Bless You, WG2E-Land Peeps!
Why?
Because after you read this post, you’ll be dealing with a bunch of SNEEZERS!
Okay…for the record, not exactly the tissue-needing kind of Sneezers.
But sort of.
Here’s the scoop…
As I’ve mentioned a bunch here on The WG2E, I’m way waaay into Seth Godin’s A-mazing book
One of the concepts Godin teaches in the book is that if you want your product to “go viral”, you’ve got to find Sneezers!
In other words, adapting this philosophy to our Indie Epub World, we’ve got to find Readers who will “sneeze”/talk about our books and us all over the place.
Makes brilliant sense, right?
Sneezers are the peeps who build the “buzz” about us and our books too.
They want our books, and they’ll share the scoop about them.
Our job then as Indie Epub Authors is to find the Readers who are most likely to sneeze about our books.
One way to do this, Godin teaches, is by targeting markets that are full of “otaku”. Otaku is a Japanese word meaning passion at a level just beneath obsession…so for us, that could be “fans” of say the genre we write or fans of the Ereader platforms our books are on (i.e. Kindle, Nook, Sony, Kobo and iPad).
***Note: This is exactly why our new adventure The RG2E – The Reader’s Guide to Epublishing – will work! We’re creating a destination site where Readers full of otaku for all-things Ereading can hang.
Finding Sneezers is also one of the reasons why our Author and Book Blurbs are sooo damn important!
Godin says to think of your product’s slogan as your Sneezer’s script.
Meaning, you want to make it very easy for your Sneezers to talk about you and your books.
Let me give you some examples…
My Author Slogan:
D. D. Scott’s books are all about Sexy, Sassy, Smart Career-driven Women and the Men Who Complete Them
High-Concept “Slogans”/Blurbs for my Books:
BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS
Think Sex and The City meets Urban Cowboy
STOMPIN’ ON STETSONS
Think Hell’s Kitchen mixed with Meet The Fockers
BUCKLES ME BABY
Think paparazzi-hell and Ponzi-scheme fall-out meet home-shopping and Babies “R” Us
THUG GUARD
Think The Rachel Zoe Project meets Bond, James Bond and a Madoff-style, Ponzi-scheming King.
LIP GLOCK
Think Will and Kate gone Bond, James Bond…and the blue-hair version of Charlie’s Angels too…Under the Tuscan Sun.
FLUID FULFILLMENT
For Fluid Fulfillment, think Victoria’s Secret meets Kill Bill.
I’ve made it very easy for my Sneezers to talk about my author brand and each of my books too!
Godin says:
“The Boring Slot is already filled.”
That said, if we want to find more readers, we’ve got to give them something superfab and easy to sneeze about!!!
It’s Your Turn, WG2E-Land: How and where are you finding Sneezers? And what are you giving them to Sneeze about?
The Best of WG2E and RG2E Sneezing Wishes — D. D. Scott
I guess I’m going to have to read this book! No matter how hard I try I can find no cutsie author slogan (anything I’ve even come close to I’ve trashed deeming stupid or eye rolling), no eye catching way to draw readers to my books (same problem again). It’s like the worst case of writers block I’ve ever encountered.
Now I know the readership I’m after – and this will become more apparent this year as I unveil new books. But as far as branding – I head hits the proverbial wall head on.
Let’s see if we can help you create your Sneezer’s Script, Jamie…
To begin, Google branding word list…you literally can start by perusing these lists of adjectives to see which ones fit you as an author. There are a ton of lists available…you can also take a branding class by greats like Jennifer Fusco at Market or Die:
http://www.marketordie.net/index.html
I think she uses these word lists too.
That’s how I came up with Sexy Sassy Smart for part of my Author Brand.
Also, begin to match up movies that have the same tone or elements of your books, like I did with “Think Sex and The City meets Urban Cowboy”…that can begin to define who you are as an author too!
Hi DD, do you have a link for the Google brandling word list? My Google search didn’t find it. lol
Sure, Ruth!
Here’s one:
http://www.examples-help.org.uk/parts-of-speech/personality-adjectives.htm
Try googling “personality adjectives”
What do you think?
alluring, ambitious, assertive, sophisticated & a hopeless romantic
I’m a huge fan of alliteration, Julie…
So for me it would be:
alluring, ambitious and assertive
I’d try to work with those three very powerful words…if that kind of power matches elements in your books.
Duh…sorry Jamie…I meant Jamie, not Julie!!! LOL!!! More wine, please…or perhaps less…
My sneezers for my yet-to-be published The Last Prophecy would be people who:
Like wolves
Like werewolves
Are interested in any 2012 Prophecy
Like paranormal romance
Are interested in the environment
Interested in supporting Indie authors
Finding them:
I’m on loops about most of those themes.
