I never really considered writing about my home country as an option, but I’m starting to. I’m writing a gothic novel right now, which has its story line about 99% done, and I think setting the sequel in Europe would work amazingly well.

The story of my novel is basically this: A young werewolf wants to avenge the murder of his true love.
Obviously there’s more to this than just that, there’s disasters he has to work through to actually do that, as well as a few sub-plots that interweave in there. The main genre is gothic, since it involves werewolves. But it’s not JUST about werewolves, in fact the number of scenes where you actually see something supernatural happening are rather limited, and I chose that deliberately. I want to give a seemingly real feel to these characters, wether they are just human or lycanthropes. The location is New Orleans, French Quarter, and most of the characters are of European French origin. This allows me to put a lot of my European culture in there.

I’ve been trying to think of some brands, but honestly… I have absolutely NO CLUE whatsoever.

Me sez: Drat. The only way I can fit an American character into my story is to make him the antagonist.

Okay, I could make the heroine an American. Oh man. Time for ANOTHER major rethink of my novel.

Hopefully I will be able to understand this branding thing better after Monday’s teleseminar. Or rather, Tuesday my time.

Me sez: Christophe, just how well do you know the French Quarter of New Orleans? Have you been there at all?

I ask because I don’t want you to make the same mistake I did with my first novel. I naively set my story in America thinking it would make it more acceptable to publishers and readers. Unfortunately it didn’t work. I had never been to America, my research of the area was minimal, and it showed in the story.

It’s best to write about an area you know well. If you really want to set a story in a place you don’t know well, or haven’t been too, then make sure your research is exceptional.

Seriously, I’m wondering if anyone here can help me with a related topic: a tagline for a specific novel.

TITLE: Undiscovered
TAGLINE: Dying to forget; living to forgive.

Can you tell from those two pieces of information what I write? Are you interested at all? Does this sound more sure of itself: “Die to forget; live to forgive?” If you don’t like it, want to share why?

Thanks, all.

Randy, thanks so much for this forum, and your help. I really appreciate this. I’m a newbie when it comes to this stuff!

I’ve now decided on a starting brand, dramedy romance, and since I haven’t completed any novels yet, I’m curious how to go about setting that up to ‘announce’ myself. I’m beginning to rebuild my website and would like to incorporate this in now instead of adding it later. I thought about posting some short stories I’ve written and perhaps a few little poetry pieces (I’m no poet and they aren’t very good). Would this be good or what would you suggest to start using my brand even though I have no published work to throw out there?

The statement about one publisher who won’t accept any international work is a bummer. It’s a big exciting world out there! I’d love to read the stuff by all the “foreigners” here.

If I branded, I might try to write about adventures that relate to missions, so I could always tie Americans in to it. I have trouble deciding exactly what my work is though. It has some suspense, but might not be suspenseful enough. It has some adventure, romance, (no sword fighting, giants, true love, though that might work for a story someday…). What do I call it?

Whew, this branding stuff is draining. I’m still working on the beginnings of my first snowflake, let alone trying to think about branding and marketing (I’m a newbie/freshman writer).

I wanted to go OT for just a second about the snowflake method - specifically a tool that can help y’all out if you’re interested. (this isn’t a sales pitch, I promise - the software is free) While listening to my recently purchased copy of the Snowflake lecture, my husband (who is a programmer) commented on the lecture and presentation that I was listening to. (Randy, he was impressed, and glad that I’m pursuing my interests through your guidance rather than someone like Strephon.)

My husband suggested a program for me to try while I’m working on my first snowflake called Treepad lite. It’s freeware, and super easy to download from download.com (cnet?). It’s basically an expanded version of notepad with a panel on the left that shows the tiers of your work. You can move it around and work with it easily, and it might better work with some of your organizational habits. Just a suggestion.

Randy, keep up the excellent site/blog! Thank you for helping us!

You posed these enlightening questions yesterday, which I immediately put on a spreadsheet and attacked like a homework assignment. (I wonder if these questions will be on the test - a.k.a. teleseminar?)

1. A brand should always start with a target audience. Who am I writing for?
2. What do I have for this target audience? What information do I have?
3. A brand also has a personal element to it. What kind of personality do I have?
4. A branding strategy should also explain WHY. Why do I want to write this?

After answering these questions, I took a hard look at my current novel. It doesn’t fit with my answers and now I have no idea why I’m writing a serious romance about sweet, squeaky clean, upstanding people.

My brand, if it to be MINE, might focus more on
twisted, witty but seriously insightful stories about recovery from dysfunction and hard knocks, heavy-metal and harleys and other such stuff.

Gives me much to think about! Perhaps you’ve saved me from making a mess of myself

My WIP is a book about a girl who discovers she’s half faerie. I hope to write a series on it. Book one is almost complete. Mostly I write teen fantasy fiction.

This is an easy way to understand the difference between marketing, branding, advertising, and so forth. It uses pictures, which works better for me than words.

Here’s the link:
http://adsoftheworld.com/blog/ivan/2007/apr/11/the_difference_between_marketing_pr_advertising_and_branding

Thanks for this site, Randy.

TITLE: Undiscovered
TAGLINE: Dying to forget; living to forgive.

Can you tell from those two pieces of information what I write? Are you interested at all? Does this sound more sure of itself: “Die to forget; live to forgive?” If you don’t like it, want to share why?

Christina, I can’t tell what genre you write just from the title and tagline. If I had to guess, I would say maybe suspense, or drama. The second tagline you suggested is more gripping, but I think it has a slightly different shade of meaning. “Dying to forget” could mean either that a character has to physically die to forget a painful event, *or* that the character desperately wants to blot this event from his/her memory. “Die to forget” sounds like the only way the character can forget this event is, literally, to die. The “living to forgive” makes it sound like the character either chooses or is forced to confront the painful event (and hopefully finds healing). Just my $0.02. Worded either way, the tagline does make me curious what your story is about!

