What is one good example of personal branding for authors?
To help you establish your personal author brand, we asked marketing professionals and publishing experts this question for their best tips. From figuring out your unique selling point to reviewing and supporting your fellow authors, there are several tips that may help you to promote your author brand.
Here are 10 examples of personal branding for authors:
- Figure out your Unique Selling Point
- Establish your Author Page Wherever Possible
- Make YouTube Videos like Mo Willams
- Be your Most Authentic Self
- Select the Appropriate Font
- Learn Lessons from Established Author Brands
- Run Weekly Twitter Threads to Expand your Audience
- Identify your Target Audience
- Craft a Strong Personal Statement
- Review & Support your Fellow Authors
Figure out your Unique Selling Point
Knowing your unique selling point is a good example of personal branding for authors. It helps authors identify their audience’s desires and understand what kind of elements readers like to read in their books. For instance, if 100 authors are writing in the same niche, figuring out your unique selling point will let you know what makes you different from others.
Similarly, you can communicate, differentiate your business goals, and prepare yourself to compete with sophisticated authors. Moreover, unique selling points give authors a clear idea about their interests, skills, and values. Personal branding allows them to identify their target audience, focus on topics of their readers’ interests, and stand out in this fierce competition.
Charles Ngechu, EasyPaydayLoan
Establish your Author Page Wherever Possible
Authors need Author Pages. Author Pages brand you in your niche. When you sell your books on Amazon, you have the option of having an Author Page. Use it. Goodreads is a social media site for book lovers. People recommend books. Sign up for a Goodreads account and start an Author Page. You can link to your books on Amazon. As you see, using an Author Page brands you and also helps you make more book sales.
Janice Wald, Mostly Blogging
Make YouTube Videos like Mo Willams
During the pandemic, author Mo Willams made some wonderful strides around personal branding. He created YouTube characters where he taught kids how to draw the characters from his books. Elephant & Piggie, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and other books of his were featured in these videos. Kids learned how to draw, saw the author on a new level, and his personal brand exposure increased significantly because he found such a powerful way to connect with his audience. Maybe you’re not an artist, but think about how you could engage with your audience on YouTube!
Logan Mallory, Motivosity
Be your Most Authentic Self
When it comes to personal branding, everyone has a personal brand whether they believe it or not. It may be a certain style of clothes you wear, the way you fix your hair, etc., but the way you present yourself can become associated with your books. Use it to your advantage and own it!
The same goes for the way you phrase things, the style of language you use. If you tend to have key phrases that friends or family rag on you for using often, then lean into it.
It’s okay to just be you and let that be a part of your personal brand. Think of the characters you write. You have written about the way they look, talk, walk, etc. And it becomes a part of who they are and what they are known for. That idea stems from real life personal branding that we all acknowledge without even thinking about it.
Dylan Miller, DSM Story Forge
Select the Appropriate Font
Personal branding is just as important for authors as any other business or profession. Authors can use their personal brand to market themselves and define who they are as writers, both professionally and personally. But personal branding is more than just a website, a font choice, or a catchy slogan. An author’s personal brand is their silent ambassador—it can speak volumes about their writing, style and personality.
One example of a great personal brand, which is particularly important for authors, is font selection. Your brand’s fonts should be carefully considered, and authors should pay close attention to their fonts to ensure that their brand connects with their audience. The font an author chooses tells their readers a story about their professional career. Every font tells a different story, and the font you use should never be left up to chance.
Nicholas Robb, Design Hero
Learn Lessons from Established Author Brands
Jordan Peterson is a good example of personal branding for authors. He has built up a large online following by consistently putting out high-quality content that helps people improve their lives. He has also been very effective at using social media to connect with his audience and promote his work. As a result, he has become one of the most successful self-published authors in recent years.
There are many lessons that other authors can learn from Jordan Peterson’s success story. First and foremost, it is important to produce quality content that people will actually want to read. Secondly, Jordan Peterson has been very strategic in his use of social media, and this has played a big role in his success. Lastly, Jordan Peterson is living proof that it is possible to build a successful career as an author without going through traditional publishing channels. These are just some of the reasons why Jordan Peterson is a good example of personal branding for authors.
Sher Jan, US Installment Loans
Run Weekly Twitter Threads to Expand your Audience
Twitter threads are the modern-day public lectures that writers and authors of the past used to give when launching their work or sharing it in the public domain. Authors like Jennifer Neugin have leveraged this branding tool excellently to expand their reader audience and build loyalty. Expert authors recommend running weekly threads to help you advance your brand and be a thought leader.
Ivy Bosibori, USBadCreditLoans
Identify your Target Audience
Regardless of whether one is a full-time or a part-time author, having a clear audience of the target with your content creates effective personal branding. The thing with targeting a particular audience is that it determines the trajectory of your content. Once the audience interacts with your content, they start associating your brand with topics of such nature. Once this is achieved and as long as you remain consistent with writing and upgrading your author content, you will have created a successful personal brand as an author.
Leah Wanjiku Gathoni, NearbyMovers
Craft a Strong Personal Statement
Personal branding for authors is a significant way of giving them a distinctive edge over others. An excellent example of branding for authors is a branding statement. Think of this as a catchphrase or slogan that your readers can identify you with. Tony Robbins, a renowned NY Times author and entrepreneur, has “Be a blessing” as his branding statement. It summarizes what he does, which is to help individuals.
As an author, you can quickly translate your goal and build that deep connection with your readers. Just locate who your target audience is, identify what your goals are, and find a short phrase that can succinctly sum it up.
Shashank Kothari, CocoLoan
Review & Support your Fellow Authors
Good personal branding can be established by showing expertise. If you are able to showcase your abilities and skills, your audience will most likely trust you and the brand you are building. In the case of authors, expertise can be shown to readers and potential clients by writing book reviews on different books.
Readers don’t like celebrities, influencers, or authors who are overly self-promotional with their book, products, services, etc.
By writing reviews of books from other authors and other source material, you’re showing that you can show expertise on materials that are not just your own, and this can increase trust from your audiences. Your skills as an author and writer will be magnified. We have seen this in some of our author clients at CocoLoan, and their go-to strategies to fortify their personal branding is to show how good they are and why they deserve all the support and attention.
Franceen San Andres, CocoLoan
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