Saturday, June 12, 2010

That Branding Thing...Again

Branding. It's been mentioned here before but the last couple of days I've been running across quite a few people talking about it...again. Laura Curtis over at Women of Mystery had a post http://www.womenofmystery.net/2010/06/conversing-in-cyberspace.html which linked to this post by Chris Brogan called "An Author's Plan for Social Media" http://www.chrisbrogan.com/author-social-media which sets out a plan to follow for getting yourself noticed.

While plans are nice for those with actual writing agendas, I rather like Tansy Rayner Roberts post http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/anti-branding-and-the-gentle-art-of-author-promotion/ which linked to a post by Maureen Johnson http://www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com/2010/06/08/manifesto

I loved Ms. Johnson's view and, like her, I've pretty much stumbled into my "brand". Yes, I'll admit it, I've been branded a short story writer!! And I'm damn proud of it!

5 comments:

David Cranmer said...

A little off subject but I've been compiling a list of movies based upon short stories and, so far, the list is staggering. Many folks don't even realize they are fans of the short story.

I'll check Ms. Johnson's post...

Charles Gramlich said...

I'll check out the links. BTW, congrats on all your recent successes. I've downloaded some stuff but haven't had a chance to read it yet.

sandra seamans said...

It's amazing, isn't it, David! I think the short story is more open to film than a novel because it focuses on one particular incident and a minimum of characters. Novels nearly always have to be cut to fit into a film.

Thanks, Charles!

Michael Bracken said...

Author branding; They scream a lot when the red-hot iron first presses against their skin, but they grow accustomed to the look.

sandra seamans said...

Ummm...like a herd of cattle! It seems to me if you're brave enough to write, you should be brave enough to take chances instead of branding yourself into a pigeonhole. But then, I have different dreams than the young folks coming up now.