Guest Review: Is Your Brand Interfering with Your Writing?
Jeffe Kennedy (Lovely LERA lady in large hat) is one of my LERA sisters, an excellent writer, and a pretty savvy business woman.
She’s also a way better blogger!
Her recent post gut-punched me, necessitating a re-read. The denouement revealed part of a stealth software program that has– surprisingly– been running in the background of my Curious-Mind. When I digested the gist of her idea, I understood a nebulous quandary that’s been an irritating itch for me.
Horns of a dilemma, one might say.
Please take a few minutes to check the excerpt and then go read the whole piece. I’d really be interested in any thoughts you have about this subject or if anyone else has experienced this phenomenon.
Without further ado, Ms Kennedy…
“…At any rate, I can see what she’s going for – a very clear style – even if it doesn’t do much for me. I do wonder, however, if she’s sacrificing a heartfelt artistic effort for the sake of this style. This brand.
We writers hear about brand all the time these days. We’re in a peculiar position in that we, ourselves, are our brand. Just as we glommed onto authors, reading everything from an author on the library shelf, readers follow US, not necessarily our publishers or our genres. What we write arises out of us, but we our the physical embodiment of it because, even with print books, story remains intangible. It can be kind of a funky thing – especially when being sane about the business requires separating ourselves from our work.
I’m very careful to say “this work was rejected” or “this book got a good review,” not “I was rejected” or “I got a good review.”
But, for the purposes of branding, well meaning and helpful marketing types are forever reminding me that *I* am my brand. My brand is me. I’m pretty much just a walking, talking advertisement for All Things Jeffe. I’m picturing something like that old movie poster for the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
See how creepy this gets?
It struck me the other day, because I saw a youngish writer tweeting about writing tips. She said something along the lines of that, when she gets stuck writing, she thinks of her brand and what her readers would expect from her. I can see how this is smart marketing, but it bothered me. It took me a few days to pin down why.
This is the tail wagging the dog, right?…” continued at: http://www.jeffekennedy.com/is-your-brand-interfering-with-your-writing/
Next time…The Contest/Giveaway Returns …with PRIZES!!
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Interesting post. I think brand writers are like cheeseburgers from McDonalds - they're the same everytime. For some writers and readers that's perfectly fine fare and branding really works for them. Its a very obvi ious and consistent style. Every writer has a style, ie Gaiman's tendency to the magical/mythological, and that is what we should be branding, the overarching themes and styles of our work. My brand would be deeply healing introspection - it runs through all my work from the first non-fiction book thru the mysteries and continuing in "River Within". Really branding has been around forever, it just has a new name.
Thanks for this perspective. It adds another layer to the idea and the concept. I like the idea of using it for the writing instead of for "myself" as product.
