I’m on to the second assignment of ‘Blogging 101.’
Today’s assignment: edit your title and tagline.
Looks easy, doesn’t it? Nice and straightforward, 30 seconds and you’re done. Uhuh.
Not quite.
I first set the title and tagline when I started the blog, and hadn’t really thought about them since. Daniel G Rose – Aspiring Author . Technically it’s accurate. That is indeed my name, and I am indeed an author, of the aspiring nature. But man, is it boring. Seriously, be straight with me. Does that make you want to read one word more on the blog? Whatever brought you here, I’m betting it’s not that tagline.
Suitably frustrated, I thought I’d look at how other authors have dealt with this.
First of all, one of my favourite current thriller authors, Mr Lee Child.
Website title: Author Lee Child: Jack Reacher Novels. Tagline: The Official Website of Lee Child and JACK REACHER.
Hmm, okay… Does what it says on the tin. The man can definitely write a page turner of a thriller, but I guess when you’re a big name author you don’t need to worry about eye catching taglines.
I then turned to the website of indie authors Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant and David Wright. Now writing under the Sterling & Stone name, these three have published a frankly crazy amount of work over the last couple of years. When you visit their website, you’re treated to the title Welcome To Our Story Studio. And the tagline?
I’m Sean Platt, storyteller. I and my best friends, David Wright and Johnny B. Truant, share the world’s best job: We make stuff up, then talk about it.
Sterling & Stone is our studio.
Now, that’s a tagline I like. It explains what the site is about, whilst also hinting at the personality and enthusiasm behind the site.
I felt more inspired, but I can’t just steal that tagline. For a start, my name isn’t Sean Platt, so it wouldn’t really work. But I felt like I was finally on the right track. With a glass of single malt whiskey in hand, I put my head back to the task and reread the assignment.
If anyone served me a glass of whiskey with ice cubes in it, I would not be impressed
Look at the post you wrote yesterday. Why are you here? What will we find on your blog? Let us know in your tagline.
In the post in question, I wrote about how I was chronicling my experiences as I wrote and attempted to publish my first novel. I also said I was looking to connect with readers who would be interested in the kind of stories I write.
I’m not looking for ‘customers.’ I’m looking to connect with travelers and dreamers, thrill junkies and romantics. I want to write stories that’ll take people on a journey, and I want to engage with the kind of people who want to share that journey.
I like that paragraph, and had some favorable comments from others about it. Maybe I should try and incorporate that, I thought. However, I don’t want readers getting the wrong idea. Whilst what I said is completely true, the genre I’m currently writing is thriller. A reader expecting a straight forward romance novel will be sorely disappointed.
The end of this assignment turned out like a bad novel ending: inconclusive. For the time being, I’m setting my title as ‘Author Daniel G Rose’ and tagline as ‘Writing stories to take people on a journey, and looking for people to share that journey.’
I’ll be honest, something is missing, and I’m not sure what. It sounds messy. The ‘I want to’ part sounds wrong, but to say otherwise sounds presumptious, as though I’m guaranteeing my stories will take you on a journey. At this moment in time however, it’s the best I can do.
There’s still a possibility this story can have a happy ending though.
What do you think of my title and tagline? Have you any other suggestions? Let me know in the comments.