Marketing & Branding

Thanks so much to all you BGs who left birthday wishes. Y’all are terrific. And welcome especially to those newer BGs who left comments for the first time. Hope to hear more from you folks.

A few comments I’d like to respond to:

In my novel, I say, "the master gave him a scratch behind his pointed ear." Since we're in the creature with the pointed ear's pov, should I not have said that? It stops me each time I read it to ponder if I shouldn't cut that.

Gina, two thoughts from me. First, yes I think you should cut the pointed ear part. Since you’re in the canine’s POV (a doggone interesting one, by the way), it sounds strange for the dog to be thinking about his ears being pointed. He's certainly not looking at them. He’s into feeling that good ol’ scratch behind 'em, and that's what counts.

Second point in general: When a passage bugs us like this one did Gina, we need to pay attention. If your eye snags on a line every time you edit, something’s there. You might not even be sure what it is. If you’re not sure, ask opinions of critiquers or something, but pay attention to that gut feeling.

At the National Book Festival I spent the day in the Mystery and Thrillers tent and heard a wealth of advice from the likes of Nevada Barr, Sandra Brown, and David Baldacci. John Sandford said to include a strong smell in the first scene. It will draw readers in better than anything else, he said.

Thanks for that feedback, C.J. Ah, yes, John Sandford. I’ve taught him well.

I think I may have had an ah-ha moment on show v. tell. Showing doesn't necessarily mean adding more description. It means showing the actions of a person v. telling what a character did. Is that close??

Closer than close, Cara. It’s right on the money.

How about "Leila drew closer, swaying with seductive grace."

Yes, Wayne, this sounds better. Drew is a stronger verb than came. It would be great to strengthen the verb even more. Maybe use swept?

Okay, so, we’re on to marketing. For today, I’m going to talk a little about that word you’ve probably all been hearing: branding.

This word gets tossed around a lot in our publishing world. Most folks think “branding” comes down to figuring out an interesting tagline to stick after your name on e-mails—a tagline that captures the essence of your kind of story. (Some may call this a logo instead of a tagline.) As a result of this thinking—and the general talk that everyone needs such a thing—authors rush to figure out something to put after their name on e-mails and on their Web sites. I’ve seen so many new authors do this, including many who aren’t published yet. Even for those who’ve published a few novels, I’d say it’s way too early, for two reasons.

First of all, branding is way more than this tagline. An author needs to really understand what it’s all about first.

Second, speaking of the tagline itself, the effective use of the tagline means it’s put with your name everywhere. On your Web site, on your business cards, eventually on the back covers of your books, on your e-mails, etc. Little by little, folks begin to know this tagline and think of you. That’s the whole point. It works as a marketing tool to point out the uniqueness of what you write.

Most of you probably know the tagline I’ve had for a number of years now:
Don’t forget to b r e a t h e . . .

It takes time to build recognition of a tagline. So you have to use it and use it and use it as you write one book after another. And if you’re going to use something that much, it had better be on target. It had better really represent you and what you’re writing. This is why deciding on a tagline as a new author is jumping the gun. I’d argue you need a number of books under your belt first before you begin deciding what you’re all about. New authors jump genres, change courses, etc. If you do that, you’ll need a new tagline. Then all the velocity you’ve gained with recognition of the old one is nixed, and you have to start over. So what good did it do you?

Bottom line, don’t jump into this just because you hear the word “branding” tossed about everywhere.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you the process I went through to find Don’t forget to b r e a t h e . . ., and how I’ve continued to refine my brand since then.

Any thoughts, y’all? Issues about branding you want me to address? I hardly consider myself an expert in this process, but I can at least tell you what I’ve learned over the last few years.

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Read Part 2

Branding--Day 3

Day before yesterday Bonnie asked if I’d covered writing a synopsis yet. Um, no. Bonnie, you’re new here, so I’ll forgive you for saying the “S” word. Thing is, I really don’t know how to do them very well. As things turned out, I never had to write a detailed one, so I’d be a poor teacher at it. My last proposal spent most of its pages giving the aura and stating the case for the series (Hidden Faces). I included the premise for the first book, then finished off with something along the lines of, “and exciting stuff will happen.” The next two books in the series got one-liners. The series ended up with a fourth book, but that one wasn’t even proposed, so it got zilch.

Like I said, I’m lousy at synopses. Hope you stick around anyway, Bonnie.

Okay. We’re finally back to branding.

A couple weeks ago at the Zondervan novelists’ retreat, I heard a very interesting presentation on branding given by Z novelist Tom Morrisey. By the way, if you haven’t read Tom’s novels, you should. They’re especially great for men. And anyone who wants to feel adventuresome. He’s written stories about Nascar racing and deep sea diving and all sorts of cool stuff. Please visit his intriguing Web site to read about his books. I’m using this info from his presentation with Tom’s permission. (And no, he didn’t bargain for the plug. He just deserves it.) I should add that Tom is kind of Renaissance guy. Another thing he does is write freelance marketing copy and figure out branding stuff for some American companies you might have heard of. Like Ford.

Yesterday Lynette asked how I envisioned my readers. Great question, as this is exactly what Tom’s presentation was about. Tom started by using Zondervan’s best-loved sentence, “It’s not about you.” (If you don’t get this joke, I’m not going to explain it.) He then used this quote about brand: “Your … brand is the gut response generated in your customers when they see your logo, hear your name or use your product or service.” He used Harley Davidson as an illustration. Harley definitely has brand. And that brand doesn’t come from the metal and engine and parts that make up the machine. The brand comes from the community of people who drive Harleys. So—if brand is about the people who use your product, and not about you—who is your customer? In our case, who is our reader?

