31
Marketing Loft [Public] / Re: Also Boughts now include sponsored ads
« Last post by Lynn on February 08, 2025, 09:18:45 AM »The way I look at it is that brand building should follow purpose.
If you want to sell books first and foremost, you need to write some books and find out what sells for you (maybe you have a certain style that isn't fit for some genres even if that's what you like best so that'll be when you have to decide your purpose: write what you want, accepting that sales might be in second place, or write what you can sell (not what someone else can sell because those aren't the same thing at all)), then build up your image around that so that people come back to you for that thing you're doing your best to sell.
Your purpose really does put everything in its place. That doesn't mean you can't maximize as you go down the list from primary purpose to secondary.... Or that your purpose as a writer might be different from your purpose as a publisher. (You really do have two jobs/businesses to consider as a self-publisher, sometimes many more.)
If your purpose is to write books that might be picked up by a school or library, you need to build a brand around that, and so you won't wait until you're seeing sales, you'll want to go in with a brand that fits what they'll want and decide how to make that work. You'll pick what to write based on this purpose and sales will naturally have to come second even if you want to maximize them.
You can't really brand yourself however you want without making those choices about purpose for yourself, even unintentionally.
It's just a series of choices. The brand follows that first choice, which is your purpose.
If you want to sell books first and foremost, you need to write some books and find out what sells for you (maybe you have a certain style that isn't fit for some genres even if that's what you like best so that'll be when you have to decide your purpose: write what you want, accepting that sales might be in second place, or write what you can sell (not what someone else can sell because those aren't the same thing at all)), then build up your image around that so that people come back to you for that thing you're doing your best to sell.
Your purpose really does put everything in its place. That doesn't mean you can't maximize as you go down the list from primary purpose to secondary.... Or that your purpose as a writer might be different from your purpose as a publisher. (You really do have two jobs/businesses to consider as a self-publisher, sometimes many more.)
If your purpose is to write books that might be picked up by a school or library, you need to build a brand around that, and so you won't wait until you're seeing sales, you'll want to go in with a brand that fits what they'll want and decide how to make that work. You'll pick what to write based on this purpose and sales will naturally have to come second even if you want to maximize them.
You can't really brand yourself however you want without making those choices about purpose for yourself, even unintentionally.
It's just a series of choices. The brand follows that first choice, which is your purpose.