20 05, 2013

Your Name’s on the Book Cover. What Does it Mean? Author Branding Part 1

By judythemorgan|2013-05-20T05:41:57-05:00May 20th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|3 Comments

Nothing is more exciting than seeing your name on the cover of a book you’ve written. You’ve devoted hours and hours to the creation of your “baby.” Holding that book in your hand or seeing the listing on an ebook seller site validates your hard work.

I still get excited when I hold my debut novel in my hand.

But what can a reader expect to find inside when they see your name on the book cover?

Authors aren’t products like Pepsi or Coke, but readers do develop expectations about the content of novels based on author brand. For example, what do you expect from books by Mark Twain, or Stephen King, or J.K. Rowling?

Me, I expect a southern tale from Mark Twain, a horror tale from Stephen King, fantasy and magic from a J.K. Rowling book and find exactly that.

My TBR (to be read) pile is filled with all genres. On close examination, the highest stack is romance/women’s fiction books by authors like Debbie Macomber, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, or JoAnn Ross. These authors’ names on a cover promises a certain type of story and they deliver.

Their name is their brand.

Debbie Macomber will offer a story of relationships and enduring friendships. The reader will finish with a sense of love and hope.

Books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips are sure to be a romantic comedy adventure. I’ll grin and often laugh aloud as I follow SEP’s unique heroines to their HEA (happily ever after).

JoAnn Ross’ stories offer strong, yet flawed women who overcome adversity, to-die for men-either emotionally wounded alpha shell guys or bad boys, and occasionally both, a very strong sense of setting, and a satisfying ending.

Your name on your cover should signal YOUR author brand. Does it?

If you don’t have any ideas how to do that, let me offer some suggestions on ways to cultivate an author brand using Primal Branding.

Author Patrick Hanlon, a marketing guru who’s worked on famous brands like IBM, LEGO, and Disney, equates product branding with a belief system. He says a strong brand contains seven primal codes: story, creed, icons, language, rituals, non-believers, and leader.

In this blog series on author branding, I’m going to discuss Harlan’s codes and how those codes relate to building an author brand.

1) STORY

According to Hanlon, “Your brand needs to have a story or a background. It tells where your brand originated from and gives viewers or consumers something to connect with and something they can believe and trust in themselves.”

Readers especially love to know why and how an author got started writing.

That background story sets the whole idea of author brand in motion and is the chief reason all author websites and/or blogs should/must have about me pages.

The authors in my TBR pile all have their “story” somewhere on their blogs. Don’t believe me, click on the links and you’ll see.

Step ONE to develop your author brand. Share the story about how you started writing.

2) CREED

According to Hanlon, “This tells what you believe in and how you might be different or similar to other belief systems out there.”

Story is not the same for all of us, neither is our creed.

Creed is what makes us, as a writers, willing to struggle to nurse our stories into existence, to persevere against headwinds that conspire against us?

Creed goes deeper than “origin” story, into the inner drive that led us to pursue a writing career. It’s what drives us to write.

Creed might be belief in the power of love. The frailty of the human condition. Comedy. The beauty of fine literature. Your fictional story will reveal what you believe most strongly.

Writers don’t necessarily state a creed, but a reader will pick up on our core beliefs through our story’s theme and premise.

Step TWO in establishing your author brand: Understand your core beliefs and develop your stories using those as your framework.

3) ICONS

According to Hanlon,, “These are quick associations or flashes of meaning that are associated with your brand. They can be visual, a particular smell, sound – things like the taste of McDonald’s French fries, the sight of a Coca-Cola label or Mickey Mouse ears.”

Nora Roberts, bestselling author of more than 209 romance novels, brands her new release books with NR in a circle to clue readers the contains new content and is not a reissue. There may be other author icons, but Nora’s is the only author icon I know.

For most writers, author photos and consistent book cover design become logos.

These images stand for you and your work. It pays to have both your photo and your book cover done by professionals.

Step THREE for author branding: Use a professional photo for you book covers and on your website.

4) LANGUAGE

According to Hanlon, “All belief systems or brands have their own set of language and words with a special meaning for those who buy into the belief system. If someone wants to be “part of the group,” they need to learn the associated words.”

