Happy May and welcome to Spring! It’s my favorite season of the year because of all the green (my favorite color) and the sense of a fresh beginning as things come alive.
But I didn’t spend “winter” twiddling my thumbs waiting.
As a writer, I’m always growing and learning, especially about marketing. And in the past couple of months I’ve attended quite a number of conferences and writer chats both online and in person.
One thing that kept coming up in practically all of the content was the question of who am I as an author in order to define my “brand.”
So, as suggested by one of the teachers, I asked AI to do a little research. Who is Candee Fick as an author and what kind of books does she (me) write?
According to the results, I write heartwarming, hope-filled Christian romance. Across all my series, there is a pattern of an underdog as protagonist, a community that is central to the story, real-life problems instead of sanitized ones, emotional reunions and second chances, plus a faith that is woven in instead of bolted on.
In other words, “Candee Fick writes heartwarming Christian romance about wounded underdogs who find healing, belonging, and love through faith and community.“?
Nice. But that’s kinda long, so I asked about my current tagline of “Stories of Faith, Hope, and Love”… only for the bots to honestly say that’s sorta generic and could apply to dozens of Christian romance authors. Ugh.
So I of course challenged the computer to come up with something better. Sharper. More focused on what I uniquely offer. And these were a few of the options:
?”Where the overlooked are found, the broken are healed, and the lonely belong.”
?”For the broken and overlooked, hope has a home here.”
“?A world real enough to visit. Stories true enough to heal.”
“For the wounded heart that needs a place to belong.”
?But let’s circle back to that initial question.
Who am I?
I am a child of God.
There are so many layers to unpack there because being a child implies love, forgiveness, protection, provision, care, and a future inheritance.
Plus if I keep my personal focus on this true identity, it gets so much easier to ignore the distracting lies of the enemy trying to get me off the right path.
The label of “child of God” means so much!
Now, back to where we started and I’ll get to the point of all of this.
My author brand implies a promise to you, my readers, about what kind of stories you’ll get from me. And it gives me something to focus on instead of getting distracted by the next creative idea or marketing tangent.
But I’m too close to my work to know what’s really true.
So, that’s why I need your help!
If you’ve read one or more of my books, would you agree with AI’s assessment? Which of the above taglines seems to fit best? And even if you haven’t read one of my stories, which of them would make you WANT to find out more? (Or do you have a better idea for me to consider??)
Just head to my Contact page and shoot me an email with your thoughts!