I’m a published children’s author. I mostly write picture books. However, I’m working at breaking into YA fantasy, so I’m thinking about a brand for that. I agree with everyone … it’s not easy … but it’s a good mind exercise. I want to make sure I understand branding: a tagline is different for each book you write and your brand stays the same. Is that right?

I don’t know if this will help anyone, or maybe I’m out of the ballpark here, but, as you know, I was inspired to write a 21 book series with the California Missions as the historical background. I’m branding myself as the MISSION LADY. The tagline, …a lady with a Mission.

Though the books are in the historical fiction genre, the stories run the gamut: romance, humor, drama, mystery, thriller (It keeps me from getting bored). But the themes all show man’s stance versus the character of God.
In each plot I use uncomfortable twists that historical general market readers would find interesting, and make most Christians rather nervous (Remember lunch at Mt.H?). This is the style that will secure my brand.

Since I have a Bachelors from the Art Institute of Chicago, I will be doing all my own artwork for my website, and most likely the book designs. This is a double-wammy-plus for people to recognize/remember me.

I know the Christian Publishing houses will be uncomfortable with my manuscripts and so will the general markets because of the heavy Christian content. So, custom publishing will probably be my answer. Winepress actually OKed the first manuscript.

I’ll plug into the market by getting into the mission bookstores themselves, website links FOR THE PARENTS of CA 4th graders, Catholic dioceses, and several different catagories that each book’s theme will address, eg., the loss of children, rape centers, apologetics, etc.

If I finish all 21 books before dying (hey, quit snickering - think Dekker or LaHaye), I will be able to finish the Southern wips forming into white piles at my feet. I will use the same thematic sceme with those little Southern sweeties (bless their little ol hearts), thus, though the locale has changed, the brand of style is still there. Because I have several Southern characters in the Mission series, the flow to Tennessee stories will be smoother.

Grisham, Binchy, Dallas, they all do it the same, and they’re all on the shelves. The way I figure it, if you listen to the pros, you’ll get to where you need to be. And Randy, you are “very” pro. Thank you for sharing what you know. And, yes, I’m signing up for the teleseminar on Branding.

So, sir, am I on target? Or totally confused like everyone else?

Thanks

Since I am in the early stages of the novel, Randy, I will remember to include an American or two. Thanks for that.

By the way, would it matter if I wanted to also write magic realism short stories. I like short stories with a surreal twist but I doubt whether I would want to write a novel in that genre.

I really look forward to reading this blog so thanks to everyone for that.

Christophe, I would say you have a starting point for your brand with the werewolf/gothic theme. I guess Randy would say “Now what’s your unique angle?”

I have to confess your post totally made me think of a werewolf-crazed androgenous friend I actually have whom we affectionately refer to as”the cross-dressing werewolf”. Oh, now there’s a brand!

ML ~ Good for you for learning Dreamweaver! I’ve heard great stuff about it from my professional web-guy husband.

“Would anyone be interested in reading novels set in Western Australia which is where I live. The novel I am writing now is based on a true story, involves, twins, disability and relationships and I suppose would be classed as a drama. I have never left Western Australia but have lived in Perth and some country towns and my novel is set in those places.”

Yes, please. Hurry and get it out!

“What if you live somewhere boring? What if you’ve never been to an exotic place? What if your life is boring? Can someone write effectively about another culture or place just by researching it?”

I live in a community of about four thousand people in the middle of wheat fields in central Kansas. Can you get more boring than that?

But if you scratch the surface, we are on the old Santa Fe Trail route. (US Highway 56)

One local farmer has even been featured in National Geographic because his pasture retains the swales from the Santa Fe Trail ruts. (Ralph’s Ruts - now how exotic is that?)

We have a history component here that includes a “massacre” - although how much is massacre and how much is hype is still in question.

There was a cavalry battle and cemetery just a few miles outside of town.

There are petroglyphs and a serpent intaglio in the area.

There is a monument to Father Padilla, the first Christian martyr in the United States. He was with the Coronado Expedition.

Within easy driving distance is site of one of the first Catholic parishes between Kansas City and Denver.

We have ethnic groups from Scotland, Germany, Sweden and Poland, and communities which celebrate those heritages.

We have an artist community with a concentration of artisans and a college that has performed Handel’s Messiah Oratorio each Easter consecutively since 1896, and draws crowds from all over the world to that venue, because of the perfect acoustics of the Hall in which it is performed.

All of this is within a 60 mile radius of my house.

I guess my point is: If you’re going to do research, start with where you are. You already have a head start on the geography, and how things look and feel and smell. Something exotic can happen in the most mundane places.

Oh, and if you’re looking for a crime/suspense/drama element, sometimes the most heinous crimes happen in the most innocuous places. Check out Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.

“TITLE: Undiscovered
TAGLINE: Dying to forget; living to forgive.

“Can you tell from those two pieces of information what I write? Are you interested at all? Does this sound more sure of itself: “Die to forget; live to forgive?” If you don’t like it, want to share why?”

Christina, my guess is that you are writing about a spiritual problem. The character is consumed with grief and bitterness over a wrong done to her. She is “dying to forget,” i.e. desperately wants to forget, and also knows that the only way to forgive and forget is to “die to self” by giving up pride and resentment and yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and trust in him. She then is able to live the abundant life by forgiving as Jesus did. I like the first wording better (dying to forget; living to forgive) because it denotes an ongoing process.