Marketing Materials - Short Form, About You

8 September 2011, Marketing Materials - Short Form, About You

I realized that I need to introduce this blog a little.  I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon, the working title was Daemon, and this was my 21st novel.  Over the last year, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing.  In the commentary, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I use, the way I build scenes, in addition to other general information on writing.  You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published.  I'll keep you informed along the way.  At this moment, I'm showing you the marketing material I put together for a novel.

I'm working on the "short form" right now.  The short form gives you quick and terse words to describe yourself and your work.

Short form information: 

1.  No more than 3 sentences about the content of your manuscript.

Aksinya contracted the demon, Asmodeus to save her family from the Bolsheviks, unfortunately her family was already dead—now, who can save Aksinya.   

The demon, Asmodeus' purpose is to tempt Aksinya to accomplish evil.

Before Aksinya can gain her freedom from the demon, Asmodeus, she might lose her friends, family, and acquaintances, and it will all be her fault.     

2.  One sentence about successful works similar to yours.

The conceptual theme of Aksinya is similar to Faust, a story about a man who makes a contract with the devil. The difference is the main character in Aksinya did not intend evil through her actions and constantly attempts to find some means to break her contract with the demon.

3.  No more than 2 sentences about yourself. (use 3^rd person)

L. D. Alford is a novelist whose writing uniquely explores the connections between present events and history—he combines them with threads of reality that bring the past alive.   

Dr. Alford is a scientist and widely traveled author who combines intimate scientific and cultural knowledge into fiction worlds that breathe reality.

Authors need teasers too.  These are short pithy sentences about you.  If you read my long form bio, you will see the similarity and the reuse of some of that language.  The trick is that you want to produce continuity in the way you describe yourself and the way the world sees you.  In this regard, you are building yourself as a marketable commodity. 

 

You are your brand.  The way you describe yourself and the way the world sees you will broadly be the same--unless you already are a celebrity.  Just note that you are selling yourself as a writer, so you need to bring out your strongest and best qualities. 

 

Look carefully at the way I describe myself.  The first sentence uses my pen name and is all about my writing.  It isn't really about me--it is all about the way I write.

 

The second sentence uses my professional name and title and gives more information about me, but in the end--it is still about my writing.  In every case, I don't want my readers to be more interested in me than my writing.  The writing is paramount.  Since I write both historical and science fiction, you can see the reason for the two different focuses of the sentences.  If you write in one genre, you might have two sentences with the same focus, but that vary by the information they give and the way they describe your writing.

4.  No more than 2 sentences that include “other,” i.e. any reasons, relationships, or other factors that might make your work more attractive.

Tomorrow, we'll continue filling out the short form for Aksinya with commentary, of course.