Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Business Side of Writing: Branding, Part 5

Brand? What Brand?

Sometimes a writer must step out of the promotion role in order to see how a typical branding concept can actually remove some of the originality of your products. What any writer wants to do is stand out from the crowd. The only way to do this with your marketing and branding strategies is to take a good look at what you have. If you see anything that looks like anyone else, throw it to the wayside. That way, you can focus more on getting your message out to readers in a new, exciting way.

If you find yourself in the position where you are simply riding on the current branding trends or just repeating what everyone else is saying, there are ways to return to a more creative, out-of-the-box idea. First, try to uncomplicate your brand. If you are focused on getting a complex identity out into the market, many potential readers may shy away because the brand is boring or too confusing. Don't restrict yourself into a corner. Instead, think of ways to make your brand flexible and flowing. This doesn't mean you want to completely forgo structure—it simply means that your brand is easily transformed into something new when the status quo is not working.

Here's an article by Kyle Lacey called "Screw Branding: Become Unbranded" you can check out for more information.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I understand the importance of branding, but as a new writer, how do I develop the brand?

This is perhaps the same question, but I am trying out different ideas all the time in order to find my voice, but how do I know what my voice sounds like?

Terri said...

The way I started thinking about my brand was to make a list of all the characteristics of my writing. I also thought about what a typical reader would be like -- their taste in books (besides mine! and other types of communication.

Unknown said...

thanks