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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