An author’s brand is determined by his/her target reader. A target reader is not the author’s average reader. The target reader is the persona that your reader dreams of being as he/she reads your work. The aggregate of these dreams is your image brand.

Harley example again. Many Harley owners look like the mild one during the week. Then they shed that image on the weekend for the wild one image and mount their Harleys for a road trip. The Harley image comes from these weekend personas.

What do your readers “look like” on the weekend?

Tom then had us “create the character” of our readers. Remember, these target readers (the readers we’re writing for) are the dreamed personas—what our readers want to be, or envision themselves to be as they read our books. Tom handed out questionnaires that we had to fill out about our target readers. They included questions like: favorite thing to do on a weekend (other than read our books!), music listened to, who influenced the reader most, favorite actor, who would reader turn to for help in making a decision (other than God), what kind of clothes the reader wears, what kind of watch, what’s in his/her living room, whose photo is on the desk, where does he/she live, where does he/she get away to? Then the open-ended question: what else do you know about your reader?

From these aggregate answers, we were to come up with the one-word value for our brand. For example, Harley’s value is: Freedom. Fits, doesn't it. You think of the open road, wind in the driver's hair, power to let loose, etc.

Finally, we were to come up with a few words or a phrase that describes our community of readers.

Interesting, huh. I'll stop here for the day. Whatdya think?

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Read Part 4

Follow-up Questions/Branding

A couple questions from yesterday, having to do with beginnings.

Camy: I'm a suspense reader. I only give a book a couple pages before I decide if it's interesting enough to continue. But is there such a thing as too little time devoted to help the reader understand and empathize with your character? How do you determine the fine line between too much information and too little info to gain reader sympathy?

Hard to give a pat answer to that question that will be appropriate for every novel. But since you’re writing suspense, remember that your readers will probably have that same short attention span at the beginning of your book that you have when reading books. So make the opening as compelling as possible. Where can you start your story with the biggest bang? It may not be the scene that immediately comes to mind. For example, you mentioned the prologue in Brink of Death, and how it drew you in. I didn’t have to start there. I could have started with the protagonist, Annie, pulled from bed when the sirens tear up her street. But the young girl’s third person POV was the more compelling start, even though the rest of the book would be in Annie’s first person account. Once you’ve decided on that biggest bang, how minimal an amount can we know about the character to pull off the scene? Sometimes this is really hard to judge in our own work, and we need the “fresh eyes” of critiquers.

D Gudger: If the I.I. happens apart from the main character who becomes entangled later on, is it okay to start with the character's entanglement with the I.I. and then sprinkle the I.I. in as back-story throughout the novel?

Yes, if the slow leak of details about the crime better fits your plot. (As I could have done in Brink of Death, mentioned above.) Just make sure the “entanglement” beginning really rocks.

Okay, a couple days ago we had some interesting questions on branding/marketing. As I answer, please remember I don’t think I’m any expert on this. Check my opinions against others’ opinions. I can only go on my own experience and all I’ve observed about others in the writing field.

ValMarie: I had a question about focusing on one genre and its affect on sales. One solution in the ABA world (if a writer is "fast"-able to produce several books in a year-and wants to work in more than one genre) is to use a pseudonym for the different genres. Is it common to use pseudonyms in this way in the CBA market? Is it a possibility at all?

It’s not common yet. I think we will see it more as the market grows and matures. But the writer would have to be selling a lot of books. To establish a pseudonym, a house is taking a known, sellable name and putting it back at zero. Mucho marketing dollars have to poured in to bring up that new name, even if it’s openly stated that the pseudonym is such-and-such known author’s pen name. And on the author side, all marketing also must be duplicated. For example, I have a newsletter, a Web site, a brand and logo, etc. If I adopted a pen name for another genre, I’d need to have the same for that name. I’d be doubling my time spent on marketing. (The mere thought makes me tired.)

And—perhaps the biggest argument against—an author only has so much time. Let’s say we’re talking about a two-book a year author, who writes in her name for suspense and a pen name for women's fiction. Instead of producing two suspense books a year, that author will now only produce one, then go do the women’s fiction. So while the name and brand thing might work, sales in each genre are still very apt to build more slowly, because the author’s energies are divided, and readers wait longer for their type of book.

Gina Holmes: I did not know The Romantic Times reviewed all Christian fiction. Very useful. Thanks!

Romantic Times is now known as RT BookClub. I think they probably changed their name to reflect the fact that they’re reviewing all genres of books. This is a secular magazine that accepts Christian fiction, reviewed by a Christian. Most Christian houses regularly submit their novels to RT to be reviewed.

Karen Wevick: I think the most sage advice I've heard about getting a first book published is to not worry too much about the advance, and push for marketing budget as much as you can. What's your take on that?

I think you’ll find this a controversial topic. The advice sounds logical enough, but it’s laced with problems. First, the less a house pays in advance for a book, the less dollars they have at stake. A house pays an advance based on a formula that takes into account how many books the house thinks it can sell in a given amount of time. This formula can vary from house to house. As an example, if a house offers, say, $50,000 as an advance, their set formula has shown that they can sell enough books in the first year to make up that advance. That amount of sales now becomes their goal. Do you want to take that advance down to $30,000 and reduce the goal for what they have to sell?

