Saturday, at my book signing at
Bread of Life Christian Bookstore in Greenville, Ohio, a reader came up and
asked if I am a Christian Writer? I said, “I am a Christian. That flows through
everything I write and do.” He said he has a pastor friend who writes and doesn’t
want to be identified as a “Christian Writer” – just a writer. I wondered how
that could possibly work for him.
Who your readers know you to be,
is your “brand.” Even the font on your book titles and your name on the covers
of each books, are part of your brand. Readers begin to recognize you in a
variety of ways.
If you write a book about an in-depth
study of the New Testament book of John, certainly readers should recognize you
as a Christian writer. If you are writing a seven-book series, whose central character
gets home from Afghanistan only to lose his job and family, who sinks into
depression and then relies on the strength of friends, family and church
community, you are still true to your brand. Maybe, you have started writing an
unlimited series about super heroes who use their powers for good, to save the
world from the evil forces that have risen from the underbelly of the world. Perhaps
they fly through the air or tunnel underground by the sheer strength of their
fingernails, that’s all good, if their morals are true and pure.
What if you also write YA books
on the Adventures of Slush Bucket, the Avenging
Vampire, who is only interested in satisfying the appetites of his own
perverted self, and those round him must suffer their own loses when they are
near him? Now, you have a real problem
with your brand. If there is some redeeming quality that can be found in the
vampire stories, if you must write them, at least use a penname. If the
saving-grace of the blood-sucker books is only the royalty check, you may want
to rethink that series. There is always someone who will write the long
missives that tarnish the soul. That may not be for you. Or, assign that
writing to an alter-ego and, at the very least, help them discover some goodness
in the stories.
Your brand should be creatively dependable.
When a reader buys one of your books, they should be able to trust you to not
betray them. Decide who you are and then write from that voice. Use as much
humor as you can, as much drama and adventure as you can create, and as much
inspiration as you can draw on.
Once, when I had disappointed my
sixth-grade teacher, she asked me, “Who do you think you are?” I made it my
task, at the age of eleven, to be able to answer that question if I were ever
asked again. “I am a child of the Living God, a sister and follower of his son
Jesus Christ, a wife and mother, an author and psychologist.” It would be
impossible for me to write anything beyond the bounds of who I know myself to
be.
When I was asked to write a short
story to be included in the Christmases
Past collection with editor, Anne Baxter Campbell, I didn’t have to think
long. HHP is a Christian Publisher and Anne is a Christian author. I knew I
would fit right it. My story, Christmas
Feathers, will appear on Amazon as a stand-alone short story very soon and
will then be combined in the collection toward the holidays.
When you know who you are, you
will know your brand. Your brand will not confine you. It will liberate you to
claim your voice and speak for the God you believe in, in all the stories that
come to mind. Or, you will write about the gods you cling to. Which will it be?
Doris
Copyright Doris
Gaines Rapp 2014
