by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book, founder of Pitch University.

How I found a Can-do-ologist

Okay, so I was over at Bliss Habits, minding my own business, and wham-o.  I just accidentally stumbled across (the word is procrastination, people) an amazingly cool event that is Happening. Right. Now.

The World’s Biggest Summit is a totally free conference that features 100+ teachers speaking on topics of… Health, Wealth, Spirituality, Creativity, Business.

With people like SARK, Julia Cameron, and Danielle LaPorte, we’re talking Writing and Creativity heaven, people!

As I scanned all the graphics at the very bottom (the sponsors, ‘cause I was procrastinating, as previously noted), my eye stopped on one simple graphic: Marissa Bracke: Can-do-ologist.

I was struck by the simplicity and power of making up your own marketing language that captures who you are and what you do.   Heck, I was even jealous.

One extraordinary, made-up word.

Instant understanding.

Ordinary Words Used to Create Extraordinary Meaning

Nike did it.  And they didn’t even have to invent a new word. They just put 3 simple words together and then showed  us in images and story the sheer magnificence of a human who embraces the Just Do It motto. (Nike case study here.)

If you watch the USA network, you know that what they do is showcase stories about well-written, interesting characters.  Their Characters Wanted campaign has turned into a film project and a nonprofit effort (Characters Unite) to “use your differences to make a difference.”

Both of these examples show you how companies created a new language with existing words. Continue reading Can-do-ologist: Creating Your Own Marketing Language →

by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book, founder of Pitch University.

Have you notice that no matter how much people talk about author branding, it’s all fine until you try to create your own author brand.  Then a thick fog descends. 

Seriously, I think there are even monsters out there.

There’s a chasm between understanding all the goodness of having an Author Brand, or doing the Brand Building Techniques, and finding the brand that works for you.  That IS you.

Chasm.

So how about this:  What if your brand is simply what you do better than anyone else? 

Your skills.

Your ideas.

Your unique way of thinking.

What Are You The Best At?

Are you the writer who combines Zombies with Teen Girls for Global Peace?

Can you tell a story backwards so that the mystery unfolds in reverse?

Do you write more historically accurate scenes of The Black Death than anyone else?

What is it that sets you apart, that makes you think, “I have to write this because no one else can say it this way?”

What about your work is so original you know this aspect has never been done before?  This type of character hasn’t been explored?  This element will surprise your readers?

Why is your writing keenly important to you? To others?

Now we’re getting to the good stuff.

1.  Seriously consider what you’re accomplishing on a broader scale by being the author of this story, this article, this book.

2.  Every author I know is writing in a way that can be described as a mission:  a mission of story telling, a mission of technique, a mission of information, a mission of some grand passion.

3.  Writers make choices about characters, plots, and subjects because of a deep interest.

All of these things (deep interest, mission, keen importance), these are signs of you wanting to Be the Best.

Identify those things and call them your brand.

After all, your readers certainly will.

—

This is the 11th in a series on Author Branding.
Previous articles include:
1. Author Branding vs. an Army of Writers
2. The Author’s Branding Manifesto
3. The Gleam in Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #1)
4. Storytelling Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #2)
5. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 1) (Brand Building Technique #3)
6. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 2) (Brand Building Technique #4)
7. Your Author Brand: What Do You Want People To Say Behind Your Back? (Brand Building Technique #5)
8.Author Branding: “The Brand Your Brand Could Smell Like.”
9. Your Power as a Writer = Your Author Brand (with Donald Maass)
10. “Writer’s Passion” As Brand (with Christopher Vogler)

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Diane writes two columns for Freelance-Zone: Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

She’s the Founder and Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book, founder of Pitch University.

Because I’ll be attending Story Masters Conference (Houston, TX, Nov. 3 – 6, 2011), I decided to interview the three keynote masters of story craft, including Christopher Vogler, founder of StoryTech consulting.

Chris is extremely well-known for his book, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, now in its 3^rd edition. And he’s worked on many well-known movies for DreamWorks, the Disney studio, Fox2000, Warner Bros, and others in their story departments.

Psst.  You can get a free chapter from his latest book, Memo from the Story Department: Secrets of Structure and Character in the post I wrote over at Pitch University: The Story Master’s Journey by Christopher Vogler (free bonus chapter!)

Everything I just told you is part of Chris’ brand.

Out of his genuine passion for the mythic roots of storytelling, he brought the power of Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces to fiction writers of today.

• He has a passion for Myth.
• He knows where stories go wrong. 
• He knows how to fix them. 
• He knows how to teach this to other writers. 

This is his brand.

Simply put, he’s the person who (a) accesses mythic story archetypes and (b) transforms stories so that they (c) reach audiences in a powerful way.

