#MFRWauthor -to-Author: Who Am I? Author Branding @Kris_Bock

Who I Am: Author Branding
Walk through a grocery store. Chances are you can spot your favorite products from the colors and style of the packaging. Drive down the highway. Does your stomach rumble when you see the familiar Golden Arches of a fast food restaurant?  That's successful branding.

Branding authors seems like more of a challenge, but the basic principle is the same. You want readers to have an instant reaction to your name and cover style. Authors can also take advantage of genre branding by matching the kinds of titles and covers a genre typically uses.

Developing your brand helps readers find you. It lets readers know what to expect when they pick up your books. And whether you like it or not, you already have a brand if you are anywhere on the Internet. People get an impression when they browse your website or Facebook page, or read your tweets. Why not control that impression?

Study other authors in your genre. Look at the colors, imagery, language, and fonts on their social media sites and publicity materials. What impression do you get? Can you identify the genre and target audience? Does it fit the work?

Studying other authors' sites should give you ideas for your own branding. Then it's simply a matter of being honest about yourself and your work. If your books are humorous, your social media presence should be playful. If your work is lyrical and poetic, take the time to make sure your Facebook posts and tweets have the same feel. If you write nonfiction, use keywords that people will search for if they want to find something like your work. For fiction, come up with a good tagline to give people an impression of your books.

If you write in a variety of genres, or for a variety of ages, look for common themes. Do you always have strong female characters? Do you bring humor to everything you write? Do you explore history in fiction and nonfiction?

You may also want to focus your brand on only some of your work. For example, I do a lot of educational nonfiction on a work-for-hire basis. I don't promote this, since I don't get royalties. I also teach writing workshops and offer critiques. One tab of one of my websites focuses on that, but the rest of my branding focuses on my fiction.

In some cases, you might be better off creating more than one brand. I write romantic suspense novels for adults as Kris Bock, and children's books as Chris Eboch. While maintaining two websites and two Facebook pages is a hassle, I didn't want young readers accidentally getting my sexier adult books. The separation also allows me to brand each persona differently. My Kris Bock website’s mysterious red background suggests danger and passion. My tagline ""Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Adventures"" hints at my characters and plots. For my Chris Eboch children’s book site, an antique paper background references the past, appropriate to both my historical fiction and my ghost stories. On both sites, I use travel and outdoor photos, branding myself as adventurous.

If you are newly published, don't tie your brand too closely to your first work. Think about the elements that are likely to reappear throughout your career. In addition, look for elements that people will enjoy or find useful. If you write cozy mysteries about a caterer, offer recipes on your blog. If your children's books are suited for classroom use, provide free materials for teachers. If you write inspirational romances, share inspiring news stories or blog about maintaining a happy marriage. Give people a reason to visit, rather than focusing on ""buy my book.""

This may sound like a lot of work, and it is, at the beginning. But once you have figured out your brand, you can use those elements across social media. Get an appropriate, professional-looking headshot and use it everywhere. Use the same color scheme, tagline, and keywords for business cards, post cards, bookmarks, social media networks, your blog, and even your e-mail signature. Collect all the material in a convenient place, and you can quickly create an author page on whatever new media site comes along.

Branding comes down to a simple principle:
Know who you are and share it with the world.

Questions to help you develop your brand:

• Who is your ideal audience?
• What is your message? What themes do you address? 
• What is your attitude? 
• How do you want to be known? 
• What words and phrases would you like people to associate with you? 
• What colors and images suit those elements?
• Where do you hope to be in five years? Ten years? How will that affect your branding?
• How do authors with a similar genre/audience express their brand?

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Contributed by MFRW Author Kris Bock
Kris writes novels of suspense and romance involving outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. Counterfeits features an art theft that brings danger to a small New Mexico town. Whispers in the Dark follows a young archaeologist who stumbles into peril as mysteries unfold among ancient Southwest ruins. What We Found is a mystery with romantic elements about a young woman who finds a murder victim in the woods. The Mad Monk’s Treasure features two friends and a handsome helicopter pilot hunting for a long-lost treasure in New Mexico. Read excerpts at www.krisbock.com or visit her Amazon page.