But, wait, you might say. If you take that $20,000 from the advance and put it into marketing for the book, they’re still paying out the same amount of money. Technically, yes. But reality is, it’s hard to negotiate certain marketing terms and then hold the house to them. This is an area where it’s easy to promise a lot, perhaps very sincerely, that in the end just doesn’t get delivered. At least this is what numerous agents have told me.

In short, I’d go for the money. Remember you get half the advance up front. (This is another argument for going for the dollars--the house has put up more money for your book up front, which means they have more at stake earlier.) If you want to do some extra marketing yourself, set that money—your money—aside for that purpose. At least then the choice is yours whether it ends up getting spent on marketing or a new roof for your house.

Tomorrow, further lessons I learned about branding.

Branding--Day 2

Yesterday Gina H. gave me my belly laugh for the day. Her “pointy-eared” character was a ghoul, not a dog. Oh, man. I should have known, coming from one of those supernatural suspense writers. They’re almost as strange as those sci-fi types. But not quite.

At any rate—see how my assumption led me down the wrong path? And after all our discussion on assumptions . . .

Our other Gina--Gina C.--asked a question on another topic: Is there an unwritten rule as to when you should introduce your main character? Brandilyn edited the beginning of my chapter two a few post ago where we meet my main character Michael for the first time. Michael is mentioned in the prologue and chapter one, but now I’m thinking of adding a scene introducing Michael earlier. What do you think?

Gina, a short prologue with someone other than your main character is OK, as long as it's a major player. (I've often used the prologue for the crime or to introduce the antagonist.) But I'm concerned about not introducing the main character until chapter 2. Reason is: your inciting incident should happen to your protagonist, right? Even if it's a two-part inciting incident, such as a crime being committed, then your character is drawn into it. If we don't see your protagonist until chapter 2, then I'm assuming that inciting incident (or at least the second part, which draws him in) isn't happening until then. And that's a big problem. You want to get to that incident as soon as possible. The reader is waiting for that moment when your protagonist's world is rocked. I'm left to wonder if your first chapter is either not needed at all (maybe it's backstory), or if it can be moved until later.

Back to our current topic. Gina H. asked this question (and it was echoed by a similar one from Gina C.): My first novel is women's fiction with a touch of supernatural suspense, the second is a thriller (Peretti meets chick-lit), and I figured my brand ought to be supernatural suspense. BUT: I've got the craziest lady in my head trying to tell me her story which is NOT a thriller, just a quirky women's fiction, maybe even literary. I know they tell you to be a brand, what to do?

In a way we’re mixing words here. Gina, you’re talking about jumping genres. Which does have a lot to do with branding, but they’re not exactly the same. I suppose you could say writing in a certain genre leads to your brand. At any rate, if you want to write in different genres, go ahead and do it. I certainly did, and loved them both, and there are plenty of novelists who do. You may well be published in both. But getting published isn’t the end. That’s only the beginning of building your career. And the experience of many novelists out there, ABA and CBA alike, shows that it’s easier to build sales faster when you remain in one genre. That’s because readers begin to know what to expect from you. Two genres are hard enough to build readerships in, but then when you add a third . . . that’s really spreading yourself thin. In the end, I decided to choose to stick with the suspense genre in order to build my readership there. Before, while I was building my suspense readership, my women’s fiction readership suffered, and vice versa. Now with every book I have more of a chance to increase sales. People know what they’re going to get from me. I think this is true of many of those novelists who write in different genres. Again, it's not that they're not being published. Question is--is the jumping around best for building sales? In the end, it may depend on what's more important to you.

So back to the tagline thing. How did I figure out my own, Don’t forget to b r e a t h e . . .?

I had about five books with Zondervan at that point—three women’s fiction and two suspense. I wanted a tagline for myself, and I was used to coming up with this kind of thing from my past marketing business. But finding a tagline that described my writing in these two very different genres was difficult. (See what I mean? From the very beginning, positioning yourself in the marketplace when you write in very different genres is going to cause problems.)

So, here’s the common misnomer. A good tagline isn’t really about what you write. It’s about how readers respond to what you write. To figure that out, I went to reviews of my five novels on shelves at the time, and reader letters. (I always print out reader e-mails, and keep them separately in a file for each book.) So I went through and read everything, which took awhile. As I read, I wrote down themes that seemed to come up often. For example, with my suspense, people used “edge of my seat” a lot, and words such as “twist,” “surprise,” "page-turner," “couldn’t put it down,” etc. (Notice, these are all the good letters, haha.) And a lot of them mentioned "breath" in some form. “I held my breath,” or “I couldn’t breathe,” or the story “took my breath away.” In my women’s fiction, many mentioned the characterization, the emotion, various characters. And—funny thing—here, too, breath was mentioned a lot. This was in the context of, “I cried so hard I couldn’t breathe” or “the tension of not knowing what was going to happen to such-and-such character took my breath away,” or “I got all choked up,” etc.

Of course, it took some time to see that this breath thing was the most common factor between the two. It became a purely objective task, listing words and phrases, then putting marks by them as they were repeated, and finally seeing what came out on top.

