This week, Fable and The Verbivore discuss creating an author brand name for your writing.

This episode is part one of our new series on developing a brand for your stories. And we open, by giving a broad definition from TechTarget.com that calls a brand “a product, service or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name, its qualities and personality.”

But also, branding is:

• What people think of or associate with you

• Defined by a persona and specific attributes

• The feel/vibe/emotion connected with your work

• An aspect of your work that makes it distinctive from the work of others

In this conversation, we cover a lot of ground about branding and reasons why we feel every author should work on developing their own. 

Things like the following:

• Step back from your work and assess what is already part of your writing

• Get specific and intentional on the story of your brand

• Tap into the vibe/emotion behind your work and express it visually — through colors, fonts, and images

• Be willing to sit with, workshop, and play with different ideas as you begin to hone in on your brand

• Find the niche or distinctive white space in the market that you naturally fall into and enfold that USP (unique selling proposition) into the story of your author brand and marketing materials

• Once you have developed a brand, find ways of being consistent through the things you create — even websites, your bio, and social media posts

Towards the end of this conversation, we talk about the importance of tying all of this back to the specific feeling you want a reader to have with your work — using a concrete example to not just tell them how you hope your work will make them feel but show them. And, also, viscerally remind you as you write what feel you’re aiming towards.

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode and that you find it useful wherever you are at on your writing journey!

We’ll be back next week with part two of this new series on author branding to discuss some specific questions to consider. Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

We reference a past episode from the Fable and the Verbivore podcast. That is:

• Episode 231: The Benefits of Pen Names

Here are a couple resources mentioned in today’s episode:

• Techtarget.com Definition of Brand: “A brand is a product, service or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name, its qualities and personality.”

• The Verbivore references Kris Jenner’s MasterClass on “The Power of Personal Branding”, especially episode 2 “Create Your Personal Branding Story”

• WritersDigest.com Article “3 Ways to Find Your Book's Unique Selling Proposition”

• Forbes.com Articles “What is a Brand, Anyway?”, “The Importance of Being First”, and “Brand New Profits”

• Ramotion.com Article “Brand Attributes Examples & List for Understanding”

• Publishdrive.com Article “6 Effective Ways to Build an Author Brand”

• TheBookDesigner.com Article “Author Branding: What’s Your Author Brand?”

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)