Writers in the Storm

Donna Galanti

When it comes to creating your author persona, some refer to this as your “author brand.” Understand that you aren’t branding your book – you’re branding YOU. Simply put, your author brand is about connecting with your readers on a person-to-person level.

Everyone’s persona (or brand) is unique (just like you) and it’s your own personal story that you choose to convey that will draw your readers to you. As Dr. Seuss said, “There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” After all, it’s so much easier to be you than someone else!

4 Ways to Figure Out Your Author Persona
Ask yourself these questions to create your unique story and message that will create a strong emotional connection with your target readers and, in turn, increase their loyalty and trust.

1. Do soul searching. Ask yourself … Who Am I? What do I have to say? What matters to me? Why do I write what I do? Where am I going? Look to … your passions and purpose for this. You are a storyteller and want to create an appealing author story (the story behind the story). We need stories to make sense of the world around us and to feel a sense of belonging. This is why people read! ?
2. What are your unique strengths and qualities – and what are your flaws? Base this on … where your confidence shines (for me: sharing what I learn to inspire others), what is important to you (for me: self-improvement), most passionate about (for me: my son), and fumble with (for me: patience).
3. Who is your target readership? Base this on … Your book’s genre and the age range of your readers. For example, I write fantasy for middle grade (8- to 12-year-olds).
4. What keywords and phrases do you want people to associate with you? Base this on … your standout traits.

Go-Deeper Exercises:

• Conduct a survey of family and friends: Ask them to describe you in 3-5 words. What are the positive things about you that draw them to you? What are your quirks? Circle what resonates with you.
• Look to your long-term goals: Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years as an author? Having written more books in the same genre, conducting school visits, doing book clubs, etc.
• Set boundaries: List all the things that make you uncomfortable about the life of an author. What are you willing to do – and not willing to do?
• What authors do you admire?: Why are you drawn to them? Why are others? What traits do they possess? Can you draw similar connections toward yourself?

From all this research and soul-searching, create your public persona that is an extension of your writing and who you are. Your persona will then be the words and images that people associate with you.

After gathering your research, write a one-page story from the heart about yourself. Read it aloud. Share it with your family, friends, and writing peers. Does it feel natural to you – to them? Are you passionate about what you’re saying?

Polish your genuine story. Once you’re comfortable with it, share it. This is “who you are”! Now you can start building a community of writers and readers by sharing your persona online and in person.

Rookie Mistakes:

• Using multiple headshots across social media platforms. Make sure people can recognize you.
• Thinking you should create different personas for different audiences if you write across genres or age-ranges. Find themes that cross over to all the stories you write and create one persona.
• Posting on social media or blogging outside the scope of “who you are”. For example, if your persona is to share travel stories and books you love, then you won’t suddenly be talking about parenting tips as your growing audience won’t expect this from you. Be genuine and consistent.

Go the Extra Mile!
Find similar authors. Connect, follow, and engage with them. Do some friendly stalking and see where they hang out. Discover how they brand themselves, connect with readers, and promote their books. Some of their personas may resonate with you that you can model yours on.

Your author persona is a promise to your audience. Promise them your unique self, consistently deliver on it, and they will come to expect it.  Now use your creativity and imagination (just like your writing!) to create that author persona that best fits you.

Are you struggling with your author persona? What techniques have you tried to create one? Have you found what works for you in branding yourself as an author? If so, share your success with this!

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About Donna: Donna Galanti is the author of the bestselling paranormal suspense Element Trilogy and the children’s fantasy adventure Joshua and The Lightning Road series. Donna is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and blogs with other middle grade authors at Project Middle Grade Mayhem. She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. Donna enjoys teaching at writing conferences and presenting as a guest author at elementary and middle schools. Visit her at www.elementtrilogy.com and www.donnagalanti.com. She also loves building writer community. See how at www.yourawesomeauthorlife.com

Connect with Donna:
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/DonnaGalanti
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DonnaGalantiAuthor/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5767306.Donna_Galanti

Debbie Herbert

There’s always plenty of debate (sometimes heated) about whether to indie or traditionally publish. Growing numbers of authors are going hybrid, which is using both platforms to build their readership. When originally broached on writing about this subject I was a bit hesitant. So many authors are firmly entrenched in one of the two camps. What I’ve written here is only MY experiences and opinions. You are perfectly welcome to feel differently. Of course!

I’m going to admit straight up that my Indie sales are nowhere near bestsellers (at this time anyway . . . hope springs eternal). I have four paranormal romance indies that have earned me about $10,000 since I first began publishing them in April 2013. And half of that total came as a result of multi-author box set profits—back in the day when these sets were newer and more profitable. By contrast, I’ve earned far more on my traditional books published by both Harlequin Intrigue and Harlequin Nocturne.

