This week I was part of the Nonfiction Authors Association Ask-A-Pro session. I set aside 2 hours to have quick 15 minute chats with authors who were attending this year’s conference. It was an absolute pleasure to meet so many authors on a variety of topics. There was one thing that remained consistent though…the question around how to establish an author brand and when is the best time to start working on it…before querying an agent? After landing an agent and going for a publisher? Once you’ve gotten a book deal?
My answer? YES!
All of those times are the right times to be working on your author brand (or business brand!). The truth is that all of these tips work for authors, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and businesses.
What Is An Author Brand?
As an author, you are your brand. That might sound funny and you might wonder how a person is a brand. A brand is simply what sets you apart from others. In regular branding terms, it can be a logo or term, but in personal branding, it’s truly what you stand for, your values, your skills…everything about YOU!
But isn’t your book your brand? No! Your book is certainly a part of you and something you created, but it’s what sets you apart from other authors that is your brand.
As an author, you are your brand. That might sound funny and you might wonder how a person is a brand. A brand is simply what sets you apart from others. In regular branding terms, it can be a logo or term, but in personal branding, it’s truly what you stand for, your values, your skills…everything about YOU!
But isn’t your book your brand? No! Your book is certainly a part of you and something you created, but it’s what sets you apart from other authors that is your brand.
Establishing Yourself As A Brand
In order to create a personal brand, you have to get personal. That might be uncomfortable for some, especially those who consider themselves introverts, but it doesn’t have to be. You should first and foremost own your name domain. If you don’t, please stop reading and go purchase your name domain.
Let people get to know you through your website. What do you look like? What’s your background? What do you write? What do you love to do in your free time? Allow strangers to get to know you, the author, the person, not just your book.
If you’re wondering where my personal brand website is, it’s coming! Right now, my name redirects to my agency website but that will soon be changing so that you can get to know me as a person and as an author.
It doesn’t have to be a complicated website. Be sure to include your bio, a headshot, your book cover and make sure that when you go to your own site, you love it because it’s a reflection of you. Since this is YOUR website, have fun with it. Use colors and fonts that speak to you (but are easy to read!). You don’t even need to have a ton of pages for your website, although I highly recommend the following:
- Homepage
- About
- Media
- Book
- Contact
How Social Media Can Elevate Your Brand
I think that social media can often get a bad wrap. It can feel like a lot of work to create content or show up and engage, but it doesn’t have to be. Once again, I think it needs to be fun. Your job is to promote your book, so use quotes and turn them into graphics to share, record a video of yourself sharing something about a character in your novel, share a video of what your setup looks like that gets you in the writing mood.
For a lot of my social media content planning inspiration, I use Cyndi Zaweski’s Content Strategy Planner. It’s given me a lot of helpful inspiration points to jump off from and made creating Instagram posts much easier.
I mentioned using quotes from your book, but use quotes from yourself as well. I used to quote Oprah or Michelle Obama and then realized that sometimes I say some really great things and should be doing that. It’s my job to promote myself, just as it’s your job to promote yourself and your book.
Podcast Interviews Can Build Your Brand & Help Your Social Media
You didn’t think I was going to wrap this up without a word about podcast interviews, did you? Podcast interviews are a fantastic way to help build your brand as an author, entrepreneur or thought leader. They are an opportunity for people to hear you in your own voice and words. Listeners get to hear an intimate conversation between you and the podcast host. It’s a total treat for many!
Put yourself in the shoes of the listener. You’ve just read this incredible book and suddenly you are getting the opportunity to hear what the author sounds like, who they really are, how they came up with the premise for their book or what background knowledge they had in order to write it. These are things that unless you meet an author at a book signing, chances are you’ll never get to hear their voice or discover these secrets.
From the podcast interviews, you can then create social media content…I told you it can be easy! Create graphics for the episode, quotes or tidbits about what the interview was about. These are all part of your brand because they’re a part of you.
The overall goal is to get yourself out there for others to learn about. There’s no better time than now to start. If you’re about to query agents, then agents, along with publishers, will want to see where you’ve been, how many followers you have and that you’re active online…so start promoting yourself! If your book is about to launch, then you need to let people know about it and let them fall in love with you…start promoting yourself! If your book has already been published, well, it can still sell more copies, can’t it?! Start promoting yourself!
It’s never too early or too late to start promoting yourself as an author.
