Part Tree - Branding, and the Writer's Life
DLL. You’ve seen Part One and Part Two. In Part Three we will dive into the endless decisions indie writers must tackle in the branding arena. We’ll also sidestep into a discussion about fun collaborations.
I asked you recently about your insights on branding. We discussed what types of website platforms work best, whether to have a book sales platform separate from our author platform, and how it links up with our newsletter subscribers. We also talked about publishers’ marks and logos. Now that I can look back over four years of writing and creating my own marketing content, I wish I had given branding more consideration from the start for a consistent image. Still, I admit it has been a fascinating and fun journey creating all the content and seeing how it has advanced and improved to where I am now.
Nicolas, what are your goals for branding, Nicolas? What aspects of creating an author presence excite you most? What if any step seems like a necessary chore? Any favourite resources
NL. I have barely started thinking about these presentation aspects of my indie business. I want to follow in your path eventually, but I admit I know nothing about logos and press marks, and creating an edition / publication company. I haven’t really given it any thought. I only know I should buy an ISBN number upon publishing a book, and grow my platform over time. I look forward to learning all about these details!
I’ve been thinking of domain names, though. For my website, I bought nicolaslemieux.com years ago, but I didn’t think of getting also the English version of my first name, with an “h”. Result: nicholaslemieux.com with an “h” is already taken. It’s a store with nothing in it (I saw a t-shirt at some point). It brags about being the “least profitable store on the Internet”. I offered them some money one time through my domain name registrar, but never got an answer. It might become available again - who knows? So this was why I bought my .xyz extensions, both with the “h” and without. Just try out and see: nicolaslemieux.xyz and nicholaslemieux.xyz.
I’m thinking of going more and more with book titles for my domain names, like sevendrifts.com and septaladerive.com, but I think I still want a website attached to my name. What do you think is best? One or the other? Or both? I could also get nicolaslemieuxauthor and nicholaslemieuxauthor, or something similar, but so far I haven’t fallen in love with another domain name. I’m not thinking of managing more than one website for the time being. I just redirect all my domain names, either to my only website or to my MailerLite landing page, as I do with the .xyz ones.
I may know next to nothing about branding, but I keep notes. The Creative Penn Podcast is a tremendous source of advice on the more technical aspects of writer marketing, so I guess I would rely on it when I get to that point. I know I’ll be able to rely on you as well, Darci, to answer some of the questions I will have. But with the limited time I have, I need to take those things one at a time.
Until I come closer to publishing, and I’m not there yet, I suspect I’ll want to play a bit with some ideas and questions before I can come up with anything like a brand.
Yes, I think branding may also be about presence, taking place in the world, being utterly and unapologetically ourselves, and finding our voices, not only as writers but also as marketers – maybe it’s the same. This comes with more questions. What do I give the hugest fuck about? What makes me mad, frustrated, sad, terrified? What is something I cannot bear to not act upon over the course of my life, or speak up about before I die? I want to find the most crucial questions and formulate them in a way that burns and drills down the murky depths of my soul. Everything will get more lively and interesting that way.
Darci, I love that you’re finding new avenues to share your work and grow your audience. I definitely believe the email list is a great move. You’ll own it forever, it is yours and yours only. The challenge is now to grow it. But time is on your side.
I followed Tim Grahl’s advice when I started building my writer platform and went for an email list from the get-go since he says it’s the most important part of it.
My first approach was to simply invite a lot of people to join my list, with just a simple DM, something short, nice, and respectful like “Hi, I’m sending out an email newsletter about my novel project. Would you mind if I added you to my list? Just tell me the best email for you.” I was thrilled at how positive the response was. About two out of twenty people I wrote to without any targeting joined my list. One out of two when I reached out for other writers. That’s 50%! I couldn’t believe it. And most people were so nice, and many gave me positive feedback on my free story Cradle. So I did this gradually, without spamming, without angering anyone, sending maybe ten or twenty messages per session, a little bit every day plus follow-ups – and there were many. Over 2021 and 2022, I built my list up to well over 2000 subscribers. I’ve kept it there since then.
Some would say my approach was flawed, not targeting the right audience. I say nah. I’m glad I reached out to so many fellow writers.
It was hard work, but oh my, was this rewarding! What it gave me, it’s priceless. It led me to connect with many new friends and acquaintances all over the planet. And now that we’re in touch, we can build upon those long-lasting relationships. Support each other. A good number of writers invited me to do interviews with them. This is how we met, Darci! So, yes, it was more than worth it.
