Why Our Author Brand is More Important than Ever Before

[Carol Rose]

Blog post from my social media guru, Kristen Lamb, on why social media is essential to selling books and building our author brand:

https://warriorwriters.wordpress.co...hor-brand-is-more-important-than-ever-before/

 

[Emurelda]

I agree, having just this week started a simple campaign on facebook/twitter/linkedin/wordpress am amazed at how people are engaging. No matter how low the numbers are to begin with it's about building it up slowly and persistence that grows a brand. A lot of work, but it is worth it if only to engage with others and learn about the process on an ongoing basis.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Yeah, but this is like being a horse merchant in 1909, watching more and more of those damned contraptions puttering down the road.

I am so determined to traditionally publish that I actually have somewhat of an aversion to e-book publishing, and by the time I have a book in print there won't be many stores left to put it in. So you either sell the ranch and get a job with Mr. Ford or resolve to languor in obscurity — and the opposite way as less than a mere decade ago.

We're changing too fast, gentlemen and ladies — by the time we realize we've gone the wrong direction culturally we'll be off the side of the cliff in free-fall already. (Metaphor #2!)

This article was much darker for me than most, I think. I have a Kindle — I don't use the damned thing. I just dump free books into it from the SweetFreeBooks e-mail list to read someday. I'm relying on a hipster groundswell to bring back those "old analog paper books that used to be cool," to go with their pocket watches and top hats and such.

EDIT: never mind — the first one was a simile.

 

[Emurelda]

Yeah, but this is like being a horse merchant in 1909, watching more and more of those damned contraptions puttering down the road.

I am so determined to traditionally publish that I actually have somewhat of an aversion to e-book publishing, and by the time I have a book in print there won't be many stores left to put it in. So you either sell the ranch and get a job with Mr. Ford or resolve to languor in obscurity — and the opposite way as less than a mere decade ago.

We're changing too fast, gentlemen and ladies — by the time we realize we've gone the wrong direction culturally we'll be off the side of the cliff in free-fall already. (Metaphor #2!)

This article was much darker for me than most, I think. I have a Kindle — I don't use the damned thing. I just dump free books into it from the SweetFreeBooks e-mail list to read someday. I'm relying on a hipster groundswell to bring back those "old analog paper books that used to be cool," to go with their pocket watches and top hats and such.

EDIT: never mind — the first one was a simile.

Nice simile

I too download freebooks for my kindle. I don't buy any or very very few. I quite like the journey to the shops personally speaking but I do sense the winds of change as I drive against it

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I only have apps for Kindle and Nook on my phone. And the only things I download on there are either free books or books/short stories that are exclusively ebooks from authors I already follow. I stare at a screen for 8 hours a day already, plus the time I spend on my phone and my laptop for writing. I don't want to stare at another screen for reading.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Nice simile

I too download freebooks for my kindle. I don't buy any or very very few. I quite like the journey to the shops personally speaking but I do sense the winds of change as I drive against it

I only have apps for Kindle and Nook on my phone. And the only things I download on there are either free books or books/short stories that are exclusively ebooks from authors I already follow. I stare at a screen for 8 hours a day already, plus the time I spend on my phone and my laptop for writing. I don't want to stare at another screen do reading.

And frankly, there's something delightfully occult about searching the shelves of those old family-run thrift book stores out of converted Victorian houses, hoping you'll find a magical tome of chaos and madness sorted onto the wrong shelf — how the hell are you supposed to do that on Kindle?

Update: I still haven't found one.

 

[Meerkat]

I only use my Kindle for books I need immediately or free books.

As I mentioned in another thread, I've moved a lot, and at one point I need to cull my book collection. As an English major, I mostly had classics. So, it occurred to me to replace all my hard-copy classics with the free Kindle versions. I really regret that I did that, especially in tossing my great translation of Anna Karenina.

Now that I'm finally out of college and settled, I'm on a mission to replace all of those books I had to toss.

But as for the brand thing . . . meh. I'm a guileless person. I can't really stand the idea of constructing myself as a brand. Actually, I flat-out don't WANT to be famous, so it probably works out.

I mean, I want to be read, but "famous" doesn't appeal to me.

When I was in college, I wrote an article that was published in a major American weekly. I actually got a piece of fan mail for it. You know what, I absolutely flipped out with panic when I realized what it was. I put it away, and to this day I have never read it. I do not want to be "known."