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Author Branding

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Understanding the importance of author branding and how a virtual assistant can help manage consistency across every platform to increase reader recognition.

Author Branding
November 6, 2024
COLLEEN ATWOOD

New writers and established authors should do the same thing companies of all sizes do for their business: create a unique and distinctive identity (or personality) that their readers can easily recognize anywhere. By creating an identity that represents who the author is while signifying their writing style, values, voice, and tone, an author can help readers connect with their stories, build loyalty and credibility in the market, and even make the author more marketable outside of simply selling their novels.

Our goal is to explain why both new and established authors should develop an author brand and how a virtual assistant can help with this process. We will cover the following topics:

A definition of author branding, its significance, and the essential branding elements every author should include.
The challenges that authors struggle with while creating and managing their author brands, along with how a virtual assistant can help them overcome these obstacles.
Signs proving it may be time to hire a virtual assistant.

If you have heard of author branding but are not sure why you should do it yourself, keep reading for more information.

The Fundamentals of Author Branding

A strong author brand enables readers to instantly recognize their favorite authors, connect with the types of stories they write, helps to build loyalty and credibility, and communicates the essence of who the author is. But doing so is not always an easy feat—not only does the author need to design and create a brand identity that is unique to them and sets them apart from other authors in their genre, they must also maintain it over time—all of which takes time away from their creative pursuit of drafting new novels. Although we will not go into the details of creating an author brand from the ground up, we will explain the fundamentals every author should know while considering this crucial step.

What is Author Branding?

Author branding involves creating a distinctive and unique identity for an author that accurately reflects their voice, tone, style, and values. This branding enables readers to recognize the author, connect with their stories, and distinguish their work from others in the industry.

Authors who establish a strong brand identity and maintain consistency across all platforms—such as websites, social media, newsletters, emails, and marketing materials—can typically increase their revenue by 10–20%. Moreover, these authors find it easier to market their novels, form partnerships, and secure speaking engagements.

For example, Stephen King is widely known as the “King of Horror,” a title he has kept for over forty years. He has built his reputation around this identity, creating an interconnected universe across (nearly) all his novels. Even those who haven’t read his works are often aware of his reputation; some may avoid his stories for this reason, while others may be delighted to discover that they enjoyed something, like the movie adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption, which originated from the mind of the King of Horror.

Why Author Branding is Important

Each author desires to form a personal connection with their readers. Authors who create a strong brand identity can help readers easily find and connect with their work. This not only allows an author to stand out from the competition within a specific genre but also helps build a connection with readers who share similar personalities and values.

Creating a strong author brand provides a solid foundation for a writer’s career. It enhances your credibility by positioning you as a thought leader or authority in your niche. Additionally, it increases the visibility of your stories in the industry, offers a marketing advantage, builds reader loyalty over time by fostering a deeper connection with the audience, and contributes to the longevity of your career.

Furthermore, a strong author brand can open doors to opportunities beyond book sales. This includes cross-selling possibilities, collaborations with other authors, speaking engagements, and more streamlined marketing and promotion efforts for your books.

Key Branding Elements

Just as businesses must carefully consider every element of their branding to create a unique persona that sets them apart from competitors in their industry, authors should do the same. The key branding elements that help communicate an author’s identity and values include:

Brand Identity: This consists of visual elements such as the logo, color scheme, typography, and imagery used on an author’s website, social media platforms, newsletters, emails, and other marketing materials.
Brand Personality: These are the human traits (or characteristics) associated with a brand that make the author relatable and memorable, allowing for a deeper connection with readers.
Brand Story: This is the narrative shared with readers to help them understand the author’s background, values, and future goals.
Brand Values: These are how readers perceive the author based on their description, the morals they advocate, and the principles they embody.
Brand Voice: This is the distinct personality the author adopts in their writing, consistently used across different mediums. Establishing a unique voice helps the author connect with readers and build recognition.
Mission: This defines the ultimate reason an author writes and how they present themselves to readers. The mission can also guide decision-making processes.
Tagline: This is a concise sentence that summarizes an author’s positioning statement and condenses what the author stands for. (For more details on brand positioning statements, see Brand Development: Phase III—Brand Positioning.)
Target Audience: This refers to the readers who engage with the author’s genre and their expectations.
Tone of Voice: This describes how an author conveys their values and beliefs, as well as the emotional responses they evoke in readers.
Writing Style: This involves the unique word, sentence, and paragraph choices an author makes to give their writing a distinctive personality and feel.

