Self Publishing Tip #2 – Branding
Ok, guys, here it is – tip #2.
Tip number two is dealing with branding. One of the things that as I go on this self-publishing journey, one thing that I find is that it’s the same exact thing as in my other business. Although this is as an author, it doesn’t seem like the traditional business world, it really is.
Let me tell you what I mean by that. Don’t think that just because you’ve written a book, and it could be a great book, but don’t think that it’s automatically going to take off on its own.
Don’t think that you’re automatically going to sell tons on Amazon, the other platforms, or get it in the stores, because no matter what you still need people. You still need people to find your books and gravitate towards your books.
You have to treat this like a business and this is one of the things that a lot of authors tend to not like.
Me, on the other hand, I really like this part because I like the business sense of things. In fact, I kind of enjoy this part a little more than the other part. The other part you know, you could get in there and write a book and you could write a children’s book pretty fast.
But this part takes time, it takes you time to learn new things, it’s actually creating and making you into a better person. Believe it or not, you need some public speaking skills even when being the author.
So, where some people shy away from, this is where I really gravitate towards.
Branding — this is the tip right here.
Make sure that you have uniformity in all of your social media platforms.
You may have many different books, you may have many different things that you can promote, that you can sell, that you can provide, like some kind of content or help for the world.
But the only way you’re going to expose them to everything is if you brand yourself, you brand a character, or you brand a title, you have to brand something.
For instance, with me, Bright and the Bully — Live Bright. I really want to influence children to live bright. I really want to make the world a better place and this isn’t just for show, this is something that I really want.
So, in creating a brand I’m creating my brand around this fact alone — Live Bright. Hence, my pen name, TW Bright, because that’s what I stand for, living bright.
I’m a person that believes that every relationship you have, you should be providing value to people, to your work, to whatever, and I want to teach kids these same fundamental principles.
So, that’s why I’m branding the character Bright the Superhero.
Now, of course, Bright is a children’s book, but eventually I want Bright to venture off into different things.
Originally I wanted Bright to be a cartoon, so the buy-in part is Bright the book, but it’ll go beyond that. It’s going to go past that. I plan on having coloring books and all different things that represent Bright and teaching kids, instilling these fundamental principles about living a bright life — you don’t have to wear a cape to be a hero.
That’s one way to get in there. If you go to my Instagram – Twitter – it’s Bright the Superhero. I couldn’t get the same name on everything, but if you go to my website – it’s TWBrightBooks.com, you’ll see it’s all centered around Bright.
So they’re going to see the same picture, same character in some kind of way in every single place. That’s what branding is about.
You could brand yourself. If your a person who doesn’t want to be in the front, you don’t have to, brand a character. But, you have to brand something. You have to have uniformity so that people can recognize your brand.
That’s why you know what Pepsi and Coca-Cola are, you just know that, you’ve been ingrained to know that because you saw it so many times and this is how we have to think, even as authors, writers, and illustrators.
In this day and age, anybody can have success using online platforms, but you have to start thinking in the context of branding yourself, even as authors.
That’s my tip for the day – take care – take charge and God bless!
TW Bright
Picture Book Publishing Tip #1 – The Illustrator
Since I put out my book, a lot of people have been asking me about how to go about doing it. It seems like everyone has an idea about wanting to write a book.
Right now I’m talking mainly about children’s books, picture books. I even have a sister who’s asking me about getting an illustrator, which can be a pretty daunting task.
I wanted to give this little bit of advice to save you a lot of time and money.
Make sure that you and your illustrator are on the same page.
When you’re looking for an illustrator you have to make sure you can really connect with that person because they have to tell the story through artwork. Just because your friend is a good artist doesn’t mean he’s going to be a good illustrator.
I wanted to make sure I left you with that tip because I spent a lot of money and paid two different illustrators to work on my story and not that they weren’t good artists, they were actually really good artists, but when it came to illustration they didn’t fully understand it.
For an illustrator, it takes a very special kind of person to have the deeper level of understanding when it comes to illustrating. They are the ones actually telling the story and their job is even a little more important than the person who wrote the book.
But, that’s my opinion and I wanted to leave you with that piece of advice and I hope it helps you. I’ll be doing more videos on self-publishing and I wanted to give you that as a first tip – make sure that you find the right person.
If you have any questions, leave it in the comments section and I will make more videos addressing any questions you may have.