A Tale Of Two Author Brands

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• Nothing like the wisdom of experience to make your point. That is, that making two points at once isn't the best place to be in.
  "Brand" is a word we've always heard, and I see it more and more among blogs now, and I think I'm starting to see why. The numbers themselves make it vital: with so many other authors and businesses a click away from us now, "thriller author" just doesn't have the power to leave an impression, and often it's the only chance we get. "Thrillers on the edge" delivers--especially if everything else about that brand reinforces it.
  Well, I was rethinking my blog's color scheme anyway…

  • Thanks Ken - I'm glad you like 'Thrillers on the edge' - it was my 3rd tagline :) All the best with your branding.

• Joanna,

  This is a very thoughtful and helpful piece. I really appreciate your Creative Penn Blog, but you're right, I am a memoirist, so I don't really look at your other blog. Valid point.
  Keep up the great work!

  Lenny

  • Hi Lenny, and I certainly don't EXPECT people from this site to care about my fiction! After all, this is for writers in all arenas, and only a few will like my fiction. I hope you continue to enjoy this site :)

• Joanna,

  Your timing couldn't be better for me, as I have been struggling with this issue for some time and just e-mailed a brand-savvy friend today for advice.

  My case is a bit tricky because I write in two quite different romance sub-genres. I am leaning toward having one brand, but I'm still working out how to make the brand broad enough to encompass both without watering it down so much that it stops being a brand.

  • I think if they are romance sub-genres they would probably work under one brand - or at least something with an initial difference but same website - as surely a similar, or more crossover market?

  • My suggestion is to have a "publisher" brand, if you're going the Indie publishing route. Otherwise, do a sort of split name. Using Joanna as an example. 1) JF Penn, 2) Joanna F. Penn, for the two, just to make it easier. I have: a "rant;" a YA/Christian/"Romance(?);" and 3 cookbooks in process. I also have a long term, book about how to advertise more effectively," and a "metric ton" of reference books on various subjects, coming in a few years. I'll probably use a pen name for the ref. books, but all will have "FBN Group (also my twitter handle)," as the "publisher."
    That's just my take on the subject.

• This is something I am wrestling with. I started a philipparees.com site when I gathered I had to blog and create an on line home before my book Involution came out. Although I paid it creative attention it had no focus because unlike you I have nothing of immediate or obvious benefit to visitors. It still exists ( rather neglected but with a few followers who I tried to persuade across) but the book site involution-odyssey.com takes up all the time I have. Should I just abandon the first or try and amalgamate in some way? I would really be grateful for your take and advice?

  • My feeling around websites that are about just one book is that eventually they fade away as we 'become' other people over time - and we write more books. I think a name.com is always the best idea for the long term. I have JoannaPenn.com as well but it just points at JFPenn.com at the moment. But really, it's up to you - there are no rules :)

• I stumbled onto your blog because it was listed on the Positive Writer's 25 best writing blogs post. I love this post and it is so timely because I am currently working on setting up two totally separate blog sites. One is a spiritual site and one is an author platform as I just finished my first children's book. I currently have one domain name and plan to have a landing page where people can choose whichever site is applicable. I have played with the idea of having a completely separate domain name because writing as R.V. Bowman appeals to me for my children's stories. Anyway, thanks for this post - lots of great insight! :)

  • A landing page with multiple choice is a great way to do this - I am thinking of having something similar sometime in the future with this site :)

  • This one landing page idea is intriguing! I also write for children and am strugglingto figure out how to manage my blogs/websites. Thanks for the idea!

• Joanna, thank you so much for writing about this. I have a bit of an "identity crisis" too, and decided months ago to keep separate accounts for my separate endeavors. It is difficult to keep up with each, but is getting easier as time passes. I think that setting up the accounts as FB pages, twitter, and one on instagram, pinterest, etc, took the most time. I set up a calendar for myself to remember to keep active over a month's time, and now it is becoming a regular pattern. It's good to know that others have the same process because I had wondered at first if I'd made the right choice. It definitely was, and you just validated that!

• I face this more acutely than I once did now that I prepare for my debut novel to launch.

  My main focus is books, but I plan to write more about film and television that ties into getting more respect for a genre that's constantly misunderstood, disrespected and seen as only WAY by too many! Not just my stuff, but others, too!

  Crime Writers (Usually Women) got into it because of Nancy Drew. Yet the broken detectives and "Tough as Nails" lawyers or whatever they went on to write and charm the world with are far removed (At least thematically) from the girl they read under bed covers.

  I got into being a novelist because of Desperaux and Lyle the Crocodile. I tend to circumvent a lot of conventions (One of the biggest being)

  Right now, I try to stick to things more reader-centric, with an occasional update on my own book in progress (i.e. Books I've sold, a story I'm e-publishing, etc.)

