Developing Your Brand

What you write is not as significant as who you are as a writer. You are the brand for which your work is the product. Think about this: whether you order the tall, grande or venti latte, you went to the "brand". What are we doing as writers to build our brand? That's a target project for me so I welcome suggestions.

Here's one step I took in less than twenty minutes by creating products with my book image and promo line on Cafe Press. To my surprise it was a simple process, blessedly requiring no graphic arts or HTML skills.  Now it's up to me to include this link on all my sites and potential selling sources. I also plan to purchase the "official" Taylor Kendall Evil Inc Tote to bring with me for book signings and other author promotion events.

What makes these branded products enticing is the promo line. . . "Help us spread Evil". That makes you take a second look in the same way that my Health Coaching tee with my Before and After (70 lbs lost) photos are a walking billboard which often starts conversations that lead to new coaching relationships.

Keep in mind, it's all about the brand . . . how are you developing your brand as a writer?

Are you loyal to your writing?

"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it."  Does Robert Heinlein's comment describe your writing routine? How much of that "daily trivia" is electronic lure? The temptation of instant information is strong and can steal from productive writing time.

As a clinical psychotherapist, I suggest to you that the availability of instant information sends writers into a spiral of obsession. You can become so obsessed with having all the information, the most current information, the hottest information, etc. that we don't finish the writing project. With the speed of content development today, don't bother to be current. In the time it takes to write, the material is out of date. So what can you do? Start by putting aside the obsession and focus on the product.

Will you know everything about an issue? Of course not. What you do have to offer is your unique perspective which no one else has. Start your day by writing for thirty minutes without click on email, RSS feeds, search engines, Facebook, Twitter or anything else. Treat your computer like an old fashioned word processor where YOUR WORDS are the focus. Attempt to extend that time up to an hour without plugging back into the usual electronic distractions. 

Break the "strange loyalty" to trivia and be loyal to your writing. The results will set your creative brain free so your muse is inside your head (where it belongs) not on flashing screen.

What Madonna knows that you need to know

What does Madonna have to do with branding your blog or books? From virgin to bondage and from material girl to devoted mother, Madonna knows how to "go with the flow" in marketing herself as a brand. When your book or blog starts to sink, take a lesson from Madonna and reinvent yourself!

Check out the brand revival ideas from one of my favorite e-Newsletters, Psychotactics. The central point of these changes is to remain true to your central idea or theme while finding new ways to market your writing product. Beyond the artistic wonder, your blog needs followers and your book needs buyers.

Be open to change! If you aren't attracting an audience with what you think is attention-getting, you can stubbornly cling to your "look" or make revisions that appeal to your target market.

Marketing is a moving target with the flood of content and ideas daily online. Audiences are fickle and swayed toward the trend. You have to put the write twist on your marketing to develop the loyal audience who will follow you regardless of the next trend.

Writer's Electronic Assistant

For the price of a latte, I get a month of 24/7 service from Jott, my electronic assistant. When random ideas hit, I press my Bluetooth and say: “Call Jott”.  I can leave a reminders, message to a group or forward a Tweet from ANY phone, not just a smart phone.

When driving or riding my bicycle, I see or hear something that triggers an idea and I capture that thought instantly using Jott. When I return to my office, I have an email from Jott with my message transcribed. How good is that?  Or I can leave the same message for a predefined group of people.

Frankly, I’m a basic Jott user. There are many other applications for Jott to connect with Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft Outlook and sophisticated business or accounting programs. I’m satisfied to let Jott replace scratching notes on coupons or paper sacks that are easily lost.

Efficiency is important for me as a writer, professor and health coach. I have to keep my tasks moving and avoid missing the next great idea. For a free month use of Jott to see how it can be the write twist for you, start here. Another writer told me about Jott when it was still in testing phase and I’ve been a devoted user since.

Best of times, Worst of times

"It was the best of times and the worst of times";  both are writing influences. When Charles Dickens used this sentence to set the tone for Tale of Two Cities, he was prepared to feel the happiness and despair about which he eloquently wrote. Are you prepared for both emotions in your writing?

You will find a story or a character emerge from either emotional extremes if you are willing to let that voice be heard. Suffering for art is not high on the bucket list, however to write authentically about suffering you have to have first hand experience. The same is true for outrageous joy; it's a mountain top moment that takes happy to new levels.

If you think that you can only write well when feeling content, you are missing a crucial part of the human equation. Sadness is not, at least for me, a productive time but it can become a useful time. Capture words, mental images or phrases that come to mind during the extremes of sadness or joy. You may recall these feelings later, but never with the sharpness that you have when engulfed in those moments. The act of writing is therapeutic for many people, but for writers it is necessary. In a time forward when you are back in your "write mind", review those notes. What you read can be personally healing and give the words to add to your writing so that others can identify with your work, exclaiming, "that's how I feel too!"

Writers are not the best sleepers

Writers are readers, but sometimes not good sleepers. Those story telling voices in my brain don't operate in my time zone. During busy times of the day such as while I am teaching or coaching, they are drowned out or ignored. Then when my head hits the pillow in a quiet room, those pesky storytellers feel like they own my attention.

