It is true that you have to change with the times. It’s also true that you have to change with yourself. Lots has changed in my life over the past several years, but the professional changes have been the most confusing. So I recently asked a pr firm to help me navigate my way through the choppy waters of today’s  book selling industry. Notice I have said “book selling industry” and not “publishing industry.” I am very lucky to have been picked up by the publisher, Ward Wood, who is happy to publish both my fiction and poetry. They also, despite their relative youth and small size, do more promotion than most. Nonetheless, selling the books you do get published is a very hard nut to crack and, let’s face it, selling and reaching readers is what publishing is all about. I think sometimes writers forget that and think that signing the publishing deal is the goal. No, alas, it’s not. It’s just the beginning.

There is a terrible word out there now that we all have to embrace as long as we aim to sell our books or anything else: branding. Any honest writer will tell you that in order to develop their readership, they have to endure the process, one way or another, of becoming a brand. That is really what I had wanted help with. What does that mean? How do you do it? And, my God, how much social media can one planet accommodate?
    Creating a brand for yourself is creating a persona. It is who you want the world to see. There are writers who reject this and say they won’t take part. But that in itself is a way of creating a brand. As long as we write for others, we become visible to the public and open to their perceptions of who we are. Actually, whether we write or not, we all do that. The thought of it can be rather distasteful, but I’ve used the necessity of it to look at who I am now as a writer, where I am now in my career, and what I want my readers to see of me. That has led to changing some things and keeping others the same.
    Will I change the denim jacket I wear in my head shots to a Chanel suit? No. Will I neglect to change my photos for years with the outcome being I haven’t aged in a while? Well, yes — but some of that is about money and laziness as well as a need to remain youthful, if not actually young. Will I change the tone and substance of my blog? I’m not aware of having done that too much over these past four years, but I may have and not been aware of it.
    But the tone and substance of my writing has changed, to be sure. My subject matter has broadened and absorbed me into it. And it’s time for me to reflect that in my brand. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I unveil to you today my new website. The url is the same, but the look is different, the tone is different, the purpose is different. Take a look, please. What do you  think? (Ps: In case you think there are mistakes or something missing, there are some changes still to be made, but I got tired of waiting to tell you about it.)
    The PR company called Authoright helped me create this. And they also showed me how the purpose of the website had needed to change. In today’s market an author’s site should be fairly static and showcase their collection of work. The website is very important. It is your primary on-line presence, your business card, of sorts. But get this:  when it comes to interacting, updating and propagating new information, it’s more effective to do so through the Facebook Page. Facebook has become the most efficient way to “meet” your readers and encourage them to stay connected with you as an author, and thereby, remember you when a new book gets launched. And so, I am dutifully directing people to my Facebook author page — which is different from my personal page — and trying hard to keep it updated as regularly as possible.

Whether all this actually leads to an increase in sales, I don’t know. Actually, my appearance on Radio 4’s Excess Baggage the other week only seemed to produce a sale of one book, so far. But I suppose this is all a sort of investment in the future. The more I write, the more people will remember my name and be interested in what I write. But of course, that means I have to keep finding the time to write, which is, indeed, another story. Don’t get me started on that one….

Times are indeed changing, my friends. Whether we like it or not. Tweet Tweet.