What’s the hardest part about being a novelist?

For most people, at least according to the all-knowing Internet, the hardest part about being a writer isn’t coming up with good ideas, having the determination and patience to finish a book, going through the painstaking process of editing, or even finding a publisher. No, most novelists agree that the hardest part about being an author is…

Marketing.

Yep. In today’s world, even very successful authors with top publishing houses are expected to do a significant amount of work in marketing their books. You can find hundreds of articles and blog posts about how important it is to have an online platform and get the word out about your writing. Even the best book in the world, after all, won’t sell if no one knows it exists.

What many writers aren’t aware of, however, is something that I’ve learned as a Ph.D. student in – you guessed it – marketing. And that’s the importance of, and how to create, a personal brand. That is, a brand for you as a writer.

For those of you who haven’t taken a marketing class in a long time (yes – “never” is a long time), a brand is far more than a label on a soup-can. According to the textbook that I’m currently teaching from, a brand is “a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of these, that identifies the products or services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiates them from those of competitors” (Armstrong and Kotler 2013).

The two key points here are that the brand identifies what you’re selling, and that it differentiates what you’re selling. If you have a brand that does this, it will have what’s known as brand equity, or value. For a writer, brand equity means that your readers will understand what your books are typically like, how they’re different from other people’s books, and – most importantly – they’ll be more likely to purchase your book if they know that you wrote it, and they’ll pay more for your book than they would for a book with an equivalent title, plot, and cover design if it were written by someone else.

So how do you get a powerful brand with lots of brand equity? Well, we can start with the easy part. For any author, just like for any public figure or celebrity, your brand is going to be your name/pseudonym. Unless you happen to have a very common name, or share a name with a famous author, it won’t be hard to use that brand to identify what you’re selling. There aren’t any other A.L. Phillips’s out there who write books. (There is, unfortunately, an “Al Phillips” who runs a cleaning business, and eats up my Google results. However, people are unlikely to confuse our services.)

The more difficult part of branding is getting your name – and thus people’s perceptions of your writing – to be seen as different from what your competitors offer.

But how do you do it?

This is where having a bit of marketing knowledge comes in. The fundamental thing your brand needs to communicate is what unique value or benefit your customers (your readers) will gain from the goods/services you offer. For writers, this means that you have to consider who your target market is, and what common threads tie over across your books that will appeal to this market.

For instance, do you appeal to the hard sci-fi crowd who want books that are technically accurate and plausible? Are your books targeted at Anglophiles who love the grandeur and culture of Regency England? Do you target middle grade readers who need a fast-paced story, readers who want a “clean” book without cursing or adult material, or lovers of historical romance? Is your writing funny, gritty, beautiful, fast-paced, well-researched, honest, down-to-earth, or something else yet? The most successful brands are those that carry value across specific products – in a writer’s case, across specific books that he/she has written.

In my case, I write clean fantasy and science fiction stories that stem from a love of culture and sociology. There’s a lot besides those elements that goes into successful writing, of course. Round characters, technical accuracy, gripping plots, etc. are all necessary, but those wouldn’t distinguish my books from any other good books on the market. When I advertise my writing, I say that it’s important to me that my worlds, no matter how fantastical, have to be well thought out and feel real. I also say that it’s important that advanced pre-teen readers (or adults who prefer clean books) should be able to read good, rich stories written at a high reading level, yet still without inappropriate content. Knowing those things about my books helps potential readers know more about what they’re getting into, and gives them an assurance that future books I write will also follow this mold.

The classic way to formalize this unique value that you offer, and to wrap your own head around it better, is to create a brand position statement, or a value proposition statement. This generally follows the format of, “For [my target market], [my brand name] is a [product category] that [unique point of difference].” In my case, restating the paragraph above, “For young and adult readers alike, A.L. Phillips offers entertaining, clean adventures set in culturally rich, realistic fantasy and science fiction worlds.” Writing a brand position statement will help you tell other people what you do, and will also help you focus on what you do best.

