Surprise! Branding Is Not Always About Your Book By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Today's guest author is no stranger to Marketing Tips For Authors. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is back to share her wisdom with us. In today's post, she talks about the importance of creating a brand as an author. It's my pleasure to bring you this excerpt from her book, The Frugal Promoter.


Surprise! Branding Is Not Always About Your Book
by Carolyn Howard-Johnson
An Excerpt from The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't

Branding is not advertising, nor publicity, not even general
exposure. It is how all of your efforts, working together, coalesce
into the public's perception of who you are, what you do.



Poets and Writers Magazine reports that Riverhead Press, ZZ Packer's publisher, "Bank(ed) on . . . .name recognition" when they sent her on a 10-city tour in 2003, something that the press's publicist maintains is a rare occurrence for a first-time author.

It is unlikely that you will have the name recognition that your, your publisher or publicist can count on when your first book comes out. Not unless you are already a known expert and are writing a nonfiction book allied with that expertise. Or unless you've been working on a platform way before your publisher or publicist is ready to make such decisions.

These are the reasons why it is never too early to start promoting your career. Notice, I said career, not book. Your early publicity efforts should be aimed at who you are, your expertise and any writing you did (or are doing) before your book was but a shadow of an idea in your head.

Even with a general background in PR and experience in another specialized field of publicity (fashion) I fell into some gigantic publicity pitfalls. One of the worst: I put my book—my passion—first.

One day I realized that I was the one that I should be branding instead of my book. I was putting together a business card on www.vistaprint.com. I'm not very computer savvy and I couldn't get my book cover of This Is the Place to load. I had seen many business cards for real estate professionals that used their photos so I did the same. Then I thought, "Well, it's OK because I won't have to do much redesigning when and if I complete another book." Lightning! Of course I would write another book! And of course, when I think of my favorite books it usually isn't the title I remember, but the author's name! In fact if that author had written quite a few books—I might not be able to name more than one of them.

Even after this flare of clarity, I was reluctant to give up my focus on the name of my book because This Is the Place is a metaphor at several levels. The place is, of course, Utah, my beloved home where I was born and raised. Place refers also to the farm where my protagonist goes to learn more about herself, but it also refers to that singular spot inside each of us where we must go to find the courage to follow our own passion rather than those indicated by others. That's when I realized that I wouldn't have to change the name of my Web site for it, too, was a place, the place, in fact, for learning more about me and my books. I since outgrew that Web site (I needed control over adding and deleting my own content!) but it worked for nearly six years.

Some of the most focused companies in the world, like Coca Cola, use several related approaches to branding themselves.(Coke is it! The Real Thing!) Branding is not necessarily an all or nothing proposition. I am working fervently on promoting my passion, a campaign against prejudice of all kinds (gender, race, religion, body type, nationality and on and on). It matters not where my books are set or their names, "The Place" will always be that place inside of each of us that is very much like the place in the person we think we don't like for whatever reason. So a page on my new site will be carry this header.

You are after the same kind of universal approach to your branding. It's okay if you aren't a Johnny One Note. In fact, it's preferable. The last thing you want to do it narrow your efforts to a single title, even the name of a single series. Not even a single genre.

As it turned out, my second book, Harkening, is not a novel, but a book of true short stories. I'm glad I didn't brand myself too narrowly because stationary or business cards that say "novelist" wouldn't fit for that nor would it have fit for my how-to books for writers. A few years later, "novelist" or even "writer of fiction" wouldn't work for my poetry chapbooks, either.

This may seem like nit picking, but, in terms of branding, even one word can be important and an author working on a PR campaign will continue to refine his or her approach. That's another reason why you don't want to have too many postcards, business cards or bookmarkers printed at once. In the future, you may be turning corners you never visualized.

Here are some aspects of branding you'll want to consider.

• Decide what you want your brand to say.
  
  1. Take into consideration what you might do in the future. Your first book may be a romance but if you choose a red hot image and decide to write a literary book, you will have chosen your brand unwisely
     
     
  2. Certainly you'll want to consider tie-ins to your writing or business career from your prebook days if they will contribute to the picture you are trying to paint.
     
• Consider general branding as you design your Web site and other promotion materials.
  
  
• A look that coordinates your author's stationery, cards, invoices, your Web site and bookmarks is part of branding. So is your voice mail greeting, your e-mail signature, the look of your instant messaging and more. Wait, however, until just before your book is released to implement most of these efforts.
  
  Hint #1: Once your publisher has firmed up your title
  begin to think about a banner or logo for the book to be used on Web sites. If you are not handy with a computer, try T.C. McMullen's graphic talents: http://tc_mcmullen.tripod.com/editorialservices/
  or Brenda Weeaks, br_we@sbcglobal.net.
  
  Hint #2: You don't need a book or a title to settle on a logo for your stationery, etc. Your logo should fit into your general branding concept and that might be something as simple as an attractive rendition of your initials.
  
  
• Work now on making yourself into an expert based on something related to your book. Choose the broadest brush possible. Tolerance is broad and it (or the lack of it) is constantly in the news. Book promotion is less general but that's OK. It's a nice niche market. Novelist Tony Eldridge has used that niche to good advantage.
  
  
• When you're making these decisions, follow your star. It will be easier to follow though on a subject for which you are passionate.
  
  
• Don't be afraid of widening your path. This is akin to building a reputation. You wouldn't want to be known only as honest among dozens of traits you aspire to.
  
  Hint: This rule changes when your book is about to be published. Then you will want to specifically target the audience and media that will be most receptive to that specific work, but only for a while. It won't be long before you'll need to pick up a fatter brush that holds more paint.
  

---------------------- Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a multi award-winning novelist, short story writer, poet and author of nonfiction books for writers. She is also an instructor for UCLA Extension's Writers' Program and has shared her expertise at venues like San Diego State's world renowned Writers' Conference and the Sinclair Lewis Writers' Conference. She was recently awarded Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by the California Legislature and her city's Ethics award for her work on promoting tolerance. Her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers have won USA Book News' Best Professional Book awards, the Irwin Award, Reader Views Literary award and her marketing campaign for THE FRUGAL EDITOR won a New Millennium award. She writes a blog that was chosen Writer's Digest 101 Best; it is www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com Another helps writers present whistle-clean copy, www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com. Her Web site is: http://www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.