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6 Reasons Why Aspiring Authors Should Embrace Author Branding

by Jane Anne March 22, 2022

written by Jane Anne

Author branding is a key factor you must consider as you begin your writing journey as an aspiring/budding author.

You are a phenomenal published author in the making and should pay close attention to the subtle things that speak loudest about you – your author brand.

Author branding is important for every aspiring author/published author who intends to build authority around their works either as a fiction or non-fiction author in the writing industry.

Creating and owning your brand as an aspiring author is a gradual phase that will unfold easily when you get it right from the start and implement the level-up strategy that will help you grow from aspiring to published author.

Branding is a process that is consciously implemented from the inception of the idea to become an author, to your first published book and subsequent publications after that. Your brand could evolve with time but the central theme/idea behind your brand will hold still and continue to convey your message.

If you’re a fiction author, don’t feel discouraged that you may not have a brand because you write fantasy, romance, erotica, sci-fi, and horror as against a non-fiction author who specializes in self-help books or has authority in the areas of finance, personal development, business or wealth creation.

Absolutely Not.

As a fiction author, you can build your brand in a way that represents what you believe in and conveys in your books. Understanding the message, you would like your brand to be represented, is the beginning of a long list of reasons why you should embrace author branding as an aspiring author.

Here are 6 reasons why aspiring authors should embrace author branding from the inception.

Reason #1: Define Your Central Message

You cannot project your brand to the world without first discovering what you want the world to know about you. What message do you want the world to embrace about your brand or what do you expect your author brand to be associated with?

Investing in your author brand will help you define your message, refine your beliefs, shape your genre, influence your personality, and build authority in your space.

Author branding will also help you identify your purpose and core focus which will aid your brand positioning in the digital space.

The central message of the Creatives Oasis Blog is to educate aspiring authors on tips, tricks, truths, issues, mistakes & problems associated with the writing journey and to proffer solutions through posts, digital resources & recommendations from knowledgeable individuals in the writing space.

Because of a clearly defined central message, my author brand can be identified with aspiring authors and young/budding creatives which will invariably help me define my target audience.

Reason #2: Define Your Target Audience

Every niche has a target audience, and you must identify whom your message is made for. As an aspiring author, one of the biggest mistakes you should avoid is jumping right into writing without taking the time to choose your genre first.

Choosing your preferred genre will help you niche down within that genre so you can project your message to a special audience or a group of audiences depending on your niche.

As a romance and erotic author, myself, my audiences are in the sub-niche within the romance and erotic genre like Billionaire Romance, Mafia Romance, Office Romance, Milf Erotica, BDSM Erotica, Age-Gap Romance & Erotica, and so on.

Understand that there are specific individuals whom your message is made for and author branding helps identify who they are. Just like you cannot sell to everyone, your brand isn’t for everyone.

Clear identification of what your central message is and who your target audience is will help shape your author’s brand.

Reason #3: Own Your Space

How will you feel when your brand becomes identified with a certain trend or style? Proud, right? That’s the power of author branding.

From your author’s name, pen name or brand name, or brand logo to your colors, style, website, blog, community, social media, and anywhere else, your brand will speak and feel the same way, which will leave a lasting impression in the minds of your visitors.

When I began to think about creating a blog, the sole purpose was to educate people – creatives – on the mistakes I made as an aspiring author myself. I wanted to be a guide to young creatives who are starting and have fears about the writing journey.

I didn’t have a guide starting and I never knew how much it’d cost me until I was fully submerged under all my mistakes. So, with each mistake I tackled, I wanted to share my experience with it, hence the creation of this blog.

Before launching my blog, I already had my message and I knew my message was meant for budding authors, so I began with slow & steady steps to learn all I could about blogging, setting up my blog, and defining a means to reach out to my target audience with all I knew.

The creatives oasis blog page on Instagram is a direct replica of what you’ll find on my blog, Pinterest board, Facebook page, & Website. Although modified to suit these platforms, the message is still the same.

Author branding takes time – you should see my main author’s page, it’s still a mess – and I can assure you that with time, as you grow to understand your voice and style more, so will your author brand evolve.

Don’t sweat it too much, but pick something to focus on and build from there.

