Branding Basics for Authors

What is your brand?

Is it your logo?

Is it a specific color and look on your website and business cards?

Are you worried that you don't have a brand yet and can't get started as a "real" author because you don't have that perfect logo picked?

If you're worried that your lack of a logo means you don't have a brand, fret not!

You DO have a brand. How so?

Because at its core, a brand is your reputation.

• Do people know you for your quiet power or chipper exuberance? That's your brand.

• Are you (in)famous for your cooking or late/early arrival or ability to laugh? Brand

• Do people come to you for advice or encouragement or information? All brand

A logo and colors are visual interpretations of your brand, but the reputation already exists.

As you work on honing your reputation, you are creating your brand.

The more you know yourself, the more you can understand what your brand is.

Here are few questions you can ask that will help you focus your authorial brand (note: personal and corporate brand can be different).

1. What ideas and causes are you passionate about?

2. How do you express those ideas? (Are you funny or thoughtful or brash or intellectual or a combination?)

3. What problems do you solve for in your writing? (Even fiction writers are working to solve something. If you're writing clean cozy mysteries or romcoms, you are solving for the problem of smut. Or you might be encouraging people to fight human trafficking by writing fictional stories based on true events).

4. How do those who know you describe you? If you asked your closest friends, "What am I known for?" you'll discover more about your existing reputation.

If the concept of brand still feels fuzzy, apply the above question to authors that you know and admire. You'll probably see that they have a clear reputation established through visuals, content, and writings!

Want help on branding? Check out my personalized brand coaching program.