Consistent Branding for authors

Most authors understand that to reach as many readers as possible (and especially now with social distancing) you must embrace the various channels available to you online.  Social media is of course key and will be the first line of attack for lots of authors, but this will be followed by a website, blog, YouTube/steaming channel and you can even look at starting your own Podcast (it’s easier than you may think).

With these multiple avenues to reach readers you must show continuity, it looks unprofessional if your Twitter page has a different profile image and banner to that of your Facebook page and/website, both should match, the same goes for your other social media channels and complete digital footprint.

As a design team we create both book covers and promotional designs for many authors and publishers, and what we are seeing is a huge increase in authors taking a professional stand with regards to the way that they are represented online. More and more authors want to be seen in the same light as the big names within the industry, ensuring that they are taken just as seriously in a very crowded marketplace.

More self-published authors understand that to become successful when publishing a book, it takes more than just luck, it takes planning, hard work and dedication. Having a consistent image for your book and for you as an author is a big part of selling both to your audience.

The first thing that you may want to consider are the banners for your social media channels, the most popular pages will be Facebook and Twitter, the dimensions do change from time to time and it’s always worth checking with the respective channels to ensure that your banner is sized correctly. But you should take the artwork from your cover and theme the banners accordingly.

If you look at the example below, you can see that the banners for both Twitter and Facebook tie in very nicely to the book cover design, in this case you also see a 3D image of the book (which again shows consistency). 

​In the next example for Twitter and Facebook, the artwork from the front page of the book cover has been worked into the banner designs, it doesn’t have the image of the book, but it gives the reader everything they need to make the connection and see that the author has a professional page.

These next designs show a banner that you would use in either a website or when advertising the book through social media etc. it clearly represents the book and ties into the social media pages, again, this gives a clear and professional image to your reader.

​The next three images show Instagram posts for the same three books, as before, they all clearly tie into the other platforms as well as the book covers.

​For the website there are GIFS and banners (again, these many vary in size depending upon your website) they key is that they represent the book and clearly show continuity between your social media channels and book.

​Paying attention to these elements when building your brand as an author is really important, to be successful in what is essentially a small business takes time, but also a professional and suitable image that you present to your readers.