What I love about using Chris as an example in this Author Branding series is that you can really see that his brand is all about him as a person, his passion, his expertise.  It’s not a marketing ploy.  It’s not a clever tagline that a marketer developed with a test audience.

And it doesn’t even matter if you’re a Hollywood exec or a writer at a conference.  You’re interested in him for the same reason.

The guy can make stories dance. 

Not with tricks.  But with mythic power. There’s nothing artificial here.  Chris followed his Bliss (to quote Joseph Campbell).  And his bliss became his brand.

One Step Further

So, I asked Christ for a couple of examples of authors who he thought did a good job of author branding.

I worked with an enterprising author named Michael Thompkins who drew on his background as a psychologist working with the Palm Springs Police Department to create a book series he branded as “The Shooting Shrink” series.

I learned a lot from prolific novelist Susan Wiggs who has created a warm, fuzzy world of communicating freely with her readers and offering them frequent glimpses of her life, travels, and working environment.

— Christopher Vogler,

 

What did Michael Thompkins do? He used his passion for psychology to brand himself and his books.  He didn’t create something artificial.  He actually likes psychology.

Here, the link if very overt.  Thompkins is an expert in his field, and his character is an expert in the same field.

But few writers have this luxury.  (Or else there’d be a lot of books where the protagonist is, herself, a writer.)

But look at how Susan Wiggs created a link between her author brand and her books.  She interacts with her readers from the same set of values (warm relationships, close ties, small town feel, family & friends) that her books celebrate. 

These are the same themes she explores in all her stories, and it’s what her readers like best in every book she writes, no matter what the protagonist’s occupation.

I would call this Susan’s passionate approach to life.  And it has become her author brand.

Michael and Susan, also, followed their bliss.

And I want this to become your True North when searching for your Author Brand.  It’s authentic.  It’s you.  And it’s born of your own internal passion.

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”

Joseph Campbell

Welcome… to being you.

—

This is the 10th in a series on Author Branding.
Previous articles include:
1. Author Branding vs. an Army of Writers
2. The Author’s Branding Manifesto
3. The Gleam in Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #1)
4. Storytelling Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #2)
5. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 1) (Brand Building Technique #3)
6. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 2) (Brand Building Technique #4)
7. Your Author Brand: What Do You Want People To Say Behind Your Back? (Brand Building Technique #5)
8.Author Branding: “The Brand Your Brand Could Smell Like.”
9. Your Power as a Writer = Your Author Brand (with Donald Maass)

—-
Diane writes two columns for Freelance-Zone: Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

She’s the Founder and Chief Alchemist of Pitch University – “Learn to pitch your book from the AGENTS and EDITORS who make their living at it. Learn. Pitch. Sell.”

by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book, founder of Pitch University.

I recently asked Literary Agent and advanced writing instructor Donald Mass what he thought about Author Brands, specifically for novels, which can be tricky.

You probably know Donald Maass from his advanced craft and career books on writing, or his new Story Masters Workshop, November 3  – 6, 2011. 

He’s developed and guided many writing careers, and he’s seen author branding up close and personal.

Here’s what he said:

“For fiction writers, “brand” is something that emerges as a body of work accumulates.  There are hundreds—thousands—of examples of such authors on bookstore shelves.  Many are mini brands, though. 

Just having a “brand” (identity) as an author doesn’t mean your audience is large.  Only powerful stories will win you that.”

— Donald Maass, Founder Donald Maass Literary Agency

He makes two very important points that I want to share with you.

1.  It’s Alive!

Your brand’s “shape” can change and will grow to include everything you write, your” body of work.”  It emerges.  You create the brand of YOU AS AN AUTHOR, because you’re writing books, and because the books create an interaction with readers and with YOU.

It creates meaning.

Your brand will be “done” only when you stop writing and your books stop being read. 

Until that time, you have complete control over it, and your participation in your career, the decisions you make, the skills you achieve….  This is you authoring your very own brand.

And more importantly, the you designing the meaning of you upon other (aka The World).

2.  Voltage

2. Your writing (and thus your Brand) will require your audience to identify something powerful about you and it.  This power will be what makes your books, your name, and your brand “powerful” to your readers.

Average won’t do it.  Nice won’t do it.

You need the thunder of POWER, the force of SKILL, and the captivation of a an unexpected WOW.

Badass Creativity

Justine Musk  over at Tribal Writer just wrote a post that powerfully combines these two thoughts into one call to badass action:

From Badass Creativity….

Creativity is your birthright.

Yet in a society that bombards us with constant stimuli and never-ending distraction, where the value of productivity ranks right up there with hope and faith and love, it has never been more necessary to carve out the elements needed to generate creative thinking. A creativity-committed lifestyle rarely happens randomly; you design it, through understanding the strategies that enable creativity and building them into your life.

