Burning Brand - what's in a Name?

Now a while back another list I am on had a few people getting rather excited about self published books at a book fair that they were invited to, but at which no bookseller was going to be to hawk their wares. They'd have to do their own, and how would anyone know they were a cut above? There was some mild hysteria about the idea that the myriad self-pubbed/ small press authors and books were overwhelming these events and the conference panels.

There were suggestions that ‘real' authors call themselves New York published or various other titles (we'll call you a ‘sanitation engineer') as an imprimatur of quality.

The trouble with this is that quality's hallmark is... quality. Not a title. And the trouble with titles is that "New York Publishing" is the mark of a bunch of brands (publishing houses) who have yet to fully wake up to branding and its value and how it works. Firstly, people have to actually know your brand exists. Baen figured this a while ago. Tor and I see now Penguin are trying to capitalise on their authors (who are brand names) to establish their brands in the minds of readers. This is good thinking for publishers if not necessarily for the authors (who are providing a very valuable property for free). It may of course be good for the authors too, as it lets your brand name mix with other possibly more august names. (August Names, see, are the names of authors who come out in August, which is when the publishers put out their best wares for summer holiday reads. And if you believe this, I have a book to sell you. About selling bridges...) The down side of this of course is the part they may not quite have figured yet, ie... You might end up tarnishing your brand with the more January Names (when no customers have any money left after their Christmas's Budget blowout, and you put up stuff not many people would buy anyway.) And this I do not think the new rush have quite grasped yet: public opinion of your WHOLE brand and ALL its products matter.

What? Yes, actually I DO know DRAGON'S RING is coming out in paperback in early January. But thank you for pointing it out ;-). I shall continue to believe that people will love the book and tell their friends, and that this was shrewd and not a label. I have to believe this :-)

Anyway, the point I am making is that a brand of value known for quality say... Rolls Royce for example, might make several models of motor car, or luxury cars and aero engines, but, to conserve their brand's value, none of these is a fall-apart assembled in Ping-Ping from slightly used tin cans and chewing gum and spit washing machine. A January, if you like. A powerful brand has no January names on its product list. Anonymous no label companies (where the brand is invisible) might make fairly good products and rubbish at the same factory, and put a lot of effort into selling fairly good, and just have the rubbish cheap to make. But companies who sell on brand, can't.

Anyone who believes the general output of large Publishing in NY has followed a policy of strengthening their brands by never putting out a January, erhm.... I suggest you read more. As a way of marking your book as something better than self-published / small press, this one is a failure. Moreover it's a failure the writer can do nothing about. As several people pointed out, this is a storm in a tea-cup. There have ALWAYS been vanity / self published / small press books about. And, while this is not generally true, a few really are far better than anything NY has brought out in the last 50 years, and probably about 10% are no worse. It hasn't brought down publishing yet, or drowned out the authors published by large publishing. Take it away, and those who fail now... would still fail. The reason is painfully obvious: because, quite simply, the self-published and small press can't get the broad retail access. With rare exceptions (that take a lot of luck and work) they can't match the NY Publishers' reach. It's hard, not very rewarding and most will give up before the breakthrough.

NY publishing didn't NEED a brand name, and imprimatur of quality, because they controlled most retail access. If you were in B&N across the country... you had their stamp of approval.

Of course that becomes awkward with the advent of the Internet and large online retailers, who are (at present) willing to give retail space to every Tom Dickanharry who can come up with a cover and thinks they can write. What's worse is that the large online retailers are prepared to give Mr Dickanharry 70% of the cover price (out of which he has to pay the cost of a cover, and for proof-reading, and hopefully acquire some editorial input). And large NY Publishing are pushing their newbies and midlist not into retail space they pwn, but into competition - with no more than Mr Dickanharry, and um... if the author is lucky, 12.5% cover price. It's going to take a fairly stupid author not to go to a small publisher, that will do as much as the NY House do, and will give him 50% of the cover price. Now you understand why the Publisher's brand name suddenly becomes a thing of value, that companies who had no real interest before are suddenly flinging themselves into, and pressuring their authors to take slots on their online blogs etc. It adds value to their Brand, at small extra cost (most of the real, vast cost -- the author's time -- the Publisher gets for free. On the plus side it does mean the bigger names -- who get the bulk of the advance spend and any other push and publicity, get to draw some light to the newbies and the midlisters by sharing a podium. Most of them like doing this, as anyone who has been to Baen's Bar knows. Authors -- especially those who have battered their own way up through hard knocks -- are actually amazingly good about nurture. Ok there are exceptions, but when I look at what other writers have done for me, my sarcasm leaves entirely and I can only be grateful and aspire to be one.)

