Guest Post: The Sweet Lindy Dale

My guest blogger today comes all the way from Australia! Lindy Dale is an author of Chick Lit and paranormal romance (wow). After writing books for ten years, she recently went through a brand redevelopment for her books and author platform. So grab some coffee or chocolate, curl up and read on…

When I first started out, I had a homemade cover and a book. No website, no blog, Facebook Page or Twitter accounts. It didn’t take long for me to realize that if I wanted to be noticed, I was going to have to do something more. If I wanted to be regarded as a professional I had to have a professional look– not some tacky thing that screamed “DIY”. That’s where branding came in.

The first step was to define myself.  Okay. I’m a Chick Lit and Women’s Fiction (WF) author. My Chick Lit runs to the humorous side and my WF is often sadder. The common thread is love. Always love.

Next, I created a logo with a cute, fun caricature. You can see it on my Facebook page. It defines the type of book I write–fun, easy to read, happy endings. I carried this over to my website and blog.  I also changed my pen name from L.A. Dale to Lindy Dale to strengthen the Chick Lit theme–you don’t hear of many CL authors using initials. It’s a more personal, friendly genre.

Then late last year, I engaged a cover designer to redesign my covers to give them a cohesive look. The font and style will be the same, though there will be differences between the Chick Lit and WF that will instantly tell the reader what type of book they’re going to read.

The last stage has been the blog and this is a work in progress.  Instead of the hit and miss process I had before, it now has a structure with regular posts on topics chosen by my readers. It comes out weekly and is backed up by a newsletter of exclusive content only given to subscribers.

So what about you? Have you ever considered branding yourself?

You can find Lindy on her website, her Facebook and Twitter under @LA_DALE. Below is a screen snapshot of her oh so cute website redesign.