So I had the “breath” thing. Or maybe “breathe.” But as a close second and third, I also had a lot of “deep characterization” type comments, and comments about being surprised by the plot. At first I started playing with all three thoughts, trying to see if I could put them both into one pithy, punchy phrase. But I couldn’t do it. They were too disparate. After a number of days, I gave up and started playing with the “breathe” thing only. I felt it best covered all three thoughts. Breath can be snatched away because of characterization, and because of a twist/surprise. I listed all sorts of phrases and ideas—anything I could think of at the time, no matter how silly it sounded. The first task was just to get thoughts down, then try to refine them.

In the RT Bookclub (then called Romantic Times) review of my first suspense, Eyes of Elisha (this magazine reviews all genres of Christian fiction, not just romance), the reviewer used the phrase “Don’t forget to breathe.” That phrase kept coming back to me as I narrowed my thoughts down to the “breathe” thing. And finally, I thought, “You know, that’s it.”

I ran it past the marketing guru at Zondervan. She said, yeah, go for it. So I did. Whole hog. On my Web site, had a visual logo created, and business cards, and stationery, and envelopes. The whole nine yards. I was cool-o. I knew who I was.

I still had a lot to learn about branding.

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Read Part 3

Branding--Day 4

Oh, boy. Guess what I got yesterday afternoon. My editorial review letter on Violet Dawn. All 16 pages of it. That’s right. Sixteen. Yikes.

Actually, I’m thrilled and a little scared at the same time. Scared at having 16 pages of things to consider and fix. (Five or six of which are major things, the rest minor to little details.) Thrilled because I know, at the end of the process, I will have a much better book. I always do. God love those editors! Nothin’ beats a deep, hard edit for an author. I tell you the truth—if you receive a “fix these two little things and we’re good to go” editorial letter, be wary. In my opinion, a good editor’s gonna find lots of things to fix, no matter how great an author you might be.

At any rate, I shall certainly stay out of trouble for the next couple of weeks.

Back to branding. I wanted to pick up from yesterday and tell you a little about how I went through the assignment Tom Morrisey gave us to do—filling out the questionnaire about my “target reader.” At first, I had trouble with this. Anything I thought of, I immediately rejected as not good enough. (Sheesh, no wonder I have trouble plotting.) When we broke into groups of three and talked about it, the other two in my group helped me get a handle on things. I’ve also thought more about this exercise since then, and revised my findings somewhat.

Remember that the bottom line of the exercise was to decide upon two things: (1) the one-word value for my product, and (2) the phrase that describes my community of readers.

Cara said something interesting in her comment yesterday regarding her mindset when she reads one of my books or other suspense novels: Probably a mix of escape, adventure, and learning something, too. I've never been a forensic artist. But I like to learn about it while I try to outsmart the writer in solving the crimes/mystery.

This resonates with what I came up with regarding my reader. For the one-word value for my product, I’ve ended up with: Dramatic. I think readers come to my books expecting that roller coaster ride, intensity of murder conflict and character emotion, and twists. I think my readers envision themselves (as they read my book) adventuresome, action-oriented, able to handle tension, strong even when they’re spine-tingled. And one more important thing, as Cara mentioned. They see themselves as intelligent puzzle-solvers. They know I’m going to try to catch them off guard through a twist or two, and they’re looking to figure out that twist ahead of time. If they figure out the twist, they’re proud of themselves. If I fool them, they’re more than willing to grant me kudos for it.

The phrase I’ve ended up with to describe my community of readers is: More than meets the eye. (Actually, one of my group members might have said this first; I can't remember.) I’m going to continue to think on this, and maybe I’ll refine it, but I think it hits the mark pretty well. It’s an aggregate of various words that describe my readers, such as: rollercoaster riders, puzzle-solvers, unbridled, daring, adventuresome, learners, confident. My readers may be quiet computer techs during the week, or moms, or teachers, etc., but when they approach one of my stories, those words are what they become. They are multi-faceted people. The “More than meets the eye” phrase refers both to these levels of layers within my readers and their twist-solving approach to my stories, for they know that within the plot there’s more than meets the eye.

The cool thing is, after I went through this process, I saw how the answers do fit with my “Seatbelt Suspense” brand descriptor, and the tagline, “Don’t forget to b r e a t h e . . .”

From this exercise, I’ve come away with a better idea of who I’m writing for. Who I’m trying to please as I plot that next book.

BGs, I’d love your feedback on this. Do you think I have it right? What would you add? Disagree with?

After all, I’m used to a hard edit.

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Read Part 5

Follow-up Questions

Happy Monday, BGs.

Well, we kinda got dual tracks doing on. Gina C. had a follow-up question regarding her wip. Then others chimed in with their own questions/comments about beginning a story. I’m going to deal with this subject for today, then tomorrow, I’ll address the questions from Friday that came in about branding.

From Gina C.: Thanks for addressing my question. I have a lot of rethinking to do. You mentioned in the archives that “the inciting incident is the first big conflict that kicks off the story,” something that “rocks your characters world.” I’m trying to get a handle on this inciting incident thing because I think my WIP has two. One is the meeting of my character’s ex-fiancé which rocks his world and the second is the discovery someone he’s worked with has been kidnapped. If I introduce my character in chapter one with the person who gets kidnapped, then in chapter two have his world rocked by his ex, is that enough of an inciting incident?