Reason #4: Build Authority

The combination of a compelling central message, a target audience for your niche, and a clearly defined space equals authority in that niche.

Using my author’s page as an example, I’ll not say I’m an authority in my niche yet because it’s still a work in progress. Although I have a central message which is to write unconventional heartwarming, toe-curling, and sheet-grabbing steamy romance with happy endings while my target audience, which is cozy romance and erotic readers, I do not have the catalog, an award, or a bestselling badge yet, to prove myself as an authority in that niche.

Another example is The Creatives Oasis Blog has a central message for aspiring authors, a target audience including both aspiring & published authors, and a space – a blog – equipped with tools, posts, videos, materials & recommendations that will help aspiring authors overcome their pain points. This creates an air of authority around this brand.

In time, your author brand will grow to have an air of authority around it, but it will take cultivating the habit of consistency to keep your brand alive and thriving.

Embracing author branding will help you build authority around your niche, build credibility, and garner recognition for your brand.

Reason #5: Build Credibility

Achieving the first four stages will automatically add credibility to your author’s brand. Your voice begins to break through the ice and draws more eyeballs towards your brand as your audience spreads the word.

The more attention your brand gets, the greater its exposure to opportunities, and the greater its recognition and expanded growth in the industry.

When a brand speaks for itself and through others, it becomes credible. It draws attention to itself and creates opportunities for networking and collaborations with other like-minded individuals in the same space.

As much as gaining authority in a niche may be difficult to achieve, it doesn’t mean you cannot gain credibility. Putting your brand out there for the world to see, staying consistent with your brand goals, sharing value, building engagement, and meaningful relationships, showing up, and solving problems are enough to gain credibility for your author brand.

Consciously building your author brand will always pay off in the long run.

Reason #6: Build Recognition

The ultimate goal of building your author brand is to stand out and gain recognition as a fresh voice in the industry. It is a process that comes with a combination of many other things.

First, you have to get the process right from the start. Next will be to understand the level-up strategy for aspiring authors & overcom e your fears about the process.

Also, you’ll have to understand the value of networking as an aspiring author and the importance of collaborations in building your author brand.

For your author brand to gain recognition, it has to be worthy of that attention. Be creative with your brand, write what people want to read, don’t be shy about promoting yourself, don’t be reluctant to talk about your brand or share your ideas with the world, and don’t be too eager to jump upon every offer but make sure it aligns with your brand goals first before you venture into it.

Recognition comes with visibility which in turn propels growth and opens wide the portal of opportunities. Embracing author branding has its cons but the benefits far supersede it.

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March 22, 2022 0 comment

Author Branding

Grow Your Author Brand Through Collaborations As A New Writer

by Jane Anne March 14, 2022

written by Jane Anne

Every aspiring author aspires to become a published author and expand their author brand far beyond national waters. The drive to grow in leaps in and bounds keeps the fire burning in the hearts of every creative, same as you.

Creating a brand for yourself as an author is important because it will provide the visibility boost needed to get discovered by others – readers, authors, publishers, and creatives alike.

Building progress as an aspiring author and gaining momentum in your space can be propelled through collaborations with others in the same niche as you or outside your niche.

This happens organically because it entails leveraging each other’s platforms and presenting yourself to them.

Asides from getting it right from the start as an aspiring creative and implementing the level-up strategy to gain momentum, understanding the need to create positive and engaging connections around your brand are the beginning of preparing yourself for collaborations and connections with others.

This could come naturally when others seek you out to collaborate with you on something or you take the bold steps towards approaching those whom you would respect and would want to be associated with their brand as well as have them associate with yours.

It’s a mutual relationship and also a win-win situation because it’s a way for your collaborator to widen their audience reach as well as you. It could happen in several ways, in different patterns, on various platforms, and with any caliber of person or persons.

Collaborating with others could be in form of a group project, a personal conversation, a co-host, a program, a post, a story, a write-up, a shout-out, a review, an interview, cross-promotion of literary works, co-authorship, email recommendations, a retweet, a re-post, and as many other ways, there could be.

The trick with this is to do some of these acts selflessly, especially the ones that cost nothing.

