Do Authors Need Personal Brands?
stand out by staying true to you
Personal Branding is how you present yourself as an individual to your audience, and stand out from your peers. The 1% of your life you choose to share.
You don’t need to be famous to have a personal brand! In fact, most individuals already have one, privately. We all have distinguishing characteristics, interests and conversation points that encourage our networks to think of us. These are essentially, part of your brand.
Now the question becomes: how do we integrate your author life into this pre-established brand, to loop potential readers, publishers and industry professionals in?
Your brand is an equal combination of who you are in relation to your goals, and what your dream readers care about—shared in the places you can intentionally connect with one another.
You may be thinking—this should be done by your publicist, that you don’t have time to take this on. It’s not actually your publicist’s job to brand you. If you have a brand, you’ll make their job of pitching you easier (talk about a publicity spin 😉).
Traditionally, this is how it works:
In-house marketing is responsible for getting your book out into the world. They work on campaigns, collaborations and content strictly surrounding your title.
And then your publicists are responsible for metaphorically shouting the news of your release from rooftops (on your behalf). They work hard to get you reviews, press releases, tour dates and some will help with social media campaigns around your launch.
The hole here is that no one is primarily tasked with helping you connect with your readers, and become a household name in certain book nooks. And the reality is that many of today’s readers like to be over-informed, and choose their next read because of an author-reader emotional connection.
Choosing to dedicate some of your limited time and hard-earned money to investing in personal branding comes with a lot of POSSIBILITIES and MAYBES. There’s no guarantee that by investing in branding, you’ll be the Next Big Thing. If you’ve got a name for yourself, you’re stacking the odds in your favor.
With branding comes:
the opportunity to grow a community of like-minded individuals
name notoriety amongst peers, readers and a larger-than-you network
the possibilities of longer book tours, better press and distributions
more book sales, and even the higher potential of additional rights acquired
added freedom of creativity while owning who you are as an author
Trust me when I say you can and you should make an investment in personal branding. In a saturated world where the publishing industry reigns over book acquisitions, sales and distribution, having a personal brand empowers you to spearhead your own success and connect directly with your (current and potential) readers. After all, no one can represent you quite like you can.
Agree, disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts.