How To Attract Readers - Expert Advice From Jonathan Gunson.

Some time back I invested just over $30 in Jonathan Gunsons' 'BestSellerLabs'. It proved a sound investment. 

Here for once was a practical approach for authors that did not involve hours of watching videos or drowning in social networks. It inspired me to:

1. Remember writing was my main focus.
2. Do a little focused marketing and promoting every day.
3. Try my and evolve my own strategies.

Jonathan also sends regular posts to my inbox. I have enjoyed every one and always found something helpful, encouraging or downright inspirational. I asked if I could reproduce one of his blog posts and he kindly gave me permission to post the first third. You will have to go to his blog to read the rest! Here it is:

How To Attract Readers By Creating A ‘Lighthouse’ Author Brand

By Jonathan Gunson

May 8th 2013

Recently I’ve been watching with increasing dismay as one of my author friends rushes around, relentlessly trying to push her books in every single social media channel on earth, while hassling book bloggers, reviewers and online media to the point of exhaustion.

As well as turning herself into a social media train wreck, she also continues to ignore the most powerful selling force that’s staring her in the face.

You see, hidden behind the covers of your books are features unique to you that can create a memorable Lighthouse Author Brand, making yours the first books that come to mind when readers decide to look for something to read.

The fact is, an author brand is built by readers, not by you.  You cannot push it.

Instead, your brand is built by readers discovering your author identity while reading.  If your books have appeal, they’ll remember you forever, tell all their friends, and increasingly want more of you.

So I’m going to highlight seven tactics based on your writing to help establish a Lighthouse Brand in readers’ minds and grow your long-term readership.

7 Winning Ways To Spotlight Your Author Brand And Grow Readership:

1.  Create an overarching theme-tagline to wrap around your books

If you write individual one-off novels, you’ll have discovered a downside.  Without the addictive power of a series, it can be prove difficult in the early stages of your career to persuade readers to buy another of your books – even though your author name may be prominently displayed.

What to do?

A simple way to keep your novels top of mind is to create a distinctive theme-tagline that draws your books together under a single overarching identity, giving them a memorable point of difference that enhances your Author Brand.

Racy blockbuster author Jackie Collins, for example, has a tagline that I feel is a work of pure genius because of its tongue in cheek simplicity:

Jackie Collins’ winning tagline:  “She’ll keep you up all night”… 

If your tagline is memorable enough, it will capture a reader’s imagination and be quoted by them, adding fuel to the ‘word-of-mouth recommendation’ wildfire.  But it does need to be remarkable, meaning it has to be different, noticeable, and causes people to remark on it.

Examples of places where your tagline and graphic can be featured:

• Emblazoned on your book covers
• On the title page of your books
• In the blurbs about your other books at the end of each book
• In your Amazon descriptions
• As part of your Amazon author profile
• In your blog header
• In your Twitter background
• In your Facebook author page header
• As your email signature
• On paper book-marks that you give away

It can even be used to introduce your books when you speak – as a giant ‘slide image’ projected behind you, along with your latest book cover.

Eventually your author name itself will acquire the same meaning as the ‘tagline’. It’s all part of growing your Lighthouse Author Brand.

You can get your own copy of Jonathan's Best Seller Lab.  Just Click Here! and learn how to grow your readership on Twitter.

Jonathan is someone well worth listening to if you want start taking responsibility for promoting your book effectively.

ETO Is Now Available In Hard Copy

eto is a collaborative publication by Welsh author Phillip Stephen Rowlands and Ceri Shaw and Gaabriel Becket, the founders of the AmeriCymru Welsh-American social network and the West Coast Eisteddfod Welsh-American performing arts festival. 

Volume 1 includes work by Welsh poets Mike Jenkins, Paul Steffan Jones and Saul Hughes and Welsh and Welsh-American authors Lloyd Jones, Chris Keil, Phil Rowlands, Jude Johnson, Jean Mead, Glyn Scott, Thomas Morris, Gaynor Madoc Leonard, John Good and Gaabriel Becket