This helps you draw awareness to yourself and your brand which in turn sparks a conversation through which connection is built. More often, it’s the little unexpected things that draw the most attention to your brand.

As much as you want to be intentional with growing your brand as an aspiring author, the entire focus shouldn’t be on you alone because the saying “we’re lifted by lifting others” is golden and evergreen.

Take your time to evaluate what your brand represents, and what you aim to achieve with each connection, and then build your strategy from there.

It doesn’t have to be tasking, just little efforts here and there would go a long way to get interested eyeballs on your brand.

This doesn’t suggest you limit yourself within your circle, no, feel free to stretch beyond your circle and interact with known brands surrounding your niche or the writing industry in general within your nationality and beyond.

While elucidating the need for collaboration as a tool to grow your author brand, it is important to note some of the benefits you will enjoy from practicing this.

Great Brand Visibility:

Collaborating with others within your community ensures great visibility for your brand because it puts you in front of people who might be interested in your brand but have no idea you exist.

This also creates room for you to engage and interact with possible connections that you could work with, soon.

The opportunities that could emerge from having great visibility are limitless and worth the efforts that have been employed to put it out there.

Organic Brand Promotions:

Leveraging the audience of others through collaboration ensures organic promotions for your brand because you have access to free traffic flowing from your collaborator’s platform into yours, the same as yours into theirs.

It ensures you have more eyeballs on your brand, keeps you topmost on their minds, and leaves them curious about your brand which may eventually spark a lasting connection.

This not only promotes your brand but also draws traffic to your creative works depending on what your collaboration aimed to achieve.

Promotes Brand Credibility:

A brand without credibility doesn’t have much authority in itself. Whatever your brand represents, be it you or your creative works, it needs credibility to soar and collaborations can provide that for you.

When you present your brand, yourself, or your work to others through collaborations, people want to stop and listen. It’s a way to build trust with your audience as well as theirs.

They see you in your zone, hear you present and talk about your brand and watch you walk them through what your brand represents. That leaves a lasting impression because word of mouth sells a lot faster.

Depending on what collaboration strategy you are engaged in, the goal should be to put yourself out there and let people see your brand for what it is. Allow yourself to trust the process and direct the flow whichever way you want it.

Build Anticipation Around Your Creative Works:

A major advantage of engaging in collaborations is usually to build anticipation around your creative works.

This could be in form of interviews with a host where you share snippets about your work, it could be in form of a shared post about your work, it could engage your collaborator as an advanced reader, or engage them as reviewers of your creative work.

However form it takes, you are inevitably leveraging their platform to draw more attention to yourself, your brand, and your work.

Take advantage of whichever opportunity presents itself, but ensure it aligns with your goals before jumping on it. Begin your scout from within your circle and expand the beacon from there.

Encourages Creativity:

Having a space to share your creative work with like-minded individuals who understand and appreciate your gift is enough motivation for any aspiring author to keep grinding including you.

There are such platforms on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Medium where individuals go out of their way to help publicize independent authors.

There are communities for every niche and simply staying intentional about what you want will open up these opportunities to you.

Collaborations present you to the world, push you outside of your comfort zone, help you create great connections that will challenge your creative ability, and make you strive to be better.

Encourages Community Building and Teamwork:

Building a team around your brand means less work and more contribution from everyone involved because everyone is a partaker in community building and intentional personal growth for everyone.

You get to have people on your side who will come through for you at any time as well as you will show up for them when needed.

It could be for promotions, cross-promotions, pre-launch campaigns, interviews, page engagements, awareness creation, creative help, research, co-authorship, and everything in between.

Another very common way to achieve this is by writing an anthology together, hosting a contest, entering a contest, hosting giveaways, sharing resource materials, making recommendations, creating a book club, and leveraging email lists.

Collaborations expand your reach and open you up to connect with amazing opportunities, intelligent people, talented authors/creatives, and other individuals who are available to help make your transition into the industry a success.

Building an author brand through collaboration is a sure way to ease the stress off your back and allow the flow to aid your growth. It is a process that’s worth a shot as an aspiring author and I encourage you to give it a try.

March 14, 2022 0 comment