Creating An Author Brand

I remember a time when I had no idea what branding yourself as an author meant. I mean, I knew what branding was. Sort of. Products you encounter every day have branding. You can't look at certain logos, even without the name of the company on it, and not think of that company. THAT IS BRANDING!

 

But why is this important for an author?

 

It's very important, actually.

 

Think about it this way. When you're looking at a group of books, how do you know which ones are part of the same series? It's branding.

 

All the books in my Serpent's Kiss series not only have Kiss in the title, but they also have the same color scheme. This makes it clear to readers that yes, these books are in fact part of the same series. There's no guessing. It's clear.

 

That's what branding does. It tells people, readers in the case of books, what to expect when they purchase a story. It's why authors use the same font on the covers of all their books. Some even take it a step farther and make sure the placement of their name on their covers is consistent.

 

Having a consistent font is important for a couple of reasons. First, it just looks better, more professional. Think how it would look if every time you went to buy your favorite cookies, the name on the box was in a different font. You might stop and question if these were really your favorite cookies or a knock off trying to be your favorite cookies.

 

As an author, you don't want this happening with your books.

 

Every author has their own voice and that is what draws a reader in. They learn what to expect from an author and want more of it. Branding is the neon arrow guiding the reader directly to more of what they already loved.

 

But branding is more than just the fonts on a book cover. It's an author's logo, their website, the way they present themselves online, and even how they set up their table at book signings. It's all branding.

 

When I published my first book over a decade ago, I had no idea about branding. I just wrote the book, sent it off to the publisher, and moved on to writing the next story. And while most of us wish it were that simple and it would be like in the movie Field of Dreams 'if you build it they will come', or in this case 'if we write and publish it they will read it', that's just not how it works.

 

I was lucky in that after my first standalone novel, I wrote two series. The font on my covers was at least consistent within each series, if not across series.

 

If I had to do it over again, I would have pushed to make sure all my branding was consistent. And when I set up my website, I would have been sure to use the same font for that as well.

 

The goal is for a reader to glance at your book and know exactly what they're going to get. As Donald Miller says in his book Building A Story Brand, if a customer has to think too hard about whether or not to purchase your product, then they will most likely just move on.

 

Building Your Author Brand - Bound by Books Podcast Episode 54

 

Creating your author branding is important from the font you use on the cover of your books to the clothes you wear at conventions. In this week's Bound by Books Podcast, Tina Moss and Marianne Morea discuss how they approach branding their books and themselves as authors.

Click below to listen, or go to www.boundbybookspodcast.com to find out more about all the hosts of the show.

    ...

 

The Hosts 

Amazon

Amazon

Do You Judge A Book By Its Cover? #SelfPublishing #Marketing

We've all heard the phrase 'never judge a book by its cover'. But the truth of the matter is most readers do judge. It's the first impression they have of your novel. And if you're going to self publish your own novel, that's something you need to keep in mind.

Marketing is a scary word for most writers. The vast majority tend to be introverts who'd rather spend their days typing out words than thinking about how to sell their book. But the reality is, if you're going to self publish your novel, you do need to think about these things. One of the first marketing decisions you will need to make is choosing a cover.

I wrote a blog post a while back about the different options an author has when choosing a cover: pre-made, stock, or custom, so I won't be covering that again. If you'd like to check out the other blog post click HERE.

A lot more goes into choosing a cover for your novel that just deciding on whether to use a pre-made cover, a cover with a stock photo, or doing a custom shoot.

Here are some things to consider:

• Genre. It's always a good idea to research your genre. By that I mean go to Amazon and find out what books are in the top 100 Paid in your category. Look at the covers and look for similarities, themes. Are there certain colors that are common? Do most of them have people on them? Objects? Is the font fancy script or more of a block type lettering? It may not seem all that important now, but keep in mind this is what readers are buying in your genre. They are buying it for a reason.