Gina, what is the main conflict in your story? Is it the kidnapping? If so, the scene of the kidnapping is the inciting incident (I.I.) for that main plot. Perhaps the ex fiancée thing is a subplot. Subplots often have their own inciting incidents, especially if they’re pretty big subplots. Your character seeing his ex after a number of years would be that inciting incident.

Typically a suspense would be started with the I.I. for the main plot. However, reasons can arise for doing the subplot’s I.I. first. As I mentioned awhile back, I did this for Dead of Night, with the I.I. for the subplot in chapter one, and the I.I. for the main plot in chapter two. I did this for two reasons: (1) The subplot was a big one and would play into the main story in a major way, (2) I really couldn’t have done them the other way around, because once the I.I. for the serial killer main plot occurred, the circumstances wouldn’t be in place for the I.I. of the subplot to unfold as I wanted it to.

Bottom line, I suggest you work out in your own mind what your main plot is and what your subplots are. (There may be more than one subplot.) Then plot each one to flow in and out of the main story, having the subplot(s) eventually affect the main plot in some major way. I think once you get a clearer picture of your story in its totality, you’ll better know what I.I. to start with.

Question from Jason: Well, you've opened up a can of worms I'm afraid! I read your comment about prologues, and I have to ask about my situation. My WIP has a throw-away character (a Thai fisherman) discovering the body of the protag's brother. Initially my next scene was introducing the protag (a medical student) in the midst of chaos in the ER. After things calm down a bit, she gets a call that her brother was killed. I was told by a critique friend I needed more time in the protag's world to set up the changes she'll go through, but that delays finding out about her brother's death. Any thoughts?

Jason, you have the classic two-part inciting incident of a suspense or crime novel. (1) Crime occurs, (2) protagonist becomes entangled in it.

It’s hard for me to answer this without reading these chapters, but here’s my gut reaction. As I’ve often said, in suspense, you don’t want to take a lot of time with set-up. Something better happen pretty quickly that’s a major attention-getter. You gotta do whatever you gotta do to keep those pages turning. Is taking a whole scene—or at least a number of pages—setting up your protagonist’s world going to be compelling? I’d argue that you don’t need much time to show her real world. You’re quickly going to get bogged down in backstory of this character if you’re not careful.

But here’s another way to look at it. How compelling is the prologue? You show a “throw-away” character finding the body. I’m a little worried by this. If you mean that we never see that character again, I’m not sure I’d use such precious pages as the opening of your story on a “throw-away.” But that issue aside, how compelling is this “find?” If it’s really a page-turner, you might have a little more time in the first chapter—like maybe one page, or two—to set your character’s world. Because the reader is already on the high momentum of your prologue and is gonna be willing to give you a page or two. It’s like a roller coaster coming down a hill, and its riders having a quick breather as it goes up the next. Therefore, the more time you take to set your character’s world in chapter one, the more compelling your prologue had better be. If you need that extra time in chapter one, you might look at changing the prologue. What if, instead of the body being found, we see the crime take place? You can obfuscate details like exactly how it happens, or who does it, if you don’t want to reveal those things right away.

As an aside, I’d like to make an important point, as illustrated by the above. Many times, when we’re at a problematic point in our story, the answer doesn’t lie in changing that part. The answer lies in changing something before it that will better prepare the reader for that part. I can’t say for certain if that’s the case here, Jason. But it’s something to keep in mind as you’re weighing your critique partner’s opinion against mine. If you decide your critique partner is right, and you give extra time to setting up your protagonist’s world, take a second look at your prologue and make sure it’s as strong as it can be.

Grady had this comment: Starting off a story with action or a main event IS completely effective, but doesn't work for some stories. Lots of sci-fi starts out with the characters going about their normal business before the action starts. It gives time to introduce the bizarre setting and impossible abilities.

I agree with this. Sci-fi and suspense are very different, and readers’ expectations are very different. I think a big part of sci-fi is that the readers are looking for a unique and fascinating world. Even so, I still say be careful not to add too much backstory that the opening drags. Readers start a book waiting for that I.I. Don’t make them wait too long.

Pammer asked: I was also going to ask where to drop in on the story. I start with the heroine getting the first note, which I hope grabs the attention, then normal life intrudes but she sees it differently because of the note, everything has changed and she has lost her security.I was told that I needed more time in her ordinary existence to state her GOAL (which I do in the first chapter as it is) and to get the reader to care about the heroine, but I'm afraid it will bore them. Any advice for romantic suspense writers?

Again it’s so hard to answer questions without reading these pages. The best I can do is bring up things that might get you looking at the issue in a new way, and then you can better decide what to do.

In general, if you’re writing romantic suspense, I’d say get to the I.I. as quickly as you can. There are plenty ways to show a person’s “normal world” in the midst of the chaos created by the I.I. You simply weave that backstory into the current action. Pam, you might look at the beginning of my Brink of Death for an example. The opening scene jolts immediately into an intruder in the house, but in the midst of that crime, you get a pretty good picture of the young girl’s normal world. (You can read this prologue on my Web site.) Then in chapter one, the protagonist is pulled into this crime immediately, but again you see bits of her normal world in the midst of the chaos.

On the other hand, if you need to take a couple of pages to set up your character, do it. But do it only if you really have to. Think of that 30-second browser in the bookstore, reading your first page as she decides whether or not to buy your book. Is there enough on that page to pull her into your story?

I’ll return to branding tomorrow, unless we’re pre-empted by a lot of follow-up questions on this topic. If so, we’ll do it the day after. But don’t worry. We’ll get there.

