#20 What Story Is Your Author Brand Telling?

Crafting Your Author Brand Story

If you think about it, everything is storytelling. Including branding. Your brand story is the narrative that ties everything together—why you write, who you write for, and what you stand for.

I felt this part was so important, that I even made space for it on my website’s homepage and turned it into my very first blog post. (Do you have to do the same thing?? No, I don’t think so! I did it because–like everything else we’re doing here–it’s going to keep me consistent.)

Build your brand story into your bio, into your social posts–use it to explain who you are and why you write what you do. It’s just another brand tool in your toolbox.

So, here’s my brand story:

The “Why I’m Indie Publishing” Journey

I started by brainstorming a post on why I’m indie publishing A Little Less Invisible. That felt like a logical place to start the story. Then, I brainstormed how to tie in my brand values, promise, and bio. It’s a lot, but don’t panic! Start with a bulleted list. 

For mine, it was:

• I tried the traditional publishing route, but hit some roadblocks that made indie-publishing a better path.
• I’ve always loved fairytales—the dark, weird, with-teeth kind.
• I have a master’s degree in fairytales and folktales (yes, I am that nerd).
• I write YA fantasy because I love morally complex characters and twisting tropes.
• But I also have a chronic illness, and fantasy books rarely represent people like me.
• Now, I’m here to write the books I needed as a teen and help other chronically ill and disabled authors do the same by documenting my journey on this blog.

Putting It All Together

Like I said, you’ll find this story on my website homepage and as the first blog post in this series. Sorry if you’ve seen it already! But for those who haven’t. It looks something like this:

📝Once upon a time, back when I was sick and homebound as a teen, I’d have willingly entered into a fae bargain in which I traded every book I owned for one with cursed, unremovable sticker goo in the middle of the cover — for eternity— if it meant I’d find just one YA fantasy book with authentic chronic illness representation.

But fae bargains were few and far between, and it turned out if I wanted to read that book, I had to write it. (What a rip-off, am I right??)

It took YEARS, an editor, so many drafts, a metric ton of cake, and a mentorship later, but once I had my book baby in my hands and ready to go, I hit an unexpected roadblock when querying agents—a series of stomach-squidging replies.

I’m sorry but your book has:

“Too much pain.” (But my villains eat pain, so…?)
“Not enough pain.”
“It’s too dark.”
“It’s not dark enough.”
“It’s too funny.” (Because I guess, chronically ill characters can’t have a sense of humor??)
“It’s too different from what’s  out there right now to sell.”

Look, I get it—publishing is a tough business, and agents have to eat (because they can’t eat pain like my fae can). When submitting, they want you to produce recent comparable titles to show that your book will sell. And while there are some amazing traditionally published YA fantasy books with chronically ill main characters out there, there’s not nearly enough each year.

But here’s the thing:

•   According to the National Library of Medicine, 1 in 5 kids in the U.S. has a chronic illness or condition.

• The CDC says approximately 27% of children in the U.S. have a chronic condition, and 1 in 15 has multiple chronic conditions.

• And that’s just in the U.S. Globally, those numbers are harder to compile, but I know there are teens, just like I was, in every country in the world.

So where are all the rest of the YA fantasy books for us?

That’s why I’m indie publishing—not to compete with traditional publishing, but to complement it. To prove that these stories sell, that there’s an audience waiting for bold, inclusive narratives featuring chronically ill and disabled teens. There’s room for morally complex characters who can’t always “push through” the pain and still deserve to be at the center of epic adventures. There’s room to flip tropes, play with them from a unique angle, and show that chronically ill and disabled people can be heroes—and main characters, and love interests, and everything else in between.

And if you’re here, reading this, then maybe you believe that too.

So, let’s do this together. Let’s prove there’s an audience for stories that are abso-fricken-lutely not “too much”.

📰Subscribe to the newsletter to join me on this wild indie-publishing adventure (I pinky promise it’s not a fae contract in disguise. Your books are safe from sticker goo😉). I’ll be sharing step-by-step exactly what I’m doing to publish my book, A Little Less Invisible, with its messy, funny, unapologetically real, chronically ill main character. The good, the bad, and the “holy cheese and rice why did I do X like that??” publishing moments.

Let’s team up and show the world there’s more than enough room on the shelf for all of us.

p.s. 

• Notice how I did my best to match my brand voice and communication style. Try to do the same thing with yours!
• Also, don’t be afraid to reuse content. Reduce, reuse, recycle where you can. It’ll keep your brand feeling consistent and take some of the pressure off of you at the same time!

💬 Question for You: If you had to tell the story of your brand in five bullet points, what would they be? How would you build out your story into a paragraph from there? Or, is there another author out there who tells their brand story in a fantastic way? Let us know in the comments so we can all study it and learn together! 

✉️ Want to follow my indie publishing journey for more tips and tricks? Subscribe to my newsletter!