Back when I was chasing success in the photography business, I ran across a lot of discussions about BRAND (yes, I need to shout it, sorry). Yes, everyone claimed. You need it in order to be a successful artist. My issue with the concept? There seem to be as many definitions of BRAND as there are people who claim to know what it is or how to use it to become an overnight success — you know, the sort that takes decades if they haven’t institutionalized you yet.

Here are some definitions: how your website looks, what logo do you have, the user experience when interacting with your product and/or services, something that uniquely identifies your business, your mission statement and/or tagline, your marketing, and so on ad nauseam.

Now let’s hear what you think about BRAND: how would you define it, and how important is it to your success as a writer/author? How does BRAND relate to that other thing they keep talking about over at Writer’s Digest and various Agent circles, the writer’s PLATFORM (yeah, I need to yell that one out too, double-sorry)?

I’ll get it rolling: BRAND is defined by you. Your product and/or service, if it is to stand out as an identifiable, unique thing that attracts (or not) consumers, it has to have you dripping all over it and soaking it through and through. For that thing which an individual creates and expects others to consume, it will only stand out against the sea of the whatever else exists in your same niche if you infuse it with what’s unique about you. And you are a unique person (a wonderfully created one, some like me might say), so you should have no problem with that… so long as you’re willing to dig deep and share of yourself, even your intimate self… and so long as others find that which comes out in your product (your writing in this particular instance) exciting, winsome and worth their $8.99 at the Kindle store.

To get specific and, hopefully, practical, BRAND for a writer/artist connects and identifies the product with the artist/writer’s personality, her unique style, the way he sees and portrays the world, his or her spirituality and whatever else comes from within to uniquely identify the writer as a person. That brings a thought: don’t waste time chasing or pondering your BRAND. Just write, do your thing, and it will manifest itself, as they say, organically, especially as your work matures.

Note: for a company or corporation where no one person drives identity, BRAND becomes a different thing. Heck if I know how to define it.

So that’s how it swings for me. And it’s a work in progress, because for me BRAND is a squishy, slippery thing I can’t easily grasp unless I’m squinting just right, preferably after a nice glass of wine.?