"Discovering the Author Brand"

If you are a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America), check out the February 2010 RWR edition--really informative articles. This month I’m especially interested in the article “The Basics of Author Branding” by Theresa Meyers, publicist and now romance author.

She gives three phases of author branding.

Creating Emotional Velcro, The Perception of Higher Quality, and That Something Special.

What I’m looking into is phase one…which is finding the emotional themes of my books. I’ve written three books and numerous short stories. I’m supposed to look for the repetitive themes or what is familiar in order to discover my author brand.

Somehow this isn’t the easiest for me. I tend to see myself and my writing differently than how others view me and my stories.

When I’ve read reviews something that keeps popping up is that I tend to write real-life issues. And I definitely love writing suspense in my stories. I think I need help finding my repetitive themes.

I asked my critique partner Tina things she’s repeatedly seen in my voice or stories—since she’s read all my works. Together this is what we've come up with:

- multicultural heroines
- urban settings
- strong females
- surviving and thriving around edges of danger
- dealing with real-life issues

I think I’m forming a clearer picture here. If only I could come up with a good tagline too!