Building the Brand of You
The name of one of the panels I spoke on over the weekend seems fitting for discussion.
Who am I? What is my brand? What thing do I identify myself with? How do you build an author brand? Do you even know what you are doing?
The answer is simple: I have no idea.
Logically I am learning as I go.
It may seem amateurish to admit that my mind is blown by marketing and all this technological use that comes with being an author and building an author brand. Really that does not bother me. I’ve always been a little strange and I’ve been able to incorporate that into my brand building.
What’s the use of building around yourself when you’re not really being yourself? The answer to that is, it’s completely useless. Being fake, is just an asshole ploy to try to teach people you’re this perfect little ball of writerly perfection. I tried that, made a fool of myself and have shucked out the parachute to land on Plan B. Take my advice, actually build a brand around yourself, the real you. The world needs more creatives, not more fakers.
If you’ve got a weird quirk, go with it. WE ALL HAVE THEM. I have more than I care to list, but that’s besides the point. Getting back on point, building a brand.
Okay, I have no idea what I’m doing but it’s working out for me so. Honestly I think that is the reality of building your own brand. None of us know what we are doing. Most of us if not all of us started from scratch, had to get our names out there, go to events, do things we maybe didn’t want to do. Even though that may be true, we all have different paths. Individually we have to find what works for us.
So when building the brand of you:
- Be Yourself
- Accept the fact that you are learning as you go
- Be open to meeting new people
- Find something to identify with, to build you brand around, to make yourself noticeable (maybe a certain hairstyle, costume/outfit, a persona, or an object/ thing, characterization) For example: I write about monsters, so everyone thinks of me as monster girl. The girl who writes about monsters.
- Market till the site of ads will make you want to throw a book at someone ( pun intended)
- Be Yourself
- Be Yourself
- Be Yourself
- Do your conscience a favor and stop listening to everyone’s advice
Sincerely,
A blunt writer named Monster Girl
Brooke Myers 