I joined RG2E
I’m on several Indie loops
I’m active in my RWA chapter and local writers’ group
I’ll be blogging on my website about those themes as it gets closer to the book launch
My FB Author page is up and I post writing/Indie websites and blogs daily – I’ll use it to promote the book.
My tagline: Love is the true reality; everything else is paranormal
What have I missed?
Boy! I really do need to retire just to work on this.
Mitzi
Well done, Mitzi!
You’ve totally got the hang of it!!!
One way I began target marketing my Sneezers was to then do Twitter Searches on the elements in my books…to find out who all the “cupcake lovers” were, “the bootscootin’/line dancing” peeps, “the decorator/event planners” and so forth.
I think I posted on this…let me see if I can find it:
http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/whats-worked-for-d-d-scotts-ebook-empire-find-your-target-audience-using-twitter
Love the tagline, Mitzi!
Me too, Rhonda!!!
One super awesome librarian loved my novel so much she bought copies for the library and arranged a book signing early last year… and here’s the big blow-out sneeze: At the end of the year, the librarians in our county put together a pamphlet called “A few of our favorite things.” In it, each librarian lists a favorite book they read during the year. My book was listed as Sue’s entry!
Ooooo…a total “big blow-out sneeze” indeed, Tamara! Congrats!!!
And this is the perfect example of how synergy works too in our Indie Epub Journeys…in that, it only takes one Sneezer to really begin to spread the news about you and your books!!!
Tamara — that’s so cool!
Sometimes, your readers are the best people to help you come up with your brand.
Originally, I was going to be the “trainwreck” romance writer. I wanted to take on that stupid, sappy, Happily Ever After ending and make it more gossipy, but satisfying ending.
I relented on destroying the Happily Ever After ending, my books have “Sigh, oh thank goodness it’s still going to be okay” endings.
But here is what review after review has said: “Packs a punch.” and “Great weekend read.” and “Full of twists and turns.”
So I’m playing around with that. I’ve got a 3 year publishing schedule slated, and I’m really thinking about how I can carry what readers got from Cancelled to other titles. My next book comes out in March. I’ve taken a little fun and written: Cancelled packed a punch. Stone packs a 12-gauge.
I do think you need to identify what makes your book different from every other book out there. When I tweet about my romance/chicklit from a guy’s POV, people are instantly intrigued. Sure, I’m not the first to write romance from a guy’s POV. Many modern novels do a split narrator situation. But it’s rare enough that people go “Oooh, what’s that?” It’s not enough to get them to buy the book, but it gets them to click and check it out.
Thank goodness I gave up “trainwreck” romance.
I do luuuvvv your blurb about “romance from a guy’s POV”…that one hooked me when I first saw it on Twitter too, Elizabeth! Well done!!!
And yes, certainly you can listen to your readers!
I do often take quirky little tidbits from my readers’ reviews and add ‘em into my overall promo strategies.
Great points!!!
Finding like minds is also part of the process.
This is an excellent point, Pj!
Another thing you can do is share personality adjective lists with your friends and ask them to choose words they feel describe you/your writing.
I am finding it hard to come up with sneezers like yours, DD. For my fantasy romances, I think of fantasy romance with a touch of humor. Can’t come up with such and such meets such and such. Not for those or for my YA fantasies. Finding readers is one of the reasons I took up your suggestion to join Goodreads. Now worked out how to join – the Author Programme, and both my books are on there now.
Well done getting your Goodreads game on, Julie! You can find a ton of Sneezer Readers there!!!
Now then…let’s see if we can brainstorm a bit here on your Sneezer Script…are your books in any way say:
Star Wars meets Steve Martin
or
What if Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey were Darth Vader?
or
Think Chelsea Handler as Princess Leia
In other words, pick out celebs and/or movies that have something to do with any one element of your books, then spin it from there…
The reason these high concept movie blurbs work so well is that most peeps can immediately get a feel for your book because they “know” what these celebs and/or movies bring to the table.
I took a marketing and promotion workshop with author Marcia James. As a croup we worked on branding and tag lines. My author tab is SM Johnson Writes things that go naughty in the night. I would have never come up with that all by myself. I write bdsm and erotic vampire, so the tag is perfect.
This is terrific, SM:
“SM Johnson Writes things that go naughty in the night”
Hilarious!!!
And sooo his Marcia James — both terrific and hilarious! I luuuvvv her!!! In fact, she did some superfab sweet scoop for my Muse Therapy Book, and I’ve had the honor to dine with her at one of the RWA National Conferences.
