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I’m an Author, Not a Brand.

Many writers shy away from establishing themselves as a Brand. They associate branding simply as a means of tooting their own horn or worse yet, something that doesn’t apply to them. Instead of establishing an author brand, they ensure all focus is on a singular book. If your goal is to sell a book, is there anything wrong with that? Branding is about believing and establishing ourselves beyond your current book.

Branding is how consumers identify you in the marketplace. Your brand supersedes one individual book. It’s a connection with your readers, a trust that when they see your name on a book there is a specific quality or experience that they expect from those books. In building your brand, you are establishing ALL of your books have a place on their bookshelf, not just one of them.

Why You Need an Author Brand

I recently had an intake coaching session with an author. While doing a website audit for her, I discovered that her website name was not her own name, but her book’s name. When I asked her what she’d do when she wrote a new book, she was stumped. “I hadn’t thought about that,” she admitted. 

This is not uncommon for new authors. They’re understandably excited about launching their first book and all their efforts are on selling and marketing that book for success. However, you need to think about the long game. Hopefully, you WILL write more than one book and you’ll want readers to buy that book too. That’s where brand identity comes in.

What’s Brand Identity?

Brand identity is necessary for a business. It helps build loyalty and a trust in the style and quality of a book with your name on it. As a published author who has invested time and money into creating a product, you have launched your sales driven business. The identity you create for that business is in your hands.

You can do this by first determining what is the common theme in your current stories and what you want to write about in the future. For instance, I write historical fiction. I can see myself writing about different time periods and different kinds of people. But one thing I know my books will all have in common is that they’ll all be about women. And those women will be fighting for change. So, my brand identity? I write about women in history overcoming obstacles to fight for change. This is what I tell people when they ask about my books. It’s what I’ve built my website and social media platform messaging around. When readers find and follow me, they know exactly what to expect from my books.

Work Your Livelihood into Conversations

I tell people I’m an author. I’m not saying I walk around introducing myself that way. But I do seize on natural opportunities to bring it into conversation. However, I don’t stop there, I am specific in that I am a historical fiction author, that I write about women in history overcoming obstacles to fight for change. Strong brand communication is intentional and constant. I do not want any reader to feel vague or confused about my products.

But if I am only focusing on branding, what about selling? The ultimate goal is that brand awareness converts to sales. With my books on Amazon, there’s an immediate opportunity to make a sale once I have communicated my brand. And as brand communication happens every time a consumer interacts with your brand, I ensure my Amazon products are branded. They are clearly identified as historical fiction in the product title and categories. When there’s an opportunity to communicate my brand, I take it. I’ve also made sure to perfect an elevator pitch of my products that of course references my brand.

Perfect Your Elevator Pitch

Have you ever been asked what your book is about and find yourself freezing or launching into a long-winded explanation where you can see the person’s eyes glazing over? We’ve all been there. That’s why it is crucial to master your elevator pitch synopsis. This is simply a two or three sentence description of your book. For me, I say- “I created a fictional character who escapes from Russia at the beginning of the revolution. She settles on the Lower East Side of New York and is involved in the 1909 Garment Worker’s Uprising. She’s then involved in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and its aftermath.“

My elevator pitch immediately ties in with my brand–historical fiction–and women overcoming obstacles. Using this elevator pitch and being nervy enough to bring my book up in conversation, I’ve not only gotten sales, I’ve landed speaking engagements, bookstore signings and invitations to and festivals other events. And furthermore, it helps me ensure the engagements I am booking align my author brand and put me in front of a relevant audience.

Branding Ourselves on Social Media

Ah, social media: the dreaded word. I find that one reason people have such apprehension about using social media to market is they don’t know what to post. For starters, you need to know that social media is not where you’ll sell books. Social media does not translate to sales. So why waste your time? What’s the purpose? 

I will say it again: Brand communication happens every time a consumer interacts with your brand. If your social media is nurtured with a targeted purpose that follows your brand identity, social media can translate to an engaged audience who WILL sign up for your newsletter, like your posts, be your beta readers and early reviewers–and yes, some will also buy your books. But more importantly, they’ll be loyal because they feel like they know and care about your author brand.

Social media not only gives YOU the opportunity to communicate your brand, it gives others the opportunity to easily share your brand.That will go a lot further than one person who buys one of your books from Amazon or a shelf in a bookstore.

If you identify and communicate your author brand—you’ll be nurturing a loyal base of readers who will buy every book you ever write. You do the math.

Looking for more suggestions on how to build your author business? Check out my other blog posts.

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