Marketing | Author William Fietzer

One fantasy convention down and another to go (Multiverse in Atlanta, Oct. 20-22)! As another part of an informal series on authorship and writing hacks, here are five tips for power panelists that make panels work for them and their audiences.

1. Be Prepared

Five Tips for Power Panelists This one seems obvious, but involves more than mere familiarity with the subject. Too often, fantasy writers view a topic through their individual lens. That can be illustrative, but such a narrow focus may not apply to all varieties of fantasy or science fiction. Power panelists realize the differences between writing low or high fantasy, for example, or young adult and middle-grade, are quite distinctive and engender differing perspectives on the nature and focus of writing fiction for their audiences.

How to address this? Acquire some familiarity with the work of your fellow panel members breeds respect and cooperation in your discussions. Cultivate some knowledge of your fellow panelists’ perspectives by checking out their website or emailing them for their opinions before the event.

BTW, being on time and staying on topic helps, too!

2. Consider Your Audience

Five Tips for Power Panelists This tip elaborates on what appears above. Just as writers slant their stories to the values, interests, and expectations of their readerships, power panelists direct their responses toward the topic at hand with their audience in mind. Does it consist primarily of writers or academics? Or is it composed primarily of readers and fantasy fans?

In most instances, it combines both. Therefore, power panelists keep their participation in the discussion on a level available to everyone. Don’t delve into fantasy trivia or writing esoterica unless the audience indicates they wish to pursue the topic more deeply. Most importantly, power panelists aren’t condescending to them or their fellow panelists.

3. Encourage Audience Participation

Five Tips for Power Panelists For some panel members, this tip may contradict the concept of a panel discussion, i.e. a discussion among the members of a panel. Regardless of that, some of the best discussions I’ve witnessed resulted from questions or observations contributed by the audience. If a topic is provocative enough in itself, or if the panel discussion of it is sufficiently free-flowing and involving, such discussion conduces a dialog between the panel and its listeners. Not only does such involvement measure a power panelist and a panel’s success as entertainers, it liberates creative ideas panel members may never have considered.

4. Set Limits to the Discussion

Five Tips for Power Panelists This point may be in the convention guidelines, but it bears repeating. Power panelists respect the ideas and beliefs of all participants, panelists and audience members alike. To facilitate that respect, the moderator should lay out the ground rules before the start of discussion. Most often, that means reigning in those individuals whose enthusiasm for a particular topic overwhelms their inhibitions and consideration for others.

One method to establish control: agree upon an absurb or nonthreatening safe word like “sandwich” at the beginning of the discussion. tactfully subdues an overzealous panelist or audience member who overextends his or her say on the topic under discussion.

5. Keep Things Short and Simple

This last tip harkens back to the first. Kristen Arnold of “Panelist Do’s and Don’ts” recommends introducing yourself in two or three sentences. She advises to “Be ready to support your points with concrete examples and crisp, concise stories that humanize your message and drive it home.” Easier said than done, but striving for brevity this way enables power panelists to set the conversational tone and identifies themas someone whose contributions are worth a listen or writing them down!

Summing It Up

Serving on a panel or being a moderator can be a tricky thing. Power panelists know having a discussion with people they meet just before taking their seat at the podium can be nerve-wracking. Such unfamiliarity makes having a natural and free-flowing discussion difficult, much less informative or entertaining. However, following these five tips should make involvement in such discussions an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

What are some power tips you employ when you are a panel member? Have you witnessed or participated in some panels where these tips failed or backfired? Tell us in the Comments section below.

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Rule of Seven in Marketing — Rule of Seven Hack for Authors to Reach Target Market

One of the new concepts discussed at the 2023 Imaginarium Convention this past July was how the Rule of Seven affects promoting author fiction. Originally coined by American movie moguls in the 1930s, the concept states that potential customers, i.e. theater-goers, must see or hear about a film at least seven times before commiting to watch it. While this rule-of-thumb may have worked back then, does it still hold true for marketing in the digital age? If so, how does it work for authors?

Then And Now

Drawing public attention to a new Ruitem or service was more difficult in the 1930s. Fewer advertising outlets existed, and promotional techniques were less sophisticated. Radio, newspapers, and magazines acted as the prime purveyors of information and promotion. Consequently, movie studios flooded the few media outlets available with theatrical movie previews and stories about the stars in those movies in magazines such as Star and the Hollywood Reporter. Such activities still go on today with promotional budgets far beyond the cost of creating 1930s films devoted to alerting and (for the most expensive films) deluging the movie-going public with information about the latest cinematic releases.

Paradigm Shift — Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

However, today’s fiction-readers receive information about new and favorite writers from a firehose of media outlets. Advertising and promotions inundate them to such an extent that repeated exposures to the same message or brand may have a counter-productive effect. Research from the University of Sussex suggests that “being presented with the same message over and again could actually do more damage than good.” In short, people tune out.

An Antidote

Rule of Seven Remedy — Remedy–Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

Rather than continue to hammer the promotional message to an increasingly resistant buying public, the answer may lie in less repetition and more diversity. Results from that same study indicate repeating a strong promotional message may be counter-productive. As a result, the target audience becomes saturated with the message and “they gravitate toward novelty.”

But not just to anything new or different. People enjoy a blend of the new with the familiar. Repeated exposure to the new product or service remains key so long as it is interlaced with more customary concepts and ideas. As the researchers concluded, “What appears to be key is variety.”

Importance of Branding

Of course, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) has millions of dollars to flood the media with their variety of products. Most authors, including myself, have little or none. Yet authors can take a page out of the Disney playbook and hone it to scale. Disney’s theme parks and merchandise still serve to promote its movies and cartoons, the bedrock of Disney’s various enterprises.

Branding as Applied to Rule of Seven Hack for Authors

Authors and writers can do the same. They may not have the resources or exposure of the Disney Corporation, but even its founder started out with pen and paper and an idea from which he sought to tell stories. Fiction writers have their own ideas and imagination to draw upon. And unlike the writers and artists for Disney, they can intersperse the promotions for their books and stories with narratives of their own unique experiences–promotional branding in written form. In fact, such product promotions may be stronger on an individual level because they can take a more personal and familiar approach.

What It All Means

Promoting one’s fictional works in the information age needn’t be as daunting as it first appears. The Rule of Seven still applies. Yet applying that rule must ssume a different form. Due to the multitude of advertising outlets and competitors, authors, particularly fiction writers, must know their brand and the audience(s) to which their brand appeals. More important than appearing on a dozen social media platforms like Facebook or Tik-Tok, they must develop their brand. Why? Because their books are projections of who and what they are as artists. And knowing that, hacking deep inside themselves, they can project their ideas through personal interactions with readerships (and buyers) receptive to who they are and what they have to sell.

What do you think? Let us know in the Leave a Reply section below.

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