Blogger: Mary Keeley
We all have our favorite brands, from toothpaste to cars, and we recognize their packaging when we see them. Almost automatically, subconsciously, our brains send quick reminders of the reasons we prefer them to other similar products. This is the way your author brand should work for your growing audience.
Define Your Brand
Your author brand is you. The books you write reflect you and therefore your brand. Genre selection and your voice, personality, passion, and writing style are elements that define your unique brand because you are unique. This distinction sets your books apart from those by every other author, so this explains why it’s so important to capture the one-and-only you factors.
Therefore, ask your critique partners or mentors for their perspectives on you, including your values and strengths that show up in your writing. Others often see qualities we miss in ourselves. One of my clients, a popular blogger, also created a survey for her followers to fill out, providing perhaps the most valuable feedback because it came from her readers. If you are just beginning or are still unsure you have clearly nailed down your brand, your answers to the following questions will give you insight.
- Have I chosen the genre that best suits my interests and passions, or am I going for what is currently popular? Genre popularity is cyclical, so choosing by that standard alone is a mistake and won’t result in your best writing if it’s the wrong fit for you.
- Who are the readers I want to attract? How can I communicate my brand so that is touches their deepest needs and desires? How can I give back to them?
- Nonfiction writers: What topics am I most passionate about? How can I convey my message in my unique writing style?
- Fiction writers: What kinds of stories do I want to write? What values do I want to express in the characters I create?
Readers who enjoy one of your books for the first time go on to become loyal readers when you continually deliver those qualities they like and expect in your books. Your brand provides boundaries that prevent you from straying.
Refine Your Brand
Next, address three primary areas you need to refine for successful brand recognition.
- Quality and relevance of your work. Not much needs to be added about this that hasn’t been said many times before on this blog. You can’t build a successful brand without great craft and content that people want to read…and continue reading.
- Emotional connection. The more your readers and potential readers are able to relate to you and establish an emotional connection with you, the faster your name will be recognized and your brand will be discovered and grow. People will want to read your books when they feel they know you and like you. The tricky thing about this is to maintain an appropriate balance between personal sharing and maintaining a professional author image.
- Consistency EVERYWHERE. Always write and speak through the lens of your brand. This includes your marketing plan on your proposals; throughout your social media presence; on your website and blog; in your marketing and publicity campaign and advertising; and your personal appearances at book signings, radio, online, and print interviews.
Tag Your Brand
Finally, create your tagline. Its purpose is to point to what is unique about your brand within your genre in a few identifying words that will be easy for readers to remember. For example, Apple has used several taglines over the years. The most common one is “Think different.” One of my favorites is “Beauty outside. Beast inside.” However, the ever-present Apple logo provides the consistency. You can update your tagline, too, as you update the relevance of your books to the changes in culture and in the world, but your brand does not change.
Are you struggling with any part of defining your brand? Tell us the best feedback you’ve received that helped you identify it.
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Shirlee Abbott
Best feedback? I sense God watching over my shoulder as I type. Most of the time, that seems neutral, as in “Let’s see where you go with that.” Sometimes I feel a frown or slight shake of the head. Occasionally, a fierce, “Don’t do it!” And finally, joy of joys, the light of his approving smile, God’s “atta girl!”
*When I pass my words on for others to critique, suggestions flow back to me for the “neutral” sections. The “approved” thoughts are rarely edited.
*God is my best editor, ever.
Mary Keeley
Shirlee, that sounds like a win-win plan. God knows what he has assigned us to do. Our privilege is to listen and follow.
Jeanne Takenaka
I always appreciate posts about branding. I am still trying to determine my brand. Your questions and things to consider are helpful.
*I think I have a difficult time knowing how to define my brand. I like the idea of creating a survey and asking others what they see in my writing that may indicate my brand. Not that I can rely solely on this, but it may help give me some direction.
*Thank you, Mary!
Mary Keeley
Jeanne, you’re certainly not alone in the hard work of defining your brand. It’s a process that evolves as a writer matures in craft and discovers his or her voice, cadence, and style, blended with the genre and stories or topics God puts on the heart.
A survey can be helpful when you have a group of loyal followers who have connected with you and your writing for enough time to have solid impressions. Be sure to ask specific questions regarding your voice, personality, style, and values and passions that show consistently in anything you write. Let us know how it goes. 🙂
Jeanne Takenaka
Thanks for this direction. It’ll be helpful when I craft those questions for the survey. 🙂
Ada Brownell
I’ve written for many years but probably didn’t have a brand until about five years ago. It wasn’t easy choosing something because I write in multiple genres, fiction, non-fiction, newspapers, different age groups. But after prayer I found something that works “Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement.” I’m happy with that.
