BackMyBook.com

We talk a lot about "brand" and its importance, and define it using examples of people who have already found success. But creating a new brand, your brand, can seem pretty daunting, especially if you feel like you're not quite sure how to go about doing it. Let's lay out some key points to follow, you can think of this as your guide to the brand creation process. I like to start with these 4 points: a successful brand (in any case) should be Remarkable, Intimate, Consistent, and Authentic.

Remarkable

Your brand has to stand out! That means you need to be eye catching, ear catching, dream catching, whatever kind of catching you can be to get people to notice you. This comes with an important disclaimer though, you can't simply stand up on a soapbox and yell into a loudspeaker to make people hear you. The trick is to be remarkable to a group of targeted readers who will like your writing, who you can engage with. Your work must be remarkable to these readers not just to the point where they notice you, but so that you are worthy of comment, so that they share you. Granted, this has a lot to do with the quality of the content you are building your brand around (aka in short the trick is to *ahem* be good at writing), but there are a lot of authors out there with good content. Don't let this discourage you, there are also plenty of fans out there, just know that you will have to fight for their attention, so be prepared to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

Intimate

No, not like on a romantic date. Well, sort of. You want to be personal, relatable... intimate. In other words, your brand needs to be open and inviting, the reader needs to feel like they "own a piece of you." Make yourself available to readers, interact and communicate with them, mingle! Make your readers feel like they belong in the community just as much as you do. When readers can think of you as a friend or a peer, they will be more invested in you and more interested in what you have to say.

Consistent

Your readers should know what to expect from you. That doesn't mean you should be droll and uncreative, just that readers should be comfortable with the experience they're having. Try to maintain the same tone, style, pizazz, and interesting types of content that attracted them to you in the first place. Keep in mind, your brand is in play anywhere you are visible to readers. This means, blogs, forums, websites, interviews, book covers, posters, promos, trailers, tweets, your American Idol audition... everywhere! If your brand comes across as bi-polar or inconsistent it will be difficult to build strong relationships with fans. If you are consistent however, fans will be comfortable; and the ones who identify most with your brand will be your strongest supporters as a result.

Authentic

It's tempting, especially on the internet, to exaggerate and extrapolate and hide behind a keyboard. But it's easy to spot a fake, and generally speaking nobody like a fake. So don't do it! Another way to think about this is to simply practice what you preach. This adds so much value and validity to your brand, and in turn builds trust for your fans. Again, the stronger the relationships with your fans, the more they like you, the more invested they will be in you. This is how "true fans" are born, and you can't put a price on the marketing they can do for you simply through their enthusiasm for you and your brand.

So... with these 4 key points in mind, you can be well on your way to creating a successful brand around your writing. If it feels a bit overwhelming, that's okay. Just take a deep breath, and stay within yourself (remember, authentic). Create a brand that you can "pull off" and it should just about come naturally. For some writers a brand could just be as simple as your engaging personality, for others it could revolve around the world created in your stories, and for others it could have to do with the style or subject matter of your writing. Finally, if it still seems scary, just remember: you don't (in fact shouldn't) need to please everyone. Just your fans.