Hanlon is talking about specialized words that denote special meaning for a particular brand group. Think soccer fans, computer geeks, doctors, truck drivers, etc. If you want to be part of any of those groups, you have to know the language.

I believe readers already know some language of authors. Not the craft details like POV, scene and sequence, story structure, etc., but a general knowledge of fiction genres and have personal preferences.

That’s why language is an important component of an author’s brand and why I believe a writer’s language must remain true to genre. Doesn’t matter what genre you choose to write, but you’ll not add readers if your language is not true to the genre you chose.

PhilipMartin in his blog, Discover Your Author’s Brand, offers a different take on Hanlon’s core component language, calling it “sacred words.”

Martin believes language equals “key phrases that inspire you or the mantras that you chant or the slogans that you pin next to your computer” and directs you to Maya Angelou’s website.

He points out that Angelou uses iconic images of herself and the cover of her well-known book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in addition to a line from that book: “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” on the website for branding.

Angelou use the language code of primal branding. So should you.

Step FOUR to develop your author brand: Consider the language of the genre in which you write and use related words for your website/blog and promotions, then model Maya Angelou’s website with iconic images and slogans.

In Author Branding Part Two, we’ll discuss the final three codes Hanlon describes: rituals, non-believers, and leader.

Until then, YOUR TURN: Have you thought about using Primal Branding to build your author brand?

13 05, 2013

How are you celebrating National Leprechaun Day?

By judythemorgan|2013-05-13T06:03:51-05:00May 13th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|4 Comments

Today is National Leprechaun Day.

No one knows the origins of the National Leprechaun Day holiday, but I’d be guessing one of the tiny creatures came up with the idea for a day in his honor. Being a bit Irish meself, I think it’s delightful that leprechauns have a day separate from St. Patrick’s Day.

Irish folklore portrays Leprechauns as sly and sneaky elves who dress in waistcoats and hats. While they are small in stature, they are quick as a whip and masters of practical jokes.

They are also keen musicians who play tin whistles, the fiddle, and even the Irish Harp and love to dance. Truth is, they love dancing so much, they wear out their shoes and constantly have to make new ones.

You might see a leprechaun if you go to Ireland. Tis been known to happen. But catching one of the mischievous pranksters is another matter entirely!

The wee people hide because, if someone finds a leprechaun, then the leprechaun has to either give his pot of gold to the finder or grant him or her three wishes.

The devious little creatures will do anything to escape from man so they should never be trusted. Some say angry leprechauns are more common than friendly ones. Not true. They tend to dislike humans because humans always seem to chase them for wishes and pots of gold.

If you do happen to catch one, be aware the leprechaun will use all his magical powers to grant you three wishes in return for his freedom. He might even offer you a pot of gold, but he’s also likely to trick you. Check here for tips on How to Catch a Leprechaun.

Most people celebrate this day for fun and for luck. Activities include:

organizing Leprechaun hunts,
throwing Leprechaun parties,
playing practical jokes, and
eating and sharing gold foil wrapped chocolate coins

My suggestion to celebrate Leprechaun Day is watch this ten-minute video from the 1959 movie, Darby O’Gill and the Little People. I promise your toe will be tapping right along with their dancing. You’ll also catch a bit of Leprechaun craftiness.

In case you’re not into little green men, you can celebrate frogs because today is also Frog Jumping Day

You’re choice.

Me, I’m celebrating National Leprechaun Day.

6 05, 2013

Where do you write?

By judythemorgan|2013-05-06T06:50:12-05:00May 6th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|3 Comments

I’m always fascinated by where writers write and what their writing spaces look like. I enjoy looking at pictures of famous authors’ desk and writing spaces.

Some places where writers write are pretty awesome.

: Charlotte Bronte’s Writing Space

This blog has some wonderful examples of famous writer’s offices.

: Rudyard Kipling’s Writing Space

If you’re as fascinated by where writers write as I am, I recommend these sites.