Earnings aside, publishing these indie books has been fun. And the even bigger benefit is that independently publishing has provided me with a crash course education on the book publishing industry. I started out traditionally publishing and had only the barest notion on book categories, keywords and marketing. I have a long way to go, but I’m learning.

I do have writer friends earning an annual six-figure income from their indie books and I am in awe of them. I’ve been able to closely observe the secret of their success which has entailed a thorough study of their targeted sub-genre and then prolifically writing and publishing books using identified tropes that meet reader expectations. It goes without saying, they are also very gifted writers.

In spite of all that, my own preference is traditionally publishing. So far, it’s where I’ve gained the most readers. I still have to market these books, but not nearly as much as I must to try to gain visibility for my indie books. I like having an agent and editors and artists work on the technical end of publishing which frees up more of my time to do what I truly love—putting words on paper.

There’s a growing acceptance with editors and agents for indie publishing as they see how indie sales boost reader interest in traditionally published books. Writing indie books has never been an issue with my agent.

Below, I’ve outlined some of the advantages of each type of publishing.

Traditional Benefits:

• Validation. Maybe it’s only me, but contracts from traditional publishers means that the “experts” think my writing is “good enough.” For someone with my insecurity, this is huge!
• Distribution. I love that my mass market paperbacks are readily available in bookstores and places like Walmart and in global markets. I realize successful (VERY successful) Indie authors are increasingly able to distribute their print books to brick and mortar stores. But I’m certainly not there yet.
• Built-in audience. In the case of my publisher (Harlequin/HarperCollins) they have their own, very popular in-house Book Club where readers can earn rewards for book purchases.
• A team of professionals, with no upfront cost to me, that handle all aspects of publishing to include editing, book covers, proofreading, etc.
• Deadlines. For me, there’s just something about a firm deadline, established by an outside company, that motivates me to churn out the words in a timely manner.

Indie Benefits:

• A monthly paycheck from indie books to supplement traditional publisher advances.
• Artistic freedom in content and word count. If I want to write a mermaid/space alien/ erotica book, that’s cool. I might not find many readers, but that’s another story . . .
• Testing a new genre. It’s possible to write another genre you’ve been dying to get a toehold in to test the market waters. You can use your current pen name to see if readers follow you into a new genre, or create a new pen name and start over.
• Flexibility. Set your own deadlines and jump on hot trends to quickly produce a book or novella. Reverse harem, anyone?
• Collaboration with other authors. It’s so much fun to work with other authors and form box sets or anthologies or co-author.
• Higher profits per each book sold.

Hybrid publishing will give you the best of both worlds AND provide a means to keep your name in front of readers as you indie-publish to fill out releases around the often-slow schedule of traditional publishers.

Are you a hybrid author? Are you drawn more to one publishing platform than the other? I’d love to hear your comments!

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In the true spirit of hybrid publishing, Debbie had TWO book releases this week, both an Indie book and a traditional book. She also had to turn in a new book on Wednesday of same work. Yeah, crazy week!

Indie book: The Lost Dragon

When a dragon shifter's daughter goes missing, he must seek help from the last woman on earth he wants to see again, the witch who spurned him years ago.

Drake Evers, a widower who lives in a remote mountain mansion, is content with life. He spends all his time on various business ventures, acquiring a massive fortune. But once he unexpectedly gains custody of twin sixteen-year-old daughters, his well-ordered world crumbles. When one of the twins goes missing, he'll risk anything to find her—even if it means turning to the witch who spurned him years ago.

Traditional book: Appalachian Abduction

A small-town cop must protect
a beautiful rogue undercover detective.

Trespassing, fleeing a peace officer…hell, she’d aimed a gun at his chest! Officer James Tedder can’t help but admire her fight. And undercover detective Charlotte Helms will never quit. She’s on a personal mission: rescue her best friend’s daughter…and bust the child-trafficking ring that lured her away. When they’re forced to become partners, James must trust Charlotte to have his back. But can he trust her with his heart?

Bio:

Debbie Herbert, A USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly best-selling author and 2017 RITA finalist, writes paranormal romance novels and suspense books, reflecting her belief that love, like magic, casts its own spell of enchantment. She is traditionally published through Harlequin, as well as Indie published. Married and living in Alabama, she roots for the Crimson Tide football team (Roll Tide!). Debbie enjoys recumbent bicycling and jet skiing with her husband. She has two grown sons and the oldest has autism. Characters with autism frequently land in her works, even when she doesn't plan on it! 