But after a while, believe me, it can get old to keep sending the same kind of message over and over, no matter how rewarding it is. So my invitations trickled to a stop over time, probably sometime during 2022. But that’s okay. I have plenty on my hands already. It’s a good start, let’s say, and now I hope to grow my list all more organically.
How? I’m looking forward to creating my own podcast. It’s been a dream of mine for a while now. Podcasting… Will I really do it? When? Am I crapping my pants? Gotta think of finishing that book first…
I love collaborations!
Once I publish Seven Drifts, I’ll want to my collaborative projects up a couple of notches. I’ll want to do more of what we’re doing now. Or maybe, in a podcast version, audio or video or both, we’ll see. I love author interviews. I always derive so much from them. Again, it’s a matter of balance – I gotta write that book!
RomanceBookLovers.com – I like the concept. It sounds great. I’m intrigued. I’ll want to know more about it. Do they have the equivalent for science fiction? They probably do; I’ll want to spend some time researching that. Unless our awesome readers can help?
DLL. Thank you for breaking down your fantastic email list outreach. I love it! It seems pretty organic to me, which is awesome. I will definitely check out the Creative Penn Podcast and get back to Tim Grahl. You’ve talked about him before and he got lost in the shuffle. I predict when we come back next year for another chat, you’ll be on the finished side of publishing!
And aren’t those numbers mind-boggling? The first one back in February had me in a daze. The numbers kept going up by the hundreds every time I looked (which was often and I’m not ashamed to admit it 😁). The whole day seemed like a dream.
I discounted my Priss Starwillow short story collection to $.99 during the last one in July and got my first sales for that one too, 56 total! It made it to #4 on Amazon Best Sellers for Short Story Collections. I do believe there are similar blasts for sci-fi and fantasy without the romance component. But romance does seem to really take off with these kinds of collaborations. It’s those HEAs!
Something you are probably getting from me throughout this discussion is that other than the amazing help from my niece (recent editing and designing), readers, and fellow writers like you Nicolas, I have carried out every aspect of being an author on my own. I would love to hire services like editors, designers, audiobook narrators, etc., but I have no funds. I do have lots of determination to learn and for the most part it has all been a blast even if a ton of work I never anticipated engaging in post retirement. 😁
Here are my goals and progress in the branding arena:
Purchase a bundle of ISBNs for my upcoming paperback books so that I have more control over where to sell them, including developing a sales page on my website for signed copies (big goal – barely scratched the surface). I should say here though that I have had very nice experiences for the most part (a few little hiccups on occasion) with using the free ISBNs provided by Amazon and Draft2Digital. The print quality is excellent and the platforms are easy to use. It’s just that I end up with two versions of paperbacks out there with two ISBNs. It hasn’t killed me yet.
Create a publisher’s mark and name. I’m getting close and it will be added to my next paperback cover.
Decide whether to register the mark. (Decide whether to formally copyright my books for that matter… on my list but haven’t prioritized it yet.)
Learn to make wrap around cover in conjunction with displaying publisher’s mark. ✅ I’ve created my first wrap around with the help of another early connection and great friend, Lucky Noma. He referred me to a free resource, Bookow.com that provides a template service.
I considered designing a new logo recently but am sticking with the nice simple one I purchased for $30 using Fiverr’s logo design tool and have used since the beginning. The logo background color which is a deep purple is the brand color I incorporate into my newsletter, website, and other marketing graphics. I also try to stick with the same font. That is the extent of my branding so far. Any designs I create, I make sure to incorporate themes from my very first main female character and book, Selena Aires in Ursus Borealis. Her name means moon and she’s linked to the alpha of the North Star Pack. Moon and stars. I also created a logo on Canva specifically for The Starlight Chronicles covers.
NL. Speaking of collaborations… How did you come up with the delightful, very fluid format for your interviews? Did you have a lot of previous experience? The way you make them flow from one question to the next like a natural conversation, how you comment and answer each and every part of your interlocutor’s interventions; you transcend the Q&A format into a real conversation. I admit I am awed each time I read your Sunday Spotlight, and I marvel at the amount of work they must give you; but they are so masterfully done that I’d be sure not to be wrong if I say you’re having a blast doing them! Can you tell me a bit about how you started doing these great interviews?
