Jess C Scott - Business Plan: Building Brand Identity (An Indie Authors Advertising Plan)

Other Books by Jess C Scott

EYELEASH: A BLOG NOVEL

4:PLAY

(a contemporary cocktail of erotic shortstories)

THE DEVILIN FEY | WICKEDLOVELY | NEW ORDER

(novellas in 4:Play)

PORCELAIN

(writing + illustrating portfolio)

THE INTERN

(upcoming Sins07 series / Fall 2010)

THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE

(upcoming cyberpunk/urban fantasy series /Fall 2010)

Business Plan

[Building Brand Identity asan Independent Author]:

Jess C Scott

Jess C Scott (pen name) / Jessica Chua(student ID/legal name)

Adams State College

BUS 345 Advertising

March 18, 2010

BUSINESS PLAN: BUILDING BRAND IDENTITY

Published by Jess C Scott / Smashwords Edition

www.jesscscott.com

Copyright 2010 by Jess C Scott.

Cover Art 2010 MicrosoftCorporation.

Book Design byJess C Scott.

All rightsreserved.

First Edition:July 2010

ISBN1453711155

1. Reference /Writing Skills

2. SocialScience / Media Studies

3. Business& Economics / Marketing

4. Business& Economics / General

5. Business& Economics / Entrepreneurship

6. Business& Economics / Advertising & Promotion

Summary: My final project for a businessmodule, on establishing my brand identity as an independent (indie)author. This plan also shows the opportunities that independentpublishing offers, which traditional publishing does not.

Table ofContents

1.0 Executive Summary

I write contemporary novels under the pen name ofJess C Scott. This advertising plan illustrates my marketsegments and the strategies I am employing to establish my personalbrand identity as a talented and capable independent (indie)author, such that I am well-positioned enough in the market toattract both loyal and new customers, and create a solid revenuestream from writing fiction.

I will be focusing on developing my brand identity(inclusive of my author name, and the books associated with myname), by keeping to a rigorous schedule of creating new books andutilizing online social media to get the word out concerning mybusiness, and the products I offer. Increasing consumer awarenessof the brand will initially be of a higher priority than actualsales figures. In the first 3 years of the business, I expect mybusiness to be a self-sustaining model. I expect my books sales tobe consistent, and my brand identity to be established such that Ican eventually (over the course of 5-10 years) achieve my goal ofmaking a living from writing fiction.

Contact Information forOrganization:

Jess C Scott (key personnel)

E: missfey@gmail.com

W: http://www.jesscscott.com

1.1 Overview

In this plan, I will be covering key pointsof the current publishing industry, and examining the factors thatdrive and determine the market for my products. I will show theopportunities that independent publishing offers (also known asindie publishing), which traditional publishing does not. I willbe presenting a competitor and market analysis, before showcasingthe most appropriate budgeting method for the media strategy Iintend to use. This will be followed by an expected sales forecast(over a time span of three years), as well as a section on how Ijustify proposed expenses and evaluate whether my plan has beensuccessful.

Jess C Scott is a small business with veryfocused aspirations. By utilizing the power of new media and theinternet, Jess C Scott is able to directly (and promptly) bring tothe market unique books that stand apart from the cookie-cuttercommercial books churned out by the publishing industry (which takean average of 12-18 months to actually hit the market). Accordingto Doug Grad Literary Agency, whose founder spent twenty-two yearsas a senior editor at four major New York publishing houses:

Publishers, unfortunately, have a copycatmentality, so once a genre gets hot, they quickly overbuy andover-publish until the marketplace is saturated and the public getssick of the rotten imitations on the shelves. Look at what happenedto the Chick Lit genre, and is happening to the Young Adult Vampiregenre right now. (Grad, 2010)

The team is comprised of one unique,multi-talented, driven individual: Jess C Scott. I am not only anauthor, but an artist (I design my own book covers plus artwork forpromotional material such as book trailers), marketer, editor,publicist, accountant, and web designer. I have incorporated mydesign hobbies into my writing endeavors, which saves costs as Iwork on developing my brand identity as an author.

My brand identity began to formprofessionally with poems and short stories being published in adiverse range of online and print publications. The genres I writein range from mainstream fiction, to speculative fiction,paranormal romance, young adult fiction, new media (such as blog/IMnovels), and anything that strikes my fancy.

I have kept to a corporate culture ofintegrity, originality, innovativeness, and non-conformity. This isbecause of my tendency to not mimic what is currently popular atany given time. I also believe that high-quality products willstand the test of time, and this value associated with my brandidentity, in time, will provide me with a competitive sellingedge.

Critical moments include the occasion Igained the attention of a young adult acquisitions editor. I madethe mistake of spending 6 months discussing revisions to mymanuscript, before he left for another publishing house. The lessonI learned from the mistake was to keep writing new material, and tobe productive instead of worrisome. I also learned that indiepublishing would be a better option if a book is truly too radicalto be accepted for publication by a mainstream publishinghouse.

Successes include two blogtours completed for my first two books, EyeLeash: A Blog Novel, and 4:Play: A Contemporary Cocktail of Erotic ShortStories, which helped build credibility andattribute a certain level of professionalism to my brand identity.I attracted buyers with a fixed selling price of $4.99 (e-bookversion). Another success includes increasing brand exposure byutilizing the promotional tools provided by Smashwords.com, anindependent e-book publishing platform. I have also taken advantageof some of the features provided by Amazon.com (their Kindlee-publishing platform, and tag options), to increase my productsvisibility on the market. My second book, 4:Play , hit #25 on an Amazon Kindlebestseller list in January 2009 (under the Social Sciences >Popular Culture category), and approached the #10,000 ranking inKindle sales overall. 4:Play also appears as Amazons #2 book in the EroticaBooks forum. EyeLeash was nominated for Best Books of 2009 at Goodreads, andappears as Amazons #1 book in the YA Issues forum onAmazon.

Failures include an overestimated projectedamount of sales during the first yearly quarter. I have experiencedsetbacks from feeling overwhelmed at hoping to stand out amidstcompetition, both from other independent authors and fromcommercially published authors who are associated with big-nameliterary agents and NYC publishing houses. Due to my occasionalinternalized negative feelings, my productivity and word countoutput were temporarily affected.

However, I have also used failure as astepping stone to success. It is through setbacks that Ive craftednew methods of scheduling and writing for myself. I managed tocomplete my latest 50,000-word novel in a relatively short amountof time, after developing an extensive outline for the book (whichI adhered to). It is also due to the initial setbacks (ofunderstanding that my original material was not commercial enough),that led me to create works that are more mainstream, which couldhelp me gain a wider readership.