Indie Author Tips #3 Branding Yourself

Indie Author Tips #3 Branding Yourself

Branding. When a persona becomes more than the person it represents. Or a company becomes more than a company, a product more than a product. A Toyota isn't just a truck with four wheels and an engine, it is also the last name of over 13,000 people on Japan's largest island. Maybe. I'm not Japanese and don't own a Toyota.

Spoiler alert: Kermit the Frog isn't really an anxious, stressed out frog. He's a puppet made out of green cloth and googly eyes that lives in a plastic bag when it is not on someone's hand.

I'm researching marketing as in indie writer; defining what I am in as little words as possible. I'm to create a persona so potential readers know what I'm about without really knowing anything about me, personally.

In other words, I'm to create an image people expect of me. No surprises. Just predictability. A persona.

What is your persona?

I liken a persona is what you post on Facebook to your friends and family, strangers who knew you once and you have some type of kismet to.

You, as a person, is the one that comes out on Reddit or other semi-anonymous sites. Where you can express feelings, link questionable articles, and type comments without fear of your Aunt Maggie or mother having an opinion of your use of the F or C word.

I'm trying to come up with a persona for my writing. It's a bit difficult considering the medium.

Stephen King's persona is of a man with large glasses, writing semi-horrific stories.

JK Rowling's persona is of a rags-to-riches single mom who hit it big writing of adolescent geek magic.

What the two of them in common? They couldn't get away from their 'personas' and so wrote books under different names (pseudonyms) trying to prove their talent was bigger than their name.

Fortunately for their publishers, low book sales resulted in the disclosure of their 'secret identities' and lo and behold, those books started selling.

So does branding work?

Yes.

Is it healthy for you as a person?

No.

You aren't your job, you aren't what you write, who you wear, what you geek out on. But in these days of social media awareness, what you are is what you've branded yourself, either purposefully or by default.

I'm a writer and I have written comedic (hopefully) stories about existential angst, commentaries on social anxiety and conformity, and the optimism of life, love and the universe.

So what's my brand?

I'm still figuring that out. But in the meantime, define me as you will.

Enter A Fistful of Marijuana, Stoner, Unincorporated and The Midland Mutiny are all available on Createspace, Amazon and Kindle. Or ask your bookseller about them.  

I'm also @metajayroyston on twitter (indie Author Marketing Tip) and currently have 3 followers. Come join the party over there...