Purple Prose:
author brand

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.

©Stina Lindenblatt

There’s a lot of talk on the blogs about author branding, but is branding really necessary when you’re unpublished? According to agent Sarah LaPolla: Just focus on writing your books. I guess my "branding" advice in a more general sense is to publish within the same genre and age group for at least 3 books. That's a smaller way to create a "brand." If you write three YA thrillers, that’s your brand. If you write edgy YA novels in verse (like Ellen Hopkins), that’s your brand. If you write a YA contemporary, a YA paranormal, and a YA dystopian, you don’t have a brand unless there is a common denominator between them.

One way to figure out the common denominator is pin down what specially calls to you in the books you love. Step two is write what you know. For example, as many of you know, I struggled with being a cutter when I was in my early twenties. I also participated in some other risky behaviors to try to cope with the emotional pain. No one knew I was struggling. On the outside I was a normal girl who studied hard at university, worked part time in two fitness centers (which were major training facilities for high calibre athletes), spent time in Finland, and had lots of friends. Sounds great, huh? It was, but on the inside I was still broken.

Now flash forward. What books do I love to read? YA novels like those by Ellen Hopkins (Impulse, Perfect), Sarah Fine (Sanctum), Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits). These books start out with broken characters who heal as the story progresses. Plus, these books all have romance in them. These are the types of stories I love to write. Why? Because I write what I know and I write what calls to me. This is my author brand. I’m writing in several different genres (YA contemporary, YA horror, YA suspense), but all three have the same thing in common. No, I’m not published yet, but knowing what types of stories and characters I love to write about, guides me when I start a new WIP. Yes, I could write something completely different, but I don’t.

What about you? Have you discovered your author brand yet? Or are you still figuring out the types of stories you love to read and write the most?

For more information on YA author branding, the YARWA (YA chapter of the Romance Writers of America) is offering an online workshop September 10-20^th. Check their website for more info.

If I were to ask you what your author brand is, could you tell me?

I’d heard the term before, but until I recently read social media guru Kristen Lamb’s blog, I hadn’t given mine much thought.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, a brand is “an identifying marked burned on livestock or (especially in former times) criminals or slaves with a branding iron.”

Oh, wait! Sorry. Wrong definition. You don’t need to rush off to your local ranch and ask them to burn a symbol on your butt. I mean you can if you want, but it’s probably not recommended. And I’m not sure how effective it would be for selling your novel.

Anyway, after checking my old marketing textbook, I decided to skip on sharing its super dry definition. Instead, I consulted a number of great resources on author brands. And of course, they all had differing opinions as to what it means. But here’s the basic gist of them.

What’s in a Name?

The first thing you need to consider is your name. According to Kristen Lamb, this is your brand. Because of this, she recommends your name is in your blog’s URL. Mine is. Is yours? She also suggests your name is in the title of your blog. Okay, I fail on that point. And until I started writing this post, I didn’t realize my name wasn’t even on my blog. #majorbrandingfail. It’s now in my sidebar.

What’s Your Niche?

Shelli Johannes Wells talked about the author brand during WriteOnCon last year. The writer brand describes how people view you based on your books. Maybe you write YA paranormals. Great. But so do so many other YA writers. What differentiates your style from someone else’s?

For example, Kiersten White (Paranormalcy) writes humorous YA paranormals. When we pick up her books, that’s what we expect. Problem with this is what will happen if her next series is much darker? (btw I’d still buy it since I love dark paranormals).

Do you have a style you like to write in? Maybe humorous, dark, or suspenseful. If you blog, can you incorporate your style into your blog? Lisa and Laura Roecker are a perfect example of this. Their witty, entertaining voice captures the hearts of their blog followers. And you can expect the same from their novel, The Liar Society.

Who Are You?

Author Roni Loren explained that your book and genre are only part of your author brand. The real you is the other part. What does this mean?

Be yourself.

Of course if the real you is rude and obnoxious, then you might be headed for trouble. One hundred years ago it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Now thanks to social networking, it can be your ultimate doom, especially if editors discover this (and they will) before they offer you a contract.

Shelli Johannes Wells also covered this in more detail during WriteOnCon.

Obviously these three things aren’t as clear cut as they sound. What happens if you’re published in several different genres? When you say Stephenie Meyer, most people think of sparkling vampires. But she also wrote a successful adult science fiction novel (The Host). This is why a number of authors, such as Nora Roberts, write different genres under different pen names. Each one has a different author brand associated with it, but she’s still Nora Roberts.

Before you freak out at the thought of having more than one brand, Meg Cabot and Richelle Mead both write YA and adult novels, and each has only one brand.

So what about you, do you have an author brand? Is this something you’re considering, or are you going to wait to be published first?