DLL. Again, thank you so much for your comments and for appreciating what goes into creating my content! Q&As are fun AND a lot of work. I had to really think about how I went about this journey. For sure I did it in my typical pantser way like everything else. But I suppose I can point to my years of business correspondence for my style. When you want to communicate accurately and efficiently with a person who has no face but is important to getting the work done, you develop a writing style that is professional but also friendly and appealing, conversational.
I’ve always been thoughtful in my correspondence so that my message comes across cleanly and concisely and gets the results I need. That’s not to say I haven’t blundered or gotten wires crossed. Sometimes, I’m too hasty and that can lead to problems. It’s a delicate dance. The most enjoyable part of my interview sessions is responding to the answers because my guests never fail to inspire and spark more conversation
Learning As You Go...
NL. Now here’s another question I had in mind, Darci. You started writing your novels back in 2021 – at a time when I was already toiling away at the same draft of mine, I just finished only this year! You published an entire trilogy since then, and many wonderful short stories along the way, along with creating and tending to a beautiful, flourishing online platform. Watching you has been a great source of inspiration to me to be sure. I wonder, have you been learning everything as you went, or did you have prior experience or background that helped you get started so fast and so efficiently in both writing and marketing? What does your routine look like, what’s a typical writing/marketing day for you?
DLL. Thank you for your lovely comments, Nicolas! It is satisfying to put in the work to provide interesting, aesthetic, and hopefully helpful content on my website. To have someone appreciate not only the results but what goes into it is something to treasure. And to inspire someone… that’s always my hope. Thank you!
As for getting things published quickly, I have found after interviewing a multitude of authors, that each of us finds our own unique pace for every one of our stories. No two writers are alike, nor are any two stories. There are so many reasons for this that it is hard to distill into a simple answer. It comes down to deciding to let our baby go and what goes into that decision. I could very well have published mine too soon. Maybe the series would be better if I held on longer and did more rewrites. You’ll probably understand why I published when I did after reading more of my answers.
Learning as I Went – Yes! That’s the shortest and best answer. I’m a pantser at every level of life. Even my 34-year marriage has been nothing but learning as I go. LOL. I tend to dive in head first and navigate eagerly through the fishes, no matter how stinky or how beautiful, and I like to think I stick things out to the end. I’m sure readers can see that reflected in my books. It means I often learn things the hard way and have to go back and make adjustments. But that hasn’t killed me yet…
Prior experience – I spent my career as an admin assistant and paralegal, which equals decades of business and legal writing and editing. That’s about as formal as my experience gets. And that’s okay because my age is my biggest benefit when it comes to experience. Some might find age to be a questionable bullet point on a resume. I’m a dedicated learner, and every decade has seen me embracing a new craft, which makes life more interesting and gives me the tools I need to tackle more new things, like the mechanics of writing and publishing. It also means I can draw on a long work history, life experiences, traveling adventures, and hundreds of books, movies, and documentaries.
Starting fast and efficiently – Freedom is the best word to explain how I dove right in and kept up with the indie author learning curve. My husband has supported my need to spend inordinate amounts of time on this pursuit. We are also both committed to living a financially simple lifestyle, and I was able to retire at 59 to write full-time. Freedom.
Typical routine – What’s that? LOL. Being a pantser plays havoc with routines. That said, after writing full-time for the last year and a half, I can happily say there is some structure to my days. Retirement in those first months looked a lot like letting a kid run amok in a candy shop. I was all over the place doing everything I wanted when I wanted… early morning, late night, and everything in between just because I could.
These days, I’m in my office at a normal time of the morning, not the same time mind you, just normal.
It depends on whether my husband is available for chats over the breakfast table. But at some point, I sit at my desktop computer, dogs in their beds, and divide the next eight hours between writing, researching, learning, and creating and implementing marketing content. (Mixing these up helps when I get stuck on a scene.)
However, if we want a cozy day in the living room where he watches classic movies, my office becomes my laptop and the couch, dogs in their beds, maybe a little knitting or cross-stitching.
NL. I don’t even know myself, whether I’m a pantser or a plotter! I guess I must be both because I’ve been doing them both profusely over the course of writing Seven Drifts. It seems like the more I plan, the more room there is for improvisation and brainstorming within the constraints of the plan, and the more I go by the seat of my pants, the more there is to plan and organize afterward.
DLL. And I can’t wait to read the results, Nicolas. Seven Drifts is going to be epic!
I hope our discussion has highlighted issues and considerations for those of you who are on this journey. Questions and comments are welcome! Part Four, Writing Contests, is next and will close out this month’s writer’s life conversation with Nicolas Lemieux.
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