How To Create Your Writing Brand In 4 Steps
A short guide to making a space for your stories on the internet.
“A brand is a consistent promise to a customer about what they are going to get, in terms of product quality, customer service, and more, and how what they get will be different from the competition.”- Joanna Penn
The year is 2016, a book on stoicism is published with a title that has people thinking twice. The author of this stoicism book that makes people think twice is Mark Mason.
In 2008, Mark Mason created a space for himself on the internet by starting a blog on relationship advice. Now, he has a website, three books, and a contract to write Will Smith’s autobiography under his belt.
Mark Mason didn’t come this far without practicing the number one rule of building a brand: Be authentic.
But there are other rules of branding he and other renown writers implemented. Here are just some of them:
Stick To A Theme or Two
Everyone knows Agatha Christie as the Queen of Mystery. Her brand is her name itself. From the Hercule Poirot series to that of Miss Marple, not a single novel fails to feature a mystery to be solved.
However, Agatha Christie wanted to write more than just mystery. The problem was, people knew her to be a mystery novelist. It would be chaos if the author you trusted to deliver a mystery novel ventured to another theme such as romance without any pre-warning. Thus, Mary Westmacott came to be.
The point: if you’re a writer, you’re more likely to use your name to publish your stories. Unlike designers, you have little need for a logo.
This means that everything your brand stands for is vested in your name. Your readers should know what to expect from you to trust you.
This doesn’t mean you should stick to one lane of a genre. Just ensure you aren’t too spontaneous in your choice of themes. Consistency is key.
Treat Writing As A Business
To make a place for yourself on a space that is already filled with thousands of writers, you need to treat your writing as a business.
If you’re like me, you probably started writing professionally when you realized you could turn your passion into a career. But that realization is not enough if it isn’t backed with the proper tools to make your career successful.
Remember that the resources of time and money of readers are limited, you need to employ these strategies to make sure some of it comes to you:
- Create an action plan. For bloggers, this includes writing platforms, target audience, and possible publications/magazines to have your work featured on, etc. For authors, this involves character profiling, plot ideas, and the word count goal, etc.
- Listen to your audience. As a writer, you have to train yourself to treat critiques and compliments the same way. Your works are just like products, and products get both negative and positive reviews. A professional writer knows the value of feedback and continues to strive to meet the needs of his consumers.
- Improve your craft. Over the years, Coca-Cola has used various designs to appeal to the aesthetic sense of its consumers. They didn’t settle with one design thinking “It’s gonna be the same drink anyway”, you shouldn’t too.
Improving your craft doesn’t mean changing your writing style every time a new trend comes out. It simply is using new ways to make your content easy to read and enjoyable. It could be as simple as spacing paragraphs in your articles or cutting out excessive words.
Stay In Character
Your brand doesn’t become irrelevant outside your books and publishing platforms. Your social media accounts must reflect your brand and what it stands for.
If your work principles and values don’t align with your personal life, it will give people reasons not to trust you or your brand.
Imagine you’re a writer of anger management and emotional intelligence tips, but you get triggered every time someone on twitter comes at you.
Your followers would have justifiable reasons not to take your advice seriously because they can see the evidence of its invalidity on you.
The internet never forgets.
Engage With Your Audience
As a new writer, it’s important to build your audience. This is done not just by getting new readers, but also by maintaining the readers you currently have.
Writers that know the drill create newsletters to ensure they remain evergreen in the hearts of their audience.
However, not every writer can start with this. A simple thing like leaving your email address in your bio would go a long way. You could also include your social media accounts for people to follow if you’re active on those platforms.
The point: By building a bridge of interaction between yourself and the reader, you are creating a connection between yourself and them. This allows them to reach out to you to communicate what impression your work has made on them.
If receiving a positive comment could make a writer smile, imagine the impact of an email that encourages him to write on.
What Next?
Thanks to movies and the mainstream media, a good number of us are convinced that writing brilliantly is the only requirement of success as a writer. But a work that doesn’t see the light will not be given its due recognition.
These simple tips on branding as a writer will help you build an authentic image for yourself; one that people can rely on and trust.
Remember to:
- Stick to a theme or two.
- Treat writing as a business.
- Stay in character, and
- Engage with your audience.