The next part of developing your personal brand – and marketing it – is to conduct a SWOT analysis. Standing for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, a SWOT analysis is a classic business approach for understanding what a company/brand/individual does well, struggles with, what external factors are helping it/him/her, and what external factors the company/brand/individual needs to carefully monitor and be aware of. While a brand position statement is for everyone to see, your SWOT analysis is a way of helping you better understand who you are and how you fit into the larger market of writers. By understanding what you do well (and can focus on), what you do poorly (and should make allowances for, try to improve, or subcontract out), what opportunities you can take advantage of (for instance, local community events that you can be a part of, a market trend toward self-publishing or small-press publishing, or increased interest in young adult books), and what potential outside threats loom (for instance, increased competition, a bad market, decreased interest in vampire/werewolf books), you can plan for your brand’s future and maximize your chances of success.

A more detailed brand analysis would include identifying all of the common attributes that successful products in your area share that you need to have (e.g. strong characters, a good plot, good editing), describing your competitors’ brands, identifying what they’re uniquely good at and how they’re positioned, talking about how you’re distinct from these major players in the market, and so forth. But this is enough to get you started on creating a brand that is identifiable and differentiates you to your audience as the unique provider of value that you are. Good luck, and happy marketing!

If you’ve created a brand position statement that you’d like to share, or if you have questions or comments, leave a note below!

Every good writer needs good, strong characters, right? Of course right! (Kudos for those of you who get that character reference.) The best, strongest characters in books are the ones that carry with them a semblance of reality. Even if the story is set on another planet or in a realm of dragons, even if the character is a mage or a serial killer, these are the characters you can interact with emotionally – because they reflect the way reality could be (at least, if reality worked the way the author says it does).

The best way to create “real” characters, then, is to understand people in this reality. Only then can you create characters who will be believable in a different setting. To help with that, this week’s post will give a few snapshots of real people and real encounters that I’ve had recently – sort of a “Humans of New York” style post, designed to give a look into the characters that inhabit the real world. I hope you find them interesting, and perhaps even inspiring for your own work!

First character: a girl from China in her mid-twenties. She has a round face and a quiet demeanor, wears an unobtrusive light brown sweater and dark pants, and her black hair is cut simple and straight at the shoulders. As she listens to the conversation, she nods and says “mm-hmm” every few seconds to show that she understands what is being said.

The topic of conversation is customer service in different cultures. “I have a funny story,” she says in accented English. With several starts, stops, and seconds spent searching for the right words, she manages to convey the following: a few years before, she had booked a flight on an American airline company that regularly flew between Chicago and Beijing. After she had scheduled her flight, another company also began flying that route. In response, the company with which this girl had booked her flight changed not just the time, but the day on which the plane in question was going to fly.

“Because my English is not so good, I called the Chinese help line to reschedule my flight, because I could not fly out another day,” she said. “They told me that it was my fault for not making plans, even though I could not know ahead of time that another company would start making flights from Beijing to Chicago. They said they would not change my flight, and if I wanted to change, I would have to pay a large fee and buy a new ticket.

“Eventually, I decided to call the American help line in English. When I talked with them, they said the scheduling was all their fault! And they told me they were so sorry for the inconvenience! It took just one hour, and they gave me a new flight on the right day, and I did not have to pay anything, and they were so nice. So I learned to always call the English language help line.”

Second character: a friendly, wide-eyed gentleman from India. With a short stature, a vivid teal polo shirt, thinning black-gray hair, and a wide smile, he is quick to jump into any conversation with enthusiastic comments.

Upon hearing that it is common practice for American stores to accept returned merchandise, he looks at me askance. “Is it?” he asks incredulously. “That is something I do not understand.”

“You can’t return anything in India?” I ask him.

“No, of course not!” he says, emphasizing his words with sharp, vehement hand gestures. “Not anything. You buy it, it is yours. You cannot let people return things. If you let one person return something, then everyone will return everything! It would be bad business.”

Third character: a trim, middle-aged Caucasian professor who wears striped polo shirts and khaki shorts in the middle of winter, has a well-groomed gray beard and short hair, and bounces into class at 9am to teach statistics and research design to undergraduate and graduate students. He grins constantly, talks in a half-shout, and peppers his lectures with stories of adventure in South America and a large smattering of four-letter words.