This leaves me, finally (yes, you are relieved), at my conclusions: which are
1)If you are published by NYBighouse do take part in whatever Brand building forum they want of you. You have very little choice, and there are some advantages (whether this amounts to 37.5% of the royalties must depend on what other publicity you have. If you have none, and this will bring you 1000 sales as opposed to 10 chance finds, it is )
2)Distinctly brand yourself within that forum, and keep an off-forum site, which you refer to on forum, which offers things not available on your publisher's site. They're using you to build their brand, use them to build yours.
3)Make as many contacts and cross-linkages as possible on that site, with established authors and new writers and wannabes. There is no such thing as free lunch, but these are the people who will help you, as you help them.
4) The flush of self-pubbed and small press ebooks will not go away... or drown the quality. Many new start ups will find this is hard, unrewarding and give up. But some will stay on.
5) Some large houses will try to either cut a cosy deal with the larger online retailer to lock the smaller / individual players out, and stop their bigger names deserting them. If this fails expect at restrictive contracts.
6)Look beyond all of this, and build your Brand, even before you publish.

And I'd be curious about your impressions of where it will go?

Author as a Performer

Yesterday I did a post about the Author as Performer over on the ROR blog. It’s tough when you have to not only have to write a book that requires research, dedication and a year of your life, but then you have to promote it. This is especially hard as most authors are introverts. Why do you think they like sitting alone with their computer communing with the characters in their heads?

There’s another thing I’ve noticed. The average Australian is very uncomfortable about jumping up and down and saying Look at Me! In our country we have thing called Tall Poppy Syndrome, which is the tendency to cut off at the base, any one of our fellow Australians if they get too big for their boots.

Here’s a quote from Deep Pencil’s blog that sums it up neatly.

‘When Australian exports make it big overseas in the fields academia or entertainment, they often find it difficult to return home due to the huge amount of criticism levelled at them. Our ex-pats like Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes, Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Clive James, and Kylie Minogue, seem to move away and never look back - nice place to visit, but hard place to live if you are doing well.

Australians like to deflate the pretensions of those they perceive to be "flaunting" their success. We like to pull down those who attempt to distinguish themselves by ridiculing them. It's the Australian way, and if you don’t like it get out! Then we wonder why there’s a "brain drain" and a "cultural cringe".’

(Yes I know they are tulips and not poppies. I couldn't find a picture of poppies that was copyright free).

So asking an Australian author to promote their work or to ‘brand themselves’ is really asking them to go against the norm of our society. With so many sources of entertainment clamouring for readers’ attention writers have to wonder if anyone will read their books. Publishers expect us to promote our books. It is just part of the equation now days.

Maureen Johnson talks about author branding here. She says:

‘I am not saying that it is a bad or dishonest thing to try to sell your work. It is not. What I am saying is that I am tired of the rush to commodify everything, to turn everything into products, including people. I don’t want a brand, because a brand limits me. A brand says I will churn out the same thing over and over. Which I won’t, because I am weird.’

Which is a valid point. After all, we might take a small step sideways into a cross-genre or decide to try our hands at writing in another genre entirely. Sometimes the story dictates the genre. It wants to be told a certain way and it won't let us go until we tell it.

Tansy Rayner Roberts has written a post here on the topic of author branding. According to Tansy:

‘promoting a business becomes a whole lot stickier when your business is in fact yourself. You do have a responsibility to yourself, your family, your publishers, and so on, to promote your work effectively.’

She goes on to talk about where you draw the line. How do you keep your family private?

And here Colleen Mondor talks about branding and how publishers are encouraging authors to promote themselves. She says:

‘…the world would do well to remember just how long Neil Gaiman was writing when he started his blog. He already had the fans before he went online; the blog (and twitter) were just icing on the cake for him and his readers and trying to duplicate that miracle without putting decades into writing is beyond silly.’

So what does a writer do, when their book is coming out and they hate to think of the poor little thing sitting all alone and unloved on a bookshop shelf somewhere?

I decided rather than have a physical book launch, I’d just offer copies of the book to lots of book blog reviewers. This could of course backfire, as they may not like the book. But I think reviews and how to survive them should be a post for another day.

So back to the author as performer. When my first trilogy sold I was terrified of talking in public. I asked someone what I should talk about. And they said - do your research if you are asked onto a panel, but the important thing is to be sincere, speak from the heart. So that is what I have tried to do.

When you see authors at festivals and conventions, what do you remember afterwards? Is it the ‘brand’ or is it sincerity?