Self Promote and Succeed Chapter 3: Your Author Brand

Chapter 3 your author brand I grew up in and out of foster homes, living on the streets in between and being part of a gang to survive. This guy went on to tell me how he built and then lost a multi million dollar business and was now a few years into a pretty great career in sales. His ability to understand people and truly connect was next level. Because he'd experienced so many things in his life, he didn't judge anyone. He looked beyond circumstances to find the heart of the person. In our 30 minute book strategy call. I could see how he'd be great at sales and even better as an author and speaker. But then he said something that crushed me. He said he wasn't ready to write his book. The reason my story doesn't have the perfect ending yet. He said nothing I could say would persuade him otherwise. He'd come back to me when he had a perfect ending. Perfect endings are for fairy tales. In fact, many fairy tales don't even have a perfectly happy ending. Did you read the Little Mermaid? She died with a broken heart. The Red Shoes. I mean, she gets her legs chopped off and is left alone. Here was this man with an incredible personal brand. He just didn't know it yet. He believed he had to be more, do more and have a perfect ending to write a book. In fact, he just needed to write. You don't need a perfect ending to write a book either. But you do need to figure out who you want to be. In other words, your author brand. Most of us resist who we really are. We worry we won't be liked and that fear holds us back. But if you try to hide who you really are and what you think, you'll struggle to sell your book. So much of book marketing is actually author marketing. If you pursue media appearances, they want to speak to you about your personal story as much as your expertise. The very thing that is going to make your book stand out and be amazing is you. Most interviewers want me to talk about my publishing rejections, my struggles with immigrating to the United States, or the challenges I've faced in real estate and business well before they want to dive into the details of any of my books. That's typical. The media doesn't want to promote your book as much as share news, expertise, and powerful stories that entertain and inform their audiences. When we exhausted outlets that wanted to talk about war related stories for Jill Phillips memoir Landlash street, we found even greater exposure for her book when we focused on selling her personal story about how she came to write it. Her book is the center of the conversation. But her story is the reason people want to hear from her. Building your brand from your book People will define you if you don't define yourself first. What do you want to be known for? If you want to have an impact on others, you must be noticed. You may also be judged and that can be terrifying. I promise people will say mean, critical and absolutely unfair things to you when you stand out. Instead of fearing that negative feedback, prepare to celebrate it. You now stand out enough that someone is trying to knock you down. Take book Launchers TV as an example. I get people criticizing my hair, my clothes, my voice, how much coffee I drink, and occasionally what I've said. Here's what you need to know. I stand out. My videos are not boring and I take a stand and say some unpopular things and that is okay. The channel is growing. It helps a lot of people and I'm human. My brand is friendly, supportive, real and encouraging. I'm not perfectly polished or perfectly anything. When you meet me in person, I am the same person you've seen online. My brand is authentic. Also, just a side note, most people do want to support you and see you succeed. The people who judge and criticize you unfairly are not typically successful or happy themselves. If you're new to building your brand, let's walk through how to approach it. Step one in building your brand is to find your voice and use it. Your book is going to be sitting beside some heavy hitters. What do you offer that will appeal to your ideal audience? This is ideally an evergreen message rooted in your personal story that you can promote for years to come. If your book isn't done, what is a concept, method, or approach you hang your hat on and can lean into a long time? Think about the attention grabbing example mean people suck. Step two is to use your book to define your brand. One of the things we work on with our clients is figuring out how to brand them. I call myself Julie the Book Broad As a branding activity, how do you want to be known in your marketplace? How will you be memorable? Your book is a tremendous opportunity to define yourself. More than a cute label, your brand is what you stand for, what you believe, and how you leave people feeling. What is that for you? It may feel silly the first time you say your cute chemo crusher carry or save the sale, Gail, but when people start remembering you by your brand, you'll be glad you did. We say many authors hold back the good stuff of who they are out of fear. That makes brand building difficult because the very thing that makes you memorable is you take a moment to pull out a piece of paper and write the answers to these statements. Wouldn't it be nice if I were Insert answer If I had a magical wand and we could wave it today, I I would want to be known for as Insert answer. I'm on stage about to do a keynote address. Who is in the audience and what am I delivering that they can only get from me? When people describe me and my brand, what words would they use? How you want to be defined can be a great starting point for determining your brand. Most important, you need that thing you hang your hat on your brand, which is the foundation of your book Marketing for book Launchers, noboringbooks is our mantra. What our hat hangs on. We think about book marketing the minute someone says they want to write their book, and part of that is