• What Fits Your Story? While you want a cover that fits into your genre, what you don't want is a cover that says nothing about your story. If you're writing a fantasy novel about witches, you probably don't want a half naked man on the cover. There are also some readers that are picky about hair and eye color, so if you're using models on your cover keep that in mind when selecting the picture/models you're going to use. 

• Branding. This is a step many authors forget about when it comes to marketing, but your brand as an author is very important. When it comes to covers, the thing to remember is consistency. This can take on a few forms. 

1. Your Name. It sounds simple enough, right? But making sure your name appears in the same font on all your covers is important. It's like your signature that identifies you as being you. It also looks neater and more professional when you have multiple books in one place. 
2. Titles. This one is a little more flexible. Not every title of every book you write has to be in the same font or have the same cadence to it, etc. But if the books are part of the same series, then having that consistency is very important. Again, it looks more professional, but it's also a signal to readers that these books belong together, so if they like one then they will most likely like the other. Below are two of my series. You can clearly see by the design and titles which books belong together.

Details matter and your book cover needs to convey the story you want it to to potential readers. Consider what appeals to you when you're browsing through a bookstore for a new book. 

• Thumbnail. What is a thumbnail, you might ask? A thumbnail in the book world is how we refer to the small picture of your book cover on Amazon. Considering most authors sell more than half their ebooks via Amazon's website, how your book looks on the site while readers are scrolling through potential books to buy is important. The picture needs to be clean, crisp, and it needs to draw the eye of the reader.

          Some common mistakes I see are:

1. The Cover Is Too Dark. It's fine that your book has dark elements, but if a reader can't see those elements on the cover then that doesn't help you sell that book. 
2. The Font Is Too Small. People need to be able to read what's on your cover, even at a thumbnail size. As you can see from the covers I posted above, the titles are clear and stand out. Some authors choose to make their name more prominent and if you've built up a big enough fan base that makes sense as your name will automatically draw readers. Personally, I prefer the story take center stage, so I want my titles to be what stands out the most.
3. There's Just Too Much Going On. If your cover has too much stuff on it, it ends up looking like a garbled mess...especially on a thumbnail. Keep it simple. Your cover should be a snapshot of your story. Once you get a potential reader to click that buy button, then they can discover all the other fascinating elements you have within your book. 

Don't forget your cover is most likely the first thing readers will notice. First impressions are everything. Make it a good one.

Choosing The Best Cover For Your Book #Marketing

How do I go about getting a cover for my novel and how much will it cost me?

This is a question I hear a lot from new authors. Some of us who've been doing this a while forget that not everyone knows what options are out there when it comes to covers. The subject of getting a professional editor for your manuscript is talked about often enough, but covers seem to be one of those things that gets swept under the rug and not thought about until the last minute.

When it comes to covers, there are four basic options.

1) Pre-made cover. ($10-$50)

This is a good option for first time authors. It's the least expensive an what you see is what you get. Authors don't have to worry about working one on one with a designer to make sure color and lighting of a photograph works for the tone of their book. It's all already there. 

With pre-made covers, authors find one they like, and the artist slaps the author's name and title on it. Done.

(Pre-made cover example provided by Bargain Book Covers.)

2) Stock Photograph w/cover design. ($10-$70 average for photo + $45-$200 for design)

If you're one of those people who like to have a bit of a say in the design of your cover but don't want to spend a ton of money, this option might be for you. There are lots of stock photo sites out there, such as deposit photo or adobe stock, where photographers upload their pictures to sell to the mass market. Authors can search through these sites, find a picture they want for their cover, and purchase it. A lot of these sites have options where you can either buy the pictures one at a time as you go (more expensive) or subscribe to their site in order to download multiple pictures on a more regular bases (less expensive). 

One thing to keep in mind with this option, like with pre-made covers, the pictures on these sites are sold over and over again. It's not uncommon for several book covers to have the exact same stock picture. 