NLB Horton
Wonderful blog, Mary, and completely on-target from a marketing/advertising perspective. Thank you.
Mary Keeley
Norma, I appreciate this compliment from your guru marketing and advertising perspective.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Great post, Mary. You’ve broken a complex and seemingly inchoate process down into some key points, and I’m sure this will be helpful to a lot of people. And how about those Cubs!!!!!
* I know I have a brand and a fairly distinctive voice, and do deliver at least the consistency of perspective and the emotional connexion that most of my readers have enjoyed (some are awaiting sequels that I still hope to finish).
* And the viewpoint is Catholic, which is odd because I’m not. But I spent a lot of time in Catholic countries, and I understand at a visceral level that approach to faith.
* Coming up with a defining tagline is hard…
– “Details matters.” Sounds a bit like I’m opening a car-cleaning business
– “Little things mean a lot”, and I’m channeling 50s music.
– “We’re stronger together…” uh, never mind.
– “Look, guys, Mongo can WRITE!” is undoubtedly the most accurate, but hardly compelling.
* So maybe I’ll try “”Duty carries the gift of grace.” I think people want to be called to something that stretches them, something hard, and to see a cleansing moral payoff at the end. We’ll see, I guess.
Carol Ashby
I LOVE that last one, Andrew! It certainly describes you.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Carol, thank you so much!
Mary Keeley
“Duty carries the gift of grace.” I think you’ve nailed it, Andrew. It speaks volumes…accurately…in only six words. This is a great example of what a writer wants to accomplish in a tagline.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Thanks, Mary. It feels like it fits in with Christ’s Passion, that His acceptance of His duty in the Garden of Gethsemane was the active choice, history’s decisive turning point that brought us grace.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
“Duty carries the gift of grace”.
Umm, yup. You nailed it.
(Yes, I’m back in the Great White North. Just not home, yet)
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Thanks, Jennifer! I hope you enjoyed your travels, and got a good laugh – or cry – out of the current political process.
Jeanne Takenaka
I love your words, and your final tagline thought. Vintage Andrew!
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Thanks so much, Jeanne! 🙂
Michael Emmanuel
Duty carries the gift of grace.
I don’t know what to say. I wanna cry and punch the air and yell, “that’s so perfect,” all in a second.
Carol Ashby
A thought-provoking post, Mary. I have an overarching theme that’s grown out of the six plots for my Roman series. They all reveal how lost souls can be transformed through the love of Christians who showed them that following Jesus is worth any sacrifice, inspiring them to find God themselves. How to make that a tagline of a few words? That’s a bit of a problem. They’re all stories of spiritual quests where the character was well on the way before they even realized it. Maybe “genuine faith is contagious.”
*One thing that helped me focus on what contributes to my brand was a comment on a contest entry. One judge didn’t think the characters should ever talk with God, either out loud or in their head, as if he were another character in the story. Ironic, because if faith is genuine, that’s exactly what real people do.
Mary Keeley
Carol, once you are sure of the fiction genre you want to settle in for the foreseeable years, there are hints of natural brand identity in your second sentence. Combine this with your individual personality, style, voice, and the characters you create, and you may drill down to your unique brand.
Carol Ashby
I think I know my brand. I’m just not sure how to distill it into six words or less. That’s the hard part!.
Kristen Joy Wilks
What about “Lost and Found”…maybe?
Carol Ashby
Right on target!
Sylvia A. Nash
“One judge didn’t think the characters should ever talk with God, either out loud or in their head, as if he were another character in the story.”
Really?! I agree–that’s what real people do–because that’s what prayer is. Was it a CBA/Christian contest? I’m flabbergasted!
Carol Ashby
Genesis. I was flabbergasted, too.
Sylvia A. Nash
Huh! That’s all I can say!
David Todd
Loving Christians—a world transformed
Carol Ashby
That’s got real potential, David
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Carol, how about “The faith and strength hidden within”?
David Todd
After completing a number of works across several genres (my Genre Focus Disorder acting up big time), I realized I had a consistent theme: The Virtuous Man. I’m not sure how to turn that into a brand or a tag line. I’ll need to settle on a genre first, I think.