writing a book people actually want to read, as well as knowing who those people are and why they need that person's message. Step three is to make your brand visual the first two steps are the foundation of your brand messaging. That is your brand, not the logo or colors. Still, you need a visual representation of your brand for consistency and to build recognition. Consider visual aspects of your brand such as color palette, fonts, imagery like photos or other branding elements, even specific pieces of clothing, Personal logo and tone. What emotional tone should you and your brand strike in the world? We have noboringbookswag. We give away at book launchers tv and tying our hashtag into swag with our logo is a powerful way to brand and be remembered. I'm a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization and we start every meeting with a one word emotion. For instance excited, exhausted, stressed, content, irritated, or worried. It's a word that lets other people in our forum know our emotional temperature at the moment we close out meetings with another word to show how it's changed. Your brand tone is similar in that it should largely be one primary word or a couple of single words that connotes something positive or generally upbeat. It can be words like any of the authoritative, caring, cheery, encouraging, enthusiastic, frank, friendly, humorous, informative, irreverent, nostalgic, passionate, reassuring, supportive sympathetic witty. Choose a word or a couple of words that will shape the tone of your brand and then build on them. Step four is to create the messaging for your brand. Now that you have the technical elements in hand, let's go back to the messaging. This needs to come through all of the copy created around your marketing. This is the who, how, why, and what of your book. Who are you serving? How do you serve them? Why do you serve them? What do you do that makes an impact? Think about the feeling you want to be known for and even the one word you most want people to use in describing you. Your answers become your messaging pillars, the content that holds up your brand. It will be used on your website in the content you create and in the book and whatever else you build, including courses, speaking engagements or consulting sessions. Knowing these pillars gives you a great running start to becoming established as an authority. Step five is to develop Step five is to develop your brand origin story what part of your story sparked the brand? What happened to you that led to this goal? This becomes part of your messaging and brand identity My first book experience is the origin of Book Launchers. After being asked by an acquisitions editor at Wiley to write a proposal for a book idea they wanted me to write and working on that with them for three months, they rejected me. They told me I couldn't sell enough books to make a deal worthwhile. After I recovered from that rejection, I decided to write an idea I was passionate about and that they had told me was too generic and to self publish it. My former belief that I needed to be chosen for a book deal to be a legitimate author was replaced by my belief that the only person who truly mattered was the reader. I decided to write a book that my ideal reader needed to read. I was also going to make sure my ideal reader knew the book existed by shouting it from the rooftops. The whole experience was a challenge because there weren't self publishing services like book launchers. Editors think about style guides and proper grammar, but their changes would impact my marketing. How do you title a book so it will sell? I discovered that even book cover designers aren't thinking about your book from the perspective of your ideal reader. They seek your approval. So it's up to you to know what is most likely to sell. I became passionate about writing books and setting them up to sell and achieve goals from the start. That rejection was a gift. I was forced to self publish and now think it was the best path for me. I own my rights, keep all my royalties, and believe most entrepreneurs and subject matter experts will be better off doing it that way too. Publishers need authors far more than authors need publishers and the better we get at distribution, book marketing and book sales, the more that will become obvious as well as true. Book Launchers has been built upon this belief and and my brand has blossomed through it all. Your brand at a high level is about how you make people feel what you are known for and how your brand came to be. It's important to know your origin story, share it as part of your brand building, and work that into the development of your author platform. What is an author Platform? Author platform is really a fancy way of saying audience. It's everything you do and create that connects you to other people. It's not just social media and websites, although those certainly factor in. Your platform develops from speaking engagements, your newsletter, social media accounts, videos, blogs, podcasts, and any other way you reach people. The right people or organizations can catapult your book to the top of the charts. Your network, community and association memberships are part of your platform if you're visible and involved. For some authors, their client base or the company they work for can also be a big part of their platform. No platform, no problem. Just set your expectations accordingly. The big, splashy, successful launches are almost always the result of years of author platform building. If you've been head down building a company or climbing the corporate ladder, you likely haven't built much of a platform. Without a big platform, you need to mentally prepare yourself for a longer, steadier promotional push to get your book in front of your readers. You may not sell thousands of copies on launch, but you can still achieve great things with your book. All the things you do to build your platform and attract