What Should Your Author Brand Be?

  

I have helped thousands of authors of all genres to increase their book sales, build and expand their brand, and to get their messages out to the masses. But sometimes I had to pull teeth to get an author to help themselves and to execute my strategies. For some writers, perhaps many, they are introverts or uncomfortable with self-promotion. It is something that has to be worked around.  

Plenty of writers:

·         Deeply enjoy their alone or quiet time

·         Need to recharge after doing an event

·         Intentionally keep to small circles

·         Don’t like to talk about themselves

·         Feel it takes an effort to talk to others

·         Prefer to think and reflect than speaking or marketing  

So, how do we get writers to be promoters? 

Authors don’t have to change who they are, lie, or say things they don’t believe in, but they do need to grow and morph into an entity that can bring out the true essence of who they are and to express it to potential readers. 

Writers should give thought to what they want others to perceive about them. Basically, what does an author’s brand look like to strangers? 

A brand encompasses a lot – your experiences, your views, your appearance, your personality, and your intentions. All of your strengths and weaknesses combine and compete with one another. A brand is based on what you say and do – and what others say about you. Cultivating your brand takes an intentionality, where you seek to shape what people feel, think, and believe when they see you. 

The best way to build a brand is to get third-party validation. Where do you get that? From book reviews (customer reviews, paid professional ones, and free reviews); testimonials; book awards; news media coverage; appearances on other people’s social media; and earning accomplishments, such as hitting a best-seller list. 

But authors can do a lot to establish and shape a brand. They can create a web site and determine its look and feel and contents. Authors can put out content that controls the narrative of their brand by writing articles for other people’s blogs, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and websites. Authors can post a quality and quantity of content on social media. They can also choose to speak publicly and put out a certain kind of message to bookstores, churches, libraries, schools, community groups, businesses, or government agencies. Further, authors can issue various press releases, each one focused on a message or themes that they want to amplify and emphasize. 

Even if you do nothing, you have a brand, and either it looks empty and void of anything, or it is defined by what others say about you, which may not always be flattering, or what you would hope gets emphasized. 

Your brand is simply who you are and who you want to project. Your passions, skills, connections, accomplishments, opinions, and everything about you, one way or another, shape your brand. The more you can control the narrative or influence what people see and feel, the better for you. 

Lastly, your brand gets shaped by the things you use to showcase yourself. 

When creating a site, for example, the layout style, colors used, the fonts and typeface, and the number or type of visual images presented all combine to leave a certain impression. Your logo, tagline, keywords, content, and even the name of your site all leave an impression on the visitor. 

The good news is that you can always change your brand or make it better. You have to start somewhere – and then make incremental improvements where you can. Become who you really are – and present this image in the best possible light through all of he means at your disposal. Your author brand can make a difference, so start now, and keep at it.

“Your success in your career will be in direct proportion to what you do after you’ve done what you are expected to do.” –Brian Tracy, Best-Selling Author  

“Success begins with we, not me. No one person has all the answers.” -- John C. Maxwell, Best-Selling Author 

“It marks a big step in your development when you come to realize that other people can help you do a better job that you could do alone.” – Andrew Carnegie  

“No word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” – Mark Twain

Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 7,900,000 page views. With nearly 5,700+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum