Self-publishing

Yesterday, March 27, was my birthday and I had a post all ready to write, but then life got in the way. Instead of writing a post in the afternoon as I planned -- and it was going to be a really good one -- I had to handle a couple of family issues, and then headed out of town to take my daughter and her college roommate to dinner. Only now, a few minutes after midnight, am I able to sit down and briefly write.

Fantasy author Lynne Cantwell spoke to our local chapter of Sisters in Crime at our monthly meeting last Saturday. Her topic was self-publishing.

Now over the years I have played with the idea of self-publishing but, quite frankly, it was always just an intellectual exercise in my head. I never gave it serious consideration -- that is until I heard Cantwell, all 55-years old, say she decided to take the plunge when she considered that "I'm not getting any younger."

Of course, she wasn't getting younger, No one is. But I got the point, particularly as I was staring down the barrel of the gun that was my impending birthday. And for the first time I started to seriously consider self-publishing, in this case putting An Untidy Affair out into the world.

 I wrote Affair in 2009 and it is now in what I consider is its 13th draft. And I have tried for some time to get an agent interested in me and, by extension, the work. So now it seems like it's time to do something different.

I haven't made a final decision yet. I want a professional editor to work on it first. But I have started putting a marketing plan together to publish it as an e-book and as POD some time in the fall. (Got to allow time to drum up some interest.)

That's where I'm at. There will be more about it later. But as part of my strategy, I will probably redesign my blog page and increase what it offers in the months to come.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and keep writing. Always.

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.