Ashley Lister
I\u2019m going to put the word consistency in this first sentence as a piece of foreshadowing because, in talking about developing a brand voice, the key is to be consistent.<\/p>\r\n
For example: you\u2019ve written a witty erotic romance that shines a new light on the well-worn fabric of the heteronormative BMG (Boy Meets Girl) story. You\u2019re wanting to shout about it on social media because you believe everyone will get a thrill from this narrative. All sounds good so far.<\/p>\r\n
But, with author branding, you\u2019ve got to keep your brand voice consistent.<\/p>\r\n
Why should we care what others think of our brand voice? Is it worth being political? Is it worth supporting a cause? Should I stop swearing? Are you suggesting I should stop being me? It\u2019s easy to forget that, as writers, we are trying to sell ourselves on a daily basis. But writers do this all the time and we buy into this transactional mindset. I\u2019m looking forward to buying the latest Stephen King. Later this month I\u2019ll be sitting down to read one of my favourite Lisabet Sarai\u2019s. There\u2019s a new Mitzi Szereto just been released that looks like a lot of fun. I often buy books based on who the authors are and this has substantially come about through their personal brand voices. <\/p>\r\n I appreciate some authors are reading these words thinking, \u201cIf someone doesn\u2019t like my brand voice, they can fuck off and read someone else\u2019s books.\u201d This is a wholly appropriate response \u2013 and people with that attitude clearly have a forthright brand voice already. It won\u2019t be appealing to everyone but the air of independence and insouciance is attractive to many readers and, if it\u2019s working for you, keep it working.<\/p>\r\n For the rest of us, the chance to gain some favour with a larger audience doesn\u2019t usually come through telling readers to fuck off. It involves being on our best behaviour, as though mummy has just sent us to a children\u2019s party and we\u2019ve been told to play nicely with the other children. We remember our please and thank you and we only speak after considering those three pillars of communication: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? <\/p>\r\n Why should we care what others think? Because, if people think I\u2019m an arrogant piece of shit with a crappy attitude before they\u2019ve learnt that I\u2019m an author, they\u2019re unlikely to throw money at me to read my fiction. However, if your witty heteronormative BMG story contains no swearing, and is aimed at a readership who eschew taboo language, then I\u2019d say give it a miss. <\/p>\r\n Ricky Gervais once commented online that people who don\u2019t like the word c*nt, wouldn\u2019t hear it so much if they didn\u2019t keep acting like c*nts. This is a comment from a celebrity whose admirers understand that he swears and they take no offence at the taboo language. Similarly, those people who are offended by his use of the C-word are reminded to avoid Gervais and his particular brand of comedy. Ashley Lister I\u2019m going to put the word consistency in this first sentence as a piece of foreshadowing because, in talking about developing a brand voice, the key is to be consistent. For example: you\u2019ve written a witty erotic romance that shines a new light on the well-worn fabric of the heteronormative BMG (Boy Meets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2486],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16098"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16101,"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16098\/revisions\/16101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16098"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erotica-readers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=16098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I\u2019ll answer each of these questions below.
Why should we care what others think of our brand voice?<\/strong>
Whilst we\u2019re trying to sell our books, sometimes this involves selling ourselves: which means making our brand voice an attractive package.<\/p>\r\n
Is it worth being political?<\/strong>
No. But don\u2019t let that stop you if you feel passionately about the subject. I constantly post political material on my FaceBook page and Twitter feed. I have left-wing politics, and there\u2019s a strong chance this is alienating any potential right-wing readers, so I\u2019m thinking of pulling back from such things. Partly, this is because I want to increase sales for my material and I don\u2019t want to antagonise potential readers for something as irrelevant to my writing as my political beliefs. And, partly, this is because I don\u2019t think anyone has ever read one of my shared memes and thought, \u201cGoodness! Ashley\u2019s right. I must change political allegiances.\u201d I\u2019m clearly preaching to an echo chamber of people who share my personal beliefs and I can think of more fruitful things to share on social media.
Is it worth supporting a cause?<\/strong>
It\u2019s always worth supporting good causes. I\u2019m not suggesting this should be done as a way of capitalising on the good name of any charity to improve personal sales or promote brand identity. But if you want to use your work to benefit others, that\u2019s admirable and deserves to be applauded.
Should I stop swearing?<\/strong>
Do you swear in real life? Do expletives and epithets appear in your fiction? If swearing is a part of who you are and what you already produce, then swearing should definitely be a part of your brand voice. Admittedly, this is going to be a turn-off for some potential readers but it saves them being pissed off and giving a one-star review after they\u2019ve bought your book and then being butt-hurt from reading the word shit-weasel. (I used the word shit-weasel in my novella Fearless, although I\u2019ve only heard good things about this from people saying they want to use it as their go-to expletive). <\/p>\r\n
Are you suggesting I stop being me?<\/strong>
Never. Developing a brand voice is all about presenting the version of you that most accurately reflects how you best want to communicate. Are you a witty person? Share jokes and make people smile. Are you an inspirational writer? Share inspirational thoughts and words of wisdom. Share material that reflects the side of your personality that If anything, I\u2019m suggesting we go back to those three pillars of communication I mentioned before and add a fourth one: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Does it reflect the way I want to be perceived? If you can answer yes to all four of those questions, I\u2019d say you\u2019re definitely developing your brand voice.
<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"