readers are the same things authors with a platform do. If you're starting with no platform or a small platform, your goal should be to gain momentum and continually share your message so you're constantly talking to new people. Most platforms don't appear overnight. It takes consistency. You can use your book to build your platform and invite your readers to connect with you. Remember the fourth layer of your book cake. The best day to start building your platform was yesterday, which means you need to start today. We're going to dive deep into what that means in the next chapter, but the first thing I would recommend is setting up a simple landing page with an awesome invitation to join your newsletter list. You can see an example of a simple opt in page at booklaunchers.com or book launchers.com businessbook these pages look simple, but don't let that fool you. They convert more than 40% of their visitors 4 out of 10 people, into newsletter subscribers. People subscribe to the email list so they can get a download which is something of value to them. We call that a reader magnet or a lead magnet. No Free Chapters Please when you offer something to encourage people to sign up to your newsletter, please don't offer a free chapter of your book. If you want to use a chapter to entice readers, look at what that chapter is going to do for them. For example, if I were to give this chapter away, I would say download a complete guide to building an author brand that sells books, builds your business, and leads to thought leadership. When someone gets the download, I wouldn't even tell them it was a chapter from this book until the last page. That's where I would let them know that there's more amazing content like this coming soon or if the book is out where they can buy it. Nobody really wants the chapter from a book, but they sure do want insights that lead to book sales and thought leadership, right? Once you have that page set up, you can start writing articles for popular websites or online magazines. Include a short call to action at the end of each article for followers to connect with you and get your awesome download. Now you're ready to learn more about using your author brand to build your author platform. My perspective on social media might surprise you. Smile for the camera. Author Photo Essentials. You're going to need a great author photo for many purposes, including your Amazon Author page, about the Author page, the inside of your book, or the back cover PR kit, podcast or speaker one sheet, Goodreads page, podcast bookings, your social media profiles, and and so much more. Because you're going to use it over and over while marketing your book, let's make sure you get the best one possible. Make sure you 1. Hire a professional. Ask for at least three different edited shots, several changes of clothes, and at least two types of backgrounds, including solid white or black. Some photographers may give you all your digital images but allow you to choose 3 to 5 to be edited. That's ideal because the unedited ones can be great for your social media or website content. It allows you to have images with different poses while maintaining the same look for your brand. If you insist on doing it yourself, make sure you've got great lighting and a good background. Don't do it in direct sun, with your eyes squinting or in your dimly lit living room. 2. Ask the photographer to send you different sizes or cropped images, or make sure you have the ability to do it yourself. For example, your Goodreads Author profile is 400 by 400 pixels, so you need a square. Many social media accounts will require a tightly cropped square of your face, but a poster or other book related promotional materials may require images showing more of your upper body. Remember, digital images can often be used with lower resolution than printed images, so make sure you get a variety. Find your best side. Usually a pro will have you experiment with different expressions and positions. With digital photography, you can do a whole bunch of looks and find a good one. Bring someone with whom you enjoy talking to to your shoot to help you get more relaxed photos that really capture your personality. Number four Dress the part. Consider your brand and what you want people to feel or think about when they see you. My friends Scott Sylvan Bell wears these amazing Hawaiian shirts for all his videos. It's impossible to see a Hawaiian shirt and not think of him. He also loves Hawaii and goes multiple times a year, so it's a fit for his brand. I've seen people consistently rock a specific color or always wear a hat when choosing your outfit. Keep your background in mind. If you want a black background, don't wear black. Same thing for white. It's also why I like to plan a few changes of clothes when I do a shoot. Number five Plan your styling in advance. Whether it's haircuts or color cosmetics, waxing nails or styling elements before you get your photos, make sure you schedule well in advance of your photo shoot. It's also worth asking if your photographer has an assistant who can handle powdering your face or tend to fly away hairs, especially if you're going to be photographed under bright studio lights. Outside light on a cloudy day can be ideal for photos, while standing by a window can give you optimal partial light. Chapter Summary 1. Find your voice and use it. What's your equivalent of the Mean People Suck evergreen message that you want to stand out for? 2. Use your book to define your brand. What's your version of Julie the book broad? 3. Make your brand visual. What word defines your brand and how do you convey that visually for your audience to see what recognize and remember 4. Craft messaging pillars for your brand so you are always thinking about your target audience, how your book helps them and what they need to hear from you. 5. Tell your brand origin story to build connection and establish your credibility and authority.