Author Branding vs Marketing vs Publicity vs Platform | Brand Strength

Is branding the same thing as publicity?

What’s the difference between author marketing and author branding?

What about book marketing?

And how is author branding different than author platform?

As writers, we know that words matter. And yet all of these terms seem to be used interchangeably. You’d think they were synonyms, but they are not.

Let’s clear up the confusion in terms.

First, let’s define “Author Brand”

Before we get into it, we need to get clear on the basic concept of what an Author Brand is itself. Because “branding” with the “ing” is a little different than “brand.”

An Author Brand, in short, is the perception of an author’s public persona informed by a variety of factors.

(and I get into more of those factors in my other post here).

Your author brand as a boat.

I’m a big fan of using visuals to break down complex concepts like these, so humor me for a moment and imagine your author brand as a boat.

You’ve got this cute little rowboat there, floating on the ocean of possibility.

You have certain goals and dreams. Maybe you’re pitching agents, maybe you’re self-publishing, maybe you’re ready to launch your fifth book. So let’s pretend those destinations are islands out there on the sea.

Maybe you want to get over to Book Deal Cove, or perhaps just Agent Island, or maybe even Full-time Author City.

There are a lot of places to go. If you’re like most authors, you might be feeling a little lost out in the middle of the ocean, unsure of which direction to go. Maybe you’re paddling along but unclear where you’re headed.

But of course there are plenty of people giving advice too. You’ve likely heard a lot of opinions about what marketing tactics work best, which trends to jump on, etc. So let’s take a look at those.

How will you know how to get to your destinations?

How do you know what to do when you get there?

And do you even know if you’re pointed in the right direction?

There are thousands of possibilities out there in that sea:

That’s where branding comes in.

Branding is the GPS, compass, and map for your author brand and career. It is both the foundation and guiding force of who you are as an author.

It’s foundational aspects of branding/brand strategy include your values, voice, visual identity (design), body of work, positioning and messaging strategies, and more.

And it acts as a guiding force because of the deeper, more thoughtful strategies that guide all of the decision-making when it comes to planning and implementation of not only your promotional activities but the experience people have when they interact with your brand.

The good news is that all of these elements can work together (marketing, advertising, publicity, public relations) under the guidance of a good brand strategy.

Most of the previously mentioned tools are necessary, but it’s important to realize that they are short-term solutions and don’t give you the big picture plan for your career, or long-term results that branding does.

And that good brand strategy is what helps build a lasting, lucrative author platform and helps us get to where we want to go.

And that’s our last term to define…

Platform

Author Platform is the measure of your influence, taking into account all of these factors. It is comprised of the metrics of your brand, including:

readership numbers,
your expertise and connections,
your identity and presence online and offline,
as well as your ability to engage effectively with your audience.

So there you have it the definitions and differences between:

Marketing
Advertising
Publicity
Public Relations
Platform
and Branding

I hope you’ve found this helpful. You can also find more information about building your author brand by visiting the main reads section here. And if you’d like monthly articles like this, be sure to subscribe to the Brand Strength email list.