Branding Anyone?

I've been wondering about this branding concept for writers for quite some time.

According to The American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers."

With respect to writer's branding, a couple of examples that have stuck in my mind are:

Karen Kingsbury: "Life-Changing Fiction"

Brandilyn Collins: "Seatbelt Suspense"

The idea is to have your brand become almost synonymous with your author name. When I see "life-changing fiction" I automatically think of Karen Kingsbury, and I know her stories are true to her brand. Each story I've read of Karen's is definitely Life-Changing for me. Her stories make me ask myself tough questions. They make me seek a closer walk with God. I know never to pick up one of Karen's books if I want a simple no-brainer summer read, because I'll not get that from any of her stories, period. Karen Kingsbury knows that God has called her to write "Life-Changing Fiction" and she obeys, never failing.

So, have you defined your brand of writing?

I think doing so could be incredibly helpful in keeping your focus when crafting your stories. If we know what we're striving to achieve with our novels, then we can quickly eliminate or alter scenes, chapters, ideas, to fit the requirements we feel God has set on us.

What is it that you feel God is asking you to focus on? What type of stories do you write while seeking God's constant council? Is God using your writing to bring a smile to your reader's face? A series of belly-rolling laughter? Is He guiding you to write tear instigators? Scare your reader straight to the facilities? Stress-releasing stories? No-brainers for your audience to just relax to after long hours at work?

I'm writing my fourth novel now, and I think I'm finally seeing what is common in all of them. The genre part is easy, as I'm sure it is for most of us. Mine is romance. For some it might be Women's Lit, Historical, Suspense, Science Fiction, and then you can get into the whole subgenre aspect. For me, my stories would fall under Inspirational Christian Romances. But for branding, I came up with...

Faithful Romances Worth Pondering

What do you all think?

I'd like to hear what you'd expect from a story that is labelled a Faithful Romance Worth Pondering.

Perhaps I'll have to go back to the drawing board if you don't come up with what I'm expecting. This could be a good exercise for all of us. So, if you have an idea for your own brand, feel free to share it in the comments and hopefully we can comment on each others to see if our brands our really depicting what we want them to. Share away, and let's get some branding underway.

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load."

Galatians 6:2-5

Surrendering to Him,

Eileen