Hello, my pretties!
In my last article, I talked about how certain pen names project a particular image about you and your books. But that image is just a smaller part of the conversation I want to have today about author branding.
I can feel some of you bracing yourselves already.
The word “brand” sounds expensive and time-consuming to manage. Let me offer a different perspective. Branding does not mean becoming a marketer, a designer, or a full-time content creator. At its simplest, your brand should answer one question: What should a reader expect from you?
Strong author brands aren’t flashy; they are recognizable. That recognition often comes from small, repeated choices rather than grand gestures: similar cover styles, a consistent tone in blurbs, familiar themes, and clear genre promises.
Think about your favorite authors. You probably recognize their books on a shelf before you even read the title. That’s not an accident. That’s branding.
When I look at successful Romance authors, I notice patterns. Their covers share visual elements. Their titles follow similar structures. Their blurbs promise the same emotional experience, book after book.
Readers aren’t looking for surprises in branding. They’re looking for comfort. They want to know what they’re getting before they click “buy”—and your branding should tell them that, even before they click on a cover or flip over a book to read the blurb.
The Three Things that Actually Matter
As I sketch out branding ideas for my new pen name, I’m deliberately keeping things loose. You don’t need a website, logo, or color palette for your author brand on day 1. You simply need clarity in three areas: genre, voice, and reader.
Genre clarity means knowing where your books sit on the shelf, even as far as your subgenre. Are you writing Sweet Small-Town Romance or Steamy Romantic Suspense? The answer shapes everything else.
Voice consistency means your books feel like they come from the same storyteller. Readers should recognize your style.
Reader understanding means knowing who you’re writing for and what they want. You can’t be everything to everyone.
The best branding starts with what you’ve already created. Look at your manuscript. What promises are you making? What emotional experience are you delivering?
Remember when we discussed genres? Your genre makes promises about a specific story’s tropes and emotions. The author brand does the same thing, except for all the stories under your pen name instead of just a singular book. So the best place to start is to analyze what you have already written. If your books are lighthearted Romantic Comedies, your branding should reflect that with bright colors, playful fonts, and blurbs that make readers smile. If your book is an angsty Second-Chance Romance, your branding should signal that, too, using moodier tones and evocative imagery.
Your covers are not necessarily about what you like. They’re about what your ideal reader should expect from your stories.
This took me years to grasp. In my Cozy Mysteries, I kept gravitating toward covers I found aesthetically pleasing when my readers wanted clarity about genre and tone. A complete rebrand with clear, on-the-nose images found me an audience. Increased sales followed.
The Consistency Trap
New authors hear “be consistent” and interpret it to mean “get everything perfect on book 1.” That’s not how this works.
Your first attempt at branding will not be your final one. In my career, I’ve changed cover styles between series. I’ve adjusted my blurb approach as I learned what resonated. I’ve refined my understanding of my target reader.
How do you do that? Simple. Check out the competition. Look at the covers of the top 100 bestsellers in your genre. Order the latest K-lytics report for your genre and analyze trends and growing niches. Walk into your local bookshop and see what they are putting out front and center in your section. This will give you tips—and possibly overwhelm, depending on your genre. If you compare the Cozy Mystery market to the Thriller market, for example, you will see that the Cozy genre has several trends, yet Thriller has little variation. When in doubt, consider your books’ closest comparative titles, and make decisions from there.
What matters more than perfection is direction. Start small, and choose one or two elements to keep consistent. Add more as you feel comfortable. Let consistency emerge naturally rather than forcing it.
What You Can Skip (for Now)
Author branding does not require a professional website, newsletter, presence on every social platform, professional photos, taglines, or branded merchandise—at least not initially. These things can be useful later, but they’re not prerequisites.
What you need at the start is clarity about what you’re writing and who it’s for.
If you’re planning a series, invest more in branding from the start. Series need visual cohesion. If you’re writing stand-alones, you have more flexibility.
I’m treating this new pen name as a fresh start, which means I’m thinking about branding earlier. But I’m not locking everything in. I’m creating frameworks, not prisons.
This is a long game. And you’re allowed to learn as you go.
Reflection Exercise
As you decide on and develop your author brand, give yourself space to think about the following questions.
- What kind of reading experience do I want to be known for?
- What do I want readers to feel when they pick up my book?
- Where am I overcomplicating things unnecessarily?
- What is one small step I could take toward clarity rather than perfection?
Reality Check-In
I’ve been browsing romance covers obsessively. I have a Pinterest board with two hundred pins. I’m noticing patterns in Contemporary Romance: Illustrated covers with bold colors are trending, but so are photographic covers with softer tones. The subgenre matters enormously.
I don’t have a cover designer yet. I don’t have final colors picked. But I’m getting clearer on the feeling I want to create. Warm. Accessible. A little witty. Something that promises comfort and chemistry in equal measure.
I’ve also been studying blurbs. Romance blurbs follow formulas for a reason, and I’m learning those formulas before I try to break them. There will be time for innovation once I understand the foundations.
For now, I’m collecting examples and taking notes. The actual branding decisions will come once I’m further into drafting and clearer on exactly what I’m creating—but it’s nice to have a blueprint to go back to once that time comes.
Happy writing,
Susan
X
