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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Taglines

by Rebecca Talley

Sheralyn Pratt, our public relations director at CFI, has been conducting online classes in an effort to help us learn how to best promote our books. The classes have all been useful and informative.

In our last class, Sheralyn challenged us to create a tagline that we could use in our marketing efforts.

For example, Wendy Paul, author of 101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 Minutes, has as her tagline: There's Always a Reason to Bake. It's simple, straightforward, and easy to remember. It also directly targets her audience. She uses it in all of her marketing campaigns.

Coming up with a tagline seems like an easy thing to do, right? Well, it's not as easy as it looks.

For a successful tagline it should be:

1. Specific
2. Simple
3. Easy to remember
4. Targeted to your audience

Once you come up with your tagline, Sheralyn suggests you attach it to everything: websites, blogs, business cards, ads, flyers, anything you use to promote your books. The idea is when someone reads your tagline, he/she immediately thinks of you.

Even if you write in different genres, you can still use a tagline.

I've written a YA novel and a romance, both targeted at the LDS market. My current work-in-progress is LDS women's fiction. Even though the books are in different genres, my target market is LDS so that's what I concentrated on. After many attempts, I came up with:

LDS Fiction Inspired by Life.

I've added it to my website and my blog and plan to add it to my business cards.

Here's a challenge for all of you: create a tagline and then post it to the comments so we can discuss it.

12 comments:

Susan G. Haws said...

Thankyou for addressing the tagline topic; I have been curious. How does "Life is Magical", aimed at fantasy and children's fiction sound?

ali cross said...

I have one I'm happy with! "Sci Fi and Fantasy that transcends the Ordinary."

What do you think?

Great article Rebecca!

Susan G. Haws said...

Thank you for addressing taglines as I have been curious. How does "Life is Magical" sound for fantasy and children's fiction?

Rebecca Talley said...

Susan--I like it. Jeff Savage, who writes MG fantasy, has a tagline, "Find Your Magic," which directly relates to his chracters finding their own magic inside themselves. I would guess from your tagline that your characters find that life is magical in some specific way.

Ali- definitely tells me what you write. I like it. And, DD would certainly transcend the ordinary fantasy story, right?

Anyone else?

Tanya Parker Mills said...

Nice challenge, Rebecca. After trying several out, googling them, and rolling them around on my tongue, I came up with:

Fiction that bridges cultures.

My first novel certainly fits in the multicultural category, and the one I'm working on now focuses on the culture of the learning disabled trying to get along in so-called "normal" society.

Tanya

Janette Rallison said...

What a great topic. I'm drawing a complete blank. For my emails when My Fair Godmother came out I used: Find some magic, but that seems to be a well used tagline, doesn't it? Hmmmm.

Rebecca Talley said...

Tanya--I like that. It's specific and simple. I like that you're writing a book about learning disabilities.

Janette--I would include humor in your tagline because you're so good at writing humor. Maybe something like: Fiction that Tickles Your Funny Bone or Fiction with a Laugh or Laughter is the Best Medicine--you know, something way better than those that incorporate your humor.

Laurie LC Lewis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laurie LC Lewis said...

Great post, Rebecca! I'm thinking hard on this one. . . I've tried this before with little success. I'm thinking. . . I'm thinking. . . Kudos to Cedar Fort for all they're doing to help their authors!

Susan G. Haws said...

I apologize about duplicating. I didn’t think it accepted the comment the first time. I really like everyone’s tag lines; everyone is right on target for their audience. I am working on a preteen fantasy novel and have children’s stories I want to get back to editing and writing. I want a tag line that is positive and implying adventure, magic, fun and fantasy to cover a variety of books.

Rebecca Irvine said...

I love this idea, but get a bit concerned my tagline my limit what I might want to write about. For example, I think the tagline, "Scriptures well taught" works great for my first two books. But my third manuscript I am wrapping up is not about scriptures--so what do I do? Hmmm...

C. Michelle Jefferies said...

I write three diferent genres but my spec fic is the prominent one right now. I have thought about this for weeks seeing that this blog was weeks ago.

The tagline that HIT me last night just before I went to bed is:

Speculative Fiction adventures from around the world and beyond

What do you think?

I think my romance womens lit would be something along the lines of:

Womens fiction that addresses the hard topics.

My paranormal? hmmmmm thats a hard one. Probably along the lines of:

A vampire world with a twist. OR
Not your ordinary vampires.