Showing Off My Brand New Brand

posted by Aunty Cindy aka Loucinda McGary

Turns out I have a brand! I mean, I know authors are supposed to have them, but I didn't really think I did. That is, until I attended my own publisher, Sourcebooks' Spotlight session at RWA National last month.

My publisher and my publicist gave excellent presentations about the company in general and the romance line in particular. They gave a cool slide show of all the Casablanca authors' covers, including mine (SQUEE!). Then my editor took the microphone to talk about some of the Casablanca authors. Imagine my surprise when she started talking about MY brand!

Mine? Really? I had to curb the urge to run for the ladies' room to see if I had somehow attained a tatoo when I wasn't paying attention! Luckily I was too close to the front and in the middle of the row to make a graceful exit, so I was obliged to sit and listen to what my editor said.

She said here's what readers can expect when they read a book by Loucinda McGary:

• an Irish hunk hero
• an exotic, but very real setting
• suspense, as in a little murder, a little mayhem
• a touch of the paranormal, like the Second Sight, reincarnation, or mental telepathy

Well whadaya know? I do have a brand after all! I always knew my editor was a smart cookie.

So with a little over three weeks to wait until the release of my new book, The Treasures of Venice, let me go over that check list one more time to be sure...

Irish hunk hero? Keirnan Fitzgerald from County Kildare, dark-haired, blue-eyed Irish charmer. Check!

Exotic setting? Beautiful, romantic Venice (both current day and in 1485). Check!

A little murder and mayhem? Stolen jewels, kidnappings, knives and guns. Check!

A paranormal element? Possible past lives recreating themselves. Check!

All that's missing is YOU, the reader! So here's a short excerpt to whet your appetite:

A closed door blocked the top of the stairs, but it must not have been locked because Keirnan opened it after only a moment’s hesitation.

They emerged into another corridor right on the heels of a Japanese family--mother, father and two bored teens. While one parent snapped photos, the other ran a camcorder to capture every millimeter. Within moments, they all reached Bridge of Sighs.

Keirnan stepped forward and offered to take a picture of all four family members. Sam was not the least bit surprised to hear him utter some phrases in Japanese.

“Shall I take your picture too?” he asked after the family moved on.

She gestured at the fanny pack beneath her coat. “No camera. Besides, I was just here yesterday.”

He tilted his head and studied her for a long silent moment. The blue of his eyes gleamed iridescent in the dimness of the narrow enclosed bridge. “You don’t seem to fancy this romantic Venetian landmark.”

His open scrutiny made funny flutters kick up along the nerve endings in her spine. She wished some other tourists would show up. “I hardly think a bridge built to secretly imprison your political enemies is romantic.”

His dark brows lifted in a sardonic salute. “You had an excellent tour guide yesterday.”

“Actually, I’m a librarian so I read several books before the trip.”

Sam turned aside to escape the probing of his too perceptive gaze and stared out the small square opening cut into the stone. Urban legend said during the Middle Ages prisoners got their last look at Venice through this window and their sighs of longing gave the bridge its name. Wintry gray walls rose up on either side, and the cold green-black water of the canal loomed far below. Nothing romantic here at all.

“He’s a fool.”

“Excuse me?”

The sudden pronouncement caught Sam completely off guard. She turned to find the charming Irish rogue standing uncomfortably close. She took a step backward.

“Whomever ‘twas that let you come to Venice alone. He’s a bloody fool.”

Who are some of your favorite authors? When did you figure out that they had a brand? And what is it about their brand that you find the most appealing?

Website Design From a Personal Branding Perspective

by Caren Crane

'Tis Spring, when a writer's fancy turns to her website! Whether it's flaunting a Big Contest Final, a Monumental Contest Win or announcing the Hot New Release, when the grass grows tall writers itch to start, revamp or completely overhaul their websites. Fortunately, we Banditas are a resourceful lot. We have two savvy website and personal branding professionals with us today to kindle your spark of a website idea into a towering inferno of internet marketing goodness.

Jenn Stark brings a practical, accessible approach to branding to help authors at every level present themselves for maximum impact. A former vice president of marketing and communications with sixteen years' experience and a published freelance business writer, Jenn has served as president and publicity director of the Ohio Valley Romance Writers of America, and was the 2007 winner of the RWA Golden Heart in paranormal romance. She is an invited speaker and instructor on branding and public relations topics around the country and enjoys working with authors one-on-one to help develop their branding and publicity materials. Visit her online at www.jennstark.com.

