Book branding, author branding & more
Book branding & author branding.
Book branding and author branding considerations including publishers. A logo is only one aspect of branding. Are you branding your book, yourself as an author, a book designer, or all three? Decide for what or whom you want to develop a brand.
What do you wish the brand to communicate and how should the brand be seen? While it sounds like a daunting task for the novice or non-designer, there are certain things that anyone can do to establish a brand on which to build. Branding is integral to marketing.
A brand is a logo, specific colors, typefaces, a mission statement, the image projected to the world. Who are your clients and what do they expect from your brand? A brand may include a tag line on your website. Correct use of typography, color, and images are important to develop. The brand may be applied to the book, on a website, and on marketing materials.
Book branding
Even when writing and selling one title, self-publishers present a better image to potential buyers if the brand is defined. It matters more if you write a series of similar books. Do you write romance novels, horror, or thrillers?
You may use the same illustrator or same typefaces, only changing the colors. However, individual titles should not look the same. Establish which elements can be similar. If you also write in another genre, a poetry book for instance, that should look nothing like your horror book title!
Publisher branding
When becoming a publisher, the individual book title brands have previously been left to the authors or self-publishers that you would now represent.
As a publisher, you create a fully branded website to sell book titles that you represent. The image you project for yourself is that of publisher. It is an uphill climb to promote books on your website or have an online bookstore.
You would have to develop traffic which can take a very long time and may be quite expensive. Why do that when you can link to Amazon?
But, as a publisher, you can, of course, set up an online bookstore. However, if you do not have images that link to Amazon, you will need an eCommerce store to stock and fulfill the books yourself. While it is quite doable, where is the web traffic going to come from? This is why we suggest using Amazon to sell books.
Author branding
If you are — or plan to become — a prolific writer, build an author website. It may be quite simple, having one page, or just a few. The elements on an author website should dovetail with a book title. These would definitely be the author photo and perhaps colors and typography.
You are selling yourself and promoting your image with marketing materials and a website. As an author, you are going to sell your books. Selling on your site and / or linking to Amazon is your choice.
We work with quite a few authors who have their own built-in network of potential book buyers. You might not need Amazon at all if you are so fortunate as to have your own established network.
Whatever you create for your books, author, or publisher site, will help you to better market your brand if you develop and adhere to branding principles you establish. Answer this question; what makes you unique?
The brand book
Brand books are created by art directors, advertising agencies, and graphic designers to specifically detail all branding elements. It is not a must have unless you have a substantial company, but it never hurts to present a more polished look!
Brand books that are for sale will not be all inclusive, providing book, website, and other types of projects, but you can get some great ideas. Graphic design packages for brand books can be found on some of the many websites that sell graphics. You can buy a brand book for a modest cost. Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator files are provided in the purchase.
Changing a color or typeface might be all that is needed. Then, you can roll the brand book elements out to your book, author or publisher website, and marketing materials.
