Some Characters You May Want to Avoid

Writing is a business, and authors need to treat their writing life that way. You want to be known as you build your platform and your readership, but you don’t want to be remembered for the wrong traits. Here are some characters you may not want associated with for your brand.

This is the character who always has to be THE center of attention. He or she has complaints or snarky feedback about everything. Nothing meets his or her expectations or is ever up to snuff. He or she has to be in all the pictures, invited to everything, and have top billing. He or she should have the best seat at the the head table and given all the starring roles.

The Bore is the character who makes every conversation or email about him or herself. He or she takes full advantage of any audience and holds them captive with long recitations about themselves, their books, and their lives. He or she will hog the the mic and the spotlight at every opportunity. He or she always tops whatever anyone mentions, and his/her experiences are always better than whatever anyone else on the planet has ever done.

This character is a terror. He or she reacts in the moment, often without much thought, and demands to be heard all the time. He or she is loud, forceful, and burns bridges wherever he or she goes without regard to others’ feelings. People run and hide or give in to make this person go away.

The Leech looks for every opportunity to steer any conversation to him or herself. This is the person who comments on your promotional posts and adds a link to his/her book. He or she jumps on every bandwagon and pushes his/her way to center stage (even if he or she is not involved).

The goal is to get your name out there and to promote your books. But you also want to be known as the author who is easy to work with.