Unless you are a writer, this sounds completely off the chart. Does this writer need to see a psychotherapist (never mind, she is one)? Or does she have “Overactive Characters’ Syndrome” where the characters from the last story are insisting that their next saga be transcribed?  This never happened with my non-fiction academic books. Fiction is a different animal.

What do you do when your eyes close at night but the ideas won’t turn off?

Some writers keep notepad by the bed to jot the idea. That means turning on the light and becoming even more wide awake.

Others choose to get up and write for a short period of time to avoid losing the ideas.

When the rush of thoughts seriously interrupts sleep, my approach is to go to my home office and work myself to sleep.  Not always convenient with my morning schedule but if I ignore the writing urge and manage to get to sleep; I awaken certain that I have lost the most fantastic idea known to human literature.

Writers tread along the slippery slope of compulsion in their insistence on writing at the least convenient times.  Perhaps we need to set aside some quiet time during the day to listen to the characters tell their stories and stop intruding on our sleep. Inspiration is a strange thing that is not bound by place, time or schedule.  After all, what’s losing a few hours sleep compared to working your way out of a plot confusion? 

Book Signing at Troy University Tampa

Thanks to Troy University Tampa Campus for "helping us spread Evil" and get more copies of Taylor Kendall: Evil Inc. into the hands of eager readers.

Having taught in the graduate mental health program for past four years at the Tampa Campus, I appreciate these folks so much, not just at the book signing but in general.

Meet Carmen Frederico, Development Director, me (KT Erwin) and Carol Walters, Campus Director at Troy University in Tampa.

Nostalgia for Writing

Human nature wants the unavailable; the multi-story doll house, the upgraded video console, the fully loaded convertible. For me this week, the "unavailable" object of my desire is time to write. As I teach in this Intensive (8 hours per day) graduate seminar at my university, I desperately miss my stolen moments between tasks to write. Even this blog has been neglected in order to attend to my students.

What can you do when writing time simply isn't possible? You have three valuable options: think, jot, plan.

Think: Let your mind wander around a topic or listen to the characters play out scenes that you can transcribe later. Work out challenging scenes in a "what it" manner: what if he did this or what if she made that choice.

Jot short notes, like a word association exercise. These can be character names, places to include in scenes or phrases to remember for dialogue. I confess that there are "writing jots" in the margins of the textbook from which I am teaching my class. A student comment, something from the text or my own random thought provides the ideas to develop later.

Plan: In between classes, back at the hotel relaxing or waiting in the airport, I can sketch out an action outline to be fleshed-out later. I can also take a previously developed outline and add details. Or I can use my calendar to revise the writing schedule for when I return to my home office.

No matter how much I add by the think-jot-plan method, I know that I'll be so grateful to be back to my writing schedule that my typing fingers will cramp from the speed. Ideas are piling up in my brain like rush hour traffic. If absence does make the heart grow fonder, perhaps time away from writing is a strong motivator to increase productivity and remember how beloved is the written word (particularly my own!).

Need Motivation - Use AFFORMATIONS

Afformation - that's not a spelling error, it's "the write twist" with a fresh approach to motivation. One of my daily must-read emails is Michael Masterson's Early to Rise newsletter. While this is business oriented, the articles and ideas adapt to many types of work including writing.

Noah St John's article explaining Afformations caught my attention. How many times have you heard about the usefulness of positive affirmations? Have you made it consistently work for you? Too often these ideas get lost in the daily routine or the vigor of the idea wanes days after attending a motivational seminar.

This is the genius of St John's idea: Afformations are not what you want to gain, but rather what you want to increase in your life. Read his article for full details. I am going to adapt his concept to a writer's example:

      Typical Affirmation:   I am writing a book to present to a publisher this year.

      In the background your "critical editor" voice says, "Yeah, heard that last year and the year before and nothing has been finished. What's different this time?"

       Your brain gets busy attempting to refute the Critical Editor. In the process, you are focused on the past, lack of performance and defending yourself. Negative energy is wasted energy.

       Afformations work with you, not against you. Here's the difference:

      Afformation:  How did I finish my book ahead of schedule with ease?

      Now your brain focuses on how effectively you accomplish the goal without questioning whether the task will or will not be completed.  Is this a lot of mumbo-jumbo? No. As a Clinical Psychotherapist I can say with confidence that the brain works better dealing with positives than with negatives. Additionally, speaking in the positive neutralizes the “Critical Editor” (that’s actually a psychological concept, not only for writers).

       Having attended and taught many motivational programs,  I felt like I heard it all until reading this morning’s Early to Rise. Noah St John’s approach to Afformations excites me and I hope you will put these to work for super-charge your writing productivity.

P.S. I highly recommend signing up for the free subscription to Early to Rise newsletter.

Great News - I'm a Finalist

No ribbons, sequin gowns or queenly waves, I am a FINALIST in the Royal Palm Literary Competition sponsored by Florida Writers Association. My book, Taylor Kendall: Evil Inc, is in the Thriller/Suspense Category.


Winners will be announced at the FWA Conference banquet on October 23.  Click to view the full FWA Conference agenda and register to attend the full conference October 22-24 in Lady Mary, Florida.


Let me encourage you to join a local, state or regional writer's organization. This is the best place to network, share ideas and sign up for critique sessions. The more your work is polished and edited, the better chance you have for publishing (which is only half the battle) and selling to develop a loyal group of readers.