HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What’s your brand? I
don’t mean Armani, or Tide, or Pepsodent or Crocs. But hey—when I say those
names—you get a vision, right?
And I’m sure you know there’s a lot of talk
about branding your self! (Not THAT kind of branding. It doesn’t hurt.
Except maybe your brain, a little.)
And THIS book will not
only tell you why, but how you as an author—or you in any career, actually!—can
successfully figure out how to do it.
And listen. What the
amazing Dana Kaye is about to reveal is the kind of stuff you usually only hear
behind the closed doors of consultant offices and publishing houses.
Your Author Brand: What
It Is and Why You Need One
By Dana Kaye
Almost
every author I’ve met, whether they write literary fiction for a small press or
category romances for Harlequin, has considered themselves an artist of some
sort, and no one wants to equate selling their art to selling Kellogg’s or
Coca-Cola. They don’t view their books as commercial products.
But
the purpose of branding is the same whether you’re selling books or breakfast
cereal: to let customers know what they’re going to get before they buy. When
you pick up a Coke, you know exactly what the soda is going to taste like. You
know that the Lexus will have more luxury features than the Hyundai.
When
you pick up the latest Nora Roberts novel at the grocery store or a James
Patterson book at the airport, you know what types of stories are within those
pages. Known brands are comfortable, familiar, and come with limited risk.
How
do you identify this unique author brand? By implementing this formula:
You + Your Book = Your
Author Brand
Your
brand consists of who you are and what you write. For most of you, the “Your
Book” piece of the equation will be easy, especially if this is your first
book, if you write series novels, or if you’ve written multiple books in the
same genre.
Where
it gets tricky is if you write in different genres, for different age groups,
and have a wide scope of work under your belt. Identifying one unique brand for
many different books can be difficult, but it’s far from impossible. You just
need to find your common denominator.
For
each one of your books, fill in the following:
1)
Primary
themes
2)
Secondary
themes
3)
One
line about the protagonist
4)
Genre
category
Then,
go through and highlight any patterns. Your books may be more similar than you
think, and those common denominators will make up the “Your Book” portion of
your brand.
Next,
you have to figure out the “You” portion of the equation. Start out by asking
yourself a few questions:
1)
Where
do you live?
2)
What
is your day job or background?
3)
What
did you study in school?
4)
Are
you considered an expert in any field?
5)
What
do you do when you’re not writing?
6)
Do
you have kids? Pets?
Once
you have your list, highlight the responses that directly link to the book. For
example, if you write a cozy mystery series and you also happen to knit, that
would be a key part of your brand. On the other hand, if you went to school for
molecular biology, that wouldn’t quite fit into your author brand.
Use your responses to come up with a tagline
and a brand summary. Think of your tagline like a twitter bio: it should be
short, clear, and memorable. Your brand summary should be a longer, 3-4 lines,
and should convey a clear message about who you are.
For example, my tagline (and twitter bio) is:
Publicist, triathlete, and all-around hustler. These 6 words accurately convey
who I am, what my philosophy is, and a sense of what I’m like to work with. It’s
also memorable and sets me apart from others in my field.
My brand summary is: I’m a book publicist with
a knack for staying ahead of the trends and I there’s no substitute for hard
work, creativity, and a whole lotta chutzpah. I’m passionate about books,
spreading a love of reading, and educating authors on best publishing
practices. I frequently jump off cliffs and build my wings on the way down.
This summary doesn’t encompass all that I do,
but again, it conveys an idea or feeling of who I am and what I’m about, and
that’s what you should expect of a brand.
I encourage all of you to take some time, go
through the steps outlined above, and create your unique tagline and brand
summary. Then the next time you’re at bookstore event or writers’ conference
and someone asks “What do you write?” or “What kind of an author are you?”
you’ll have a clear and concise answer that people will remember.
Feel free to share your taglines in the
comments section. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
HANK: Oh, this is so HARD! But Dana is here to help. How
about you, Reds and Readers, do you have a brand? And what books (and authors)
do you think are successfully branded? And why? Does it work?
Dana Kaye is the owner
of Kaye
Publicity, Inc. and author of Your Book, Your Brand: The Step-By-Step
Guide to Launching Your Book and Boosting Your Sales. Known for her innovative ideas and knowledge of current
trends, she frequently speaks on the topics of social media, branding, and
publishing trends, and teaches online courses at KayePublicity.teachable.com.