You Know You've Had a Bad Day When ...

... Despair.com decides to create a T-shirt based on your latest and greatest public relations disaster.


Buy the T-shirt here.

Portfolio.com now lists Toyota in its "PR Hall of Shame"--the worst PR disasters that put public health at risk.

And we authors complain about having to deal with this whole branding marketing thing.

Mind you, I love the Toyota brand. We've been a two-Lexus car family and have sworn by them. Drive them out of the showroom--and they're perfect. Run forever. So I'm really sad to see all this happen. Still, I have to shake my head over Toyota. I'm not sure they're getting this PR disaster issue. Have you seen the new rash of TV ads they're running? Showing all these different happy people buying their cars. I'd like to know who the brilliant marketing mind was that came up with the tagline at the end of one of those ads:

Moving forward.

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On Another Subject:

My goodness. We forgot to pick a winner for last Photo Friday. Many captioned but few voted. Please read the captions and place your vote now.

Happy Tuesday.

I found this very interesting article on colors used for marketing/branding, and what they mean. Authors, if you're looking to "brand" yourself at some point, complete with logo, check this out before deciding on colors.

Any surprise that my Seatbelt Suspense logo is black and red?

Blinded--a Novel by Travis Thrasher

So who took the plunge and read it?

From the back cover: Alone in New York City, Michael meets Jasmine, a mysterious, captivating woman. Soon he realizes that her confident exterior masks a troubled life, and his involvement could threaten the foundations of his boring—but suddenly precious—suburban existence. Is anyone watching as Michael follows Jasmine into danger? Does anyone care?

BC’s version: Michael, sick from losing a big business opportunity in New York City, nurses a drink in the late afternoon. Tomorrow morning he’ll fly home to Lisa, his wife. Michael and Lisa are having marital troubles. Enter Jasmine, young, beautiful, and yes, mysterious. She flirts with Michael, gives him her phone number. She’s out to show him a fun evening—what’s wrong with that? Of course he won’t call. He’s a married man—one who’s never even come close to cheating on his wife.

Then, of course, he does. And the fun begins.

I googled the title to read online reviews. I wanted to see how many mentioned the fact the it’s written in second person. I read perhaps six reviews—and found only two out of those six that even mentioned it. Hm. Reviews are such interesting critters…

Here’s my take, for what it’s worth. The second person is what drew me to the book. Actually, at first it repelled me. I read the first chapter excerpt to Blinded in the back of Travis’s last book, Admission, and couldn’t believe what I was reading. I could barely make it through the chapter, I found the point of view (POV) so distracting. I even wrote Travis, saying, man, what have you done? Are you tellin’ me the whole book’s like this?

Yup.

I promised to read the thing for its sheer creativity. Or bravery. Or nuttiness maybe.

Before I continue with my take on the POV issue, let me say some other things about the book.

1. It’s very tightly written. No extraneous meat. Think Kellogg’s Special K, you-can’t-pinch-an-inch.

2. The story occurs continually and in a short space of time—about seventeen and a half hours. This kind of story is a challenge from the get-go. The action in my own Violet Dawn takes places in about fourteen hours, so I understand those challenges as a writer. But I jumped back and forth between various characters. Using only one character’s POV in a continuous fast-paced time frame takes some strong writing skills.

What’s more, Travis threw in an extra, clever component.

You see, this continuous, 17 ½ hour story has a lot of backstory. Scenes of Michael and Lisa, and where they’re going wrong. You could call them flashbacks, except that they don’t stop the clock on the current story. They are part of Michael’s reflections on his life as the current story unfolds. Travis handles these time-slips flawlessly. You can read these and think nothing of them, they flow so smoothly. But as one who’s written quite a few present/past stories, I can assure you Travis worked mighty hard to make it look so easy. His technique is very interesting and different. And it works.

3. Jasmine’s motives were hard to understand, although I didn’t trust her from the get-go. She’s just so Out There. But Travis employed one line that brought her totally into focus for me. Someone in the book describes her as a Paris Hilton. Talk about branding—PH has managed it. Suddenly I saw this character as a rich, spoiled, and positively bored person simply out for whatever entertainment she could muster. At any person’s cost. I don’t think authors should employ this technique all the time, or willy-nilly. But this did remind me how the right real-life name dropped to describe a character can be very effective.

One review I read of Blinded called Jasmine a shallow character. Well, yes, but she’s supposed to be shallow. As E.M. Forster would put it, she’s a “flat” character (Aspects of the Novel)—“constructed around a single idea or quality.” In other words she has no arc as a “round” character would have. The arc is for Michael. This is his story.

And now the POV.

In the first chapter I found myself substituting he for you. I just couldn’t get into the second person thing. It became particularly strange for me when Michael was talking about his wife. I’m married, sure, but I don’t have a wife, and I don’t feel as a man does in protecting his wife. So the second person technique of placing me as a female in the character’s shoes certainly felt awkward.

After awhile I got into it and read the you as you. After all, I’ve read plenty novels with male protagonists and didn’t have a problem empathizing with them. I could handle this.

Some time later I forgot the you almost completely because I was so entranced in the other techniques and flow of the story.

About halfway through the book (sometimes I really am slow), it hit me. The great Ah-hah! No wonder substituting he for you in the first chapter didn’t work. He isn’t the right substitute in the first place. I is.

