Sunday, July 31, 2011

How do you create a brand when your favorite color is rainbow?


Since I've decided to e-publish my own work, I've been reading many books on successful self-publishing, like Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author, and marketing, like ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income and Author 101: Bestselling Secrets from Top Agents. Nowadays it's all about platforms and branding, which are basically nice, tidy little boxes readers can put writers in, so they know what to expect when they buy one of that writer's books or check out her blog.

That's all very well and good for someone who just writes picture books, romantic ghost stories for teens, illustrated books for middle graders, epic fantasy for girls, or funny, geeky ironic-vampire Science-Fiction novels. But what do you do if you write all of that and more?

Ask me what my favorite color is, and I'll tell you it's rainbow. It's not that I'm indecisive and can't choose a favorite color. I honestly like a variety of colors at the same time. Blue is nice. Red is nice. Pink is nice. Yellow is nice. Green is nice. Purple is nice. But I wouldn't buy a painting that was all one color, and I wouldn't want to paint something that was all one color. That's a wall, not a work of art.

So how does a writer create a brand when her favorite color is rainbow? How can I help you stick me in a nice, tidy box so you can know what to expect when you visit my blog or buy one of my books? I've been puzzling over this question for the last few weeks, and it wasn't until this morning that I came up with the answer: the rainbow is my brand.

And in that rainbow you'll find a variety of colors like none you've ever seen before. Colors to entertain and inspire. Colors to make you laugh, think, dream, fall in love, and embrace your inner magic or your inner geek.

 Welcome to my new blog. Welcome to the wonderful rainbow made up of my many mixed-up worlds.

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