Before I started building my author platform, the word branding made me think of cattle. Now that I’ve become immersed in promoting my books, branding has taken on a whole different meaning.
What is branding? Bottom-line, branding is a form of communication. It is a means of conveying to your reader who you are and what you write. Branding is the image you create of your unique style and content.
Branding involves several key elements, a few of which I will mention here:
1) Consistency. Your brand must be consistent. In other words, if you present yourself as a writer of cozy mysteries one week, you don’t want to brand yourself as a writer of urban fantasy the next week.
2) Connection. Your brand must connect you to your readership. This is the main purpose of a brand: to establish a relationship with those readers who will purchase your books.
3) Communication. This is the essential definition of branding. Branding communicates to the public that you are a particular kind of author who writes a particular kind of story. Branding is a form of identification that enables the reader to know you in a way that she ordinarily would not.
Branding is comprised of far more than these three elements, but they provide a starting point for creating your own brand. If you have not yet developed your brand, make it a goal for the new year. If you have already developed your brand, please share with us some techniques that have worked for you.
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