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On Trademarks and Branding

Well, praise the Lord! I am now an official registered trademark holder. :-) My novel writing trademark, Truth through Fiction , now has a circled "R" after it (instead of a superscript TM), which means my trademark has been officially registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and cannot be used by anyone else. I have now joined the ranks of Kleenex ®, Xerox ®, and a host of other registered name brands.

"Why a trademark?" you may be asking. Let me give you some good reasons.

There is a lot of talk about branding among writers today. In fact, not long ago, novelist Randy Ingermanson hosted Allison Bottke in a great teleseminar on marketing oneself as a writer. Allison did a great job on the topic of branding. (Visit Randy's website for more info on the teleseminar:
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/info/abottke/
clean_act.php. It's well worth the time and financial investment.)

Since I am relatively new to fiction writing--at least to novel writing--I decided that I needed to start off right. So I prayerfully set out to learn all I could about how best to build a solid foundation for my fiction writing.

When I asked myself what is the purpose of my fiction writing, I knew that I wanted my fiction to reveal God's truth through my characters so that my readers could apply that truth to their own lives and be set free from bondage.

As I sought God, the tagline Truth through Fiction ® popped into my head. I instantly recognized this as the tagline God wanted me to use. My novels express God's truth through the medium of fiction. It's also a wonderful play on words because "fiction" normally implies the opposite of truth.

My next step was to research if this tagline had already been taken. To my delight, it had not. (Of course, since God gave it to me, I should have known it had not been taken. :-) Forgive me, Lord!)

The next thing I did was to hire an attorney specializing in trademarks. The reason I did this is that earlier, when applying for a trademark for my coaching business, I had tried to do it myself to save money and had botched the process. In the end, it cost me more money for a lawyer to fix the mess I'd made. So let this be a warning to you. If you don't know what you're doing, hire someone who does.

My trademark is now a part of my brand as a novelist. It will help readers to recognize me and publishers to market me. It is also something I can use to market myself through my signature and on promotional material.

The cost for obtaining a trademark varies, depending on the attorney you choose. If you do it yourself, it will cost you about $300-500. If you hire an attorney, it will cost you at $1000-3000, but the investment is certainly worth it, especially if your application is challenged.

You don't need a trademark to be a successful writer. But if you're planning on maximizing your marketing, a trademark may be a good way for you to go.

And that's my "musing that matters" for today. What's yours? :-)

Blessings,

MaryAnn

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Copyright 2007 by MaryAnn Diorio, Ph.D. All rights reserved. This blog entry may NOT be reproduced, reprinted, or published in any form whatsoever without the written permission of Dr. MaryAnn Diorio. You may, however, forward it to others, but please do so IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your cooperation.

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