No writer intends to be a one book author and with the internet today writers are juggling multiple covers and genres. So eventually you're faced with the question of, how do I create the different types of books I want and still clearly define my author's brand?
Here's 3 branding suggestions for you based on what I've learned from my own process plus, a video from Micah Nathan on Branding books versus branding you, the author:
1. Decide how much you can manage - You're supposed to have one theme per blog, ideally a complimentary Twitter page, a Facebook fan page, Linked In profile, and now there's Goodreads, Pinterest, Google Plus, and a social media site where like-minded individuals gather for whatever your specialty is. But unless you have a team, who has time to manage a page for each book and a presence on every "this is the place to be" cyber spot?
For me, I'm managing 3 blogs, 2 Twitter pages, soon to be 4 blogs and 4 Twitter pages, article marketing with Ezine Articles, Vimeo for videos, Goodreads, Flickr, redbubble.com and behance.com to sell photography, and specific food sites to share recipes and drive traffic to my food blog. I do wine tastings, which is a way to network and meet foodies face-to-face. Right or wrong according to "experts" it's what I feel I can keep up with, once I get through the time and technology challenge of redesigning and setting everything up.
2. Marketing multiple books, today's reality - If you're working in the traditional publishing realm a single book is launched and all the focus of social media and marketing is focused on that book from a few months up to as much as 6 months maybe, before you go on to the next one. But in today's internet publishing playground things can happen much quicker so you're not promoting one book at a time. You may have 2, 3, 4, or hopefully, more. It becomes crucial to brand yourself as in, another book or novel by ____(fill in your name). You're never really finished marketing any of your work but now you need to be able to manage a lot of covers simultaneously, again stressing the point of branding you the author.
3. Give your fiction and non-fiction personas their own space - It may seem obvious but fiction and non-fiction need their own individual real estate on blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc. Originally I had one blog for writing. Not good enough. Fiction and non-fiction could attract some of the same readers but you need to plan for it to be different audiences. So now I'm developing a fiction site along with a Twitter page to mirror that. I currently have a writing blog/twitter page, a cooking blog/twitter page, and am working on a photography art blog/Twitter page combination, all in an attempt to create a clear creative brand identity.
Branding Each Book Versus Branding You The Author from Jennifer Darden on Vimeo.
Just like I say about food, flavor, and spirits pairing - there are no rules, just what works best for you. It comes down to building your author's brand and online platform with enough freedom and flexibility to encompass all that your imagination has to offer.
How do you handle the juggling of multiple titles? What other suggestions do you have on branding you the author?
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