A to Z Challenge - Day 23: W is for Well-known!

I'm participating the this crazy challenge on 2 of my blogs. This one and Paranormal Lounge. The A to Z Challenge is a blogging event that takes place every April. The challenge is to write a post for each letter of the alphabet and post nearly every day during April, omitting Sundays.

My theme for this challenge is: Marketing is like war. I'm going to try to stick to that theme as much as possible, but I may have to deviate. W is for Well-known!

Marketing is all about trying to get people to know your name and the title of your books. The goal is to become well-known. Here are some ways to help with that:

Interact with people whenever possible.
Use your name on all your accounts.
Display the title of your work on all your platforms.
Use the same profile picture and don't change it every month. (Keep it for at least three, but I recommend longer. Professional photos are best.)
Display your book covers on all your platforms.
Host a blog event.
Get your name in the news.
Be active in your community.
Try to get your name or book title on lists.
Cross promote on your blog. (Exchange posts with another author)

Part of getting your name recognized might be using a pen name. Here are the only times I recommend using a pen name:

If your name is hard to pronounce or hard to spell.
If your name is particularly long.
If you are writing for a genre that you wish to keep separate from your personal life such as erotica.
If you are writing for a gender biased genre and your gender is the opposite of what people expect (Horror writers are generally men and readers are more likely to read horror by men, Romance writers are generally woman and readers are more likely to read romance by women. In this case think about using initials or a gender neutral name.)
If you want to write fiction with one name and non-fiction with another name.

Names are very important. For titles I would try to keep them short and avoid long or hard to spell words. Keep "The" and "A" out if possible. Make it memorable! Becoming well-known isn't easy, but it is important to try!