You hear it all the time. Establish your brand. Build a platform. Readers will follow. It’s not so clear cut.

In order to sell your books, your audience needs to know what you’re selling. What is your writing style? What kind of content can they expect? Who are you as a person?

When Branding Goes Wrong

Branding, in simplest terms, is a marketing tool. It’s you trying to stand out from the crowd and trying to get eyes on your work. The problem is you’re a living breathing human being, not a can of soda.

For those of you old enough to remember, Coca Cola changed its recipe in 1985, thinking it would help it compete with its sweeter rival Pepsi Cola. People hated it! It didn’t take long for the company to revert back to its classic formula.

Today, Coca Cola markets itself as a health conscious brand that brings people together. Ads show people celebrating weddings, graduations, families reunions, and friendly barbecues. How wonderful! Then, you look closer.

According to the CDC, more than 40% of Americans are obese. The Coca Cola Company is the largest manufacturer of sugared beverages in the world, and it’s a well known fact that sugar expands waistlines. To stay on brand, Coca Cola conveniently left people of larger size out of their ads and went on to blame the obesity epidemic on a lack of exercise rather than calories. You may be interested in a 2019 study in the Internal Journal of Research and Public Health (doi:10.3390/ijerph17010012) that digs into their manipulative campaigns.

Above and Beyond Your Brand

Coca Cola made their branding all about profit. It has to be about more than that. It also has to be about values.

A brand on its own can be limiting. It can even pigeonhole you. Take actors as an example. They don’t want to be typecast. Where would we be if Robin Williams only stuck to comedies after Mork & Mindy? We would have missed out on his amazing performances in Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting. Think about other performers who “reinvented” themselves over the years — David Bowie and Madonna. Then clap your hands for authors who write in more than one genre. I’m looking at you, Nora Roberts.

You can argue their “brand” is to fight complacency, to think outside the box. But it’s more than that. It’s about the human spirit. As human beings, we are multi-faceted and complex. We explore, we learn, we grow.

As a writer, you put yourself on the page. The act of writing makes you vulnerable in the very best way. That’s not something to exploit but something to honor. Don’t sell yourself to fit some mold. Society doesn’t know what they want half the time anyway. Stay true to yourself and stick to your values. Be better than a can of soda.