Value Your Intellectual Property
Your intellectual property is valuable. How do you exploit it to build true fans and more revenue?
Star Wars. Harry Potter. Pokemon. Mickey Mouse. These are some of the most recognizable franchises in the world. But why? What makes Star Wars so much more beloved than any other science fiction and fantasy space property?
The Career Author Podcast is a podcast where co-authors J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon share their struggles and successes as full-time authors, advice for improving your writing craft, and honest discussions of what it takes to build a successful career as an author.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- The definition of intellectual property
- Why your intellectual property is important
- What makes the world’s most popular media properties so timeless
- How you can serve your fan base and build community around your world and characters
- How to exploit your intellectual properties to expand your revenue streams
- The 6 phases of intellectual property
Also, learn about how the right music can increase productivity.
Send us your ways and hacks – https://thecareerauthor.com/waysandhacks/
Leave us a comment: What have you done to serve your audience beyond just writing books?
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Links:
25 Most Profitable Media Franchises – https://www.visualcapitalist.com/successful-media-franchises/
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Comments
23 responses to “The Career Author Podcast: Episode 104 – Value Your Intellectual Property”
Morning guys. Great hack Zach, but like J I prefer to work in silence although I can’t wear noise cancelling headphones – I like to know if something is going on around me.
I think the key to developing intellectual property is to have memorable characters with depth. A great world and story and all the other stuff helps but without great characters I don’t think the intellectual property is worth much.
One manifestation of this is cosplay – you won’t see people dressed up as the Black Gate of Mordor or Hagrid’s Hut… 🙂 although I could be wrong as I’ve only ever been to one event where cosplay people came out of the closet; a Comicon in London. It was fun.
I like the idea of t-shirts, mugs and other paraphernalia with quotes etc. Have to start making up some quotes to put in my stories 🙂.
I’ll leave Zach a mince pie by the tree on Christmas Eve in case he takes up his new side hustle this year.
Great show. Happy and Peaceful Christmas.
Thanks for the comment and for being a loyal listener. Happy and Peaceful Christmas to you too!
The day I see someone cosplay as one of my characters will be the day I know for sure I’ve made it! Haha. I’ll be looking forward to that mince pie. 😉
I don’t know about your theory, J, about the introversion. I’m a pretty extreme introvert, and I *always* listen to music when I write, even music with lyrics. 🙂 I wrote an entire 50K word draft during this past NaNoWriMo listening to mainly four songs, all of them with lyrics. Like you, Zach, I have created playlists for when I write, depending on the mood of the scene I’m working on. Can’t have the same music playing for a fight scene as a romantic scene!
An indie author friend of mine had little pendants made with the artwork of her book covers. They’re cute! She puts them on cords and gives them away at book fairs and conferences. For herself, she had jewelry made based on jewelry her main character wore in the series. It was important to the story and the magic within. She wears the pieces when she’s out as an author.
Do you ever share those playlists with your readers? That’s something cool you can do that I didn’t mention on the podcast. Especially if you use a service like Spotify.
That’s a really cool idea with the pendants. I definitely think stuff like that is unique and fun, and it also gives you a keepsake for your story worlds.
When I have readers, I will! 😉
Interesting. I find even the slightest noise to be a distraction.
Other kinds of noises do distract me. Music helps to block out those distractions. I have to listen on headphones, too.
I do a lot with my IP including merch and character images. Firstly merch is for sale, swag us for give away/promo, just because commenters don’t seem to know the difference.
I wanted to add two things, paying for character art early on doesn’t seem to be great value in terms of social media reach or word of mouth (or so several of my debut author friends have informed me).
Second i’ve pretty extensively tested both quotes and tied in graphics on merchandise, and most of the time quotes really don’t work. You’re better off with some clean brand-tied graphics (for example I have the silhouette of a wolf and a top hat, or a cameo frame that’s made up of octopus tentacles).
In fact if you’re going to spend your money on anything art related early on in your career (apart from cover art), I would highly recommend making sure that you get good icons and symbols professionally designed, that are tied to your book series or publisher brand. This is the kind of thing that you would use in print additions on the spine of your book, or as seen dividers within your book. Or as the publisher or maker mark at the end of your copyright page.
Just my 2 cents.
Great advice. Thanks for sharing!
Great advice. Love it.
I think for sci-fi/fantasy and genres like that, it is much easier for us to have really cool images for things. I don’t think those are good situations to use quotes. I was more thinking of romance authors who may not have the really unique characters and creatures to work with, but I’m sure people could get creative and thing of other things.
Thanks for your comment! Awesome stuff.
Yes, your intellectual property has value. One aspect that demonstrates this, is something people might not be aware of. If anyone finds themselves in a position where they are looking to declare bankruptcy, the court can sell off all of your copyrights to all of your works and IP, whether published or not. There are ways to protect against this, but they will need to trust a lawyer well versed in these areas.
Good point!
Refreshing look at the question of how to use our IP. I’m at the bottom rung of Ebooks and Paperbacks.
One thing I did play around with that may have future potential is a model of the ship in my stories. To give me a better idea of how to picture it I build a rough 3d model of the ship then had a local 3d printer produce the actual design for me. This would need a professional polish on the design before it became sellable but the thought has been bouncing around in my head since the first prototype.
That’s cool! Do you have some pics?
I created a board on my Pinterest page to show off with.
That’s awesome!
I make Spotify playlists for all my books and share them with my readers! I’ve gotten positive feedback from readers about it, too.
I’m also a “listen to music with words while writing” introvert. So much for J’s theory! 😉
Another notch for the good guys 🙂
I’m wrong a lot.
I don’t suggest putting that one on a mug. For what it’s worth. 😉
I don’t have an audience yet, but have many ideas. I would love to get people that enjoy my stories and create art and even fanfic of them. I would also like to work with kids that are interested in writing. I need to make sure my skills and knowledge are at a level that it makes sense to be teaching others.
Teaching is the best way to learn and the “perfect” time to start is ten years ago or now 😉