An author recently asked me about marketing her book or her name to her readers. She has a few heterosexual erotic romances, one gay romance and for me, a BDSM romance. Flat out, I told her to brand herself, not her books first.
The thing I came up with several years ago as an author who wrote both erotica and erotic romance was to come up with two different pen names and split my site into two different sections. I had for those of you who followed erotica, a section that listed most of what I'd had published through Sizzler Editions at the time when Sensualities came out and then the Erotic Romance section that had my few eXtasy books titles when I was over at that house.
But then it went deeper when I came up with my other pen name and forgot that I was trying to write a different style of erotic romance, trying to push away the BDSM. Alexandria still wanted to dabble and even play the coy flirt in kinky-land. The problem was that at the rate I was writing, and the in
dustry being as new as it was, Sascha was still cranking out books much faster and doing a LOT better
It didn't work.
Not only did I have a definite split audience, I had a bit of a marketing problem No one knew that Sascha and Alexandria were the same person, which I sort of orchestrated that way. It gave me a way to work being a cross dresser into my image and get a little attention that way. I didn't think being a male romance writer would get me the sales and attention it has. I was young. And dumb...
I'm still pretty dumb honestly. That works for me.
The point is, in your marketing, unless you're really trying to differentiate styles, your voice is going to come through and the only thing that truly matters in this business is the sales. So we build our marketing up by branding ourselves. The thing is, if you drop a book in your respective genre and have done your homework of building the audience that reads and BUYS your material (family doesn't count, they almost never buy and friends are cheap too...) then they'll buy.
If you're writing speculate erotic fiction on one hand and Christian doctrine that goes against what you've written in the other field, yes a second nom de plum is probably a good idea. But if not, it makes sense to stick with the one pen name. In erotica and erotic romance, the reader base is not that different thanks to the E-book revolution. Women are openly more communicative about their sexual needs and desires from books, and there are plenty of publishers to fit the bill for just about anything a reader could want sexually.
And if you've done your homework, building the brand should be easy.
Sensualities - a Collection of short story erotica
Dark Traders - What if Vampires controlled the Stock Market?
I'd not thought of how an author brands his or her own name. It makes sense though.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a writer of erotica so it's not something I'd ever thought about, but it's extremely interesting to learn about the marketing of other genres outside of my niche. Great post!
ReplyDelete(family doesn't count, they almost never buy and friends are cheap too...) So, you met my family and friends already.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the amount of work in creating 2 personas. I started to write sweet romance after starting in erotica and realized- They are two very different readers and needed a second pen name ... harder than I thought.
I write romantic thrillers and literary short fiction, and find it practical and expedient to have one name, one brand, and one set of promotions to make - it's easier to promote myself as an eclectic author than to do two sets of publicity. None of my readers seem confused - those who like a thriller go for my novels, and those who like shorter more literary works buy my collections. Many try both, which is fantastic - there is room for experimentation, and fans are always willing to try.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. I have thought about a different nom de plume, but I have always written under this name. Seems to be allot of work to break the habit now. I think I will just stick with it.
ReplyDeleteK. A. Burton
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ReplyDeleteIt's hard to decide what to do with pen names and marketing. It really is. You have to do what is best for you. I wrote seven non-erotic Celtic/Romances before I wrote my first erotica romance which was a Steampunk/romance. I came up with a pen name for that - I thought it would be for any erotica books I wrote. I used my real name for the non-erotic Celtic/Romances but then I wrote an erotic Celtic/Romance and since I had branded myself as the Celtic Romance queen I ended up keeping my real name for all Celtic/Romances whether they were erotica or not and I kept my pen name - Maeve Alpin for all my Steampunk/romances whether erotica are not. It just sort of happened that way and I plan to continue with that split. So the split is based on Celtic/romance vs Steampunk/romance rather than erotic vs non erotic due to the Celtic/romance branding I had already done.
ReplyDeleteI think the best advantage to using a pseudonymn would be as a marketing tool. Want to be the first book on the shelf, or for that matter the last, simply use a last name that begins with A or Z. Want to be next to Dan Brown's books. Become David or Danielle Brown and voila your setting your position in the market. Although this might seem surreptitious, it is in fact clever. For what is in a name anyway? A rose is still a rose.
ReplyDeleteI'm having a hard enough time writing Inspirational and Edgy Inspirational, LOL.
ReplyDelete