The Power of a Name
By Guest | October 26, 2010 |
Therese here. Today’s guest is Kristen Lamb, author of the top-selling book We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. From her bio:
Kristen worked in international sales before transitioning into a career as an author, freelance editor and speaker. She takes her years of experience in sales & promotion and merges it with almost a decade as a writer to create a program designed to help authors construct a platform in the new paradigm of publishing. Kristen has guided writers of all levels, from unpublished green peas to NY Times best-selling big fish, how to use social media to create a solid platform and brand. Most importantly, Kristen helps authors of all levels connect to their READERS and then maintain a relationship that grows into a long-term fan base.
Impressive, no? One of the best-selling big fish for whom Kristen built a platform was author Bob Mayer. I’m thrilled she’s here with us today to explain an oft-dismissed but key social-media strategy: using your real name. Enjoy!
The Power of a Name
We are now part of the Information Age. Social media is being hailed as the largest cultural shift since the Industrial Revolution, and publishing is scrambling to make itself relevant in this ever-changing paradigm. Technology has opened all kinds of new publishing opportunities for aspiring writers. But, with increased opportunities comes increased competition; thousands and thousands of writers all clamoring for the reader’s attention, time and money. With so much competition, how can a writer hope to stand apart?
We create a brand.
How do we create a brand?
We understand the power of our name.
Social media is a tremendous blessing for authors. For the first time in history we writers exercise some control over our future success. We have the ability to build a platform of fans before we ever type a single word of a novel. Aside from the writing (content), the single most valuable possession an author has is her name. Nora Roberts, Stephenie Meyer, James Rollins, Stephen King, David Baldacci and Amy Tan all rely on their names to sell books. We are wise to take a lesson from the best. These authors are the designer brands of writing. Their name alone tells consumers the nature of the content and offers a certain promise of quality.
People dig brands. Most of us don’t have time to research each and every purchasing decision and thus, we as consumers, are inclined to rely heavily on brands. In fact, the more choices we have, the more prone we are to gravitate to who and what we know. Brands let us know what to expect. When we buy Nike running shoes, we expect a certain quality to go along with that name. We go off the name and do far less inspecting and road-testing than we would for a designer/manufacturer we’d never heard of.
Our big goal as authors should be to link our name interminably with our content for the purposes of selling books. Want to know the writer’s formula for success? Simple.
Your Name + Great Content = Your Brand
Produce enough good content and eventually readers won’t need to read every review about your latest book before they buy. They will trust your name and will pre-order your books because they have confidence you provide content that is entertaining, interesting, or informative.
Ah, but here is where I see the problem. Writers seem to love clever monikers and handles more than any other group. There is only one acceptable handle for a writer who seeks to use social media to build a platform, and that is the name that will be printed on the front of your books.
I can already hear the screams of protest and great gnashing of teeth, but I am going to save you a ton of hard work and needless duplicated effort. Most writers, especially fiction writers, cringe at the words marketing and sales. I don’t blame you. But we must always be mindful that the purpose behind all of this twittering and FB and blogging time is for one main purpose—driving sales.
Plain truth is this. Great, we get published. But, if we don’t sell enough books, we cannot quit our day job. If we fail to sell out our print run, we hurt our chances of another book contract. In order to do what we love–WRITE–we must learn to do what we hate–SELL. It doesn’t have to be as hard as a lot of people make it. If we will brand our name, then our name can do the selling while we do the writing.
This is why monikers will devastate your platform.
Readers cannot walk into a Barnes & Noble and buy a book by @FictionChik, @VampyreMistress, @Book_Luvr or @Dragon_Girl. By using a moniker, we make it difficult for potential readers to support us. They may love our on-line content, but we are making the consumer do research to find our name. This will cripple all our efforts for creating a brand.
Additionally, every time our name floats across Twitter or Facebook, it is like our very own advertisement. We need to capitalize on that precious “air time” by using the name that will be printed on our books. When we hide behind monikers, we undermine one of the most powerful marketing tools in our arsenal…the “top of mind.” Corporations spend millions to have their names repeated over and over so their brand can lodge in the mind of their potential consumer. Do your followers have the right name floating around their subconscious?
If you are currently using a moniker, there is no need to panic. Just change your usernames and send out a general message to your followers. You might have to settle for a variation. Your last name is most important because that is how a reader will eventually locate your book.
Time is precious, so you must make sure you maximize your efforts by focusing all your energies behind the name you wish to brand. It will save a lot of time for you and confusion for your fans. Branding the right name will help you work smarter, not harder. After all, you need time left over to write great books.
Thanks for a fantastic post, Kristen!
Readers, do you blog/tweet/Facebook under your own name? Ever consider doing otherwise? Why or why not?
Learn more about Kristen on her website or her blog, and be sure to check out her book, We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. Write on!
Photo courtesy Flickr’s David Paul Ohmer.
Many thanks to today’s guest.
You can read more WU guest posts by visiting this link.
I have always used my name and never a moniker. Since day one this is what I thought was the norm. I mean no disrespect to the people who use monikers.
Whenever I have searched for a book in a bookstore, online or in a friends collection, I have always searched by the authors name.
The logical next step for a potential author then would be to have their name prominent in the versions of social media they’re using.
Thank you for a great and timely post. Well said and so relevant!
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Daryl Sedore and Velocity Solutions, SFWA authors. SFWA authors said: Juliet Marillier: The Power of a Name https://bit.ly/d0iGBp […]
This makes me feel much better. I’ve always had second thoughts about using my real name, but now, I’m glad I did. Thank you!
