Be the Best: Let Your Author Brand Point Out Exactly Why You Rock

by Diane Holmes, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book, founder of Pitch University.

Have you notice that no matter how much people talk about author branding, it’s all fine until you try to create your own author brand.  Then a thick fog descends. 

Seriously, I think there are even monsters out there.

There’s a chasm between understanding all the goodness of having an Author Brand, or doing the Brand Building Techniques, and finding the brand that works for you.  That IS you.

Chasm.

So how about this:  What if your brand is simply what you do better than anyone else? 

Your skills.

Your ideas.

Your unique way of thinking.

What Are You The Best At?

Be the best

Are you the writer who combines Zombies with Teen Girls for Global Peace?

Can you tell a story backwards so that the mystery unfolds in reverse?

Do you write more historically accurate scenes of The Black Death than anyone else?

What is it that sets you apart, that makes you think, “I have to write this because no one else can say it this way?”

What about your work is so original you know this aspect has never been done before?  This type of character hasn’t been explored?  This element will surprise your readers?

Why is your writing keenly important to you? To others?

Now we’re getting to the good stuff.

1.  Seriously consider what you’re accomplishing on a broader scale by being the author of this story, this article, this book.

2.  Every author I know is writing in a way that can be described as a mission:  a mission of story telling, a mission of technique, a mission of information, a mission of some grand passion.

3.  Writers make choices about characters, plots, and subjects because of a deep interest.

All of these things (deep interest, mission, keen importance), these are signs of you wanting to Be the Best.

Identify those things and call them your brand.

After all, your readers certainly will.

This is the 11th in a series on Author Branding.
Previous articles include:
1. Author Branding vs. an Army of Writers
2. The Author’s Branding Manifesto
3. The Gleam in Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #1)
4. Storytelling Your Author Brand (Brand Building Technique #2)
5. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 1) (Brand Building Technique #3)
6. Yes, Your Book Is Part of Your Brand (part 2) (Brand Building Technique #4)
7. Your Author Brand: What Do You Want People To Say Behind Your Back? (Brand Building Technique #5)
8.Author Branding: “The Brand Your Brand Could Smell Like.”
9. Your Power as a Writer = Your Author Brand (with Donald Maass)
10. “Writer’s Passion” As Brand (with Christopher Vogler)

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Diane Holmes Crop 1
Diane writes two columns for Freelance-Zone: Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.

She’s the Founder and Chief Alchemist of Pitch University