  I plan to stick with publishing under my name "Taurean J. Watkins" for the foreseeable future, but since my books are in the Children's/YA landscape, I might write for adults under another name.

  I too decided I need to separate my brand a little bit.

  At some point I'm going to create a part of T.A.A. that's specifically for authors as I want to connect with authors and help them through both general stuff, but especially things people in my genre (Animal Fantasy) have to deal with a lot, how naturalistic we can and want to be in our stories, when to use the science and biological research on the creatures we write about and when NOT to and why, and so much MORE!

  Suspension of disbelief isn't even an EIGHTH of it, but is one of the common hurdles, the older readers get from 5-7 (I and some other writers apparently are the "RARE" exceptions) the HARDER it is, but it's not impossible.

  My main brand is "Talking Animal Addicts" and its mission to bridge the gap in readers minds about how much breadth, depth, and VARIETY is in the world of fantastical fauna, not just in books, but film and television, too. A concern of mine going forward is being able to appeal to both kids and teens, but parents, because and I could some tips for how to switch back and forth when needed.

  One of the biggest myths I want to dispel is that (That's not in the vein of Horror, psycho puppets, or involve Teddys with Potty Mouths...) and I'm reading a book now that while for adult readers, is a joy for this grown-up reader, meaning me.

  But I don't want to alienate kids from the site and cause confusion among parents and possibly teachers. I thought about password protecting them, but that would alienate readers who aren't yet dedicated followers, and it'd be one more step they may not want to bother with, and kids find ways around passwords, anyway. Any ideas?

  BTW: I bought your ebook about public speaking, and it's giving me a lot of ideas and hope that I can overcome my concerns with public speaking, whether or not I do it as a side business. This is just something I need to get better at for as much personal reasons as professional.

  It might be in the book but I haven't got to it yet, but could you recommend any programs for dealing with accelerated/slurred speech?

  Aside from nerves of seeing a crowd of people live, my only personal issue with public speaking is being so scary is that not being verbally understood because I talk so fast, not always out of nervousness, but because so much I want to say "In a non-ego way!" that I don't always realize how fast I'm talking. When I started doing video and hearing my voice played back to me, I realized how bad it could be.

  But at least with pre-recorded video or audio, I can retake and edit, with a live speech offline, or a Google Hangout/Skype situation, you're live and need to be easily heard and understood, and that's where I need help!

  For a chatterbox (When I'm reasonably calm) like me that's dangerous. You can't engage with your best stuff if people only understand every third word you say. I empathize with Donald Duck that way, we both have difficult tempers (Though I try to be NICER to others and not as hard on myself), and both have hard times being verbally understood. Though, I don't have a lisp at least...

• Hi Joanne, this was something I asked you about the first time we met at a workshop in Brisbane must have been about 5 years ago. Well you had few answers about this problem then but you seem to have cracked it now. In your terms I can now state my problem and I hope resolve it to some degree. The problem is I like writing in many different genres and that is not a good plan to make money! I wrote the biography of my friend the late David Barrett, Digger's Story (Five Mile Press), and in the process became somewhat of an authority on Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese during WWII. But I wrote the book because of my friendship with David. This was not the brand I wanted! I have since written Riotous Retirement published by Agneau Press, a humorous look at life in retirement. I have websites for both but at present I am concentrating on being a humorous writer. This does not mean I won't create a new brand when I write about the troubles in Cyprus during the 1950s! Brand problems are never ending for me!

  • Hi Brian, I had fewer books back then :)
    I would say that you find a theme and just use your name as the brand - a common theme for you would be history I think - which also fits into retirement :) but yes, humour is a difficult one. I think people love personality in writing, so you can just be one Brian - and then have separate pages for non-fiction history and humour. That's one way to go. I don't the two are incompatible as there will be crossover.

    PS. Thanks for still following me after all these years :)

• Great article, I agree with all the points you make here Joanna. As a fiction author starting out who writes both crime/ suspense fiction and romance, it's a question I have often pondered. Glad you agreed with my decision to stick with the one brand for now as the best thing to do, it's definitely less of a headache to keep up with all the marketing/ promotional aspects.

  Have read Pentecost, thought it was superb, and can't wait for Delirium. Keep up the good work, I'm sure you will;)

  Beck R

  • Thanks Beck, and 'romantic suspense' is actually a genre in the US, not in the UK though which I've always found odd! I'm going to be interviewing Colin Falconer soon and he sits in those genres too, so keep an eye on the podcast.

• I'm one of the few people who get involved with both aspects of your personality. One aspect of it all I can't seem to work out is how to add an additional Author's Page to my profile. I already have one under my computer pen-name; how do I add one for the erotic author? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

  • Hi Penny, Thanks for being a crossover reader :)
    and here's how you can split your author pages on Amazon Central http://traceywritesbooks.com/different-pen-names-amazon-author-central/