“Readers cannot walk into a Barnes & Noble and buy a book by @FictionChik, @VampyreMistress, @Book_Luvr or @Dragon_Girl. By using a moniker, we make it difficult for potential readers to support us. They may love our on-line content, but we are making the consumer do research to find our name. This will cripple all our efforts for creating a brand.”
Perfectly said!
I completely agree with this post. That’s why I named my blog Author Brenda Sedore. I want that name to stick in people’s heads. Glad to know I was on the right track.
By the same token, if you use your real name, be careful what you say. Negative words on the Internet stay around for a long time. It’s important to watch what words get attached to your name. As you said, “good content”.
Thanks for a great post!
Haha, as a kid and teen, I loved “monikers” (or screennames) but as I got older, I honestly just didn’t have the energy to keep all my identities straight. That’s a lot of different sets of login info!! So I switched to using my own name, and I haven’t looked back since.
Also, I don’t want to make an assumption here, Kristen, but it sounds like your advice still applies / works just fine with pen names too. It doesn’t seem to me like you’re saying PEN names are bad, just not “monikers.” (i.e., Kristan Hoffman = OK, Kristina Huffster = OK, writergirlie = not OK.)
Weird. My moniker is @Fictionchick. It’s like you were writing this post for me. ;)
I set up my Twitter account 4 years ago, before I had any thought to writing seriously (other than blogging). My real name, however, is no secret, I don’t blog anonymously. But making sure that the name I want in print and the name I use everywhere else are the same is important. I see your point — and completely agree.
I have to admit the name is sometimes a strong incentive to buy a novel. I discovered “The Great Gatsby” asking myself: “What’s so great about that Fitzgerald fellow?”
I think the best example is James Patterson who turned his name into an industry.
Excellent post. :)
I use a moniker on Twitter, but my profile has my name there as well, so I feel like I’ve got all bases covered. :)
Also, I’m not sure that I *will* be using my name when I’m published, or if I’ll be using a pseudonym–so that can cause some branding issues too I suppose!
I’m glad you’re here on WU, Kristen. I knew it was only a matter of time. ;)
Kristen’s the reason I came out from behind my Tartitude identity on Twitter. To anyone considering the switch, I’d recommend keeping your old Twitter identity to refer people to your new one. If you get confused about the process, may I suggest a blog post I wrote after another of Kristen’s posts? It outlines the steps. https://cherrytart.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/twitter-identity-change/
Agreed! I hated my middle name as a kid (classmates were always asking if I had siblings named Moonbeam and Sunshine). Now I feel like it’s something unique to separate me from all the other Caroline Rose’s out there.
I decided early on to publish under my full name and make sure it is included on all my interaction on the web.
Fabulous post!
My blog gets a pretty decent amount of traffic and I do my best to respond to readers who leave comments and to connect with them on other platforms like Twitter or Facebook. It drives me batty when someone is tweeting as @luvstowrite, commenting on my blog as “Katie’s mommy,” and using Facebook as “Jane Doe.” I have no way of figuring out it’s the same person, not even if there’s a picture (I’m terrible with faces). As a result, I end up feeling like an idiot for not making the connection.
Tawna
When I started, I decided to sell my first book instead of my name, so my blog is called ‘Lethal Inheritance, a novel’s search for a publisher’, but I’ve been wondering about this. I figured that I’d change it to my name once I have that publishing deal. After reading this though, I’m going to get my own domain name and put my name on the title as well.
Thanks, it’s really good to be clear on this.
Monikers are fine for personal blogs or profiles meant to be seen only by your friends or by a group you don’t want (or don’t care to) know your real identity. But even now I use my name when doing writerly or library-related things, because even though, realistically, I am several years away from publication, I want anything I post to be connected to *me* in the off-chance that people like it. I need to produce more content besides scattered blog posts before I’ll be really successful at creating a brand, though.
Kristen–Hi, I have a question. Is there a max on the number of letters in a name?
Will a 3-part, 22-letter name be workable in social media?
Great, informative post!
On Twitter it won’t work. Too Long. Just focus on the last name. That is how people will find your book anyway. As far as a blog and FB, the length shouldn’t make a difference. But, ideally “McGoldrick” is what we need to have stick above all else.
Now if you have a name that is all consonants or sounds like it might be Klingon, there might be a problem, but I think you should be just fine :).
I hope that answers your question.
Kristen
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kristen Lamb and FunCityStuffGal, bjas. bjas said: @KristenLambTX RT Want to become a household name like Stephenie Meyers or Stephen King? Do THIS key step https://bit.ly/cPeSIU #pubtip […]
Thanks, Kristen!
You did answer my question!
Patricia
Thanks for this great post!
I sometimes speak to groups about blogging. I recommend that people (especially writers) use their real name, or the name under which they write, for the reasons you cite.
And there’s another reason: when you query an editor, agent or publisher, these days they Google you. If my best work is online under iwrite4u and I’ve sent in a query as Petrea Burchard, they’re not going to find me. If I use my real name, they’ll find me and all my best stuff. Worst stuff, too, so as another commenter pointed out, it pays to be nice.
You convinced me! Just changed my twitter ID from “bravebluewords” (my blog’s title) to “daniellemeitiv” Thanks!
Yes! Thanks Petrea for pointing that out. Using your name enhances your Googleability and these days that is becoming even more critical. There are agencies who will not accept a query from a new author unless she can demonstrate a solid platform. One way an author can show this is by dominatiing the name search, which I teach how to do in my book.