Be Yourself So Your Readers Can Find You

Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash

Today’s post is by author brand expert Andrea Guevara. Join us on July 3 for the online class How Authors Can Unlock Brand Recognition.

As an author brand strategist, I’m often fighting against the idea that a personal brand is just a cringey, commercialized outcropping of late-stage capitalism. And while there are plenty of examples of brands being used for that exact thing, branding itself can actually be a transformative tool to help authors take back more control of their careers.

Writing a book and then promoting it can make authors feel a lot like that dorky kid in high school trying to get a seat at the cool kids’ table. I was an odd kid, a bookworm, frizzy-haired, freckled, a painfully shy, precocious girl who just didn’t know where she belonged. Growing up as a Fundamentalist Christian in the liberal Sonoma County wine country, I also didn’t like sports, was too shy for parties, too awkward for the cool kids or boys, and too insecure to even know my own interests or potential.

For most of my life, even though I had friends, I usually felt like I didn’t truly belong anywhere. But after working with authors for nearly a decade, and entrepreneurial women for over two decades, I can tell you something you already know: this is a very common feeling.

Writing a book can feel vulnerable enough, but then you have to market and sell it. These are two different skill sets and zones of genius. For some, both come naturally, and there are those who are willing to compromise who they are for popularity.

For the rest of us, seeing our own value and then—and this next part is key—being able to communicate that and attract our people, doesn’t come so easily.

We are the weirdos, the nerds, the awkward, the amazing-yet-misunderstood, and whatever else we’d prefer to call ourselves. We aren’t necessarily immediately popular or viral. And if movies about high school have taught me anything, there are a whole lot more of us weirdos out there than we realize.

One of my super powers (we all have them) is that I am able to see the unique amazingness and untapped potential of each person I meet. This is a fortunate trait for a brand strategist, not so much for dating men. I eventually learned that distinction.

In 2016, after a lot of my own self-development work and a couple decades in business branding, marketing, and design, I launched my first author branding course. And in 2020, I made it my full-time business. Since then, I’ve seen hundreds of writers do the work to acknowledge the value they bring into the world and learn how to identify and attract their kind of people.

Sure, some have become bestselling authors—the equivalent of becoming popular kids—but the real win, in my opinion, is seeing them learn to own their own worth and be able to articulate it in ways that help them deeply connect with the people who most benefit from their work.

In an effort to get you started, here are a few tips.

Be honest with yourself.

One of the first things I have clients do is fill out a big questionnaire answering questions like:

What do you think sets you apart from similar authors?Why do you write?What do you really think of social media?What kinds of ways do you like to share your work?

… And a whole bunch of other questions. In part, this information gathering helps me understand them more. But these questions are just as much for them as they are for me.

The next thing I have them do is describe their ultimate vision of what success looks like for them. Not what they think they want, or what they’ve been told, but genuinely what they truly want their life to look like.

Taking the time to really check in with who you are, what you think, and what you want is something many people rarely do. This self-knowledge is key to beginning to unpack and understand the unique value you bring to the world as well as the parts of yourself that you want to keep just for yourself, or those close to you.

Put yourself in your reader’s shoes.

When I ask most authors who their readers are, they usually start describing a particular age group, income level, and interests—the usual. More often than not, they also add, “But really it’s for anybody.”

I love the optimism of this statement, and if you believe that about your work, awesome. It often takes people with big vision to accomplish the seemingly impossible.

But when it comes to branding, it behooves us to go the opposite direction and think as small as possible. When we focus our energy on who our IDEAL Reader is—the archetype of the one person who would most resonate with and champion your work—we begin to unlock the magic connection that exists between the unique value you bring and the people it’s meant for.

We must try to remove ourselves from the equation temporarily in order to be able to see our readers for who they are and what they need. Once we understand this, we’re able to better speak to them in the language they need to hear.

Articulate your value.

In the business world, it’s long been known that brands have exponential value, apart even from the company that creates them. Think for instance of a brand like Kleenex tissues. It’s so ubiquitous that we often just call tissues Kleenex. That brand is something that Kimberly-Clark could sell (or even license) on its own. It has its own value.

You, as an author, have your own value. Outside of the publisher. Outside of just your book. You, whether you like it or not, are a brand. Your book is also a brand.

In the biz world, we would call your author brand a “house of brands” because you are the creator who has a brand of their own but also creates sub-brands, AKA your books.

Circling back to the idea of brand value, when you do the work of understanding the value you bring, your niche, and your audience, you can begin to put together the pieces in a way that makes it easier for you to articulate this unique proposition to publishers and readers in more effective ways. In a practical sense, this can be evident in your book proposal, marketing plans, bio, website, social media—even in how you talk about your work with your publisher.

I have seen firsthand how this articulation can directly translate into bigger book deals, more marketing support, prioritization with publishers, larger budgets, more author input on things like cover design, more speaking opportunities, more sales, film and TV deals, and so much more.

The publishing industry is well known to be opaque, confusing, complex—and somewhat disappointing. In my years of working in the industry, I’ve seen the highs and lows, the dream scenarios and then the painfully disappointing lack of support that some authors get. 

Much like our late-stage capitalist system, we cannot rely on the powers that be to have our backs, and it can be easy to feel like we have no real power. But if we truly believe in our work, I think we owe it to ourselves to give it its best chance at success.

I believe that developing a personal author brand is one of the essential ways authors can take back more power. Because if we know the unique value of what we bring to the table, we understand deeply who we serve, and we can articulate that, we end up creating not just a table for our people, but our own banquet of fellow nerds, weirdos, whatever you want to call us. And that’s the kind of party publishers and others in power can’t afford to ignore.

We humans are hardwired to crave belonging and connection with something bigger than ourselves. In a society where we are lonelier than ever, people are indeed more vulnerable to marketing and advertising messages prompting them to buy our way out of the disconnection. But we writers provide something so much better, we know that reading/books are one of the most mind-expanding and deeply connective things we can do.

I believe that if we want our work to succeed we must learn the language and customs of the system so that we can use them for good. Brand strategy does just that, helping you understand and articulate your value in a world that desperately needs you to show up as who you truly are.

As readers, we know just how good it feels to read a line that just cuts to the quick of our own emotions or experiences. Who is out there waiting for that moment with your writing?

Be you. Please. People are waiting for you.

Join Andrea and Jane on July 3 for How Authors Can Unlock Brand Recognition.