Where Writers Writer http://wherewriterswrite.tumblr.com/
Poets and Writers http://www.pw.org/content/writing_spaces

After thirty-three years of working in my old office, our recent move meant I had to create a new writing space.

The old room offered plenty of space for me, my writing assistant plus two desks-one for my laptop and one for my desktop, a Xerox machine, and multiple bookcases.

A complete world for my writing space.

Not so in our new location. This house has 1,200 square feet compared to 3,600 square feet in our old home. Needless to say, my new writing space is MUCH smaller.

SMALL isn’t the problem.

I can work in small spaces. I’ve written in cars, hotel rooms, on a train, and even on a cruise. All I need is spot for my computer or AlphaSmart.

But there’s something special about having my own office space. Now I’m using the smaller extra bedroom. Too bad the desk I brought with me was designed for a much larger space and the room already has a twin-sized trundle bed.

The real problem was finding places for all the extra-writing stuff—printers, files, reference and resource books, etc. No room for the tables, file cabinets, and bookcases.

After weeks of placing things, my office writing space now looks like this. Plenty of room for my writing assistants and me.

With my office set up again, I’m set to get back to some serious writing.

YOUR TURN: Do you have a writing office? If not, what is your writing space like?

22 04, 2013

How can we help West, Texas?

By judythemorgan|2013-04-22T06:50:29-05:00April 22nd, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|3 Comments

In a week filled with horrific events, West, a small Texas town 19 miles north of Waco, experienced a fiery explosion at the Texas fertilizer plant located there. Fourteen people, mostly volunteer firefighters who rushed to the fire at the plant, died. Two hundred people were injured, and dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed.

Click these links to see the details, if you missed the news reports.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/key-facts-plant-explosion-west-texas-18990641

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/20/west-fertilizer-plant-explosion-recovery/2099591/

Rachel Firasek, an author who is a member of the West Community, shared the following first-hand account:

“I wanted to give everyone an update. I actually live about 10 miles away, but my children go to school in West and my husband grew up there. We felt the blast all the way at our house. The noise was deafening, even that far away. We’re still desperately waiting for word on names of the fallen. I know that my hubby has already lost one cousin and a very good friend is in critical condition.

We lost three of the four schools. The only thing left is the elementary school. My kids will finish the school year at schools 30 miles away. It’s going to be a hectic next few weeks for all of our family and friends, but this is a tight community and they are already rallying.

Please don’t feel obligated, but thanks for anything you can do for these families.”

So how can we help West, Texas?

Authorities said Friday that charitable organizations have received more donations of food, clothing and other items than are needed in West. Excess donations will be distributed to surrounding areas.

Cash donations to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army would be welcome.

With schools destroyed, donations to the education program are desperately needed. Rachel provided this link with for details.

Other places to donate and help:

Donate to West Fire Department – mail donations to:
West Fire Department, PO Box 97, West, TX 76691
Donate to the victims – PointWest Bank: POINTWEST Bank – Home Page
Donate Blood – during the next few months schedule appointment to donate blood. Blood will be needed and it has a limited shelf life. Go to Donating Blood | American Red Cross for additional information and to find a location near you.
Contact donation facilities for specific items still needed at this time:
Extraco Events Center (254) 776-1660
First Baptist Church of Lott (254) 829-2321
**packing materials are going to be needed when the families can enter their homes again

Medical help for animals is also needed. Contact these area animal clinics for specifics:

Happy Endings Animal Clinic 254-666-8240
Brazos Valley Boarding Kennels 254-854-4104
La Vega Vet Clinic 254-744-1948

And for those who want to share a word on social media sites:

https://www.facebook.com/PrayersforWest

https://www.facebook.com/WestFirefighters

Anything you can do, especially prayers, in this devastating time will be welcomed.

15 04, 2013

Unpredictable Days

By judythemorgan|2013-04-15T06:16:50-05:00April 15th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|2 Comments

Life happens. Plans get disrupted. Things we don’t expect (or we do expect) happen to sabotage our writing intentions.

Least that’s been my situation for the last month.

Everyone faces times where no matter how well we plan, we cannot stop unpredictable days from occurring.

