In particular, romance, science fiction, and fantasy readers will watch the release schedules of a few prominent presses (Harlequin, Elora's cave for romance/erotica, and Tor, Baen, Orbit, DAW for fantasy/science fiction. So I made sure to make the fact that Michael writes for Orbit to be part of his new brand - it will help him get found when people search on Orbit. So if you are in a genre where there is publisher brand - use it to your advantage.
  
  
• I think it is essential that if you are an author, you need to have your title in your bio. The problem comes when you have multiple titles. I suggest putting your biggest seller and next upcoming release. But in Michael's case his big seller is no longer available so I opted to play up the fact that all three books are coming out soon and in consecutive months.
  
  
• It is also important to get your genre in your bio - if you work in multiple genres try to get as many in as you can.
  
  
• The last thing I did is put in something to differentiate Michael's fantasy from other fantasy. Coming up with something short and concise takes time and practice the things I wanted to get across is a departure from a standard troupe (ancient evils, orphans destined for greatness) if I would have had room I would have added the orphans (and have had it in the past but didn't want to lose the space for all three titles since they are upcoming. I also got in that his characters (Royce and Hadrian) are unlikely heroes - in just two words you get a pretty good idea that they are your standard "good guy" knights or kings
  
  
• Notice that I use bullets to break things up. This is a great space saving technique to get a bunch of things down in a small amount of space. For my own bio - I do a lot....Public speaker, publicist for Riyria Revelations, Founder of Ridan Publishing, educating people about changes in the industry. Using bullets is a great way to get all that down efficiently.

USING LOCATION
One more thing I want to point out since we are working the profile page of twitter. You can get a bit more "branding space" by using the location field. Most people use this to type their city/state but there is no rule that says you have to. Here are some examples:

Michael J. Sullivan (fantasy author): Where unlikely heroes dwell
Robin Sullivan (me): Publishing's cutting edge

So this is what I do, feel free to share your own ideas as well. I try to be "factual" and use this to get many branding keywords as possible out there but I'm interested to hear what techniques other use.