Do you have her too cute mini-handcuffs?! Luuuvvv those things!!!
Hiya! I’m quite lucky in that my book has a definite niche, and lends itself quite well to sneezing!
I write comedy travel adventures (all true!), and after spending way too much time hanging out on writer’s groups I read Kristen Lamb’s book ‘We Are Not Alone’.
It said a lot of very clever things, and the first thing I did was imagine my target audience, what their day was like, and where they hang out online. Because I write comedy I went straight to sites like ‘Cheezburger’, posted a few amusing pictures I’ve collected in my travels and one went on to be on the front page there for two days!
Because my first book is about volunteering with animals in Ecuador (and all the trouble that can get you into), I joined a lot of volunteering groups and wrote articles about my experiences in a similar style to my book, and offered them to leading newsletters in the field. I found Facebook groups a-plenty and put a few promotional posts up on them… I’m never sure how much this affects my sales, but they’re going up steadily, so something is working!
As for the ‘tag line’ to sneeze about… this is my favourite so far:
There comes a time in every man’s life when he says to himself, “Holy SH*T! I’m about to be eaten by a bear!”
OR
How do you look after an Ark’s worth of animals when they’re all trying their damnedest to kill you and eat you?
OR (boring but conventional):
Think Bill Bryson meets James Herriot.
Oh, and the book is called ‘That Bear Ate My Pants!’
Cheers!
Tony
I think your title is a great Sneeze
You’re totally nailin’ it, Tony…you’re sooo sneezin’ in a Purple Cow (or Bear) way!
Well done!!!
And yes, Kristen Lamb has long been my Go-To Social Media Queen ever since I found her We Are Not Alone book!!!
You can indeed find a tone of Sneezers on Facebook and Twitter too! In fact, when you see on Facebook “People You May Know” as possible Friends, that’s basically the result of an algorithm that’s sneezing out peeps you may know because of those already sneezing about you by Friending you. Same with Twitter…things like #FF and #WW are really types of Sneezing we use to build our readerships in Follows and Friends.
Wow! Your books sound awesome, Tony. Totally going to go check them out now. I love the tagline: There comes a time in every man’s life when he says to himself, “Holy SH*T! I’m about to be eaten by a bear!” LOL
I can relate — well not by being nearly eaten by a bear — but it seems I always have something funny and semi-dangerous happen on trips. You’d think I go looking for trouble or something. LOL
All this sounds great and does work, when you hit it just right. At the end of the day no matter the tag line, no matter the promotional tools, no matter putting in 40hrs a week into blogging, FB, and Twitter, or standing on the street corner at Sunset & Vine dancing with a cardboard arrow that says “buy my book”, the book has to be good. What sells a book faster than any of the above is the story.
I wish I could remember the name of this author, but it’s early and I’m sipping my coffee, the caffeine hasn’t gotten to the brain. This author started a blog, that was written from the view of young girls writing love letters to movie stars. The uniqueness of the idea attracted NYC. I read a couple of the post in a magazine, when the article was written about her. They were funny, cute and very cleaver. The site didn’t have a huge following, but a descent one, but it just took one agent to stumble on it, and suddenly she went from the obscure to a nice contract with a big house in NYC for a YA series on a character who writers love letters.
As JA Konrath has constantly said, its all luck and being in the right place at the right time.
Indie is tough, and getting tougher, for one reason, everyone is doing it. You have to write a story that shines above the rest, and there is no secret formula to that, it’s all luck and the hope to find the sneezers who will sell your book like a barker in front of a strip joint.
I disagree, Joanie…
You said:
“What sells a book faster than any of the above is the story.”
Not in today’s multi-media world. What sells stories is buzz! There has to be enough buzz and visibility and sneezing about your book before anyone even knows it’s there to buy and could turn out to be a great story.
What you’re saying comes into play on repeat buys.
In order to keep your readership that you’ve grown, that’s when you’ve got to make sure you’re writing great stories that keep those readers comin’ back for more.
But before readers come back for more, they’ve got to discover you first. No one knows to begin with whether or not you’ve got a story they’ll like. They have to find enough Sneezers to convince ‘em to give it a try.
And keep in mind, price can also be it’s own Sneezer.
Also, as far as luck…you’ve got to make your own…if you want a sustainable career as an Indie Epub Author.
I like the sneezing idea, especially since I’m rewarding myself with Contagion once my newest book is up and live. Like those old commercials about I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on , and so on, until the screen was tiny squares with people all liking the same product.
I’ve got Contagion on my must-see list too, Jill! Great reward!!!
And yes, Sneezing is exactly like the commercials you’re talking about! Perfect example!!!