You probably ran into at least a couple of days with unexpected roadblocks last week. I’m sure we’ll all have at least a couple of unpredictable days this week.

And every week for the rest of our lives. That’s how life works.

So how do you to stick to a daily plan when unpredictable things happen?

You can’t.

Unpredictable stuff can’t be avoided.

If bad stuff happens two days out of the week, it’s OK. Three off days isn’t a tragedy either. In fact, statistically, three unpredictable days out of seven is about normal for most of us.

What I’ve discovered is that I can usually count on having at least one extremely productive day a week. In one excellent day when life cooperates, I’m always surprised how much of my week’s work gets done.

Problem is I never know in advance which day will be excellent, and I can’t let that stop me from planning what I’d like to accomplish daily and weekly. If you missed my blog about how I plan, here’s the link: http://judythewriter.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/failure-to-plan-is-planning-to-fail-a-plan-for-success/

But I digress, we’re discussing unpredictable days.

Days when something goes wrong are always going to happen, however those rare days when everything does go well can make up for all the rest.

I find I can whip through my daily list at light speed when everything goes right, and that means I can check things off my weekly list.

In fact, I’ve learned if I have TWO or more great days in a week, I complete just about everything off my weekly list.

Impossible? No. And there’s a way you can test my theory.

Tryout this experiment from Randy Ingermanson’s The Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine.

For the rest of this week decide what you want to accomplish for the week then make daily lists. (Writers that means a writing goal for the week then daily ways you’ll reach that weekly goal.)
Keep the daily lists for five days and, at the end of each day—even the unpredictable days, count how many things you accomplished.
On the fifth day, check those daily lists against your weekly goals.

I’m predicting, even if you didn’t have a single “successful” day where you accomplished everything on your whole daily list, you’ll find you have at least one or two highly productive days in which you made huge progress toward your weekly goals.

You might discover that even if every day is “unsuccessful” the week as a whole is a SUCCESS just like I do.

“What,” you say, “how can five bad days add up to one good week?”

According to Randy, the reason is that we tend to overestimate what we can do in a day, but underestimate what we can do in a week.

Now test Randy’s theory and my results by doing the experiment yourself, and I think you’ll see Randy and I are correct.

1 04, 2013

Six steps to tame an email dragon

By judythemorgan|2013-04-01T06:07:44-05:00April 1st, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

As I promised last week, I’ve studied my email dragon and I’m suggesting six steps to tame an email dragon. I understand how he grew to be such consuming demon.

I’ve always had a decent volume of email. Once I published The Pendant’s Promise that decent volume increased dramatically. After all, I had a book to promote.

I started a blog, signed up for FB and Twitter, and reader sites like Shelfari and Goodreads. As my visibility online grew, it compounded incoming mail.

Type A that I am, I felt obliged to stay “on top” of these emails and be responsive to my readers and community members.

Things quickly grew out of control. Then I discovered 900 emails in my inbox, I knew, clearly, it was time to tame the dragon.

But how?

Here are the six steps I’m taking.

1. Analyze

How much incoming email am I receiving daily? What types of messages? How urgent are these emails, really?

As I studied my avalanche of email, I concluded:

Total messages per day was close to 200.
Few emails contain truly urgent information.

Armed with these insights, I began to take action. My first course of action was to stop email at its source.

2. Unsubscribe

Over time, interests and needs change. Yet I continue to subscribe to dozens of newsletters and blogs that aren’t pertain to my current activities.

Systematically, I evaluated those newsletters and blogs I receive and unsubscribed to those that no longer provided information I need or want.

The result: my volume of email shrank.

Besides news and blog emails, I also receive a ton of social-media notices. LinkedIn sends an email each day. Facebook notifies me every time someone replies to a comment I’ve left or a friend updates his or her status. Each tweet also means an email.

Each notification brings the temptation to waste time on social media sites. I’m rethinking those daily notifications. I generally visit the social sites at least once a day anyway.

3. Read the subject-line

Instead of opening every email and reading a bit before deciding whether to delete, I now read the subject line, and if I suspect it’s something I don’t need to read, I delete it right then.