While there are other aspects to consider, these elements are the most important to understand initially.

Challenges Authors Face & Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Help

In addition to setting up the author’s brand, managing that brand consistently presents a complex challenge. Authors often want to focus on the creative aspects of their careers, but the time-consuming process of ensuring consistency across different platforms can detract from their writing time. Hiring a virtual assistant to oversee the non-creative aspects of the author’s career can be highly beneficial.

A virtual assistant can help an author overcome various challenges, including (but not limited to):

Administrative Overload: Authors often feel overwhelmed by various administrative tasks, including scheduling social media posts, publishing blog entries, updating their websites, responding to emails, arranging speaking engagements, and analyzing marketing efforts. A virtual assistant can effectively manage these responsibilities for authors.
Brand Identity Evolution: As authors grow and their writing evolves, their brand must reflect these changes. A virtual assistant can help in creating or redesigning the brand to more accurately reflect the author’s identity.
Changing Market Trends & Reader Preferences: Market trends and reader expectations change rapidly, making it challenging to stay updated. A virtual assistant can watch these changes and keep the author informed about relevant information as needed.
Competing Priorities: Authors might juggle multiple projects with similar deadlines and struggle to manage their time effectively. A virtual assistant can help prioritize these projects and keep the author on track.
Consistency Issues: Authors may lack time to post regularly on social media, send out newsletters, or update their websites with new material. A virtual assistant can manage these tasks, allowing the author to concentrate on their writing.
Maintaining Originality: Authors can sometimes face challenges in generating new material or changing existing content to connect with their audience. When experiencing writer’s block, a virtual assistant can help with brainstorming sessions and create a system for the author to capture innovative ideas for future reference.
Protecting Intellectual Property: Authors may struggle with protecting their manuscripts, especially if they are unfamiliar with copyright laws, self-publishing, or collaboration. Delegating these activities to a virtual assistant can alleviate the stress of protecting their work and ideas.
Resource Limitations: A virtual assistant can help ensure that authors effectively distribute resources throughout their publishing journey.
Time Management: Authors may find it difficult to schedule their time effectively to balance creative, administrative, and marketing tasks. Delegating non-creative tasks to a virtual assistant can help reduce this frustration.
Understanding Analytics: Learning how to interpret audience engagement can be challenging, especially if an author is not well-versed in analytics. A virtual assistant can manage analytics for the author’s website, newsletters, and social media pages, while also helping implement strategies to better reach their audience.

Added Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Enhance Your Author Brand

In addition to the challenges noted above, a virtual assistant can help enhance your author brand by managing the following added non-creative tasks:

Taking the Next Step: Hiring a Virtual Assistant

Now that you understand the basics of author branding and how a virtual assistant can assist you in creating and maintaining your brand, it is important to consider whether hiring a virtual assistant could help you manage the non-creative tasks that can take time away from your writing, revising, and editing.

Signs You Need a Virtual Assistant

As outlined in The Complete Guide to Hiring a Virtual Assistant (dated 9/11/23), authors can use the following questions to decide whether hiring a virtual assistant is beneficial for them:

Are you hoping to create a website but have no idea how to design one?
Are you missing meetings with important individuals?
Are you unable to commit to new projects due to the level of obligations on your calendar?
Do you have a list of administrative activities you need done but no time to get to them?
Do you need help marketing your novel?
Do you need someone to help with research projects?

Authors who answer any or all these questions with “yes” can receive help from hiring a virtual assistant to manage a variety of non-creative tasks that take away from drafting, revisions, and editing a manuscript.

The Importance of Author Branding

Authors need to set up a distinct and unique brand to effectively reach their readers within a specific genre. This helps them stand out in a crowded industry. However, creating and supporting a consistent brand can be challenging.

Hiring a virtual assistant to develop and manage your brand across various platforms can be highly beneficial. This allows authors to concentrate on the creative aspects of their work, while the non-creative and often mundane tasks are managed by a virtual assistant in the background.

For more information about the advantages of hiring a virtual assistant and how they can help authors beyond the points mentioned above, check out the Virtual Assistant for Authors and The Complete Guide to Hiring a Virtual Assistant. Until next time.