Welcome to the latest in our series of articles helping you to get started with your author website design. In this post, we’ll take a look at the importance of an author brand when it comes to your author website design.
Do I need an author brand?
Yes. For sure!! You’ve spent days (and many nights!) writing, rewriting, and submitting your work. That’s it, right? Your work is done now, isn’t it?
Not quite. In today’s media-savvy and multi-channel publishing industry, it’s just as important for a writer to have a clearly thought through and cohesive author brand.
What do we mean by an “author brand”?
We don’t mean a flashy logo, a snazzy font, or a pithy tagline. A brand is a sum of the parts – a logo, tagline, font, colours, the tone of voice, imagery, iconography etc.
As an author, it’s not enough just to be good at what you write. Your author brand is the manifestation of how you position your work, how you distinguish yourself from others in your genre, as well as how your efforts are perceived or interpreted by your fans and readers. Effective branding underpins your development as a writer, as well as your efforts to grow your fanbase. An author who can tap into what their readers want – and construct an entire experience around what they need – is an author that will reap a devoted fan base.
It’s important to remember that a Publisher will expect an Author to have a clear idea of who they are targetting, and how to market themselves and their work in order to engage with their audience.
At the end of the day, as an author, you must think about yourself and your work as components of a brand. After all, a good brand is instantly recognisable to consumers. Readers are consumers. And they buy brands.
An author brand must be consistent.
That’s not to say you have to keep writing the same thing time and time again, or that you can’t introduce new characters. However you’ve set out your stall to your readership and you’ve made a promise to them about a particular kind of reading experience, and you shouldn’t let them down.
From project to project, maintaining continuity in your voice as a writer is vital to building a successful author brand and establishing a strong readership base.
An author brand is a golden thread binding everything together.
But branding doesn’t stop with your writing. Book jacket design is a great place to bring your author brand to life. And so is your author website, and your social media channels. All of these touchpoints are pivotal for growing your fan base and solidifying your writer brand.
It’s worth remembering that a clear, consistent author brand can make the difference between you writing as a pastime or hobby, and writing as a full-time career.
When creating your author website think about your author brand and how to engage with your audience.
If you’re the author of contemporary romantic titles, then having a dark aesthetic and red text in Brushscript might not resonate with your target audience. However, a simple, muted colour palette complete with a clean font that matches the style used on your book covers will no doubt work much harder for you. #winning
Have a peek at Sophie Kinsella’s website as we think that this is a good author brand example. She has taken the visual lead from a recent jacket redesign and rolled out this look and feel across her website.
Above all remember that you’re not alone; we can help. Not only do we provide a simple, easy and affordable author website builder but we also provide concierge and marketing services for authors too. Get in touch with one of our team today as we’d love to help.