We all have favorite blogs. I’ve come to realize I don’t necessarily need to read every post the bloggers put up.

4. Delete

I used to save emails automatically because they were from X blog or newsletter. No more.

For the majority of the 900 emails I had accumulated in my inbox I sorted by sender, read the subject lines, and simply deleted whole clumps of emails. Bye-bye — zap! — gone.

Immediately, I felt a 100-pound weight lift from my shoulders.

5. Set Rules

Most email programs offer an option where the user can set up rules to automatically route email to an appropriate folder. This saves time because only important emails show up in your main inbox.

Caveat: This doesn’t work for me. I have a basic distrust of letting computers think for me. What if some time-sensitive email went to the wrong folder?

I have all emails come initially into my main inbox. I employ #3 above and, if there is something I want to save in a folder for future reading, I move the email into folders I’ve created, same as I used to do when I was a Department of Army Civilian secretary.

6. Use a Timer

FlyLady says, “A kitchen timer is our friend.” She’s correct!

I used to set my kitchen timer and limit my email time to fifteen minutes a.m., afternoon, and p.m. Mary Buckham’s comment suggestion on last week’s blog reminded me I needed to apply the timer again.

My goal is to spend no more than an hour a day checking email. I want to delete, file, or respond to each message and move on to writing.

Will these six steps completely de-flame my email dragon? I don’t know, but I do know applying them seems to be bringing him under my submission.

YOUR TURN: How about you? What ways do you keep email under control?

25 03, 2013

I’m drowning in email. Are you?

By judythemorgan|2013-03-25T06:26:08-05:00March 25th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|5 Comments

For two weeks we’ve packed, hauled away unwanted stuff, shared last-time-living-in-the-same-city meals with family and friends, packed our household, loaded a trailer and a U-Haul, and drove one thousand miles to our new home.

There was no time to spend on the computer checking email. Conversations were via text or cell phone.

I did skim email for personal correspondence, but didn’t stop to read or delete all the other email that came in. Every day I watched the total grow.

Newsletters, blogs, group digests, notifications from social media… an email tsunami.

When I checked today, I have over 900 emails in my inbox.

I can’t believe it. I’m drowning in email.

The whole situation makes me realize I’m handling over one hundred emails per day. That much email reading has to be cutting into my writing time and productivity.

I think it’s time to analyze my email. Something I’ve never done.

Do I need to be receiving that many newsletters, blogs, group digests, and notifications?

I’m not sure.

I am sure that culling through all the emails I’ve accumulated will take time even if it’s time pressing the delete key.

Time I don’t have with all those boxes to unpack and a deadline looming.

Email has got to be tamed.

What about you? Does your email cut into your productivity?

Next Monday, I’ll be sharing some tips on how I plan to wrestle my email situation into submission.

Be sure to stop by and, in the meantime, if you have any tips, please share.

18 03, 2013

Taking a Break

By judythemorgan|2013-03-18T06:39:36-05:00March 18th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday, Uncategorized|0 Comments

I am taking a break from blog writing today.

Well, I’m not taking a real break. I’m actually in the proces of loading a moving truck for the final leg of our tipping point adventure. [More on the adventure later.]

So I’m offering this adorable video instead of my usual lengthy blog to motivate or make you think.

Why don’t you take a break, too, and watch?

As you watch, note how many children’s storybook characters you recognize and can name.

Did you spot a favorite?

11 03, 2013

Been Hacked? Here’s what to do

By judythemorgan|2013-03-11T07:25:04-05:00March 11th, 2013|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Recognize that you are not alone! From the Spamlaws.com site:

“Spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages globally per day.”

A major portion of spam is generated by hacked email accounts. Being aware of such statistics, we must be diligent.

But that’s not always easy.

Crafty spammers lure victims into opening the email by using intriguing subject lines or a scary warning message or raise curiosity by using an enticing subject.

Most of us have received an email at one point or another with the subject need help and something about being stuck in some foreign place and needing money.

Likely as not, the email is not from a friend. The logical thing to do is simply delete, but, if you have world traveling friends, you hesitate.