Because you see, second person storytelling isn’t so unusual. It’s all around us. How many times have you heard a person tell something he/she did in second person. It’s almost as prevalent as slipping into present tense when telling a story.

On Saturday night I watched a couple hours of Cold Case Files, the true crime show of solved investigations. Over and over, as various detectives were interviewed, I noticed they would revert to you instead of I.

Lead-in narration: Years of pursuing their suspect. Now they had him, and they were told to stand down.

Detective: That was just the hardest thing my partner and I have ever had to do in our careers. There you are, sitting out front of your suspect’s house, knowing he’s a mere twenty feet away, and you have to drive back to the station and leave him there. You have to do what your superior tells you to do . . .

Okay, Travis, I get it. Second person’s all around us. You just put it on the page.

If you haven’t read Blinded, really, you should. Not just for the second person thing, but to see how Travis handled the other techniques I’ve mentioned. Even if you come away not liking the book, I do think you’ll have picked up some clever tricks from this skilled author.

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Today on Scenes and Beans

Jake: War of Words at Java Joint

Wilbur and Carla just go at each other. It’s quite a show. And then Leslie and Bailey try to get between them…

Marketing Issues

Happy Thursday. The weekend’s a-comin’.

Various comments/questions from yesterday deserve response. (If you’re not reading the comments, you’re missing out on some fun. If you’re an early blog reader, you might want to read the previous day’s comments so that you get them all.)

Evelyn, so glad to hear you’re coming to the ACFW conference. Rich, Domino, and Lynette—ditto. Yes, we must have a blogger/bloggee get-together. (You know, during all that free time we’ll have.) The tables at meals only hold 8-10. But we’ll find a way.

Shannon, you need no account to be a BG here. It’s all free. (Well, except you have to listen to me blather.)

Rich, I hope you’ll tell us what happened to your job yesterday.

Question from Kelly K. about pen names—I will address that topic perhaps tomorrow.

Finally, Ron’s question about getting stuck in a certain genre, maybe even one you hadn’t planned on. Yup. It happens. Hard to get away from ye ol’ branding issue. We will talk more about this, too.

Okay. In yesterday’s NES we left off with the approach of my marketing meeting with Zondervan in early January of this year—the meeting at which we were gonna figure out how to continue marketing me in both genres of suspense and women’s fiction.

I’m going to digress here and talk about marketing in general today. This is an important topic. We authors in the Christian world often seem to have trouble with the very idea of marketing. At least I hear questions and concerns about it pretty frequently. The concerns go something like this: We are writing fiction, yes. But we are also writing for the cause of God’s kingdom. And when we’re working for God’s kingdom, we shouldn’t be worried about elevating ourselves. Marketing our books, talking them up, trying to get them sold, is all about elevating ourselves, right? How can you keep your focus on serving God when you’re worried about sales and making all the money you can? Shouldn’t we just be good servants, write the best books we can, and leave sales in God’s hands?

Understandable concerns. And those who think this way are very sincere. But I don’t agree with this thinking at all. Here’s my take on the whole issue.

1. Yes, I am writing fiction ultimately for God’s kingdom. Anything I do for God’s kingdom needs to be at its best. I must write the best novels I can. This means writing the best stories I can produce, plus weaving in God’s word—as He has specifically called me to do it. (My calling, not anyone else’s. Which is why I can’t compare myself to my colleagues.)

2. I am not writing these stories that I’ve worked so hard on, these stories interwoven with God’s truth, so that the fewest amount of people can read them. I want as many people as possible to read them because I really do believe that (a) they provide good entertainment, and (b) they can help strengthen folks in their walks with God. As Jesus said, you don’t put a light under a bushel. In the same way, I don’t write a book so it can sit on shelves.

3. My publisher, whose mission is to produce materials that honor God and further His kingdom, is a business. Businesses have to make money to stay afloat. Publishing my novels costs them money and employee energy. My books need to reap enough benefits for my publisher so that they can afford to keep publishing them.

4. A publisher has a large piece of the marketing pie for a book, but not the whole pie. To be a team player with my publisher, I need to do what marketing I can to help sales. In this competitive environment it is simply unfair to a publisher (unless you’re so successful that personal marketing doesn’t matter) to say, “Hey, marketing’s totally their job. I just write the books. Marketing myself sounds so vain and worldly that I just can’t handle it. Besides, I think I should only trust God for sales.” The argument may not be worded so bluntly, but in essence, this is what I’ve heard people say. And my answer is: No, you’re not leaving sales in God’s hands; you’re leaving sales in your publisher’s hands. If marketing is so wrong, why should they be doing it any more than you?

5. Here’s where the tricky part comes in for me. Because as I do market, and focus on sales, it could really be easy to focus too much on that. I know I’m getting too focused if I read about someone else’s higher sales and feel a twinge of jealousy. Or look at the advanced marketing a publisher gives another author and feel slighted. Or if I start thinking, my books aren’t selling well enough so what am I doing this for anyway, God?

6. Bottom line for me—it comes down to balance. To understanding that part of my job as an author is to market as well as write. At the same time to trust God and rejoice in what He’s doing in my life, even if, after all my hard work (and kicking cabinets), sales don’t go as well as I think they ought to. So on one hand, I’m always doing what I can to push sales. On the other hand, I’m thanking God for the sales He has granted me. And I take utmost pleasure in hearing from readers who’ve been impacted from my books.