Kristen Joy Wilks
Ooooh, this reminds me of a secular book series that has a secondary character who is a Catholic Christian. When the hero introduces him to his girlfriend she asks what was up with this guy. “He’s a righteous man.” the hero says. “He seems OK to me.” she replied. “No, you’re thinking ‘self-righteous.’ He is righteous, he actually lives out what he believes. Although these were very much NOT Christian books, that one character always speaks to me, through all the books he lives out what he believes. Sounds like you have put your finger on something similar.
David Todd
Sounds a little similar, Kristen. Though my virtuous man is multiple characters over multiple genres.
Mary Keeley
David, which genre did you enjoy writing most? Which one do you connect with naturally? Once you’ve decided this, your answers to the questions above should help you identify further specifics. Let us know where you land.
David Todd
Mary, in a couple of years I’ll perhaps know which genre I like writing in best. I need to get some books out of my system—all of them sequels to books already written/published—before I can concentrate on one. So far I’ve enjoyed writing everything I’ve written, and couldn’t differentiate degrees of enjoyment between them. And, the one I think I’ll connect with naturally is one I haven’t written my first one in yet.
Kristen Joy Wilks
Hmmm…I’ve been stewing about this for years. But as I blog and write I’m realizing that I am at my best when I discover the funny in the everyday and the depth in ordinary moments…although I do enjoy a wild Scooby Do plot twist and improbable chase scene as well. I enjoy humor and honesty and noticing the Glory among all the garbage that we’ve managed to pile up around ourselves.
Mary Keeley
Kristen, you may have identified several pivotal attributes of your brand right here in your comment: humor, honesty, and glory amid the mess. I looks like you are well on your way to finding your unique brand niche.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
This is something that always makes me sputter.
I know my brand is me, but sometimes I think my tagline could be “how the heck did she get here without getting arrested?”.
I struggle with my tagline, mostly because when it comes to the “I’m probably wrong” factor, I am your girl.
Mary Keeley
Jennifer, how about asking your writer friends and surveying your social media followers for their feedback? You might be surprised at the spot-on insights they give you.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Jennifer, how about “Let my heart be their voice”?
Sylvia A. Nash
My stories all seem so different.
..One series features a 30-something college philosophy professor.
..The other series features a 60-something retired English teacher who is now the genealogy director at a small town library (yes, the crimes and solutions are genealogy-linked).
..My standalone features a physician pitted against a revenge serial killer.
..My short stories are all crime stories.
..My blogs and interests include genealogical research.
. So different and yet to me they are all tied together by one theme, which I have “tagged” on my website as “The Mystery Begins in the Past” and on both my website and my blog with “Writing Mysteries Suspended in Time.”
. In other words, for me, the past (near or far) always bleeds (pardon the pun) into the present and the future. Nothing happens without a trigger, and usually that trigger happened years before the “story” takes place.
. That’s clear as clean water to me, but I wonder if it’s only clear as mud to any readers who happen my way.
Carol Ashby
I really like your tagline, Sylvia!
Sylvia A. Nash
Thanks! I wish I could take credit for “coming up with it.” I guess I did think about it, but both phrases mostly just popped in my head and stayed there. I’ve thought about changing them, but I can’t think of anything that fits better.
Carol Ashby
Those things that pop in are often the best! Inspiration, not just perspiration.
Sylvia A. Nash
I like inspiration best. Less messy. 🙂
Mary Keeley
Sylvia, I see the common theme among the different genres. Do readers overlap among them? Which one has the largest audience?
Is one of your statements your brand and the other your tagline? Genealogy and mystery/crime make a unique combination for a brand. “Mystery Begins in the Past” alludes to that.
Sylvia A. Nash
First, truth in advertising: None of them have done all that well this past year. The philosophy prof series (2 so far) did the best out of the gate and has more copies “out there.” The genealogy director series (1 so far & 1 in process) has chugged along better but has fewer copies out. The physician standalone has done neither but it isn’t “dead.” And my reader connections are slim. I can’t seem to make that happen.
. Of friends and family readers, they either read everything, love it beyond measure, and can’t wait for the next one whatever it is OR they read nothing so have no opinion. My reviews are mostly decent, but I don’t have that many.
. As to Brand vs. Tagline, I’m not sure I separate them in my own mind. My blog title is “Past and Present.” My website title is “The Mystery Begins in the Past.” Both have “Writing Mysteries Suspended in Time” as a subtitle. Maybe I’m not as focused as I think I am. Suggestions?
