If you have some free time this summer, how about figuring out who you are? Remember, books come and go, but you are selling YOU. Why should a reader want a book written by you? What makes your titles the ones your readers can't live without?
The more you connect with your readers the more you'll sell, and the more consent your branding is, the less effort it takes to ensure readers know and love YOU.
Some things to consider:
- Do your covers have a consistent feel within your series? Does your marketing (website, ads, covers...) have a consistent feel that radiates YOUR style and your title's contents accurately?
- Is your name nice and big on your covers?
- Do you have an author logo? A style?
- Do you know who your target audience is? What sex? What age? What likes and dislikes? How are you reaching them?
- Who are you? Are you the siren? The inspiration? The survivor? The foodie? The soldier? The fun friend?
- What makes you different than the other authors in your genre? And how do you SHOW readers this? (you can't just send out newsletters that say "I'm different!")
Not sure what your brand is? Scour your social media. There might be a clue there---what do you usually post? What gets the most likes and feels the most authentically you? What are you most passionate about? Is it a look? A location? A hobby? Your stage of life? Your job? Your genre?
Don't be afraid to poll the readers you already know love you to find out what they like most about you. Or if you don't have a robust newsletter list yet (shame on you!) I can poll my readers any questions you'd like to get feedback about!
I poll my readers about tons of things all the time and sometimes I'm truly surprised at the answers. For example, I asked them what topics they like cozy mysteries to be about. Enough came back with "circus/carnival" that I wrote a circus mystery. As book #13, it has more reviews than my book #3 already. I would have NEVER dreamed my readers were looking for a circus tale and I never would have written one because I despise clowns LOL. Glad I asked!