“If you’re interested in three-way factorial designs,” he says, his eyes lighting up, “I’m teaching a unit on it this summer. It’s seriously cool s**t. It covers all the ways you could possibly want to set up and run one of these little darlings and not f*** it up. Which you will if you aren’t careful. It’s my absolute favorite class to teach.” He pauses with a sheepish grin. “I say that about all my classes,” he admits. “Whichever one I’m teaching at the time is my favorite. They’re just all my darlings. Anyway! We were talking about two by two factorial designs…”

Do you know anyone like these characters? Have you ever experienced a similar situation to the ones above? Post about it in the comments!

How would you describe yourself?

I am (a) _______, ________, and ________

 The answer you give to that question will immediately give a cross-cultural psychologist a huge insight into your entire conception of yourself and how you view life.

How, you ask? It’s simple. Did the three words you picked revolve around personal attributes (e.g. “I am a writer, I am artistic, I am tall”) or did they revolve around group memberships (e.g. “I am a daughter, I am a UNL PhD student, I am a church member”)? If you’re like most Westerners, your answers were mostly in the former category. This is because, if you’re from the US, England, or other European countries, you were raised in an “individualist” culture.

However, that’s not the way everyone in the world thinks. It isn’t even how most people think. And it matters. The alternative to an individualist culture is a collectivist culture. Individualist cultures tend to focus on individuals and their achievements, while collectivist cultures (think China) tend to focus on groups and maintaining harmony within them.

Unsurprisingly, books written by Western authors (e.g. American, English, Australian, and most European authors) typically approach characters, plots, and motivations from an individualist setting. As the world globalizes, however, and as we interact with, befriend, and write about other cultures, it becomes ever more important for authors to be able to accurately portray people not only from individualist societies, but from collectivist societies.

This week’s and next week’s post, then, will discuss and illustrate the differences between individualist and collectivist cultures, especially with regard to how individuals from these cultures might act and think in the setting of a novel. This week will discuss five basic questions that illustrate the basic framework as developed by Triandis (1989), and next week will give some examples of how an author might use this framework in their writing.

The rest of this post summarizes and discusses: Triandis, Harry C. (1989), “Cross-Cultural Studies of Individualism and Collectivism,” in John Berman (Ed.),  Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 41-133. Note that the following is a set of generalizations and universal statements that are actually far more complex than the summaries allow to be stated. Not all individuals from individualistic or collectivist cultures will follow these patterns.

Difference 1: What motivates individuals to act?

–          Individualist cultures: People’s personal goals shape their motivations. When an individual’s goals are out of line with a group’s goals, the individual is allowed (and even expected) to follow their own goals. Example: classic myths follow the exploits of individuals, who often disobey those in authority because of their own callings and desires, and are rewarded for it.

–          Collectivist cultures: A group’s goals shape individual motivations. If an individual’s goals are out of line with a group’s goals, the individual needs to change his/her goals and do his/her duty to the group. Example: a hero is tempted to neglect his duty to his family/the emperor, but resists temptation and is rewarded for it.

Difference 2: How is the “self” defined?

–          Individualist cultures: An individual’s public self and private self should be the same. Great value is placed on being honest and authentic with others – being oneself is seen as inherently good. Saying what you think, albeit with tact, is a character trait that is valued rather than looked down on. Example: A protagonist from an individualist culture might be brash, speak before he thinks, and get himself in trouble by what he says, but still be loved by readers for his honesty and good heart.

–          Collectivist cultures: An individual’s self is defined by how one’s in-group expects one to behave. Great value is placed on doing and saying what is expected, no matter what one actually thinks. Harmony within one’s in-group (such as one’s family) is paramount, and one does not wish to do, say, or be anything that would bring shame to other members of that in-group. Example: A protagonist from a collectivist culture might “do the right thing” by telling everyone that he is in favor of his daughter marrying a person he doesn’t like, and either try to change his own mind, or work secretly to keep the wedding from happening.

