Under Cover

 A buzzword in the business world is that of a personal brand. When we think of a brand, we think of a product that we know and we either trust or don’t trust. Maybe that brand has a unique taste or works really well at what it’s supposed to do compared to others in the same market. Whatever the case, that brand stands out. A personal brand is the same thing. In business a person stands out from others by their work ethic, their ability to make sales, connect with customers or clients, always be early to work, be enthusiastic, or other traits that help the company or fill out that person’s resume.  For authors, a personal brand is the same thing. There are about 40,000 books published yearly and while a saying goes “don’t judge a book by its cover” for things other than books I’m sure many are sold on the title and imagery alone. However, if an author wants to make a name for themselves, they must stand out from all the others. Yes, this could be accomplished by their work, but audien

 M y seventh self-published book (and eighth overall) is just about to go into global distribution and marks my first published novel. My first six books were non-fiction, and I was fortunate to be a part of an anthology with a short story published in the fall of 2023 by a small publishing company. My latest effort was marketed to literary agents as well as to a few small publishing houses with a little interest but not enough to push the book into the traditional route of publishing. My patience diminished and having the knowledge of the self-publishing route led me back to Lulu Press which is where I had published all my non-fiction works. Having already weighed many options I’ll share my thoughts about the pros and cons of self-publishing versus the traditional method. Every author dreams of having their book published by the big five, doing interviews on podcasts, book signings at bookstores and libraries, and of course collecting royalties on book sales and that Netflix series ba