Lisa Hall-Wilson

One aspect of writing in Deep POV that’s often overlooked or downplayed is the importance of filtering setting and description through your point of view character (POVC). Remember, in Deep POV you want to avoid drawing conclusions for readers. Don’t tell readers what to think, give them your POVCs raw data and let readers come to their own verdict about how the POVC feels, what they’re observing, and the world they live in. This puts the reader IN the story and keeps them out of the theater seats.

To that end, filtering the story setting and description through your POVC is critical. Here are five tips to writing setting and description in Deep POV that will take your writing to the next level:

Observe Don’t Report

When you imagine your setting, avoid the temptation to have your POVC label what they see. It’s a rectangular room with a bay window and upscale furniture in artful arrangement. A Persian rug I’m afraid to walk on covers the floor. Sure, there’s no POV violation here, but the reader’s learned little about the setting or the POVCs feelings about it.

Instead, let your POVC share their impression of the room in a way that reveals character. I stepped where Caroline stepped and gathered close all the loose bits and flaps of my clothing. If ‘you break it you bought it’ applies here, I’ll be broke before we get to the dining room.

Avoid The Obvious Or Assumed

Avoid having your POVC notice the obvious. Everyone knows the sky is blue and clouds are white. Don’t tell me the woman your POVC just met has a mouth, two eyes, a nose or two ears – what’s unusual? And how does what she notice give the reader insight into her and this new character?

“Ender looked at Peter only to detect anger or boredom, the dangerous moods that almost always led to pain.” Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.

BOOM! This description not only tells us about the boy being observed, but the character doing the observing.

“Felora leaned against a corner post with her back to the street, cleaning her fingernails with a small blade. He repressed a smile. Even as a child, she’d hated getting her hands dirty but never had enough sense to stay out of the mud.” From my novel The Last Seers.

In this example, I’ve aimed to give readers insight not only into Felora’s character but filtered through POVC readers also have an idea of priorities and perceived inconsistencies.

How Does The Setting Feel?

Your setting should either heighten, change, or reflect back how your character is feeling in Deep POV. This is where some art comes into play using literary devices like personification, pathetic fallacy, metaphors, similies, and others.

Let how your POVC feels show the reader what they’re seeing. One of the absolute best examples of this is from the opening paragraphs of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. “Sitting at Prim’s knees, guarding her, is the world’s ugliest cat. Mashed-in nose, half of one ear missing, eyes the color of rotting squash. Prim named him Buttercup, insisting his muddy yellow coat matched the bright flower. He hated me.”

Katniss shows us what the cat looks like by sharing how she feels about it. Not only do we get a picture of the cat, but we also get an idea both of how she and her sister choose to see the world.

Sometimes even the setting becomes a character. Consider a work like Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Scotland is almost a separate character in the first two novels in the perspective of the highlanders: “…but make no mistake, lass, I love Scotland more, and I would give everything … everything I have or ever will have, including my life, to see a Stuart back on the throne.”

Interact With Setting

In Deep POV, it’s best to have your character interact with the setting instead of cataloguing what’s around them. Remember, present evidence not conclusions. If there’s a smell outside the window, have them open the window instead of reporting the smell. If there’s a coffee table in the room, have them knock their shin on it instead of reporting the material it’s made of.

A Few Well-Chosen Details

Readers do most of the work with description and prefer to be put to work. Readers want to engage, to crawl into the story, and if you describe a setting down to the last cobweb, you’ve left the reader nothing to imagine for themselves. If I tell you my POVC has invited a guest upstairs, is wearing lingerie, and then shuts the bedroom door – do you need me to describe the bed, say whether there’s a window or if the floor is hardwood or carpeted to create a mental image of the room?

Remember, the more time you spend describing an item or piece of the setting, the more importance the reader assumes it has. "The gun on the mantle in act one must go off by act three" is the old adage. Is that item important to the story or is there a reason for the POVC to notice it?

Make sure you check out my free 5 day e-course Writing Emotions In Layers designed to help you write emotions better in Deep POV.

What do you struggle with in writing in Deep POV? Conversely, what part of writing 'point of view' do you do well?

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About Lisa

Lisa Hall-Wilson was a national award-winning freelance journalist who loves mentoring writers. Fascinated by monsters in the dark and the supernatural, she blends those elements into her historical and fantasy  stories, as well as her passion for history, fantasy, romance, and faith.

Find Lisa's blog for intermediate writers at www.lisahallwilson.com.