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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Be on the Lookout, Photo is a Silhouette!



By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief for Southern Writers Magazine


Interesting thing happened the other day. I was searching for an author, and was having a little difficulty in finding them. When I did find the author, their iconthe one most authors use to show their photo—only showed a silhouette. (I notice that a lot on one of the Social Media sites.)

It got me to thinking about branding. An author’s branding is one of the most important things they can do for promotion, marketing and selling their books, not to mention having a presence so agents, editors and publishers can find them.

I can understand why someone would be reluctant to put his or her picture on the Internet. But it is imperative that an author have a picture to build their branding. If an author isn’t going to use a photo, then what can they use?

Why not use a picture of your book? While it is not as good as a personal photo, at least it adds to the branding and certainly beats that silhouette icon.

Another option would be to have a logo designed for you, perhaps using your initials. That would also work. The important thing is to replace the icon of a silhouette with a picture of something that helps brand you as an author.

It’s the little things we do that bring us the biggest gains.

Can you think of other things that can be used to brand an author?