If You Want to Brand Yourself as an Accomplished Author,
Don’t Be Hiding Behind the Bushes
Branding . . . It’s all about name recognition, getting your name out there and having it recognized. And since I have a bit of a different take on this topic, first let me share a couple of words that hold special meaning for me:
If I’m not for myself, who will be for me. If I’m only for myself, what am I?
If not now, when?
by Hillel
Somehow these words must have become indelibly etched in my mind, because now that I think of it, I realize this is the approach I have found most useful in many of my paths forward. And sometimes, as I invest time to help brand other authors, I find it a way forward in branding myself.
As you might have guessed, I often make it part of my life’s work to help other talented authors get the name recognition I feel they deserve. To that end, in 2012 I started Tales2Inspire®, an ‘Authors Helping Authors' project/contest, as a way to recognize authors who submitted the most inspiring stories to match the selected theme for that particular year. Although I never charge authors to enter this contest, to my surprise I have discovered that the more I lend others a helping hand, the more I continue to help brand myself. And I get the thrill each year of giving birth to a new book, counting ten babies and going strong!
And now, as the Book Review Acquisition Editor for Carolyn Howard-Johnson's famed TheNewBookReview blog, I continue to reach out to fellow authors by posting your review requests and providing helpful hints through follow-up e-mail messages along the way.
We all know how important it is to get Amazon posted reviews, as they are directly linked to book sales. But did you know that you can make writing reviews for another author’s book work for the marketing of your own book as well?
On page 245 of Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s, How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally (HTTPS://BIT.LY/GREATBKREVIEWS, she reminds us that we can increase our own visibility by including a byline and credit or tag line as part of our reviews.
Lesson learned: I have taken full advantage of her advice by ending each of my Amazon reviews with the words: Lois W. Stern, Creator of Tales2Inspire®.
Amazon is getting really picky about placing author reviews, one of the reasons I rarely write a review for a book authored by any of my Tales2Inspire® winning winners (* See footnote below.) But recently I made an exception for one of my Tales2Inspire multi-winning winners. When Amazon declined my initial review, I was puzzled, rewrote it a bit and tried a second time. Again it was declined. Third time round I tried a different tack, adding the following sentence to the beginning of the exact same review:
As a disclaimer, I thought readers should know of my prior relationship with this author, who entered my annual Tales2Inspire® contest in three different years, each time submitting a winning story that I later published in one of my Tales2Inspire® anthologies. But that is the extent of our relationship . . .
Bingo! They immediately posted that review!
Lesson learned: Find a way to personalize your review with credentials that bring your writing to the forefront.
Are you a poet? If so, you might write something like: As an author of five published poetry books, language flow is of utmost importance to me, and this book delivered that in spades. Are you a physical therapist? If so, try writing a review for a self-help book that delivers a message akin to your personal dedication to your clients. Be creative and try to bring the genre of your published book(s) into the body of the review.
And by the way, writing reviews takes similar but slightly different skills than writing a book of any genre, so believe it or not, writing reviews actually helps you develop another dimension of your writing. And the more you review books written by others, the easier it becomes, and your skills continue to flourish.
Reviews are directly linked to book sales.
Two things I know for sure: How important it is to get Amazon posted reviews and how hard it is to get them! So I am asking you each to join in that effort.
Here are a a couple of things you can ask of the author to make your job easier.
* On a time crunch? Aren’t we all! Suggest that the author give you a specific portion of their book, maybe 50 pages or so, to get its flavor. Honest, you don’t have to read the entire book to get a good feel for it.
* Ask the author to send you some meaningful discussion questions to help target several key points in their book.(I have made it super easy for my readers by posting BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION QUESTIONS at the end of each Tales2Inspire book.)
* In addition to sending you the actual bound copy or e-book, ask the author to send you any publicity material they might have on hand. After all, no one knows their book better than its author.
So what do you say? Please come out from behind the bushes and start branding yourself as an accomplished author while writing a review for a fellow author. You never know what networking opportunities lurk behind those connections.
I know from which I speak, as I am a perfect example of a networking opportunity born from a review - the one I wrote for Carolyn Howard-Johnson's Frugal Book Reviews when we were virtual strangers.
Lois W. Stern
* Note: For ethical reasons, I make it a rule to never write reviews for those of you who submit books with review requests to TheNewBookReview blog, so please don't ask.
