As mentioned last week, I’m currently taking an advanced social media workshop. A recent assignment had me contemplating my author brand. Our instructor talked about company logos, but I’m not Apple or McDonalds. I didn’t need a logo. What I did need was an image that was uniform across my social media platforms and was a reflection of what I write.
I write steamy New Adult contemporary romances about emotionally damaged characters, and wanted to reflect that in my image. To create the picture, I took my husband’s jeans and ripped the petals off a pink tulip. Originally, I was going to use red roses, but the ones in the store looked like some sort of plague had attacked them. Nothing says I love you than wilted, blacken roses. But that was okay. The tulip petals ended up working better than I imagined. I tweaked the picture in Photoshop Elements and added the “glowing” effect to the petals. Now I had the right look for my brand. The jeans and petals are symbolic for the stories I write. Did I mention I love symbolism?
I decided to take things one step further. I used a petal from the banner to design the social media buttons for my blog.
*click here if you would like to ‘Like’ my author page. Chocolate kisses if you do.*
So as you can see, it’s not difficult to create the right image to reflect your author brand. If you’re not a photographer, that shouldn’t stop you. You can hire someone, or you can find the right stock photo on sites like Shutterstock. Some pictures are free, but even if you end up paying for a photo, they aren’t expensive. And if you hire someone, you’ll still have to pay for the stock photos they use.
Have you given any thought to your author brand and the look you want to convey?
PS. I now have a new cover reveal policy.