Building Your Brand with CJ Lyons Part 1

Bestselling Thriller Author CJ Lyons had some fantastic seminars at the Pennwriters Conference. She was kind enough to let me share her handout from her Branding Workshop. You can find her (absolutely fabulous) writing resources at her website No Rules, Just Write! 
If the ideas in the handout are helpful, there's more on this in her Break Free from the Slushpile e-book.

How to become a Bestseller and Preserve your Sanity


CJ Lyons
There are tons of places debut authors can find information on building a brand or platform--so many that it's often overwhelming. It's easy to feel like all you want to do is hide in your hermit cave and write the next book.

No worries--even I feel like that most of the time!!! You see, I'm an Introvert and my strength comes from my ability to sit alone and focus, get the job done.

I can put on a "party face" when needed, but it takes work and a lot of psychic energy--so much so that often for days after a convention I can't write.

Now, Extroverts--they usually don't need any help with promotion, they're walking/talking promotional powerhouses. Which can be a good thing as long as they learn to channel that energy and focus on the real work: writing the next book.

Because here's what I'm going to tell you that is different from all the other how-to-promote advice for debut authors:

Number one thing a debut author should do to promote their work and build their career? WRITE THE NEXT BOOK!

Number two thing? WRITE THE NEXT BOOK!

Number three? Repeat after me….WRITE THE NEXT BOOK!

Okay, you guys got that. Now, what else should you be focused on while preparing for your debut?

Most how-to posts will give you a checklist. In fact, I have a pretty good one that I wrote a few years ago called Birth of a Book: What to Do While You're Expecting. It's a pdf and you can download it here http://cjlyons.net/extras/for-writers/

But I'm not going to give you a checklist here. Instead, I'm going to tell you to ask yourself three questions.
Here we go!

1. Why did you write this book?



2. Who did you write this book for?



3. What are you willing to do for this book?



Dig deep with your answers! Why? Because the answers will frame your entire marketing strategy--and make it a custom fit tailored to you and your readers!


(I'll post Part 2 tomorrow, where CJ tells you how to use the answers to these questions.)