A Slice of Orange

One of the things I enjoy about being an author is building a strong author brand. I love playing in this space and coming up with new ideas to create things to support my books.

Author branding is identifying the unique promise you give to your readers. This can include your writing style, themes, your visuals, and your public identity. Readers want to know what they will get when they pick up one of your books.

To give you an idea, one of the things that is a part of my brand is journals and prayer journaling (every book has a journal entry before each chapter and I have a how to build a prayer journal website page – which gets the most clicks every month). Also a part of my brand is one-room schoolhouses (I have a website page on ones I visited) and schoolmarms.

My stories are set in the late 1860s and include schoolteachers and one-room schoolhouses. Learning about the specific rules they had to follow and what they were and weren’t allowed to do has given me plenty of material, as well as some interesting fodder for my stories and for writing blog posts to share the research I’ve gathered.

I can’t believe how much my branding has grown in the last two years.

Now that I have more than one book out, it’s been so much fun fine-tuning what I started with and building new graphics for my headers, posts, bookmarks, and stickers that support my stories, and give readers a flavor of what they would find when they read them.

Building an Author Brand

Knowing your audience is key to building an author brand that readers can connect with.

When I brainstormed my branding elements I came up with all sorts of ideas, colors, and feelings I wanted to convey, including using browns, blues, and off-white with accent colors of red, yellow, and green.

My covers and their colors tend to drive many of the graphics I’ve built, but I’ve found wood as a background theme to be the most complementary. I use both a dark wood and white-washed wood the most. One great idea is to find 12 x 12 scrapbook paper (that’s what the dark wood design is) and take pictures of things on it. Then you have a consistent background that’s inviting. I use the white-washed in most of my canva graphics. These have both worked out well.

Sometimes, I also will use a light color background to match my book covers when needed, and for my launch specific graphics, I’ve found finding a background that fits the setting and lighten it to work really well.

For me, I’m writing western historical with one-room schoolhouses as a major setting point. This is part of my author brand. I created my logo to include a red one-room schoolhouse. I had someone ask if that’s limiting, but I’ve been using it now for about three years and if I continue this series it would be 2030 before I would even consider the next series and it still could have a one-room schoolhouse in it.

Also, one of the best things I did was create a memorable character I could build something around, including merchandise. Bert, my crazy rooster who resides in my small western town of Washton, has become my readers favorite. My son drew him for me and I have used that image in graphics and made stickers, buttons, keychains, and now a tshirt.

I also have a cool collection of rooster-oriented things friends have gifted me. The rooster on the table below was actually my mom’s. She had used it as decor, and I kept it, telling myself I would put it out once I published my first book. It was such a moment when I pulled it out. Now it sits stays out.

One of my other favorites is my rooster squish mellow. He goes with me to all my author events. Easy to pack and lightweight, he grabs attention. I’ve bought extra and gave them as launch team gifts and for drawings/giveaways.

I recently posted a reel with me showing off this shirt and had several people say that would love to own one. I can’t post the video here (too big), but here’s a link to my instagram post (where you’ll see more of my branding). I’m excited about that because it helps build my author brand, but also makes me happy that readers love this character as much as I do.

Creating Materials from Themes

One of the other things I’ve created are Bible verse stickers that have the main theme verse per book on them. Now that I have four books, I have four stickers.

At my last two book signings, I gave the corresponding sticker along with the book they purchased. I also use these as giveaways in my newsletter. In the future I’d love to have a sticker shop to sell them, or to sell them at book signings, so if someone doesn’t want to buy a book, they may still make a purchase.

Speaking of book signings. I finally created a stand up banner and love how it came out. I designed it in Canva using all my author branding elements along with my book covers.

This easel poster was built to put at the front door of the book signing to capture interest right away.

I hope all of this gives you ideas of things you can do with to help build your author brand. Would love to hear your own ideas as well as thoughts about what I’ve shared in the comments below.

Denise loves to share about her writing journey (see all her posts here), including her word of the year (this year it is BALANCE), writing her Best-laid Plans Series, and all the things in between. 

Denise M. Colby writes historical romance sweetened with faith, hope, and love. She finds history fascinating and contemplates often how it was to live in the 1800’s. Her debut novel, When Plans Go Awry, is a 2025 Carol Award finalist. Sign up for her newsletter at www.denisemcolby.com or follow Denise on Facebook, Instagram, Bookbub, Pinterest, or GoodReads.