What’s in a brand? To answer that question, one must begin with some form of definition. The answer may be scarier than you think.
According to Wikipedia, a brand is a name, term, design, symbol or other feature that distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer. Initially, livestock branding was used to identify and recover stolen cattle. However, the term and concept has been expanded in more modern times to represent a strategic personality or inherent product value.
In the literary world, one often hears of “branded” authors, where an author’s success or value as a repeat bestselling author is so great that the author’s name, without more, represents his brand. Few would dispute that Stephen King, John Grisham, Lee Child, Daniel Silva, Michael Connelly, David Baldacci, Steve Berry, and James Patterson, among others, are “branded” authors. There are more bestselling authors than branded authors. That an author might be able to support himself without a day job of some kind is not enough, on its own, to classify an author as branded. It is something more, some kind of accoutrement, some kind of magic, that renders an author branded.
The rest of us fiction writers, novelists, often revert to artificial images or slogans to establish a brand. Take me for example. I am not branded, but I do have a brand: “Blurring reality and fiction.” I write to entertain, but I also strive to make my fiction resemble reality.
So, in my latest novel, THE AMENDMENT KILLER, I seek to tell an exciting story about dysfunctional governmental leaders that resemble, not coincidentally, our real world political representatives. Congress asks the Supreme Court to invalidate a Constitutional amendment criminalizing political abuse and corruption. As the nine Supreme Court justices take the bench to hear the case on an expedited basis, the justice expected to cast the deciding vote receives a text that begins “We have your granddaughter, here’s what you need to do.”
I thought THE AMENDMENT KILLER is a story in keeping with my brand, blurring reality and fiction. Little did I know that the opening line in my novel, “We have your granddaughter, here’s what you need to do,” might blur reality and fiction in a way altogether different than I had realized, or intended. I was merely out to tell a story that focused on today’s real world dysfunctional governmental leaders. Turns out there is another blurring of reality and fiction in THE AMENDMENT KILLER.
In its July 26 edition, the Los Angeles Times begins a true story with the headline “Virtual kidnap scams extort ransom.” It turns out that a ring of some very ugly real-world people has actually been calling parents and telling them “We have your child, here’s what you need to do,” successfully extorting ransom payments from fearful parents! The ringleaders have been identified and arrested and will hopefully soon be behind bars, but not before collecting several million dollars from panicked parents.
Best selling author Sandra Brannan had it more on point than I did when she wrote the following testimonial for THE AMENDMENT KILLER: “Gripping every parent by the throat, Barak delivers a captivating, chilling and clever read.”
In THE AMENDMENT KILLER, I set out to be true to my brand “Blurring reality and fiction.” I thought I had achieved it. Little did I know I know how much life imitates art. THE AMENDMENT KILLER is available for pre-order HERE.
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