Websites, tag lines, and titles, oh my!

PJ Sharon here today, and I’m asking for your help with some of my more immediately pressing concerns. First off, prioritizing my duties as an indie-published author and entrepreneur is challenging to say the least. There are many moving parts to this job and I wear more hats than guests at a royal wedding. While I await my second round of edits for WESTERN DESERT, I have time to work on my marketing strategy for the release next month. Priorities include scheduling a short blog tour, setting up an advertising budget for paid ads, a possible launch party of some sort, sending out press releases, and finishing my back cover copy and art. The list goes on, but sometimes, I just need to let my instincts take over and tell me what is most important for the day.

Of course, writing this blog is always on my Sunday to-do list—though it often falls over to Monday night at midnight—but today I was talking to my DH about a new website. Those of you who know me, know that I have talked about switching over to a WordPress site for my website and blog for at least the past year. Currently, I have a blog on Blogger and I have a website that I love, but it has some significant limitations. My Circle Pad site, which I pay the requisite $8.95 a month for hosting, has some quirks that make it not compatible with Apple products for one. Search engine optimization is lacking, and the interface, as user friendly as it is to work with, is antiquated and doesn’t stand up to today’s market equivalents. Even with all of that, I have resisted switching to WordPress because,

a.) I’m tech-phobic and,

b.) I can’t seem to make decisions about details such as colors, design, theme, or whether to go with .org or .com?

In a come-to-Jesus moment, I have decided to just suck it up and do it! No matter how overwhelmed I feel, the website change is a must-do. In forcing the issue, I have come to realize that part of what holds me back is that I still haven’t clearly identified my brand. I’ve gotten as far as to say, “I write romance fiction for teens and beyond,” but other than that I don’t really know what defines me as a writer these days.

This brings me to my second dilemma of the day:

Should I change my tag-line, and what should I change it to? My first three books, being contemporary YA romance with hopefully ever after endings fit fine with my “Extraordinary Stories of an Average Teenage Life” tag line. But now that I have added dystopian to my repertoire, “average” doesn’t seem suitable—not for genetically altered teens in a futuristic setting. There is still a romance, but the story clearly fits in the YA category of dystopian fiction rather than upper YA/NA stories. Romance readers are not necessarily sci-fi readers and vice versa, so I feel like maybe I need to change my image a bit to reach out to a broader audience. It occurs to me that maybe I’m having trouble pinpointing my target readership because I haven’t truly discovered my “hook”—that message in our style and voice that makes us unique and offers readers the promise of something different.

Once I understand what makes my stories extraordinary, and have narrowed down my tagline to who I am and what I write, then the web design should be easier. I also just finished taking an online web-design course to get me over my tech-fear, and DH has vowed to help me get set up on a WordPress site by the end of June when I launch Book Two in The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael, WESTERN DESERT.

This takes us to my third issue of the day, month, year…a title for the third book in the trilogy. Here are the parameters:

1) Title must be in adjective/noun format (Waning Moon, Western Desert)

2) It would be nice to keep with the “W” alliteration, but I’m not attached to that.

3) The title should reflect that Lily and Will are embarking on the final stage of their journey across a post-apocalyptic US. This time they are leaving Las Vegas and heading east along the southern route, which will take them through the Southern Swamps. (I already thought of that as a title but I think that would only work if there were a fourth book since this one will culminate in the final battle with the Industry and will take place in Chicago and then Vegas again. I do wish I had made it a series and not a trilogy…another lesson learned.)

4) Basically, I want a title that sounds catchy alongside the other two, is different enough to not be competing with a dozen other books by the same title, and one that metaphorically shows the shift to a hopeful ending rather than a title that focuses on gloom and doom.

These are a few of my ideas. I’d love to hear yours!

CHANGING/SHIFTING/RISING TIDES (you get the drift)
SHIFTING/RISING WINDS
STORM SURGE
HEALING WINDS

Thanks in advance for any help, advice, or suggestions!

Katy Lee’s at EPICon 2013 finding Her Voice

Hello all, I am writing this from my hotel desk in Washington State where I am trailblazing the wild world of e-publishing with professionals from all facets of the electronic publishing industry. I’m also up for an award for my first novel, Real Virtue, so that doesn’t hurt! We’ll find out the winners tonight at the awards ceremony, but of course, I’m just tickled to be nominated.

