Friday, October 12, 2012

Every Other Friday - Jennifer Fusco Interview

Jennifer Fusco is the Creative and Brand Manager for the General Electric Company, North America, and the author of the Amazon.com bestselling series, Market or Die, marketing books for writers. 

A three-time winner of the Advertising Excellence Award, Jennifer has launched successful national print and digital ad campaigns. 

In her writing life, Ms. Fusco is a member of RWA’s PRO network and serves as the President of the Connecticut Romance Writers. She has completed two urban fantasy romance manuscripts and is a monthly contributor to the Romance Writers of America’s RWR Report.

Tell me about Market or Die. 
Market or Die is a series of books designed for Authors to learn how to market their work. There are three books in the series: Sensible Brand Building Advice for Writers, How to Use the Power of Your Brand, and Integrated Marketing Plans.

What drove you to write Market or Die? Who did you write it for? 

 Initially, it was suggested to me to write a marketing book by Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. She attended my marketing presentation at the Connecticut Fiction Fest writer’s conference and said I had to share my knowledge with others. Market or Die took about a week to write. I wrote it fast because I knew my subject matter. I’d been giving marketing presentations on brand for quite some time.

What were your biggest obstacles? The self-publishing process as a whole. I would have loved to turn over the content to someone else and let them do the formatting, proofreading, cover design, etc. Self-publishing, to me, is a time-suck. And, I’m time constrained as it is. I don’t have any plans to self-publish anything for a while, unless I have to.

What are your productivity tips? As I said, I’m time constrained. I may only have 8 hours to write per week. THAT’S in a seven-day period. But, when I’m not writing I’m constantly thinking about what I will write when I get to the PC. I plan the scene in my head. I know all the major points I want the chapter or scene to hit. I don’t plan it out too rigidly so that I can’t be creative and not be able to go on a “roll” if one strikes. Because I have limited amounts of time, I know how important it is and I’m certain not to waste it.
P.S. – I’m also quite fond of the “bagel” word placement technique.

Do you have any questions for me?
Can you give me some good writing exercises to speed up my time at the computer?

Exercises to build your speed? Sounds like a topic for a future post!




12 comments:

  1. Okay, I'll bite, what's the "bagel" word placement technique? (pun intended!)
    You are a master, Jen!
    Keep those marketing for authors books coming!
    Stephanie Queen

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    1. It's a word to dump into your draft so you can keep your momentum. See http://howtowritefast.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html, near the very end of the post.
      Thanks for your comment!
      Peter

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    2. Thanks for dropping by Stephanie. So nice to see you here!

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  2. I've employed many of the tips from your market of Die series Jennifer, and I'm happy to report they are straight forward, easy, and effective. Thanks for all you've done for me personally and for writers as a group.

    I agree that self-publishing is a huge time consumer with its endless tasks and responsibilities, but it's also nice having control over every aspect of the project and very rewarding to get to completion stage and know that you've done a good job all on your own. I just wish the marketing and promoting didn't require so much time and effort--which for me is the much bigger time-suck:-)

    Best of luck on your publishing journey!

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    1. Thanks so much, PJ. Please let me know if I can be of help to you in the future.

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  3. Hi Jennifer,
    I loved the Market or Die series. So helpful in ways too numerous to mention. One of the things I loved most about it was that you took a complex topic and put it in simple terms. Thanks for your continuing efforts to help writers promote their work.

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  4. Where, oh where would we be without you Ms. Fusco. :) Great post as usual.

    And thank you Peter for all your writing fast techniques too. I look forward to those exercises to build speed!

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    1. We need those speed exercises, don't we. Thanks for posting, Katy.

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  5. Thanks Jen for all that you do, and for your great marketing savvy.

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  6. Market or Die seems like the book I'm looking for. I'm all over the place, and don't have a consistent "brand" message yet. I need to work on that.

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