Building Your Brand by Leia Shaw

I don’t usually do educational posts. They tend to require work. And work is hard.

But today, I’m sucking it up and I’m here to teach you something. Well, at least rehash things I’ve learned in an attempt to mildly stimulate your brain.

I’m relatively new in the writing world. I’ve only been published just over a year. But one thing I spent a lot of time on, and continue to spend time on, is building my brand. What is a brand? Well, it’s you, basically. Who you are as a person and a professional. What’s your voice? What are you all about?

Though the answer somewhat relates to the genre you’re writing, it’s more than just that. For instance, I write paranormal romance. But I’m also a mother of two children (one with special needs), I’m sarcastic and irreverent, I make jokes about zombies, and I love to post pictures of hot guys. Fans know this about me. They see it all the time in my social media posts and it comes out in my writing as well. Readers start to think of me as a real person, with a personality, who’s relatable and interesting. And maybe even has some common interests.

Once you’ve established who you are and what you want to represent, it’s time to build around that. This requires consistency. Find images that represent your brand – an icon, a stock photo of a model that gives a good feel of your books, your name in a special font. Reuse it across the board on all your material, written and digital. That way people come to recognize you by more than just your name. Names are forgettable, pictures last longer in people’s memory. One of my icons is a picture of an open book with a blue light shining from it. When people see that, hopefully they think of me and my fantasy stories.

The next step is to pick several words or phrases that represent your writing. For me, it’s alpha heroes, kick-ass heroines, magic, steamy sex, blood, darkness… things like that. Yes, they represent paranormal romance as a whole, but they’re words I use consistently in my materials – blog, website, bios, interviews, etc. So now you’re not only putting pictures in reader’s minds but words that represent an idea too. A book with blue light equals fantasy, a unique font for my name, and several words that have meaning all come together to form my brand.

A tagline can be helpful too. This can fluctuate a bit depending on what you’re writing at the time. A tagline is a short phrase that gives a creative picture of what you’re about. Some great taglines I’ve seen are : “Romance with a bite,” by author Carrie Ann Ryan. “Magically seductive romance,” by author Lia Davis. Mine is “love stories with a supernatural twist.” This is a quick way to give someone a piece of yourself without bogging them down with a lot of words they may or may not read. This is something you should use on your blog header and Twitter profile to entice people to want to learn more.

To sum up: a brand is what you want readers to think of when they see your name. It should include images, words, and a bit of your personality.

So authors, what things do you do to build your brand? Readers, what do you associate most with your favorite authors?

Filed under: romance