Kris Bock's latest book is The Mad Monk’s Treasure, a Romantic Suspense, with Pig River Press.
The lost Victorio Peak treasure is the stuff of legends—a heretic Spanish priest’s gold mine, made richer by the spoils of bandits and an Apache raider. When Erin, a quiet history professor, uncovers a clue that may pinpoint the lost treasure cave, she prepares for adventure. But when a hit and run driver nearly kills her, she realizes she’s not the only one after the treasure. And is the handsome pilot who found her bleeding in a ditch really a hero, or one of the enemy?

REVIEW

"Oh my wow! You've heard people say you gotta read this book...well for this one, it's true!! The story is worth the read (not a page turner, but a page burner) and the characters are awesome! Can't wait to read more from this author!" – Kathia 

BUY LINK

#MFRWAuthor -to-Author Tip: BIOS MADE EASY @Kris_Bock

Bios Made Easy
Writers need bios, for query letters, on websites, for conference brochures. Surely writers can write about ourselves. Yet while coordinating writing conferences, I discovered that even published authors often write poor bios, whether through modesty, carelessness or overwriting. Many bios are entertaining, but don’t do their job.

The job is selling yourself and your books. Keep that focus in mind and the rest will follow.
Content: List your publications. If you have many, mention the number but only go into detail on three or four—perhaps the most recent or popular. Specify the genre, as titles aren’t always clear by themselves. If you don’t have published books, mention your other credentials—“Cub Newshound’s articles appear in Slate,” for example.

Don’t get carried away listing awards. If each book has four or five minor awards, the reader bogs down in dull details. List the most prestigious, or combine them—“Ms. Inkslinger’s books have received 11 Readers’ Choice Awards from various states.”

Relevancy: If someone is considering buying your book or coming to hear you speak, they want to know your success as a writer or speaker, not the names of your pets. Put your professional information first. Don’t start with your hobbies or childhood, unless it directly relates to your book. (For example, you’re a nurse and you wrote a hospital drama.) Don’t thank your family for their support. Save that for your book dedications.

Style: You may need different bios for different uses—playful on a book flap; professional for a newspaper article; focused on teaching experience for a conference catalog; praising your writing success for a booksigning. Regardless, focus on information. Humor and lively writing are fine, but don’t get too wrapped up in sounding “literary.”

In a large conference brochure, the designer probably wants consistent style. A touch of formality may be appropriate—you’re trying to portray yourself as a professional. Pretend you’re someone else writing about you in the third person. “Bard Wordsmith is an award-winning author….” For a query letter, use  first person. A website could go either way.

Length: Keep it short and to the point. If your bio will stand alone, on an individual brochure or flyer, try 100-200 words. If your bio will appear along with others, 50-100 words is plenty (or whatever they request). Many people will skim anyway. Include your website for more information. An editor may cut to save space, so put the most important information up front.

I keep several versions and cut and paste as needed. A longer bio may have a sentence about each of my romantic adventure novels. A shorter one may have only a few words on each, or general info on the kind of books I write. If I’m promoting my critiquing/editing business, I would focus on my experience as a teacher and workshop leader, noting that people can get recommendations and rates on my web site. The details depend on what I’m trying to sell.

So what about you? To get started, make a list of the facts that you want to share. Then write a simple, straightforward paragraph that includes them. Next, decide if it’s appropriate to dress it up, but as in all good writing, communication comes first.

ABOUT Kris Bock
Kris Bock writes novels of suspense and romance involving outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. In Counterfeits, stolen Rembrandt paintings bring danger to a small New Mexico town. Whispers in the Dark involves archaeology and intrigue among ancient ruins. What We Found features a young woman who stumbles on a murder victim, and The Mad Monk’s Treasure follows a treasure hunt in the New Mexico desert.

website  |  amazon  |  goodreads

Kris Bock's latest book is The Dead Man's Treasure
BLURB: Rebecca Westin is shocked when the grandfather she never knew leaves her a bona fide buried treasure – but only if she can decipher a complex series of clues leading to it. The hunt would be challenging enough without interference from her half-siblings, who are determined to find the treasure first and keep it for themselves. Good thing Rebecca has recruited some help, in the form of a green-eyed charmer determined to show her that a desert adventure can be sexy and fun. But there’s a treacherous wildcard, a man willing to do anything to get that treasure – and revenge. 

Action and romance combine in this lively Southwestern adventure, complete with riddles the reader is invited to solve to identify historical and cultural sites around New Mexico.