Office Hours - Brand Management in these times
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What’s News
Good news – My son continues to bake cookies
Sourdough success – Shoutout to Amy Duska at Little Spoon Farm for her Beginner Sourdough Bread recipe.
Summer Read-along for the Once & Future Series – Inside the Kettle Holler Literary Society
Weekly Topic – Brand Management
Disclaimer - Not claiming to be perfect or an expert on brand management especially in crisis times. Stating my ideas so that you can understand my take and maybe learn something of value to use in your own life, because how we manage ourselves on social media becomes our brand
Speak out or stay quiet.
Do I stick to writing fiction or speak out
Artists are citizens too and we’re citizens with a platform.
Why are so many artists on the left of the political spectrum? Empathy – To create art that resonates you must have empathy. And in the case of writing you’re relying on the reader’s empathy too. Whatever is written is still viewed through the lens of the reader’s experience
Will I lose readers/fans? Maybe, but some things are more important than selling books
The difference between politics and morals
I have black family. I have gay family – I will always stand up for them. And I will not apologize for it.
Responsibility of having a platform
Don’t be hurtful – JK Rowling Anti-trans tweetstorm
Why it’s surprising and how it is hurtful
Be Consistent
Previously an ally drawing a strange line – Feels like a betrayal
My books and race
Racial purity in Larachd an Fhamhair and why Sarah insists on pushing back – Not saying I created it as an analogy for that, but some may see it that way. This is why Sarah pushes back against those ideas.
The skinheads at the Celtic festival - There is a certain element among white supremacists that fetishize Celts and Nordic culture. I worry about them reading their own views into my books.
Never punch down – It’s fine to talk about issues, but don’t personally attack people especially if their platform is smaller than yours. That’s what bullies do
Anne Rice getting her fans to attack a blogger who wrote a bad review
Real leaders don’t punch down
Does this hurt the work?
The fine line that we walk – Write diversity, but don’t try to tell the stories that aren’t yours to tell, but it is important to be conscious of that
Daniel Radcliffe’s response
Key paragraph
“To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much.”