 
There have been hoards of info thrown at me in the workshops this week, from marketing specialist, Jennifer Fusco of Market or Die Author Services to doing a writer’s taxes…UGH! I could try to throw it all on you, but I won’t do that. Instead, I want to share one thing that really gave me a little peace in my heart about my writing.

 
I’m sure I’m not the only writer out there who looks at their favorite authors and wonders why I can’t write like them … right? I’m not, right? Please tell me I’m not.

 
Either way, I heard Editor Debra Dixon of Belle Bridge Books speak at the luncheon yesterday about understanding your voice, and I know I will never do her speech justice, but her words finally helped me understand why I will never write like my favorite authors.

 
Now I know it’s not anything I haven’t told myself, but the fact is I can’t write like them because I write like Katy Lee. She said our best writing comes from writing what we know, but not knowledge like many people think. She said the things we know are the experiences we have lived through and come out of. Each writer will be very different from another.

 
Now if we don’t know what those things are, just look at all your writing. What is the recurring theme or conflict that comes up in your writing? Do your stories always have some type of redemption premise in them? Or a character finding their place in the world? Or someone out to prove something about themselves?

 
That may very well be your voice. That thing that readers come to know you by.

 
Now I shouldn’t be so surprised. I recently spoke at a church where I shared how writing for me used to be more than escape. It was a way for me to be in control. I could create a character, give her the same conflicts I struggled with, and try to make her victorious. I say try because most times I couldn’t finish the work.

 
And why couldn’t I finish? Because as Debra Dixon pointed out, I didn’t have the experience to write what I know.

 
The Unlocked Secret: After today’s luncheon, I think I have found my writer’s voice. My inspirational stories follow the same patterns of victory. No matter how drastically different the story lines are, I can see the theme flowing through the work. But what gave me the peace in my heart had nothing to do with finding my writer’s voice, but everything to do with knowing if I could write about victory, then I must finally “know” victory. I can finally write what I know.

And even if I don’t win the EPIC award tonight, I did win the tiara at the luncheon yesterday! Yay! I’m all set to reign in victory!

 
Question: What do you “know” about in your writing? Compile all your work and start digging. You just might find your voice, too. And wouldn’t that be a huge victory!

And as always, Thank you for your Tweets and Shares!

Awkward Party of One

My name and graceful should never ever be put in the same sentence. In my head I’ve always wanted to be one of the sexy, stunning pin up girl types. One of those women who could lure a man from across a crowded room with just a lift of a perfectly arched eyebrow. You know the type, those women who could stop traffic just by walking out of building. I probably could stop traffic, but only by falling into the street.

Girl crush! Who I want to be in my head.

I’m clumsy. Terribly clumsy. And shy. I lack that flirting gene that so many women seem to be born with. I’m blunt, at times overly honest. You know that filter people seem to have? Mine’s malfunctions daily. I talk way too fast. Sometimes I don’t think before I speak. I can never manage to say the right thing at the right time.

I’m AWKWARD, though I do try to hide it, my lack of cool comes out at the most inconvenient  times.

I bought a brand new laptop not two weeks after opening it I dropped it then stepped on it.

I somehow got caught on a door at work and ripped my dress to shreds exposing my SPANX to the world.

Just the bottom of my broken laptop screen.

I walked into a parked car.
I always come home with random bruises on my hips and legs and arms, because I bang into desks and doors and walls. I have a knack for breaking my shoes when there isn’t a spare pair or a shoe store around for miles. (I’ve done this three times in the last two years.)

I used to lament my lack of grace. Hell, I still do. But I had a conversation the other day with somebody. I was talking about another writer that I know who is always kind and helpful and never has a bad thing to say about anybody. I mentioned that I wanted to be more like her. But that person told me that I shouldn’t want that. That I’m snarky and snappy and have a wicked sense of humor and that those things made me me and that shaped the kind of writing that I do. My awkwardness is how I got my voice.

You know what voice is, right? That thing agents and editors always say they are looking for when they are looking for the next big thing. Voice is that style, that attitude that tells the world who you are through your words.

So what’s my message in all of this? Embrace your awkwardness. It’s okay to snort when you laugh or trip over your feet. It’s okay to be goofy. Your individual-ness  can help to make your dreams come true.

So share with me. I want to hear about some of your awkward moments. Any and all comments are welcome.