On Brand: How to Build Your Author Platform with Author Jody Wenner

A question we often ask when we’re thinking about how to sell ourselves as authors is: what’s my brand? Am I Coke or Pepsi? Personally, I think I’m a bit more like grapefruit tea.

Is that even a thing? I don’t think so, but that’s my point.

For a long time, I thought I needed to be an author who fit into a pre-existing mold. Turns out, I’m nowhere near as sweet as soda, and I don’t have a catchy slogan.

And that’s a good thing.

There’s only one of me. Nobody else is like grapefruit tea. Before I start sounding like a Dr. Suess book, let me explain what I mean.  

I started out as a self-published mystery author. It was hard to get readers to take me seriously. I actually had a friend who, upon hearing that I had a book out, asked me to lunch. She wanted to know all the details. She was so excited and asked me tons of questions, until we got to this one: “Who’s your publisher?” When I told her that I had released the book myself, the record scratched. She could not hide her disappointment. There were no more questions and no more lunches. Seriously. It was the last time we spoke.

That is a bit of an extreme example, but here’s the point I’m trying to get across. Marketing books is a tough business, especially with no one behind you to give you that boost of confidence, to legitimize your status to a new audience or even your supposed “friends.”  

When I signed with a small press for two more recent mysteries, I thought that piece would dissolve into the background. Surely, I was no longer on the hook for such things as self-promotion? Not true.

While it’s great to have the stamp of approval from a small corner of the publishing world, and they do assist a bit in getting word out, at the end of the day, it’s still up to me to keep the machine running. Readers are not going to fall from the sky no matter how often I ask it of the rain gods. 

So, I needed to come up with a long-term marketing plan, something that would work after going through all the usual steps that must be done for each new release.

Authors will always need to run ads, do various promotions on Goodreads, Bookbub, and the like. We still need to create ARC teams, and send out review copies, and on and on and on. Those things cannot be avoided. 

But after all of that…then what? How do we create buzz on social media? How do we stand out from the masses? I found quickly that making cute little graphics for my books wasn’t doing much, neither was posting a review or two, and forget about pasting links to the sales page. 

One day, I realized that the posts that have gotten me the most attention on social media are the ones that are about me—not my books and not me the author, but me the person.

It turns out my brand isn’t Jody Wenner, mystery author. It’s just Jody (grapefruit tea). I gain followers, readers, and friends by posting (to my own shock) mundane, funny, quirky, and interesting things about myself.

So, that’s my pro tip to people struggling to garner readers on social media. Post about your unique hobbies. Mine are crafts: sewing, crochet, and knitting. Post something funny about yourself, your pets, your partner. I wrote a Haiku about my plant one day that got more interaction than I would have ever expected. Post a wild story about your childhood. Let people know who you are. You never know what others might connect with, and if they do find something relatable to you, they might decide to give your books a try too.

The key is to be genuine. And be kind. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable or goofy, but don’t be rude or condescending.

You might get some people who will be disrespectful to you, but you should never comment back. Just ignore or block them and move on. That’s all a part of social media.

There you have it. Now, get out there and don’t be afraid to be grapefruit tea! Wait. No. That’s mine. Find your own weird flavor to be…    

Biography