5 Author Branding Tips: Brand Yourself & Connect With Readers

As authors, I understand that many of us pay more attention, budget and efforts in branding our books than ourselves. This is totally understandable. After all, most readers remember books they love. However, do note that there are also readers who buy many books written by the same person because they love the author.

Thus, I strongly encourage that you start thinking about branding. Branding gives you and your books an identity. It makes you and your books memorable. It also encourages readers to buy from you.

Table Of Contents

1. Create A Mission Statement

A brand mission statement clearly communicates the purpose of the business. It gives people an idea of what your business is and what impact it wants to make. It essentially explains why your company exists.

As authors, I feel that this is related to why we write in the first place. Perhaps, you want to share the stories swirling in your head or impart your knowledge so others can learn and grow. Also, think about the impact you want to make through your books. For example, you might want to encourage readers to be brave in love or inspire them that it’s never too late for anything.

There is no right or wrong answer. Just keep your answer in mind. It’ll help you stay focused and on track so that you make the right decisions. Let’s say your mission statement is “To create stories that encourage people to be brave in love”. With this mission statement serving as a guide for making decisions, you probably will write romance fiction with happy endings that revolve around courageous protagonists.

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2. Figure Out Your USP

According to Wikipedia, a unique selling proposition (USP) refers to the unique benefit exhibited by a company, service, product or brand that enables it to stand out from competitors.

Think about the USP that compels people to read your books. It shouldn’t only be about the genre you write like fantasy or romance. Is there something common in all the books you’ve written? Here are some ideas:

Your characters: eg. your hot alpha male
Imaginary worlds you create: your readers love the complex well-thought-out worldbuilding you’ve done
Friendship between your protagonists or strong family bonds

You can consider looking at the reviews of your books. Perhaps, there’s a certain feedback that is mentioned across many of your books.

The key is to define your specialty and shout it out. You could even include this USP in your author tagline!

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3. Understand & Connect With Your Readers

Depending on the books you write, there’s probably a buyer persona. Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers based on data and research.

For example, if you write children’s books, your buyer persona would probably be parents or teachers. If you’re a romance author, your buyer persona would probably be women.

Do research and understand what your ideal readers are like.

How old are they?
What is their gender?
What are their interests, habits and behaviors?
How do they find books to read?
What websites do they usually surf? Which social media channels do they use?

Armed with this knowledge, you will better understand how to connect with your readers. Ensure that you’re on the social media channels that your readers frequent. Also, I strongly recommend that you encourage your readers to sign up for your newsletter. It could be a monthly newsletter where you email them the latest updates like your work-in-progress or sneak peeks of your manuscript.

The key is to connect with your readers. Let them know the person behind their favorite books. Build a relationship so they’ll remember you and perhaps, buy your next book.

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4. Develop Your Brand Voice

Everyone has a personality. You as a person have one too.

The question is should your brand voice sound like you?

For most companies, their brand voice is closely related to their products and services. The brand voice of a toy store that sells children’s toys is probably friendly and family-oriented. Their copies will usually use simple language too.

But as authors, what we write might not reflect our personality. For instance, writing crime thrillers doesn’t mean that the author is a vicious person or has committed crimes. The author could be a humorous lady with a creative mind and vivid imagination. Likewise, an author who writes tragic novels may be cheerful (rather than gloomy).

So, the first thing you need to do is develop your brand voice. How do you want your readers to perceive the author behind their favorite books? What is the brand image that you want to build in your readers’ eyes?

This brand voice will be used on your website, newsletter, social media, blog and more. It essentially affects how you communicate with your readers. This is where you let your personality shine and show readers the human behind their favorite stories.

But of course, your brand voice doesn’t always have to reflect your personality. You might use a professional and educational tone (but not overly formal or dry) if you write non-fiction books so readers will perceive you as an industry expert and thought leader. Also, your brand voice can be different from the narrative voice that you use in your books.

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5. Keep Your Brand Consistent Everywhere

After determining your brand voice and designing your logo, ensure that your brand is consistent everywhere.

If you’re the only person behind the brand, this should be easily achievable. You probably know the language and tone to use when writing as well as the colors and font to tell your designer. All of this is in your head.

But the problem occurs when you’re not the only person behind the brand. Let’s say you delegate some of the tasks to your assistant. In this scenario, I strongly recommend that you create a brand guide. A brand guide is a document that specifies how a brand should be communicated, including the rules and guidelines on the use of creative assets and messaging across all media and channels. This brand guide will capture everything in your head and translate to tangible rules and guidelines that people can abide by when representing your brand.