Lessons in romance & branding
Romantic fiction and brand building
The gem cannot be polished without friction… (Chinese Proverb).
‘Sir’ was somewhat amused the other day to hear his Commercial Director’s need for a recent half day holiday.
Never one to knowingly undersell his first book (Immortal Harlequin: The Story of Adrian Stoop, Amazon £13.49), Ian explained “I now need to attend a ‘How to write Romantic Fiction’ workshop”.
“Ha, ha. No really, what are you up to?” enquired Sir.
“No. Really”.
“Gawd help us”.
And it seems like Sir wasn’t the only one unimpressed. Ian was almost kicked out of the class before it had begun, upsetting all before him.
“You are what? A published author?” enquired the Mills & Boon published veteran hosting said course. “On rugby. How very dare you. If you ever dream of saying that to one of our publishers, you can leave the room now”.
Er, ok.
Lesson no.1: Rugby. Romantic fiction. Ne’er the twain shall meet.
Lesson no.2: You can have an idea, you can have a title. You can have a beginning, a middle and an end (not necessarily in that order). You can have all of those, but in all probability you’ll still end up without any sales. And there’s the rub.
Two hours later and the dark secrets of writing successful romantic fiction were becoming clearer. Having a strong character that people can engage with is a given. But…Who? What? Where? When? What do they do? Why do they do it? What do they say? How do they say it? And why?…all go into the mix in creating a best seller. As do time, effort and courage of conviction.
Writing romantic fiction. Not unlike building a successful brand then.
Sir smiled. And Ian actually flogged a copy of ‘Immortal’. He’s still got it. Commercial acumen, that is. Not the ability to write a best seller.
Need seemingly endless, inane commentaries on rugby and romance? Ian can be reached on:
immortal@birddog.co.uk