As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’m getting ready to do a major overhaul of my website. As much as I love the look and feel of this template, which Croco Designs did for me quite a few years ago, it’s time for a change, not just for “freshness,” but because I’m branching out into more genres and this website is entirely focused on my historical brand (the “History Made Hot” tagline).
That’s never really told the whole story, though, since I’ve published several contemporaries going back as far as 2008. And now, with my first historical urban fantasy book coming out later this year (I hope; at the rate I’m able to write these days, I might not finish until this time next year!), I really need to clarify and expand my brand.
To that end, I’ve commissioned the awesome Joanne Renaud to do a series of illustrations for me which will then be incorporated into my website design. She’s done three illustrations so far:
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| Walter and Artemisia from Hot Under the Collar |
Elodie and friends from Incarnate |
Angie and Cade from Skin in the Game1 |
From these illustrations, Joanne stitched together a three-part header graphic which will appear on all the pages that are shared across genres (e.g., my welcome page, the blog, my bio, etc.). I think she did a fabulous job with this and it’s going to look awesome in the final design (it’s a little small here; it’ll be wider/taller and more legible when it’s actually at the top of the page):
But here’s my dilemma. You’ll see my old “History Made Hot” tagline for my historical brand on the left and “Modern Love,” which is my tagline for my contemporary brand. But I’m absolutely stuck for a tagline for my urban fantasy brand. And I need help! I’ve come up with a few ideas, most of which are either lame or I know are too tongue-in-cheek. However, for the record, here (in no particular order) are the ones I’ve come up with:
- Urban Fantasy with Spirit
- Gaslight (Urban) Fantasy
- Kick-Sass Urban Fantasy
Yeah, the last one is really stupid, lol, but my punning brain just couldn’t resist.
Anyway, the problems with these taglines are many. First of all, I think all of them might be a little too tightly related to The Reapers series. It’s my first urban fantasy and it’s set in 1903, so it’s historical, but once that series is finished, I have a few other story ideas that fall into the urban fantasy/science fiction realm, and one of them is contemporary while the other is futuristic. So, ideally, I need a tagline for that center panel that is very generic but still has a “brand” identity to it (i.e., it doesn’t just say “Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction”).
As I’ve been thinking about what my “brand” is when it comes to my stories in this subgenre, it’s that they are less action/adventure oriented and more about solving mysteries or puzzles. They’re more brain than brawn, I guess :). So a good tagline for that panel would capture that idea even more than the idea of paranormal creatures or time period.
Long story short, I would love suggestions. Here, on Twitter (to @jackiebarbosa), or by email (jackie at jackiebarbosa.com). Any and all ideas (even snarky ones!) are welcome.
1Skin in the Game is a category-length contemporary that’s currently on submission with Entangled. One way or another, I expect it to be out sometime in 2013.
Hey Jackie,
While I don’t have a suggestion for a tagline, I do have a suggestion for the header. I think you name should be more prominent whether that means larger, or a different color that stands out more. Right now the header looks like it is more about the images, than it is about your writing. That’s just my two cents worth 🙂 Use it or lose it as you will.