How to Create an Author Brand

Session 2

Four Steps to Build Your Brand by Thomas Umstattd Jr.

What a brand isn’t:

● Tag line
● Something made up
● Colors
● A genre
● What you think of you

What is a brand?
● A promise.
● Your reputation
● What people think of when they think of you.

Step 1 to Discovering Your Brand- Look at Yourself

Look in the mirror:
● What are your unique strengths?
● What are your weaknesses?
● What are you the best in the world at?
● What is your unfair advantage?
● What are you passionate about?
● What makes you different?

Give yourself permission to be yourself.

Step 2 Look AT Your Readers

Look at Your Readers
● What kind of people are you trying to reach?
● Focus

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 ● Why not just reach everyone?

Create Personas:
● Demographic Info:
○ How old?
○ Single Married?
○ Why would they read your book rather than the bestselling author in your
genre?
● What are their felt needs? How would they articulate their own needs?
● How do you thrill this person?
● What is their primary pain point?

Step 3 Listen to Your Readers

How to listen to your readers:
● Talk to them face to face.
● Survey Your Readers (SurveyMonkey.com, Google Forms)
● Read their reviews

Step 4 Look in Your Reader’s Mirror

This is where you ask, “What do people think my brand says about them?” It’s about
insiders as much as it is about outsiders.

Doing it Right:
● Bible
● Twilight
● Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere
● Getting Things Done

How to do it:
● Define “outsiders” when everyone is welcome, no one is at home.
● Create opportunities for your fans to interact with each other.

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The Art of Branding by James L. Rubart

A brand is:
● A promise you make
● What comes to mind when people think of you
● Who you are at your core
● What is fascinating, different, quirky, compelling about you

Are you Luke or are you Obi-Wan?

Your Brand Needs to Have Four Elements:

● Empathy
● Authority
● A Plan
● (And how you’re going to execute the plan.)

Website Examples:
● Re/Write-The Ragged Edge writing conference website example
● Lori Rolevoled example
● Randy Ingermanson example

Your Target Reader

The Identity Method/Your identity tells you who your target is:
● My target is people who want biblical truth
● My target is people who want to learn to write compelling fiction
● My target is people who want to travel to 1st century Jerusalem
● My target is people who want to know their true identity and more freedom
● My target is people who need to know they have a second chance

How to find out what resonates with them (which you can use to market to them)
● Ask them
● Amazon
● Kindle

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Reminder: A Brand is not Created, it’s Discovered

Shocking Broca
Now that you know what your brand is, how do you stand out? By shocking broca.

Examples:

● Indiana Jones
● Taylor Rubart
● Beth Vogt
● Erin and the squash
● Lady Gaga
● Allen Arnold and Stephen Lawhead

Your Brand Must Be Organic

Tom Cruise broke his promise

Content is King, Dictator, and Supreme Commander of the Universe

● Defining Content
● Street signs- who would you give the money to
● Typical Thank You note

Final Thoughts
● Work on your brand, refine … it’s marathon, not a sprint
● Become a student
● Watch for marketing/branding every moment
● Look for ways to surprise Broca
● Talk to other writers, artists, actors
● Who is doing it right? Talk to them.
● Crash, burn, do it again
● Be yourself, it’s already there, just let it out …

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 Homework For Thomas’ Talk
Step 1 - Look in the Mirror

What are your strengths?

●

What are you the best in your world at?

●

Why do readers pick other authors over you?

●

Why do people read other similar stories rather than your story?
●

What do you do that exhausts you?

●

What are your unfair advantages?

●

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What gives you the authority to write on the subject you’re writing on?
●

What gives you the authority to explore the themes in your writing
●

Step 2 - Look at Your Readers

Who is your target reader?

●

What does your target reader read currently?

●

How is your target reader different from other readers?

●

Why does your target reader read books?

●

How can you thrill your target reader?

●

Step 3 - Listen to Your Readers

What do readers like about you?

●

What are the themes and topics that come up?

●

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What words do they mention in their reviews?
●

What do people say about you when they talk to each other?
●

Step 4 - Look in Your Reader’s Mirror

What does my brand let my readers say about themselves?

●

What tribe does this brand give me access to?

●

Who are your outsiders?

●

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 Homework For Jim’s Talk

What is the promise you are making your readers?

●

What comes to mind when people think of you?

●

What is the empathy you have for your readers?

●

What is the authority you have for your readers? What gives you the authority to
write on the subject you’re writing on?

What gives you the authority to explore the themes in your writing

Find a website that makes it about them, and brainstorm how you would
change that website to make it about the website visitor. What are two things
you would change?
●

Who is your target reader? Describe them in one sentence:

●

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To stand out, we must shock/surprise/delight Broca on a regular basis. How have
you, or how are you going to, shock/surprise/delight Broca during the next three
days?
●

You know your brand has to be organic. What is different, unique, quirky,
surprising about you that can/does define you as a person? How are you
organically compelling?
●

In what areas do you need to give yourself permission to be you?

●

In what two areas are you going to focus on where you’ll make your content
surprising/entertaining/provocative/engaging?
●

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