Shelli Littleton
I feel like I’m inching along, but in the right direction. The more I read, the more I improve my novels. One day I’ll be up, and one day I’ll be down … but I’m making sweet life-long friends along the way that bless each day. It’s so good and so rewarding … this process. 🙂
Mary Keeley
Shelli, you are in a good place. It’s going through the process of reading other authors and improving your writing that you will discover characteristics unique to you and your novels. These elements will comprise your brand. Also, get feedback from those sweet, life-long friends who have read your work. Ask them to point out distinctions of your author voice, personality, style, and passions that come across in your writing. By the time you are published, your brand will be clear to you.
Sylvia A. Nash
Shelli, rejoice on the up days and eat chocolate on the down days–and maybe walk off the chocolate on the in-between days.
Shelli Littleton
Thank you, Sylvia! Chocolate sounds so good right now. 🙂
Carol Ashby
Mary, can a series title define your brand? Mine is “Light in the Empire,” and that does capture what my hero/heroine characters are.
Shelli Littleton
I love the word “light” because it can mean so many things. 🙂
Carol Ashby
And it lends itself to gorgeous cover images. Roseanna White is designing my covers, and she really captured the theme with how she used light on the horizon!
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
The light of faith and a joyous lightheartedness are what you bring, Shelli.
Carol
So true, Andrew!
Shelli Littleton
Thank you, Andrew ?
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Shelli, thank YOU. The grace you share has given light unto the feet of many whose lives have been darkened by circumstance. You’re so important!
Mary Keeley
Carol, your characters will change with each new series you write. Your brand is you, and that doesn’t change. In other words, your brand is an umbrella of qualities unique to you in everything you write.
Shelia Stovall
I love the idea of asking my critique partners for their input. Let’s hope I can keep open mind if they don’t agree my brand fits me. I hope “Friendship, Hope, & Fried Fruit Pies” speaks volumes about me, but it’s not my opinion that counts, it’s how others perceive my writing style. Branding is still sort of a fuzzy cloud for me. Thank you for sharing.
Mary Keeley
Shelia, it would be interesting to have your critique partners’ feedback. But I can’t imagine they won’t agree that your current brand fits you to a tee.
Shelia Stovall
Thanks so much. I’m trying to make sure all my post have some sort of connection with friendship or hope, and if all else fails, I throw in a recipe that includes a fruit of the season.
Janet Ann Collins
My tagline is, “Opening Eyes, Opening Hearts.” Although I write both fiction for kids and nonfiction for adults, The idea of accepting people who are different, especially those with special needs, seems to show up in almost everything I write.
Mary Keeley
Janet, my husband and I work with special-needs children in our church, and I can see how your tagline fits your writing.
Now the bigger question . . . what is your brand?
Janet Ann Collins
I’m still trying to figure that out. Any suggestions?
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
The question of actually defining a brand is interesting, because while the tagline catches the eyes, it’s the cover for a structure of depth and complexity that lies beneath.
* I’d say that my brand is defined by stories of people forced, in relationships and by life’s events, to look beneath the surface and try to fully understand the foundation of their faith as defined by the responsibilities placed before them. The writing consists more of action and dialogue rather than description and introspection, and develops story through character interaction. The style is simple and direct, and I hope to move Christian and ‘spiritually seeking’ readers to identify with the characters’ faith journeys.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Which, I suppose, could be less verbosely offered as “God may set your feet on a dark and scary road, but He’s always right behind you.”
Carol Ashby
Love your summary, Andrew! For those of us who aren’t there now, we will be in the future.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Carol, thank you so much…your words and affirmation mean the world to me today, and I’m not exaggerating. I’m hurting, bad…and I’m scared.
Janet Ann Collins
That does suit your writing, and you.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Jan, thank you so much.
Carol Ashby
Off topic: Andrew is having a very hard time right this minute. Prayers much appreciated.
Mary Keeley
Thanks for letting us know, Carol. I’m praying for him.
Carol Ashby
Andrew just emailed his deepest thanks.
Kathy Cassel
I am going to be posting a brand/slogan matching quiz tomorrow on my blog! As an author, I don’t know what mine is. So far I have all youth non fiction books in print and I strive to make them both inspirational and practical. Maybe someone will try my quiz tomorrow. http://rockthejourney01.blogspot.com/
Cheryl Malandrinos
My tagline is “Faith-filled journeys for kids.” I find every story to be a journey of discovery because I write fiction containing messages for children to learn from.
Many people who reviewed my first book, Little Shepherd, said it was a “fresh look” or “fresh reinterpretation” of a familiar story. I really like that and I’m focusing my work on finding new ways to share timeless lessons.