What is “branding?”

Branding – what the heck is it?

An “expert” came to me with a proposed guest blog about branding. I looked at her site, Twitter, Fan Page. Her site had a rheumy picture and bland copy. Her Twitter had five tweets (still has five tweets months later), and her Fan Page had four posts in six months. Each site looked different. There was no consistent message. What kind of branding is that?

Why would I follow her advice (or feature her on my blog) when she can’t brand herself out of a paper bag? Couldn’t brand herself with two hands and a map.

In proper Word Shark fashion, I started to research. I Googled “branding.” I read a bunch of blogs and articles. And I asked my connections what they thought.

April Michelle Davis Editorial Inspirations – “My website, business card, print materials, and everything about my company has the same colors, fonts, look, and feel.”

I think the theme/scheme is important. You don’t want to be pastels and floral on one page, and dark and gruesome skulls on another page. You want your colors and your feel to translate from one page to the next.

Shark and blue

If you look at my Fan Page, you see a shark in blue water. If you look at my Twitter profile, you see a shark in blue water. My website – shark and blue. My blog – shark, blue.

Published writer Ilil Arbel – “Personal branding is positively grabbing someone’s attention by creating a unique, unforgettable image. Personal branding, by definition, is the process by which we market ourselves to others. Each one of us has to develop their own USP – Unique Selling Proposition – to communicate our brand, as the big corporations do.”

Ilil digs deeper – “Yes, I think branding goes deeper than a logo and a color scheme. It has to create an image that is strong enough to be remembered by concept, not just shape.”

Going deeper

I like what Ilil said about going deeper. Branding is not just a color scheme or font. It’s what you stand for, it’s what you deliver; it’s following through on promises and conducting oneself with professional integrity.

Public identification

Elizabeth H. Cottrell of Heartspoken and Riverwood Writer says, “Branding is the development of a public identification through marketing, imagery, logo, and consistent messaging. In includes everything related to social media activity, advertising, etc. In a nutshell, it’s what pops into people’s minds when you or your company name is mentioned.”

Consistent messaging

I try to put forth a consistent message about the importance of editing and proofreading. I like to introduce new writers, bloggers, poets, musicians, and artists in my special monthly features. I am a bit (a bit?) sarcastic at times, but try to present it in a humorous fashion. I share what I’ve learned and pay it forward.

Consistent message

Artist and illustrator, Janice Phelps Williams – “Good branding is nothing more than knowing who you are, who you want to be, what you are good at, what people will respond to, and how to live your personal and professional life in a consistent manner. It is being consistent in words, in graphics, in subject. It is being focused and knowing where the boundaries are. These are the only rules I focus on. I don’t really think of my brand, but I know when something ‘doesn’t feel like me.’”

Doesn’t feel like me   

There are certain bloggy features that don’t feel like me, i.e., book reviews, interviews, or constantly hawking myself or my services. So, I just don’t do any of those things.

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What is “branding” to you? What is your consistent message?

“Become someone worth knowing. Then your book will become something worth buying.” – C. Hope Clark

Editor Spotlight – April Michelle Davis

Article by April Michelle Davis

What’s the first thing you notice about a book?

Now imagine yourself in a bookstore. You are looking for a good book. What about a book is going to pique your interest to make you pick it up? Possibly the cover art, the title, or the author? What’s the next thing you might look at?  The opening lines?  You open the book to the first page, and guess what? The opening lines are boring; they don’t grab your attention and make you want to read the book. So you toss the book aside and look for a new one.

Now, image that you sent your manuscript to a publisher. The publisher does not have the cover art to look at and may have a title to read, but the marketing department will probably change the title anyway. So what is the publisher going to look at? Your opening lines. If your first line is a cliché, you will probably receive a rejection. If the publisher gets to your second line, but it is boring, you will probably receive a rejection. And if the publisher gets to your third line, but it does not intrigue, you will probably receive a rejection.

This is why your opening lines are paramount for your manuscript to be published.

So what should the opening pages of a manuscript do? There are four main goals:

1.      Introduce the story-worthy problem

The reader should be quickly introduced to the problem that will encompass much of the story.  This needs to be a problem that is important enough to the main character that it can sustain the entire length of the story. The story will probably include other problems as well that the main character encounters while trying to resolve the larger problem, and these can be introduced when appropriate, but the overall conflict of the story must be introduced quickly or the reader will begin questioning the purpose of the story.

In the Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum, the reader quickly learns that the main character, Dorothy, is unhappy with her life. Throughout the entire story, Dorothy is learning how to be happy with what she has and that she does truly love the people who are part of her life. This is a classic man vs. self literary conflict occurring while Dorothy is trying to find her place in the world.

2.      Hook the readers

A suspenseful event should occur in the beginning of the story to hook the reader, and this event should be connected to the overall problem in the story that the main character must overcome.

In the Wizard of Oz, the tornado in the beginning of the story takes Dorothy away from the place where she has not been happy, so she should now be happy, right? Instead, she learns that she is not happier, but actually more unhappy because she now misses her family.

3.      Establish the rules

In the world the author has created, the rules need to be quickly established. They cannot be introduced  conveniently as the story progresses—then, the reader begins to doubt the story and  may even put down the book if it becomes too unbelievable. The rules can be anything the author desires, but they must be consistent. A story cannot begin in one genre and switch to another without the reader questioning the author.  If the author continues to perform unexpected surprises like this, the reader may set the book aside because the reader cannot hold any expectations for the story or the world that has been created.

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is upset with her life. She expresses her sadness when she visits the wizard neighbor and other neighbors. In the movie, to further emphasize Dorothy’s sadness, she sings a song. It is a song that a young girl might sing to herself. She is not rapping or singing hip-hop.

4.      Forecast the ending

Many authors write the opening pages of the story last, and one reason for this is that the opening pages should forecast the ending of the story. The reader should not know exactly how the story will end, but the reader should know where the story is heading. Foreshadowing allows the reader to feel that the story has completed a circle If there is no foreshadowing, then the story has simply ended, but it does not necessarily feel complete.

In the Wizard of Oz, after learning that Dorothy is upset, hearing her song in the movie, and experiencing the strength of the tornado, the reader can assume she will find her way, but by then the reader is hooked on Dorothy’s journey.

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April Michelle Davis

Prior to starting Editorial Inspirations in 2001, April Michelle Davis worked as an assistant editor at the National Society of Professional Engineers and a program assistant for the American Prosecutors Research Institute. Various degrees include a master of professional studies degree in publishing and a bachelor of arts degree in English. In addition, she holds the following certificates: Editing, book publishing, and professional editing.

April frequently attends and speaks at workshops, conferences, book festivals, and writers’ retreats and has been a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association since 2005, a member of the American Society for Indexing since 2009, and a member of the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors since 2010.

April is the chapter coordinator for the Virginia chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association, and she is the chair-elect for the Mid- & South-Atlantic chapter for the American Society for Indexing.

See April’s website, Editorial Inspirations. Connect with her on Facebook at her personal page or her Editorial Inspirations page. You can also find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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I realize that not every editor/proofreader is perfect for every writer. I present the Editor Spotlight series of blog posts to help all writers find the perfect editor. The Editor Spotlight series will be presented throughout my regular blog posts and special theme weeks. – Karen S. Elliott

Editor Spotlight – Courtney Koschel

Editor Spotlight – Shonell Bacon

Editor Spotlight – Chris Eboch

Editor Spotlight – Heidi Thomas

Editor Spotlight – Shawn MacKenzie

Editor Spotlight – Wendy Reis