Liz Bemis has worked in the Graphic Design and Information Technology fields for more than fifteen years. She brings her passion for unique designs and customer-driven site personalities to her work as the Owner and Creative Director of Bemis Promotions. As a four-time Golden Heart finalist (www.elizabethbemis.com) and regular speaker to authors nationwide, Liz provides the perfect combination of business savvy, author branding, and promotional experience to her clients.

Welcome, Jenn and Liz! Pull up a hammock, grab an umbrella drink and tell us a story. How about the one where you and Liz created your website, Jenn? It's my favorite website design story ever! Pretty please?

* * * * * * * * * * *

Jenn: As a Personal Branding expert who’s spoken to hundreds of authors about how to maximize their Brand in person and online, you’d think I’d have a truly easy time creating my perfect personal website the first time out.

Liz: (giggles to self)... They ALL think it’s gonna be a snap!

Jenn: Well… not so much (as Liz Bemis, my uber patient web designer will agree!) But the process that I took to create my site proved very instructive, and is hopefully one that can help you as well as you prepare to create—or update—your own website.

Essentially, my site development experience came down to three key steps: The Idea, The First Cut, and the Big Finish:

The Idea

This by far is the most important stage in the process—where YOU decide what YOU want in your website, and then communicate that to your designer. I can’t stress the decision element enough. I’ve had the pleasure of working on four different site designs with Liz. Two of them I said “just put something together that makes sense for me, maybe with a dragon… or something swirly…” and I got exactly what I asked for, which wasn’t at all what I wanted once I saw it. Why? Because I didn’t go into the process with a clear and focused image of what I REALLY wanted to do.

 
 
 


The many phases of jennstark.com

Liz: Those first two site designs were years ago... I now pretty much require that all of my clients come up with five sites that they truly love (and what they love about each site), and five sites that are professionally developed that just aren't for them (and what they don't like about each site). I would recommend having this kind of list no matter who you work with.

Jenn: The other two design processes—which resulted in my first site and then my upgrade—were much different. I followed Liz’s recommendation of finding sites that had the ‘look’ I was seeking, I planned out exactly what I wanted to convey image-wise with each site, and I had reasons for each of the early changes I made. In addition, I worked with Liz on formatting issues—how often did I want to update my site? Did I want to handle this myself or have Liz do it? Making these decisions up front cut down Liz’s design time by at least 50%--and while I was a bit more of a pain because I was so much more specific, I ended up with a First Cut that was dramatically closer to my dream site.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Take the time to go through your designer’s pre-planning process, and be as specific as possible in your design requests. Your designer doesn’t start until you say go—so use her time wisely by being as prepared as possible up front.

The First Cut

While Liz had already been hard at work for days at this point, I really started my portion of the work once she gave me her initial site design. At this stage I got to see her first execution of my vision—and make decisions about whether or not that execution would work. In my case, I knew immediately what I loved, and what wasn’t for me. But knowing wasn’t enough. I needed to then communicate my preferences as clearly as possible to Liz, and see where she could then take my ideas. Remember, your designer wants you to LOVE your site. They don’t want you to “settle” if your site isn’t absolutely perfect. So when it comes to giving feedback, don’t just say “this doesn’t work,” offer suggestions to your designer that are as concrete as you can make them. In my case, I was on a deadline to get the site up—and I recommend this to anyone developing a site. Don’t give yourself too much time to obsess over it, or you will never get it done!

KEY TAKEAWAY: Be prepared to give fast, thorough feedback, with a timeline for implementation. Deliver your changes all at once, versus forcing your designer to change one thing on the first iteration, and another thing on the second iteration, etc.

Liz: That's really great advice. First, piecemeal input will drive your designer to Bedlam very quickly. Second, you'll get a much better sense of the changes if they all happen at once!

