Your author brand is your identity and story. It’s how your brand shows up in the world and how your fans perceive it. It’s what makes your brand truly yours, unique from other authors in your space. 

There are a lot of moving parts to an author brand. If you wanna get more granular about it, your author brand includes visual elements (colors, images, book covers), brand voice (how you talk to your audience), values and beliefs, opinions, hobbies, content…the list goes on. 

We’ve already talked about why your author brand matters. Now you’re ready to start building a strong author brand to sell your books and delight your audience! Let’s dig in.

Know your target audience

Let’s talk about who you’re writing for as an author. Yes, you’re probably writing for yourself, but who else is buying your books? Who are you speaking to? And what are you offering to your target audience? Get really specific with this. “My audience is women” isn’t detailed enough. 

For example, we’ve seen Emily Henry’s Book Lovers described as a “story about book lovers, for book lovers, by a book lover.” This review also has this gem: “Nora is the main character, but she doesn’t see herself as one, and that feeling resonates with just the type of person who would love Emily Henry’s work.”

How’s that for knowing your target audience and speaking to them through your work?

You should know nearly everything there is to know about your target audience. Their demographics. Whether they prefer BookTok or Bookstagram. Kindle vs. paperback. How often they read and why they read in the first place. All this knowledge will help you market your book and engage with your readers.

Find your place in the industry

Now that you’ve figured out who you serve, it’s time to think about things from a different perspective. Who are you in your industry or space? What’s your niche? What genres or subgenres do you write in? Genre and writing style impact how your books are marketed

Take this example from author Justinian Huang. He described his recently released The Emperor and the Endless Palace as a “romantic reincarnation thriller starring entirely Asian men” on Instagram. (Fittingly, he was talking about how people told him his book was “too niche” and wouldn’t be published!)

Just as we recommended for your target audience, we want you to get super-specific about this part, too. By getting specific, you pinpoint what makes you unique in your space. That could be your personal experiences that influence your writing, a quirky writing style, or themes you explore that no one else does.

Define your author brand voice

Ah, brand voice. This is a biggie. It’s so important that we talk about it over on our sister brand’s blog, too. Your brand voice is your communication style, author brand personality, and what you talk about all wrapped up into one.

BTW, your author brand voice and your own voice are not the same thing. They can be similar, but it’s totally fine (even preferred) to have separation from IRL you and author brand you.

To define your author brand voice, ask yourself questions like:

• How does my author brand voice communicate? Formal or informal? 
• How would I describe my author brand’s personality? Bubbly, academic, weird, mysterious?
• What language, vocabulary, or phrases does my author voice use? Or not use?

(We have an entire guide on discovering your author brand voice if you need more advice!)

Craft a consistent visual identity

This is the fun part of building an author brand, and everyone’s first thought when asked what an author brand actually is. Your visual identity. Work out the visual guidelines of your author brand in advance, and creating content becomes so much easier! All you gotta do is stay “on brand.”

Your author brand’s visual identity can be a lot, so get ready for a big list. It includes:

Your visual identity’s elements don’t matter as much as consistency when using them. Your book covers, website design, headshots, TikToks — all of it should look and feel like your brand. That way, your fans will remember you (and can spot your content from a mile away).

Build a loyal following and community

We’ve talked about your target audience, your unique characteristics, how your brand sounds and looks like. Now we’re just missing the piece of the puzzle where you connect to your audience. You use your author brand to engage with your fans and build a loyal reader base!

(Sadly, you can’t just build a kickass author brand, put it online, and wait for people to start following you. You gotta put in some work.)

You have options when it comes to connecting with your readers and building a community. Pick the options you like below to start. You don’t have to do everything, nor do you have to do something you think you’ll hate. Your personality matters here, k?

Ideas for building a following:

• Flex your writing skills with regular email newsletters and blog posts
• Network with other authors and industry professionals in online groups or in-person conventions
• Talk to fans face-to-face at signings, book launch events, or fan expos
• Look for virtual events like book club meetings or online book festivals
• Engage with readers by sharing high-quality social media content 
• Book podcast interviews, YouTube interviews, or local media spotlights
• Be active in reader spaces like Goodreads or Storygraph
• Respond to comments, book reviews, and DMs

That’s just a taste of how you can build a strong author brand and online presence. Find some more inspiration here.

Start building your author brand now

You’re not just a writer anymore, friend. You’re an author, an entrepreneur, and a brand. A strong author brand has the potential to boost your sales, increase your fan reach, and help you stand out from the crowd. Don’t waste it! Start thinking about your author brand today.

Building an author brand that feels authentic and good to you — on top of writing a book and marketing it — can feel like a lot. Let us help!

Our Author Brand Voice Guide will help you define your voice and flesh out your brand personality with tons of questions and exercises. You’ll uncover your author brand’s personality, how you connect with others, and how your author brand shows up in the world. By the end, you’ll feel good about how your author brand voice sounds and feels.