You Are Not A Brand

I love that post and I'd totally bring her snacks.

Same here. I'm SO sick of social media "experts" hyping the "you are a brand" nonsense. I suspect that even the people who tout self-branding haven't a clue what they're talking about. The general concept of branding is to develop yourself and promote whatever unique talents you have. Gee, it sounds a lot like what we're trying to do! But somewhere along the way, it got twisted into some sort of obnoxious self-promotion method that's all talk and no substance.

Here's a 1997 article by Tom Peters that describes the concept of personal branding. It's not a new concept, nor is it as revolutionary as the cheerleaders make it sound.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html?page=0,2

I'd bring her snacks too.

The trick is to allow your books, and even your name, or, better, your pseudonym (s) to be brands, but to keep yourself out of it.

Beyond this, it's completely out of your control, and the internet is not going to change, and neither will marketing. Ain't gonna happen.

The best any of us can do is to simply keep ourselves out of the mix. But the books we write, and the name we stick on those books, will, if people like them enough, become brands. That's just how it is.

But keep ourselves out of the mix should be enough.

This happened long before the Internet. In fact, one of the first prominent "brand" writers was Max Brand, the pseudonym used by prolific fictioneer Frederick Faust. Another early one was Edgar Rice Burroughs. They were fully as commodified as "brands" as James Patterson is today; they still are trademarked brands, in fact.

caw

Maybe because I'm in the business of marketing I don't see branding as a problem.

Perhaps you don't see yourself as a brand, but your readers will. A brand in of itself does not have to be limiting. A brand does not have to mean "You can expect only this type of book from me."

Your brand can be: "You can expect an awesome book from me."

I'm a brand. You can call me Heinz!

katiemac said:

Your brand can be: "You can expect an awesome book from me."

Click to expand...

I like this! May I steal it?

Ugh, I hate "brand" crap. It seems to be part and parcel of publishing now though, from what I've seen.

brainstorm77 said:

I'm a brand. You can call me Heinz!

Click to expand...

Hai, Heinz!

I'd like to be Acme -- good products sold to people (or coyotes) that don't necessarily know how to use them.

On another note, a famous person, much involved in a craft I enjoy, became her own brand. She defended her brand so outrageously that people were afraid to even mention her name on the Internet for fear of getting a letter of reprimand from either the person or her lawyer. Yahoo groups mysteriously disappeared because the person in question made complaints. It led to a tremendous amount of backlash against her and people started referring to her as She Who Shall Not be Named. Being held up as a sort of female Voldemort is not the reaction she was looking for, I don't think.

I would put much of the 'blame' for branding on the audience. It seems to me that people have a very hard time dealing with anything out of the ordinary, such as when an author makes a broad jump between styles or genres. It's like when Bob Dylan went electric. He wasn't doing anything that didn't fit his brand (ie. Bob didn't care about the establishment), but people threw a fit because it was different. I really don't believe there are hordes of authors wanting to brand themselves without the impetus of a public clamoring for more of what they already know.

I said it before, in another thread supporting branding: I am not a brand. I'm a human being!

Although someone else pointed out that I am, in fact, a ferret.

Why does The Prisoner come to mind? "I'm not a brand! I'm a free man!"

Because that's what I was channeling when I said it.

My reader self and my writer self are in conflict here.

As a writer, I'd love to be able to write whatever strikes my fancy, regardless of genre, tone, etc. I love stretching my wings, exploring my own capabilities and trying to expand my writing skills beyond the borders of genre. The writer in me itches to explore all the possibilities, just to see if I can.

But as a reader, I want to go into that bookstore, pick up the latest book by XYZ, and know what--within reason--I'm getting in return for my money. I want Janet Evanovich's books to be funny every time, I want something fantastical from Neil Gaiman, I want a thrill from Preston & Child. I rely on their brands to tell me what kind of story is between those covers.

Branding leads the reader to the shelf so they can find exactly what they want. And I don't think that's a bad thing.

God Bless Her. **goes to make snacks**

The internet is made of people. People matter. This includes you. Stop trying to sell everything about yourself to everyone. Don’t just hammer away and repeat and talk at people—talk TO people. It’s organic. Make stuff for the internet that matters to you, even if it seems stupid. Do it because it’s good and feels important. Put up more cat pictures. Make more songs. Show your doodles. Give things away and take things that are free. Look at what other people are doing, not to compete, imitate, or compare . . . but because you enjoy looking at the things other people make. Don’t shove yourself into that tiny, airless box called a brand—tiny, airless boxes are for trinkets and dead people.

Click to expand...

BenPanced[sup]R[/sup]. There ARE No Substitutes.[sup]tm[/sup]

BenPanced said:

BenPanced[sup]R[/sup]. There ARE No Substitutes.[sup]tm[/sup]

Click to expand...

How about, "Accept NO Imitations -- Ask for BenPanced by Name!" Or, maybe, just, "Offer not valid in Nebraska". I think I'll go with, "Contents may have settled in shipping." I'll be famous!

Me? Settled? Boy, you haven't been around here very long, have you?

katiemac said:

Maybe because I'm in the business of marketing I don't see branding as a problem.

Perhaps you don't see yourself as a brand, but your readers will. A brand in of itself does not have to be limiting. A brand does not have to mean "You can expect only this type of book from me."

Your brand can be: "You can expect an awesome book from me."

Click to expand...

I agree.

I keep getting referred to as "that customer service girl". The president of the local chamber of commerce thinks it's cute to call me that. Only problem is, it limits the scope of my consultancy work.

We. Are. Not. Amused.

Branding is not new. It's part of intellectual property control, and the professional presentation of self. It's been part of what writers do since the sixteenth century.

Medievalist said:

Branding is not new. It's part of intellectual property control, and the professional presentation of self. It's been part of what writers do since the sixteenth century.

Click to expand...

That all sounds so dehumanizing.

Shadow_Ferret said:

That all sounds so dehumanizing.

Click to expand...

Yep, it does seem to sound that way at times. Sorta like the HR profession which now uses an accounting term for personnel. Human Capital. It's a bad bad practice.

But branding is becoming one of those overused cliche buzzwords and I can see why someone would refuse to do it.