Establishing a brand

I generally try not to mention another person by name in my blog, mostly because I generally haven't run it past them in advance. But there are other reasons.

For example (and for obvious reasons), I tried hard in my post two days ago about my pitch session not to identify the editor. I didn't mention her name, give any description of her physical appearance or mention where she worked.

But this posting today is different. I am going to mention a name -- Jenn Stark.

I briefly met Jenn at a writers conference on Saturday. A writer herself, Jenn conducted one of the morning sessions, having us all fill out a questionnaire as the session went along.

Jenn is a wonderfully energetic woman, funny and engaging. She enters a room and gets your attention, even at a distance, although she is particularly captivating up close.

But what impressed me most about Jenn Stark is that she is passionate about one thing -- branding. For writers to become authors whose work separates them from others is through establishing their own brand.

A writer's brand must be short and resonate with the reader. When a reader sees it, they must immediately know who it is. On her website, which, by the way is, www.jennstark.com or www.knowyourbrand.com , you see her slogan is Dark, romantic, urban fantasy. It immediately describes the type of writing she does and identifies her.

She challenged us with, "If someone asked you 'So, what do you write?' RIGHT NOW. What would you say?"

The exercise helped me think about how to separate what I write from what others write and then to think about how to market that brand.

I haven't come up with a brand or a slogan yet -- something I can stick on pencils or pens -- but at least I am working on it.

Thanks, Jenn.

And thank you for reading and keep writing.