Reply To: How to Brand Yourself (Advice)

[Lazarus Black]

About Step 1: Understand who you are.

Writing a bio is one of the hardest things for a writer to do. How do we decide what is important for our audience to know? How do we distill all of that into a form our audience will respond positively to?

We plan it, we craft it, we edit it.

If you can’t do that, then you will have to get someone else to do it for you – because winging it will fail.

You have a limited amount of the audience’s attention span. You a have limit to what they care about. You have a limit to the number of times they will let you try. You will never know what those limits are.

After centuries of practice, certain guidelines have been developed to account for the vast majority of those limits. But before mentioning what those guideline are, here is how to decide what to write in the first place:

Yes yes – you already know the 4Ws and H. You’re a writer. But details matter.

What can you audience identify with?

Many authors struggle with their bios because they are desperate to “stand out”. That comes later. The first thing you need to do is to ensure your audiences identifies with you as a person. 
So no matter how boring you think you are – those qualities are exactly how your audience will connect with you. You have dog? They have a dog. You have children? They have children? You live in a quiet suburb? They live in a quiet suburb. You like to garden? They like to garden. You were in the military? They were in the military or have military family and friends. You’re gay? They’re gay or have have gay family and friends (Unless you phrase it to be “impressive”, this is no longer considered exceptional).

You must begin your bio with this – because it makes you their friend. If you don’t do this first – everything impressive about you can be seen as bragging and nobody likes a braggart.

Example:
In real life, I have a wife, two daughters, two cats, and today I live 2 hours north of Seattle in the woods. I was born in the midwest, went school in New York City and started my career there. Eventually, I moved to South Florida and then finally Seattle. I travel to Southern California several times a year for work, to visit friends, and be a stupid tourist.

Borrrring – but people from all over the country now realize that I probably understand them better because I lived with them.

What impresses you audience?

Everyone wants to have famous friends. They want to be improved by association. Once you have established yourself as their friend – you can now become their exceptional friend.

What makes you special? Well, first of all – you’re an author. That’s special. Most people don’t consider themselves creative at all. Almost all those who say they want to be writers never actually writer, let alone publish their work. So you are already special by that alone.

Maybe you have a background in some specialized study or career. Again – if it’s specialized, it is special. Most most don’t do that. If all David did in his life before writing was be a prison guard – that alone would be special enough to mention. How many people are or even know prison guards?

Maybe you have plethora of unique experiences…list them out. Pick the most appropriate ones for your image.

Example:
I met my wife at art school, and I became a creative advertising professional on Madison Avenue. She has gone on to be very special in her own career with countless credits I am extremely proud of. As a Creative Director, I have founded and overseen art departments across the country. I have managed campaigns in excess of $50 million dollars. But I have also run my own tiny agency, helping mom and pop shops benefit from the same knowledge and experience the “big boys” get. I have written an unpublished non-fiction book on the history of the alphabet. I have written articles and taught classes and spoken in public many times on my expertise, and firmly believe that being creative and sharing knowledge is my purpose in the world today.

What offends your audience?

So this is tricky. Nobody is perfect – your audience especially.

Sometimes there are things you just don’t need to share with the general public. Those things are a part of you and will never not be important – but maybe there is a niche audience you should save that information too. No reason to hide it, because as a public figure out will be found out – but there’s also no reason to lead with it.

No, you’re thinking, I’ve never done anything bad in my life.

That’s not the point.

This is the reason celebs have hidden being gay for so long. There’s nothing wrong with being gay – but for most of the last century, the general public included too many loud and influential people causing problems for gay people.

But it means more that that. Unless you are writing religious fiction – it may not be appropriate to advertise your religion for many reasons. First and foremost, if you promote yourself as following a religion famous for having rules of decorum – you are setting yourself to be judged by those rules. (Read the case of Thomas Kinkade). Also, any group you belong to may be erroneously expected to be influenced by you or to have influence over you.

Example:
From 1994-2002, I studied Viking literature and lore to an extreme degree. I fell in love with it. I also found a spiritual connection with what I was reading. Furthermore, I discovered that there was not a single element of racism or discrimination in that lore. None. I loved that. People in the sagas hated each other for killing their family – but not because of anything stupid like skin color or ethnicity. I found one Norse group that believed as I did – that this spiritual connection had a purpose in my modern life and it shunned discrimination and abuse. Eventually, I earned an ordination certificate saying that I had read enough and that I was prepared to use the sagas and poetry to help people today understand their lives better….and then the association with Nazis overwhelmed me. I was suddenly in situations in which I was spending more time explaining how I wasn’t a Nazi or a racist (I was/am trying not to support a racist system as much as I possible can as an individual). I found people talking behind my back making things up. I was verbally assaulted in public. I had to turn it away from my public life. I still fight against discrimination today – that never stopped. But neither has the mis-association. I am also a judge for Illustrators of the Future founded by L Ron Hubbard. It is an amazing contest and does great work supporting writers and artists in ways no one else does in the world. I don’t know any of the judges in the contest who are Scientologists. I am still spiritually connected to the Norse legends. And yet, once the named L Ron Hubbard appears in my bio – I am suddenly painted with whatever color the audience has of him and his church. But I can say this – if this contest were founded by the Catholic Church instead, I would happily be a part of it as well. I am part of the contest to help artists – and no one else. But these are divisive parts of my history I do not need to include in my bio. I am proud of my experience and will answer any questions unafraid – but I don’t need to introduce myself with them because it automatically skews the conversation. I learned this the hard way.

So edit your life story into what is applicable to your audience.

I like to say “People Punch Pontificators”