Difference 3: Who matters to the individual?

–          Individualist cultures: An individual belongs to many groups, and can pick and choose which to be attached to. Most often, individuals choose to remain closest to their immediate family. In addition, in the immediate family, the spousal tie tends to be the strongest, and trumps the tie of parents and children. However, there are a myriad of clubs, organizations, friend groups, religious groups, fandoms, etc. which individuals can join. Individuals choose which of these groups they want to invest their time and loyalty in, so as to maximize their personal happiness. Example: Our Hero joins a caravan that’s headed over the mountains. He may enjoy playing the lute with the musicians, gambling around the fire with the men, and fighting alongside the warriors to protect the caravan from raiders, but he is perfectly happy to move on and leave them behind when he gets to the next town.

• A consequence of this: An individual is defined in terms of his own self, not in terms of the groups he belongs to. If a group dissolves, the individual is unlikely to change his/her core beliefs and allegiances. Example: Our Hero’s caravan is attacked, everyone in it is killed, and Our Hero is taken captive by the wild men of the mountains. Our Hero will maintain his moral identity and sense of self until he can escape.

–          Collectivist cultures: An individual is emotionally attached to a few groups, which deserve his/her utmost dedication. One’s family, one’s work-group, and one’s neighborhood might all be vital parts of a collectivist’s life. Within the family, hierarchical relationships between parents and children are vitally important – even more important than between spouses. In addition, a collectivist may be callous, rude, or even brutal to people outside his/her in-groups – they are potential enemies, and are certainly not deserving of one’s time and effort. Example: Our Hero had looked forward to spending an evening writing poetry. However, his neighbor needs someone to escort her son to a neighboring town – a journey of several hours. It is Our Hero’s duty to do so, and he willingly obliges. On their way, Our Hero passes by a stranger whose cart has broken. He feels no need to stop and help; he would actually be neglecting his duty to his neighbor, her son, and thereby the entire neighborhood group, if he does so.

• A consequence of this: An individual is defined in terms of the groups he belongs to, which means that if his group dissolves, he is likely to be shaken to the core of his very being, and will need to find another group to become a part of. Example: In World War II, Japanese prisoners of war volunteered in good faith to become spies for the Allies, and did a very good job of it. They switched allegiances because they had saved their own lives against orders, and no longer were able to view themselves as Japanese.

Difference 4: What matters to the individual?

–          Individualistic cultures: An individual values freedom, achievement, enjoying life, ambition, and other similar values. Example: “I just want to get out of here and make my own way in the world!”

–          Collectivist cultures: An individual values equality, obedience, harmony/security, and other similar values. Example: “I just want to do what is expected of me, to increase the wellbeing of my family.”

Difference 5: How are members of other groups viewed?

–          Individualistic cultures: An individual is responsible for his/her own behavior, not for anyone else’s. Even if a person belongs to a group, that group isn’t responsible for his actions, and the individual isn’t responsible for the group’s actions. Acting otherwise is likely seen as prejudicial and nonsensical. Example: a civilian tourist doesn’t expect to be confronted about the policies of his/her government when he/she is out purchasing souvenirs. “Give me a break!” he says. “I didn’t vote for that bill. I’m just here on vacation!”

–          Collectivist cultures: An individual is responsible for the behavior of the entire group, and the group is responsible for its members’ behavior. At all times, individuals know that they represent the groups to which they belong. Even if they do not privately agree with the actions of their leaders, it is imperative that in public they act as if they do. Similarly, it is up to the leadership of a group to discipline and control the behavior of all of its members, or everyone will be shamed. Example: a civilian tourist knows that he is representing his country, so he takes care to dress and speak in an appropriate manner at all times lest he shame his people by giving a bad impression.

Again, these five questions and the answers to them are broad, sweeping claims based on experimental studies and psychological scholarship as found in Triandis (1989). They aren’t gospel truth, but as a writer, I believe they’re worth considering when we create and write about cultures that are different from our own.

How do your experiences match up with the framework above? Do you have favorite books or characters that come from a collectivist worldview? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!