Building Your Personal Author Brand, Part I of III

A fun and equally important piece of being an author is building your author brand. I believe it is never too early to begin or to think about where you want to go with your writing career. Full-time writer, perhaps?

What is an author brand? Simply said, your brand is your promise to your readers. What do they get if they read your book(s)? For nonfiction, the subtitle is the promise (the title is what the book is about). In fiction, your readers are relying on your book to provide an experience, and every genre has a formula your readers expect to find. I love a great psychological thriller, and I want to read a book that is un-put-down-able. To that end, I’m always looking for authors whose brand communicates “gripping psychological thriller” (two of my favorite authors are Deborah Coonts and Vicki Petterson). When I read nonfiction personal development books by my favorite authors (too many to list), I know I'll get what I expect.

Why should you build an author brand? Well, I’ll tell you exactly why! An author with a strong brand has the edge over other authors (read: sells more books! Makes more money!) Your brand makes you recognizable to prospective readers, and easily identifiable to past readers who might not know you have a new book out. Am I a bit too far into the future? Maybe, and you’ll see why below. Hint: the best thing you can do at the beginning of your author career is think and work with the end in mind.

There are three components of your author brand: building it, launching it, and staying on top of it. Today, I'll address building.

How to Build Your Author Brand. 

1. Think bigger than just today. I routinely see authors at the beginning of their careers making short-term decisions (failing to use a true professional editor, not owning their ISBNs or using second-rate covers) when they would be better served by making choices based on the career they would like to have in the future. Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up, which means you might have to wait a month or two and save up for a great cover, terrific editing, and a skilled copywriter. Ten years from now, you’ll be glad you did it well, I promise! (Note: I made all of these mistakes myself, so I’m not pointing fingers.) Define your vision for your author business, and goals for one, five, and ten years from now.
2. Define and write to your audience. Along the lines of your book and genre’s promise, define your ideal reader (a.k.a. avatar), and write the book they will love to read. Your brand depends upon your readers’ happiness when they’ve taken the risk to buy and read your book.
3. Own it! For people to buy into your brand, you should look the part. Again, quality matters. Have a professional website, business cards, and even some stationary (I have note cards that match my business cards, as well as postcards from a few of my books). Your website, social media presence, and even your email signature needs to be uniform and spot-on.
4. Stock up on content. I’ll talk more about launching in a moment, but for the pre-launch phase, write several (maybe even a dozen) blog posts, prepare your Advance Reader Team (ART) pages, get your two-chapter opt-in ready. The goal is to look like you’ve been there for a while, even on day one.
5. Fit in, but stand out. Every genre has “a look,” and every successful author looks the part, but also has an edge. Figure out how you’re slightly different than others in your genre and use that to your advantage. 
6. Have a solid marketing plan. I discuss this in another post, but here are a few things to consider: You must be organized about your communication with your audience. Your social media presence needs to be prominent, consistent, and fit with your brand. It’s always a very good idea to network with other authors, especially in your genre (I love recommending other authors’ books and often, they do the same). Finally, you can build your brand by speaking and appearing in the media.
7. Have an editorial calendar. Work from a schedule, just like the big kids do. You’ll notice every October, the media talks about Halloween. January is all about losing weight, and March they’re telling us we need to get our taxes done. You’re a creative, so get creative! Have fun engaging with your audience so you can develop raving fans. Your book, my writer friend, is just the beginning!
8. Pay attention to others. Several fantastic writers are doing super cool things, and I derive inspiration from them almost daily. Romance author JA Huss is crazy good with her marketing, and although I don’t write in that genre, I have borrowed a page or two out of her playbook from time-to-time. 

I hope this gave you insight into how to prepare a future book, or take your writing game in a current WIP (work-in-progress) up a notch or two. 

Next time, I'll help you to launch your author brand. In the meantime, if you have questions, I'm just an email away!

Happy writing! Honorée Corder, Author, Book Strategist, Honorée Enterprises | Honorée Enterprises Publishing TEDx | Website | Write Your Book