Why Branding is Necessary!

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I was supposed to post a vlog today but other plans got in the way and this has been on my mind for some time now.



I feel that as an indie author you need to have a brand, you need to have a genre, you need people to remember who you are---being another self-published author is hard.



I'm going to kick this off by telling you that if your Facebook page doesn't have your name in the title, then there isn't much point in having it.



Book pages are useful, but they are also very boring and don't offer as much as author pages do. I find that author pages are more personal, where book pages just have pictures of the book...or random pictures of people they want to fill the characters etc. and yeah, that's fun and everything, and you want people to "like" your book, and unless that's the only book you're ever going to write, I would delete it!



I believe that if you want to be indie you will not become successful over just ONE book! So quit promoting it to hell and back! Instead, I think you should focus on your writing, Amanda Hocking did not become famous for that one book, nor did Stephen King, or anyone else for that matter. They all wrote several books and have a backlog.



Just like an musician must build a repertoire of songs because lets face it, if they listen to the same song over and over again it just gives you earache and you start to hate it. I think the same thing goes for an indie author who keeps on pushing their book everywhere you look and I've actually said to myself..."No, you're not buying that, it's just spam! The author has done nothing to try and sell it to me, just forever posting it and the reviews they've received."




I recently asked whether I should use my name for Ice Cream Sundae, my gay romance novel, and everyone said no. I actually agreed, I do have a pseudonym that I created a while back for just the kind of writing. However, I do want people to know that it is me, because I have built myself around my name, Joseph Eastwood and you can't just go, oh, but Thomas Jay is another part of me. Although I will still use Thomas Jay, everyone here and on my Facebook page etc. wherever blah blah blah will know that it was me who wrote it. Not sure where I was going with that.




So going back to branding, you need to hone your genre and you need to write, write, write! Not everything you write should be published for money, some things you write can be free! You know, like in your notes that people can read because there aren't a lot of people who are going to be taking a chance on an indie author.



I am 18 years old! 18! And I have several novels planned and these are the ones that are being written and edited at the moment. I know what I want to do with my life...and I'm doing that! I make it my business to know what I need to be a success.

So if you want to know more about what I'm about, here are the links, the first is to the Goodreads page and the second is to the blog page.




The Salem Gates (The Caldwell Witches, #1) - The Caldwell Witches

Clandestine (Night Falls, #1) - Night Falls Series

Lumen (Blood Luminary, #1) - Blood Luminary Series


Sometimes I act like I know what I'm talking about....sometimes I do, sometimes I don't....and sometimes I just have an opinion that might be help.



-Joseph




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