So glad to be having this discussion *now*, before I’ve published any books under any particular name. Gives me plenty of time to plan it all out and save my “real name” for the genre I want most easily associated with me and my usual circle of friends/family.

Thanks again!

I can write fantasy or science fiction or mystery or literary or romance and there will always be a distinctive I WROTE THIS. People will know certain things to expect about the characters, the worldbuilding, the sentence structure, ect. I’m not saying this to brag, this is pretty much true for any writer past the beginning stage.

Take Neil Gaiman for an example. He writes mostly fantasy/horror stuff, but he could really write in any genre and I wouldn’t be that surprised. Because I would know it’s not an example of him changing his brand - he’s just taking his brand and using a different paint color. Okay, mixing metaphors, but hopefully you get what I’m saying. No matter what he writes, I will be reading Neil Gaiman and that will satisfy me.

Well, I can imagine the protest that of course Neil Gaiman can, he’s freaking Neil Gaiman and all. And I agree.

But shouldn’t that be the goal? I feel like Neil Gaiman branded his voice, his distinctive storytelling style, and maybe that’s what everyone should aim for, instead of being super-specific like, “I write Westerns with strong female leads who are half cats”.

I’m a big J.J. Abrams fan. I was hooked on LOST all the way through. I really enjoyed Alias, and I’m currently hooked on Fringe. His upcoming show, Alcatraz, has similar tropes to these 3 shows. I expect his new show to be like his past shows.

But J.J. Abrams also has Felicity and Undercovers on his list of works. These 2 shows are very different from the ones I listed before. I saw his name attached to these two shows and I gave them a shot but I didn’t like them. I was disappointed.

In a way, my view of Abrams has shifted, even if only subconsciously. Now when I hear that he has a new show or movie coming out, I don’t immediately think, “I’m going to watch it!” I have to second guess myself because of Felicity and Undercovers. What if he pulls another one of those?

All in all, I stand in the camp that believes a new pseudonym should be used for every new genre you want to write in. That could be troublesome if you want to write in many genres, though. Perhaps you could brand yourself as someone who has no “home genre”?

My favorite romance book is a Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereuax. It is about a knight who time travels to present day England and of course falls in love with a girl. When he returns to his century, the girl is desperate to time travel back to him. It is funny, romantic, and a venture into sci-fi by the author, but still in keeping with her branding of romance. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an Amish romance from her soon, since that is so popular. But since the underlying theme is romance where she has branded herself, dabbling in sci-fi didn’t confuse me or put me out. I would think the same of James Scott Bell. I love his legal prose, and based on your review above, will order his zombie legal thriller. It’s still James Scott Bell writing a lawyer story. Love those!

So my point is, or my question, since the main genre for Jude is romance and for Jim Bell is a legal thriller, were they really deviating from their brand?

I understand the concept of branding for an established author such as JSB. But as an unpublished author seekign publication of book-length works, I’m writing in several areas because I don’t know where I’ll breakthrough first. I’ve got an historical/political book e-self-published. I’ve completed an historical novel, Bible era. I’m working on a contemporary sports thriller. I’ve completed a poetry book I may eSP. My next work will either be another non-fiction as a follow-up to my eSP one, or a mainstream spy novel based in Red China in 1983 (based on a trip I made there that year).

I don’t know which of these, if any, will be my breakout work, so I see no way to work on branding pre-publication. I just need to break in. Of course, once I do break in with something, I’ll have five or six other completed works that could be published right away. Would I just shelve them?

So what’s a pre-published author to do about branding? Anything?

Honestly, I think while there should be consideration given to these topics, an unpublished writer’s time is best spent trying to improve her craft.

I have gone both ways on this one. I have used my own birth name for several genres and I have chosen to use pen names for specific projects where I didn’t want to confuse my branding.

Sometimes confusing your branding can be useful though. For instance, I was able to pull 10,000+ followers from one genre into another by deliberately using the same pen name and talking about it to both groups of followers.

My fans were willing to read the new genre which normally wouldn’t interest them because I interested them.

It’s a strategic marketing decision, not a moral one. It all depends on your goal.

I graduated from Business Marketing and “branding” regardless of the product was one of the most important facets of success for many product lines.

One of the other posts made an excellent point, in my opinion, that having one brand that can be used to distance you from your work in the eyes of friends and family for privacy reasons is an excellent idea. For example, I am writing a novel that is sexually graphic and I don’t want colleagues at work to know I wrote it due to the content so I will use a pen name when I publish it. However, if my next book is more conventional I would want the world to know I wrote it and would use my birth name. So, it truly depends on your goal and needs at the end of the day as to how you will approach this sensitive sales exercise.