3) Exclusive Photograph w/cover design. ($200-$600 average for photo + $45-200 for design)

If you don't like the idea of someone else having the same picture on the cover of their book as you do, then an buying and exclusive photograph might be a good way to go. With this option, the photographer is agreeing not to resell the same picture to anyone else. 

Be careful with this option, however. Make sure you read over the licensing agreement the photographer sends you as some exclusivity rights do have an expiration date or limit your use of the photo. If you aren't sure, ask.

4) Custom Photograph w/cover design. ($800+)

This option is the most flexible, but also the most expensive. The great thing about having a custom photograph done is that as the author you get to have a say in everything. You get to pick your photographer, your models, how you want them posed, the tone you want to set, and even the use of any props. Because of this, the costs vary greatly depending on shoot fees, modeling fees, travel expenses (if any), and items that need to be purchased or rented for the shoot. 

Any, this is a situation where an author can't be afraid to ask questions. Know what you're getting for your money and make sure you read over the contract. Know what you're getting for your money.

If you're an author, which of these options do you use? Does it matter to you if someone else uses the same picture on the cover of their novel that you have on yours? 

Readers, what about you? Do you care if the book has a unique cover? 

 

The Evolution of a Book Cover Part 3

Part 3

The process of making a cover is always just that, a process. It isn't as easy as some may think. Not only do you have to find the right picture, but there are fonts to consider, name placement, colors… It can be a very daunting task.

In parts one and two of the series 'The Evolution of a Book Cover', I've talked about picking the right model(s) as well as setting the scene for the photographer and models to get the types of pictures you want. But now that we have the raw pictures, what happens next?

The design, of course.

Sara Eirew, my photographer, and I spent most of the day yesterday chatting back and forth, tweaking the cover. Over the course of the day we made changes to the lighting, shading, and even the type and color of the lettering. Decisions had to be made on where to put my name and since this is the first book in a new series, how we were going to tie all the books together.

The model for this cover is Helena Isaac. She was perfect for the cover except that she's 20 years old and the character she's portraying is in her 40's. We knew going in we would have to mask her age. This meant getting the pose we wanted without showing too much of her face. This all came into play not only when doing the photo shoot, but in selecting the picture, and also in designing the cover itself.

In the end, we came up with a fantastic cover for my upcoming novel, Welcome to Serpent's Kiss. This will be only my second short story, and it will be my first self published novel. I can't wait to share the cover with all of you.

If you missed the first two posts in the series on 'The Evolution of a Book Cover', you can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

Have you ever had a custom book cover made? Is it something you would ever consider, why or why not? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts.

The Evolution Of A Book Cover - Part 2

Last week on the blog I talked about my decision to have a custom book cover made for my first self published novel. If you missed the post, you can view it here.

Part 2

After making the model selection and brainstorming poses and props with the photographer, it was time to put everything in motion. The first thing on the agenda was for Sara, my photographer, to track down some rope. Sounds simple enough, right? I  mean how hard it is to find rope? That was the exact problem, however. There were so many different types to choose from. We had to find something that would be comfortable for the models to work with and would also look good in the pictures. It couldn't be too thick, or too thin. Should we go with white, or use something with color? Decisions. Decisions.

The shoot itself was interesting. Half of it took place at a fire station. Luck would have it that five minutes after the photographer and models arrived that they got a call meaning everyone took off, and with them all the trucks and equipment. In the end, they got the shots they needed, and then headed back to the studio for some more pictures.

By the time it was all said and done, 300 pictures were taken. Two days later, I got the proofs in my inbox, and I have to say it was a little overwhelming.

Now comes the important part. Picking the cover photo.

I set up a folder for the pictures so that I could narrow it down. This was not easy. There were a lot of great pictures. I have to say, though, that I much prefer the dilemma of having too many to choose from than not enough.

Keep watching my blog for part 3 of The Evolution Of A Book Cover...coming soon.