3 Ways to Create a Cohesive Author Brand

Shilah LaCoe is a publishing expert at an online publishing platform where she helps tons of authors write, publish, and market their book. Have a publishing or book marketing question? Contact her here.

Now is the perfect time to take a look at your author brand and adjust as needed. This can seem intimidating, but I believe in setting measurable goals for success. With that being said, below are 3 things you can do right now to create a cohesive author brand as well as other marketing resources.

Consistent Social Media Handles

This is one of the easiest ways to create a cohesive author brand. You want your readers to know how to reach you, so it’s important to make yourself easy to locate. I see many authors who use numbers in their handle, have different names across platforms, or use their book title as their handle. It should always be your author name, and it should be simple.

Having trouble getting the handle you want? Too many people with your name? Try putting the word “author” or “writer” before your handle.

Same Headshot on each Social Platform

If there are a lot of people with the same name as you, then make sure you have the same headshot as your book’s author bio. Honestly, even if you’re the only Shilah LaCoe on Twitter, it’s important to keep it consistent. This will help readers locate you confidently and easily.

Make sure the photo is clear and bright. I highly recommend using “portrait mode” on an iPhone or something similar if you don’t have a professional camera.

Using Brand Colors to Creative a Cohesive Look

This may seem daunting at first, but choosing your brand colors will help you create images and content that will bring a cohesive look to your author brand. First, you want to decide if you want a light & bright look, or a dark & moody look. Once you decide that, you’ll want to pick a “body text” color.

For example, if you pick a light & bright look, you’ll most likely want to choose a darker color for the body text, like black, to pop against a light background. For a dark & moody look, you’ll want to choose a light color that will pop against a dark background, like white.

After that, you’ll want to pick a “pop” color, like yellow, red, purple, or blue.

Still need help? Check out the brand color resources below for help and inspiration!

*Inspirational Color Palettes: https://colorpalettes.net/

*To get Hex Codes from Images: https://coolors.co/

That’s it! See? That wasn't too hard. These are action items you can and should execute across all platforms to help you start to build a cohesive author brand. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with new posts, sign-up for my newsletter!

*I received those links from Author Brittany Wang's Author Website Boot Camp—it's how I created my own website from scratch! I highly recommend checking out her site for more tips and tricks.