But at what cost? Is your soul—or a portion of it—for sale, and what’s the break-even price point?

Some journalists pursue the elusive Pulitzer prize, while others carve out a decent living chasing ambulances (“if it bleeds, it leads”) and crafting tabloid exclusives with tenuous connections to reality. There’s a market for both Pulitzers and tabloids, and the ambitious journalist has to decide which to pursue.

“What’s my voice?”

Poets, short-story writers, and novelists face the same question. Some aspire to fame and fortune; others are content to earn a modest living doing something they love. But they share a common objective: they need to get noticed. Which, being translated, means building their “author brand.”

And we’re back to the same question: “What’s my voice?”

It’s a decision we all face. How we present ourselves as creatives—how we get noticed—is entirely up to us.

This has little to do with the genre we write in. The tropes and conventions can be found in the writing. Our personal brand—our reputation, our persona—isn’t dependent on genre. It’s about how we interact with others: authors, editors, publishers, marketers, publicists, booksellers, podcasters, and especially . . . readers.

Many of us can recall meeting someone we admired—a musician, sports hero, community leader—and walking away with a different perspective: “What a jerk.”

Nobody wants that reputation.

On one hand, we’ll never please everyone, and we shouldn’t lose sleep over it. People are complex, and expectations rarely dovetail seamlessly with reality.

On the other hand, people matter. And therefore, how we treat them matters. I’ve seen a number of social media memes during the pandemic that said, in essence, “you don’t know what the other person is going through, so be kind.” I couldn’t agree more.

I love writing dystopian thrillers, urban fantasy, and cross-genre mashups of both. The themes I touch on—abuse of power, socioeconomic disparity, PTSD, racism, climate change, fleeing from a traumatic past—are, admittedly, dark. The themes are obstacles to overcome, and the story lies in the struggle of the characters to deal with the hand they’ve been dealt.

But my ABG (author brand goal) has more in common with the oft-quoted Golden Rule: “Treat others how you’d like to be treated.”

Authors need to get noticed. We look for the “scoop” that will put us on the map. The “breakthrough.”

But along the way, we must thoughtfully cultivate our Voice.