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 icon—the
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?
