What's Your Author Brand?

What is your author brand?

Branding helps readers identify you as an author and sets expectations for your readers. It helps you create a visual identity. Your colors, fonts, photos, graphics, and logo need to match your writing style and your genre.

My first traditionally published piece was a short story in an anthology that had a red and black cover, so I matched my graphics to that color palette. I talked to a publicist years later, and she asked why my sites looked dark because my writing style is light and humorous. Now, I use pastels. If you need help, Google color wheel. There are tons of them out there. It helps you choose complimentary colors.

Things you need:

• Know who your audience is. It’s not everyone who reads. You need to figure out who reads what you write.

  • Look at authors who write you like you. Who follows them? Who reviews their books?

  • Look at your website and social media metrics. These can help you narrow down age groups, countries of origin, and genders of your followers and visitors.

• Know who else is writing in your genre. Check out their websites.

• A logo - This helps readers identify your social sites, newsletter, blog, and website. It needs to match your style of writing and your colors.

• A tagline - This is a short statement that describes your writing.

  • Mine is Mysteries with a Southern Accent.

• A professional photograph - You need a professional photo (no selfies). That was one of my first investments. Your readers need to be able to know that they’ve found the sites of an author.

What else would you add to my list?