The Big Finish

Jenn: Once we went through a few rounds of design changes, we were almost ready to launch my new site. I wanted my site to “live” in its current version for at least 6 months, hopefully much longer, so it was important to ensure that everything in the site was where I wanted it to be. This was the time to sweat the small details and keep the lines of communication open! In my case, I tested the site out with a number of friends, getting their feedback and making incidental changes for clarity. This is also when I tested all of the cool features Liz incorporated into my site—the self-editing features, the blog, the contest, etc. We didn’t launch until I was sure I could manage the day-to-day updating with a minimum of difficulty, and then we launched with a bang, as I included a contest and promoted the site to all of my various groups and list-servs.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Test-drive your site with others, incorporating their feedback to ensure your site is as “perfect” as possible before launch. And don’t launch until you’re ready to start the maintenance for your site or blog, whether you handle the updating or your designer does.

And that’s what the site process looked like to me! Liz’s experience, however, may be a little different…

* * * * * * * * * * *

Thank you, ladies. That's one of my favorite website stories ever, complete with a Happy Ever After! And so, gentle readers, you see how much sweat and lather goes into the seemingly effortless and lovely designs of your favorite author websites. If you're itching to pull a site together (you know you should already have one!) or have questions about where to start, when to stop or what you should fill up all that blank space with, ask away! Both our experts will be popping in today to answer your website and branding-related questions.

Great Expectations, or, the Holiday from Hell

posted by Christine Wells
Hallooo everyone!!! I'm SO glad to be back in the lair, you have NO idea!

I missed all the banditas and honorary banditas like crazy, but that's not the only reason I'm glad to be back. Sorry to say that the last few weeks have been the holiday from hell. And no, it's not just because I was forced to leave my laptop behind.

Despite the week at the beach when it rained non-stop and the proposed holiday to an island off the coast of Australia (above, left) where our flight was delayed 6 times over 4 days due to gale force winds, my husband and I were moderately optimistic when we flew down to Victoria (a southern state of Australia), to travel the Great Ocean Road (right).

The sunshine was a good start, as was the lovely country town of Port Fairy (below left and right) and the wineries at Coonawarra (right).

A few dozen bottles of wine later...

We thought we'd left our troubles behind us, but the straw that broke the camel's back was yet to come. We'd booked (as we thought) a charming cottage in a semi-rural setting, where the boys could play outside and see cows and sheep and we could fossick around wineries and olive groves and sight-see at will. When we called the owner to ask about checking in, she said we had to stay at a different property from the one we'd booked.

It was after 7pm, we'd been on the road for around 9 hours and our boys were screaming tired. We thought it a bit strange to be told to go to a different location when we'd spoken to the owner only days before and confirmed the booking, but when she said someone else was already staying in the charming cottage, we had no choice but to drive to the address we'd been given.

Nothing rural or charming about this place. It was a suburban house near a bay but with no view of the water and the only garden it had was a gravel yard with a tin shed out the back.

When we complained, we were told the property had been given the same starred rating as the rural cottage we'd expected, so we shouldn't be upset about the change. But we were upset, and when we tried to explain why, we realized it was because we'd been expecting one thing--looking forward to it very much, in fact--and received something altogether different. Item for item, the facilities in these two places were the same, but the experience each would give us would be poles apart.

And it occurred to me today how similar our disappointment was to the disappointment some readers express about romance novels when an established author tries something different. Readers come to expect a particular experience from a particular author. If that author fails to deliver that experience each time, devoted fans might well end up feeling cheated, even if, judged objectively, the book is just as good as other books by that author. It's not that readers want the same story over and over, it's the similar feeling of triumph over adversity, or light, flippant entertainment or dark, angsty emotion that you want each time you pick up that author's books.

So what do we, the writers, do about that? In some ways, there's no escaping your own voice. If it's a strong one, it shows through no matter what you write and your readers might well follow you up hill and down dale just to get more of your unique voice. Jenny Crusie could probably write a computer manual and I'd read it. But on the whole, I'd say that kind of following is pretty rare. As authors, do we have a duty to write the same but different every time, or should we be free to wander where the muse (or the girls in the basement) takes us?

I'm not sure I know the answer to this question, but after our holiday, I can certainly see both points of view.

What do you think? If you're a reader, do you want your favorite authors to write similar (but different) books each time? If you're a writer, do you feel constrained by this perceived expectation? And anyone else, what's your worst holiday story? One reader will win a copy of SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER and a postcard from my ill-fated holiday!