When my email account was hacked and starting sending out the I’m stranded emails, relatives and friends who knew we did a lot of travel oversea actually called to verify the email was not from me.

But it’s not just those I’m stranded emails that suck us into responding.

Official looking mails with subjects like “Yahoo or PayPal or your Bank or Credit Card Company is verifying your account information” are a favorite ploy of hackers.

No matter how legitimate those emails appear, NEVER respond or click on any links. Credible sources will NOT ask for your password.

All that’s good to know information, you say, but it comes too late.

What should I do now that my email acount’s been hacked?

Here are my suggestions:

· Check your computer’s security.

This is the very first step. Until you do this, any other steps are useless.

Make sure, no matter which operating system you use, your anti-virus and anti-malware programs are up-to-date. With most programs, you can set the software program to automatically update when new security fixes are available.

If you cannot afford security software, you can find quality free security software. Simply search ’best free security software reviews’ in your preferred search engine.

· Change your password and make it stronger.

For tips and suggestions on how to do this, read the first part of this series here.

Next, and equally important, develop the habit of changing your passwords often.

· Send an email to all your contacts saying you were hacked.

Be sure to include notifying any site boards or loops to which you belong.

No reason to be embarrassed. Remember the statistics. Being hacked will happen to all of us at some point.

· Smarten up about spam, phishing, and scams.

If the little voice in your head says an email looks suspicious, it probably is!

Do NOT click on any links unless you are sure of the source. If you’re unsure, you should copy and paste the link into your browser.

· **Validate any program, game, app, video, or song before downloading.**

Statistics show that one out of every fourteen downloads contains malware, and planting malware on your computer is how hackers hijacked your email in the first place. Hackers crack anti-malware and anti-virus software almost as fast as it is developed.

Know the source you are downloading from!

And always be on guard.

YOUR TURN: What measures do you take to protect your email accounts?

26 11, 2012

Turkey Pitching Day

By judythemorgan|2022-11-27T16:08:39-06:00November 26th, 2012|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Last Thursday many in the U.S. sat down at tables loaded with enough food to feed a third world country for a week.

And we had leftovers.

The best part of Thanksgiving for me.

I love the smell of the stripped carcass simmering with onions and celery in our traditional turkey rice soup on Black Friday. We add brown rice before serving with whole wheat cornbread. Yummy!

This year I also found great, nutritious ideas from

Turkey Taco

Click the picture for the link.

Turkey Sliders

Click the picture for the link.

Are you still moving leftover turkey or dressing or sweet potatoes around in your fridge? You need to pitch ‘em today.

Why?

Foodborne illness – Isn’t that a lovely way to say food poisoning?

In years past, I remember sitting around the table for hours talking and visiting with the food still there. Or, worse yet, moving the serving dishes to the stove top or counter so everyone could nibble all afternoon while we watched football.

Once we figured out what was causing our tummy problems, we stopped that foolishness.

Happily, most cases of food poisoning can be prevented with proper food handling.

How did you handle your leftovers? Did you refrigerate perishable foods quickly?

According to Mayo Clinic nutritionist, Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D. your goal is to minimize the time a food is in the “danger zone” — between 40 and 140 F (4 and 60 C) — when bacteria can quickly multiply. Meat, poultry, fish, dairy and eggs shouldn’t sit more than two hours at typical room temperature or more than one hour at temperatures above 90 F (32 C).

Because the bacteria doesn’t typically change the taste, smell, or look, you can’t tell until the bacteria attacks your digestive tract.

But leftovers can be kept for three to four days in the refrigerator before the risk of food poising increases.

There weren’t many leftovers at our Thanksgiving feast and what there was went quickly. If you still have leftovers after today, my advice:

PITCH IT.

Make Me Think Monday

1. Analyze

2. Unsubscribe

3. Read the subject-line

4. Delete

5. Set Rules

6. Use a Timer

· Check your computer’s security.

· Change your password and make it stronger.

· Send an email to all your contacts saying you were hacked.

· Smarten up about spam, phishing, and scams.

· Validate any program, game, app, video, or song before downloading.

· **Validate any program, game, app, video, or song before downloading.**