And somewhere along the way, a badass creative makes the connection between what she makes and who she is.

She makes meaning from the raw materials of her life….that can provide value not just for herself, but others.

Carve out the elements.  Build them.  Design it.  Make meaning.

This is the work of building your brand over the life of your career.

And as you carve out your books, build worlds inside your reader’s head, and design a body of work over time, know this: the world needs authors to be more than a whimper.

It needs you to stand up and be powerful, and write books mean something.

Get your badass, creative self on.

Your author brand will follow.

—

by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book

This is the 8th in a series on Author Branding.
Previous articles include:
1. Author Branding vs. an Army of Writers
2. The Author’s Branding Manifesto
3. The Gleam in Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #1)
4. Storytelling Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #2)
5. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 1) (Brand Building Technique #3)
6. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 2) (Brand Building Technique #4)
7. Your Author Brand: What Do You Want People To Say Behind Your Back? (Brand Building Technique #5)
8.Author Branding: “The Brand Your Brand Could Smell Like.”

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Diane writes two columns for Freelance-Zone: Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

She’s the Founder and Chief Alchemist of Pitch University – “Learn to pitch your book from the AGENTS and EDITORS who make their living at it. Learn. Pitch. Sell.”

by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book

This is the 8th in a series on Author Branding.
Previous articles include:
1. Author Branding vs. an Army of Writers
2. The Author’s Branding Manifesto
3. The Gleam in Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #1)
4. Storytelling Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #2)
5. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 1) (Brand Building Technique #3)
6. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 2) (Brand Building Technique #4)
7. Your Author Brand: What Do You Want People To Say Behind Your Back? (Brand Building Technique #5)

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I bet you need a brand example…

A couple weeks ago, I taught a workshop on Author Branding, and I needed an example that all the writers would immediately understand.  Something on the scale of “one example to rule them all.”

In other words, I wanted to find an example that we could hold up and say, “That!  Do that!”

The Old Spice Story

The New Old Spice Guy:  It all started when Old Spice, maker of a men’s deodorant and fragrance since the 1930’s, decided to revitalize its brand.

Over the years, they’d communicated to their brand’s outdoorsy, rugged, male audience by teaming the product with a logo of a sailing ship and often using a crusty, old seafarer as a spokesman.  Hey, it worked at the time.

But now, they needed a new face, a new message, and a new relationships with consumers who didn’t related to crusty old men as sexy.

Enter ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, writers Craig Allen and Eric Kallman, director Tom Kuntz, and hunky actor Isaiah Mustafa.  What happened next is now Popular Culture history.

RESULT: This amazing, innovative re-branding of “how to think about Old Spice,” not only did the trick, it also went viral.

Instantly, America got the brand, was wildly delighted by the creativity of the tongue-in-cheek single take, and told all their friends.

Old Brand = Old, crusty sea captain, who smells of sea breeze and lives a life on his own (extremely dated) terms (lonely).

New Brand = The man you HOPE your man smalls like (looks like, acts like, woos like…).  He’s drop-dead gorgeous, a guy who can do everything with ease.  Plus he has a sly wit, cheeky over-confidence, and good-hearted charm.

He winks at the audience (because they’re in on it) and is clever yet silly in a manly-man way.  He gets the joke that he’s playing on being sexy yet is still sexy.  He’s on your side and wants to help you and your man.  He’s practically noble in his desire to share his secret.  Men want to be him.  Woman want to date him.  He’s the best of all of us.

From here on out, when people talk about Old  Spice, they will forever think of New Old Spice Guy, this amazing monologue, and the jaw-dropping single take of this commercial.

Think of Old Spice, people smile.

That’s Branding.

But that’s only part of the story.

Who is Isaiah Mustafa?

Isaiah Mustafa was relatively new to acting when he took this role.  He wasn’t a household name for most of us.  But Isaiah was smart enough to embrace this role and make it his own.

It started when Isaiah had been given the script and was practicing his lines.

Despite his sharply scripted monologue, the smug, over-the-top attitude of Mustafa’s character wasn’t planned. The day before the shoot, Mustafa called to chat with a pal from his days at Arizona State University, Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer. When Plummer didn’t answer, Mustafa decided to leave a rehearsal of the commercial’s script on his friend’s answering machine.

“I just did it for him, and I did it extra big, and then when I hung up, I thought, ‘Maybe I should try it that way and see if they like it,’ ” Mustafa told the Times.

–People Magazine

He added a piece of himself , his sense of humor, to the ad.

Here are a few a random facts about Isaiah: Continue reading Author Branding: “The Brand Your Brand Could Smell Like.” →