Everyone is talking about the author brand and how to do it and why to do it and what the heck is it. Today, I think I have a few ideas. In fact, so many of them that this may turn into a sort of series of posts. Call it my Monday musing as a writer.

So, first of all…

About branding yourself…what is it?

A brand is a person, place, or thing that is easily identified with a potential customer.

Okay, here we go with the fun stuff. If I say, pizza, who do you think of? Why did you think of them? That’s because they spent big bucks on their identity. OR maybe its because they are around the corner from your house and have awesome pizza, but either way, you identify with them when I say pizza. That is their brand.

If I say sports footwear– what symbol comes to mind? Yeah, same thing. It is a “thing” that has been touted so much that they no longer need a word to go with it. The brand is the symbol.

If I say Zuckerberg, well…he’s a person…but immediately you think of his company, Facebook. Why is that? Because his company is so closely identified with him that they are like one word. Zuckerbook. haha. Okay, that was my silliness for this Monday.

Branding Yourself: How do I become one?

Here are my thoughts:

 

• You likely are not going to be another Dominoes pizza, or Nike. But you could achieve greatness in your part of the writing world by being genuine. So thought number one: be genuine. Don’t set out to put out a quick-fly-by book and expect it to do well in the highly oversaturated market of today. Write real stuff. Real stories, real books, real stuff.
• Consider who you want to be. What do you enjoy writing about? It’s okay to say well, I just like to write stories. We all do that. But if you want to stand out, you have to think a little more laser-focused.
• Think about the books you read. If you are an avid fantasy reader and you have a ton of fantasy books on your keeper shelf, and you find yourself writing fantasy-well, you may just want to nudge along a little fantasy brand. Ditto for any other genre. It goes without saying that if you are a marathon runner and know a lot about them and have penned a few articles or books about them, you have a brand that goes with that.

 

Branding Yourself: Why would anyone care about me?

This is the most common question. Nobody knows you. Nobody knows what you write. Nobody listens when you go to social media. You only have 150 fans and followers and they only liked you to get a free download.

Don’t ignore them-FEED THEM.

Take to your social media, or like me, your blog, and TALK ABOUT YOURSELF. You are your brand. They are in the seat as fan and follower because of one thing… YOU. Your uniqueness is your brand as much as what you do or what you write.

Tell them how you got started as a writer and let them find out who you are as a writer and hopefully they will find something in you that is in them too. We are all human with the same basic human interests and needs. Give them something to come close to and identify with. And that folks, is your number one job in branding. Make yourself the most interesting and approachable person out there writing what you write, being who you are, and your audience will love you.branding