Building Your Author Brand: The Importance of a Professional Logo

I’ve been talking about building your author brand for a long time. Going beyond my books to create a brand was the thing that created a forward momentum in my author business.

People may not remember me or my books, but they do remember a brand and a logo.

Authors who want to sell more books and build their brand often focus on the staples:

Professional book cover design
Great book descriptions
Continuous marketing and promotion

Putting together the right formula for success is a tedious process.

Some authors can make a substantial living from their efforts, but the vast majority are stuck in the time/money continuum trying to figure out the balance between learning a new skill and hiring out.

Table of Contents

The Jack of all Trades Author

I’m not going to lie, you would be hard-pressed to find a business that requires a person to wear as many hats as self-publishing.

You need an expert in so many fields to publish a book. It makes the daunting task of writing almost seem like the easiest part.

You need:

A copywriter
A graphic designer
An SEO expert
A book designer/formatter
An editor
A marketer
A social media manager

The list goes on.

Trying to do it all yourself is enough to drive anyone insane. The precise moment I could afford it, I began picking and choosing areas to outsource.

Once I did that, things improved exponentially. It’s amazing what a person focused on one skill can do. I used to think being a Jack of all Trades was an asset to my business, but I really wasn’t mastering anything. I was just going through the motions and had a little luck here and there.

I don’t know about you, but I was definitely out for more than that. I wanted to make self-publishing my living, and you can see how I’ve had to pivot in my business to make that happen. I do a lot more than just write and publish books.

So, while you can learn new skills, the caveat with self-publishing is you have to become an expert in everything.

A lot of us get stuck between figuring out what to hire out and what to learn.

Stop Being Cheap

I get it, as independent authors, our bottom line is a fragile thing. Most of the time, when we launch a new book, we are starting off in the red. We have to sell a certain amount just to break even before we can even profit.

That’s why you shouldn’t cheap out on some aspects of your self-publishing business. Invest in things that make money or set up infrastructure for money making like building your author brand.

Make sure what you present to your potential customers the best you can be.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time harping on mediocre book covers. I have countless videos talking about that.

In this post, I’m focusing on the finer details.

Most Authors Ignore This

You’ve probably never thought of this before or have just ignored it because it’s not talked about a lot in the self-publishing space.

Most of us recognize brands.

In the video, I play a little game where I present 3 logos and give you a few seconds to guess what brands they are associated with.

I won’t spoil it here in case you want to play along.

The point I want to drive home is what these 3 companies have in common. They stuck to a cohesive brand and they rely on an iconic logo to be recognized worldwide.

This is where some authors get it wrong.

They treat logo design just like book covers and try to do it themselves. That’s if they even consider a logo at all.

With programs like Canva or free options online that offer logotypes at a low price, some people think they can design a logo to represent their brand without knowing the expertise of logo design.

Just like with everything else, logo design encompasses a set of best practices. There are reasons why certain fonts are off limits in logo design and why some colors are better than others. There’s a science to it.

The result is a questionable logo that doesn’t communicate the right message about you and your brand.

Building your author brand is hard enough without creating something that conveys the wrong message.

Building Your Author Brand with a Logo from Miblart

We’ve been working with Miblart recently, testing out their offerings. Three authors from my YouTube subscribers were chosen, and each one has received a service to try out.

You can read about those experiences below:

In this post, Miblart is working with Kev Chilton to create a logo design for his author brand.

Kev said it couldn’t have come at a better time for him because he’s seriously looking into getting his author business set up properly and carry it out further than what he’s been doing. Logos and businesses names have been top of mind for him recently.

You want your brand logo to achieve five basic things:

Grab attention.
Make a strong first impression.
Convey a message.
Differentiate you from your competition.
Foster brand loyalty.

The brands we covered in the video certainly do that.

Miblart got to work on Kev’s logo.

It’s very, very easy. It’s very clear. I just sort of logged in and set up and account. Then I was introduced to this pro form with very basic questions like “who are you”, “what are you looking for”. I just put a question mark in most of the places because I just didn’t have a clue.

I think I wrote somewhere “I’m sorry I’m not very helpful, but I really don’t have much of an idea.”

There was a section where they asked, “Have you got any sort of color schemes in mind or do you have an example logos or business cards that you’ve seen that we could work from?”

I just Googled a few businesses, saw what I liked, and then uploaded them to their platform.

I thought I just don’t know what is going to come back and if it’s a mess, it’s my fault because I haven’t really been clear on the instructions.

So, Kev loaded up Miblart with all the information and within 9 days he received the first draft. He weighed in on it and asked for revisions. Not even a day or two later, he received the final product.

Check out the video above for the reveal!

Kev’s brand is PickWood Publishing.

They picked up on the two P’s and the W, so they’ve sort of produced what looks like an open book with the initials. I looked at it and I thought, well, it’s amazing. That is fantastic.

Skipping the Professional Logo Design?

Authors could easily skip over small details like a professional logo, but at what cost?

How much would a homemade logo design negatively impact your author brand?

Rather than tell you what a professional logo could do for your buisiness, let’s hear what Kev had to say after getting his professional logo from Miblart.

Well, wherever I go, I’m going to leave that logo. It looks really professional and the fact that it looks so professional gives you a sort of confidence boost that I wouldn’t have thought I would have. I would have probably just knocked out a logo in my spare time, last minute. The difference is in receiving an actual logo that is so clever. I’m really sort of proud of it. I love it, so that log is going to go everywhere.

Want to Give It a Try?

Kev’s own words speak for themselves. If you’re ready to take building your author brand to the next level, give Miblart a try.

Use my code DALE10 for 10% off!