By
Lisabet Sarai
If
you want to be successful in the highly competitive game of
publishing (I'm told), you need to do more than just write good books
and get someone to sell them for you. You need to “build a brand”.
What does this mean? Here's a simple definition from Dummies.com:
When
people hear your name, they conjure up a set of impressions that
influence how they think and buy. Those thoughts define your brand.
For
an author, having a “brand” means, first, that readers recognize
your name and second, they have a clear and hopefully positive
understanding of what you write that leads them to purchase your
books. Popular authors like James Patterson or Stephen King have
legions of readers who will buy anything they publish, sight unseen.
Readers know what to expect from these authors. They'll pre-order a
book before it's even released. The power of the author's brand
trumps the quality of the actual writing.
In
the erotic romance world, brands rule. Authors typically produce a
multitude of titles in one or two clearly defined genres. Carol Lynne
writes M/M contemporary erotica romance, often with a Western
setting. Sabrina York creates rock-hard, flint-hearted military
heroes, emotionally scarred SEALs or Special Forces guys who struggle
against the weakness of loving a special woman. Cerise De Land pens
Regencies populated by disgraced dukes and feisty, independent
ladies.
In
the realm of erotica, I consider Rachel
Kramer Bussel
an example of effective brand-building. Pretty much anyone who reads
erotica will be familiar with the dozens of anthologies she has
edited, many focused on kink or fetishes. Rachel builds her brand not
only through her publications but also through readings, parties and
an amazingly active presences in the blogosphere. Just say “cupcake”
or “spanking” to any erotica reader and Rachel's name is likely
to come to mind.
Alison
Tyler provides another instance. Alison’s brand is even more
focused than Rachel’s—she
writes dark, transgressive BDSM, mostly M/f, significantly less
playful and exploratory than Rachel. Her characters are driven by
need, not just erotic curiosity. Alison’s not as “out in the
world” as Rachel. She characterizes herself as “a
shy girl with a dirty mind”. Still,
I suspect there are few readers of erotica who wouldn’t recognize
her name. Having recently joined Twitter, I’ve discovered she’s a
true expert at this medium, with the ability to make almost any
snippet of prose sound fascinating (and naughty). I’ve been
studying her technique, but so far I can’t come close.
So
how does a poor aspiring author like me go about building a brand?
The authorities I've consulted highlight three major issues:
Distinctiveness
– Both your name and your work need to be sufficiently unusual to
stand out from the crowd.
Value
– You need to offer your readers good value for their money. You
can't fake your way into effective branding, at least not for long.
Especially when you're building your brand, every title you produce
has to satisfy your target readers.
Consistency
– Your brand controls readers' expectations. People who purchase
Carol Lynne's books expect explicit M/M erotic romance. Readers who
buy Rachel's anthologies expect playfully transgressive, sex-positive
stories in which pleasure trumps more serious issues. For a writer,
brand consistency encompasses both genre and style. If a book
doesn't fulfill readers' expectations, your brand will suffer.
And
there's the rub, for me. Consistency. I write all sorts of genres
and heat levels. I write both erotica and romance. BDSM fiction was
my first love but I've deliberately diversified. I've written
contemporary, paranormal, historical, suspense and science fiction;
heterosexual, gay, lesbian, and ménage;
dark, playful and comic. When a reader comes across my name, he or
she isn't likely to have immediate expectations about content or
tone. About the only thing that a reader can assume is that my work
is likely to contain a lot of sex―but even that isn't guaranteed.
Distinctiveness
isn't a problem. I happened to choose a pen name that appears to be
unique. (I was trying for something that sounded foreign and exotic,
to go with the exotic setting of my first novel.) Google my name and
you'll find pages and pages of references to me and my books. It
appears that in cyberspace, at least, there's only one Lisabet Sarai.
I'd
like to believe that I'm set as far as value is concerned as well. I
produce quality work, or at least I try, with original premises and
engaging characters. Most of my work has received very positive
reviews.
If
consistency is required in order to have an effective brand, though,
I may never succeed. I'm easily bored. I don't want to write the same
sort of book over and over. I'm contemplating sequels to several of
my novels and I'll be honest―I'm not sure that I want to return to
the same worlds and characters for the duration of another book. I'd
rather try something different―to stretch my abilities.
Obviously
there are common threads that run through my work. I tend to write
stories that have a strong sense of place and I frequently use
foreign settings. My characters tend to think a lot―they're not
usually action-hero types. In my stories, sexual identity tends to be
fluid; it's common for a straight character to discover homoerotic
yearnings or vice versa. Sex in my tales is often a revelation as
opposed to just recreation. This is particularly true of sex that
involves dominance and submission. Finally, I think it's fair to say
that my style is more literary than popular (though I'm trying to
diversify in this area as well.)
These
kind of abstract commonalities aren't enough, I suspect, to bolster a
brand identity. I'd be really interested to know what readers think
when they hear the name “Lisabet Sarai”. Most probably, it
depends on what (if anything) they've read. The trouble is that any
particular book they've picked up will likely give them mistaken
expectations for the next one of my books that they read.
I
really don't know how seriously I should take this dilemma. Should I
channel my writing energies into just one or two genres? If my goal
were to support myself with my writing, I'd probably have to do just
that. But really―I hate that notion!
So
where does that leave me? Can I be a moderate success without
building a brand? Can I attract a community of readers who appreciate
diversity and don't mind having their expectations violated? I don't
know. To be honest, I’ve all but given up on the whole notion of
branding.
I’m
a writer. Period. Pick up one or two of my books and read them to
discover what I do. Sorry but I can’t offer you any shortcuts.