7. How do I keep this balance? Pray. A lot. Ever since I started writing Christian fiction, I have prayed a very dangerous prayer. I urge you BGs to pray it too. It’s simply this: “God, don’t let me be any more successful than I can handle.” I want to be successful. I want my books to sell. I’m willing to help market them. But I don’t want to become successful at the risk of puffing up with pride or forgetting how God brought me through all of this in the first place. On the other hand, neither do I want my human frailties to keep God from granting me all the sales He’d like to grant me. So I work against pride and jealousy and other human frailty issues constantly. Doesn’t mean I never feel these things. It does mean that when I feel them, I immediately, willfully tell God that I reject the emotions. I simply refuse to dwell there.

This balance that I strive for rests on the fulcrum of my calling—which is to write stories interwoven with God’s truth. Following that calling will keep me from saying yes to some contract that may be highly lucrative, but that would in some way quash my Christian message. Following that calling means telling my agent that my film rights aren’t for sale to just any producer—who may likely take all of the Christianity out of my story. So in the end, do sales and money drive me the most? No. But neither do I believe that the pursuit of sales is worldly and vain. It could be—if I let it take top priority in my life. But I won’t.

Questions? Comments? An important topic, BGs. One that all you writers out there will have to deal with.

Branding--Day 5

Hey, y’all, thanks for the feedback yesterday. Some interesting stuff.

Gina H. said: I would just add that your writing doesn't waste my time. Your tight writing and lots of white space appeals greatly. You don't waste words. I'll bet most of your readers are BUSY.

Thanks for this, Gina. Not a word I’d thought about, but I agree with you. I’m adding "busy" to my list of community descriptives.

C.J. said: I really like how you take the time for character development AMIDST the roller-coaster ride.

Yes, I do like to focus on character, perhaps more than some suspense writers would. The idea of characterization amid the suspense is one of the factors that helped lead to the “More than meets the eye” phrase.

Domino said: I've got your one-word target audience: Non-weenies! . . . I think you attract more than your target reader, but to refine the brand, you ignore the fringe readers and only describe the die-hard fans. Right?

Non-weenies. Hey, I like that.

I wouldn’t say it’s so much a matter of ignoring the “fringe” readers, or the ones that don’t fit the mold. It’s more looking at the conglomeration of words that surface to explain that community as a whole, then figuring out the best phrase to describe the conglomeration. For example, most “weenies” don’t read my stuff. Those who do—even if in the harsh daylight and surrounded by people (and I do have readers say such things)—still are being daring and adventuresome in that they’re breaking out of their mold. Despite the intensity of the books, they’re drawn to the stories for some reason. On the flip side, a lot of my readers might say, "Oh, come on, they’re not that scary at all.” Yet they’re still drawn to the books—maybe for their twists to solve and the characterization? Who knows. At any rate, the various descriptive words used for my community still do cover these fringe readers somewhat.

Lynette said: I noticed you don't add a "spiritual" quality to your target audience. Was that intentional, or is it something that comes along in the reader experience? Because I know you have definite spiritual messages in each of your books.

Yeah, this is a good point. This wasn’t intentional, but the natural outcome of my mindset. It comes from my thoughts when I go to write a book. I don’t think “Christian story.” I plot the best suspense story I can, and somewhere from those events, the spiritual part arises. I don’t see my readers as necessarily Christians or non Christians. I see them more as those who enjoy suspense.

Yes, there are plenty of authors who say they write for the unchurched, or the backsliders in the choir, or whatever. I think that’s absolutely legit. It does help define the aura of their stories. I just doesn’t quite fit for me.

D. Gudger said: Here's an off topic question that is niggling in my brain as I am currently reading multiple books ... why do so many authors make their protagonists (especially female) skinny, shiny-haired, and very, very pretty? What about the readers who have been ostracized and passed by for promotions b/c they don't fit the "American Ideal" of beauty? I must admit, I really LOVE Chelsea Adams - especially in Dread Champion - people think she's a freak and I can relate so well to that.

I find this very interesting. Yes, D.G., Chelsea is looked at as a freak, esp. in Dread Champion. But she’s also slim and very pretty. Yet the latter doesn’t seem to bug you. In Chelsea’s case, a pretty protagonist is nevertheless shunned, and her looks get her nowhere. Nor does she give them much thought. Maybe it’s not so much the looks of the character as how those looks are used. ?? Do you think that could be?

Karen said: Can you say how your brand might have changed since you were first published in fiction? I know it's hard to brand right out of the gate, but did you know who your audience was at first?

No, I couldn’t possibly know as well. First, because I was writing in two very different genres. So I had dual communities of readers. Second, even if I just focused on my suspense, I hadn’t written enough novels yet. My first two suspense novels were about a woman who has visions (Chelsea). Some may have therefore tried to put me in the supernatural suspense subcategory, when that’s not really where I belong. So I’d say, in general, it just takes having a few books under your belt before you can go through this process and really get somewhere.

Again, I really appreciate the feedback and help on this. You've given me some extra things to think about.

Next week we can turn to marketing if you like. I'm not quite sure what you want to discuss. You already know the basic stuff I do to market--Web site, blog, newsletter. I also do a few mailings. Is this the kind of thing you want to know? Or more what happens at a publishing house? (Which I know some about, but surely not everything.)

Be back Monday with . . . um, whatever you wanna talk about.
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Read Part 6