How to brand a series like a pro 🏅

(you can make this easy... or hard)  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

​ Hey, The email I did a few weeks ago on how to brand yourself got a lot of feedback – so much that we're doing to go a step further today and move beyond a single book and brand a series. Our imaginary author Kirk Jameson has been beavering away at Books 2 and 3, as well as another half-idea which he might use as a reader magnet, or flesh out for a Book 4. Even my alter ego is indecisive. To reward Kirk's endeavour, I've designed him covers for everything, and mocked up a bunch of associated graphics to show a couple of different approaches for branding a series in a consistent way, with that branding carried forward through associated graphics, like social media posts, ads, and so on. And we'll dive into all that good stuff below, right after a quick word from our sponsor. In partnership with Jotform​ New book by Aytekin Tank ― Automate Your Busywork: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff ​ Say goodbye to manual work and save your brain for the big stuff. In the book, Automate Your Busywork, SaaS CEO and no-code enthusiast Aytekin Tank provides a guide on how to finally have the time to accomplish your most important work. Order today! ​Order!​ Branding A Series The first step is to ensure that the branding of Book 2 matches that of Book 1 – and the same goes for any subsequent books as well. Your job is infinitely harder if you don't do that. There are all sorts of ways to achieve branding consistency – many of which are beyond my skillset, or would simply take way more time than I allotted for this exercise (like last time, a couple of hours). I took the simple approach, and achieved that branding consistency by: Using stock photos from the same artist. Choosing the same fonts for the title. Picking titles of similar style/length. Also choosing the same fonts for the author name. Opting for similar composition overall – i.e. a spaceship in the centre, space in the background, lettering below the spaceship. You don't necessarily need to do all those things to successfully brand a series, but it makes the next steps easier – certainly for this amateur designer! ​ Note: if I really was doing this as something more than an exercise, and had money to spend, I'd probably get really amazing custom illustrations for each book from a professional artist and then get them (or a pro designer) to do the lettering properly. I would also spend a lot more time researching things like titles. But even if I went that route, I would then follow the process described in these emails to spin out the ancillary graphics from those pro designs. Just FYI. While the focus of these emails has largely been on graphics, branding isn't just done visually. You can see the titles of each book tap into those same prevalent themes in the niche like loyalty, brotherhood, duty, sacrifice, revenge etc. Those themes clearly resonate with readers of MilSF, if the Amazon charts are anything to go by, so you should take the opportunity to double down on those themes where you can. And there are lots of potential places to do that, like the… Plot Title Series Title Cover Art Ad Text Ad Images Book Description Tagline Newsletter Headers Website Newsletter Content You don't need to hit all those notes all the time, or be so on the nose every time you do. But communicating the genre, and your understanding of it, will help readers hit that Buy button with confidence. The titles I chose above might be considered quite generic, but I think that can work well with strong cover art (if the cover is weak, then it can make everything seem lazy and by-the-numbers). I'm not crazy about all these titles BTW and would definitely workshop those a little more, but you get the idea. Stock photo sites often list the artist responsible for the image, and let you search by their name, or view their entire catalogue. Some like DepositPhotos (and Canva Pro) will group them together in quite a handy way, and even suggest similar images. This can sometimes make finding matching photos a breeze, and if you get lucky you can stumble across a set of images that can cover an entire series – or at least get you started. Once you have the cover design nailed down – either by you or (preferably) a professional – then it's relatively easy to spin our all the ancillary graphics you need – much in the manner of last time. And you can see all the branded series graphics I created over on Kirk Jameson's Facebook Page. Make sure to check the notes in the description and comments for added detail on each image, as before. The branding for each individual book in the series follows the same path as that for Book 1 – so I won't waste time repeating all the same steps, but it's the exact same as the previous email. Our work is far from done, though, as we must come up with some branding for the series as a whole; thankfully we have very good foundations in place, with such tight and consistent branding across the three/four books in the series. There is one complication worth teasing out. The biggest challenge here - in my opinion - is designing an effective Facebook Ad. Which means I usually start there and spin everything out from that. Also because it's a lucrative marketing strategy, if executed correctly - i.e. running ads on Facebook, bringing readers direct to your series page on Amazon. (Something that I find especially powerful when combined with discounts across the series, although that's not necessary to see value from this tactic.) Designing the graphics can be challenging, and if you haven't achieved tight, consistent branding across your series, then this task can be incredibly difficult. I generally go one of two ways here - as in I will usually try both of these approaches in Canva and see which produces a better image; I'm a safecracker, not a clairvoyant. Approach #1 This is going to sound like a cheat because it basically is a cheat... but it is effective. With this approach, I simply use the background/cover art/stock photo from one of the books in the series - often Book 1, but it doesn't have to be at all. This is a cheap-and-easy way of guaranteeing some brand cohesion. Most importantly, this approach simply works. But it doesn't always work for every cover design. ​ Approach #2 If I can't make it work with the cover art used in the series books, I go hunting for another stock photo. Often something more muted, but which taps into the same themes. And then I simply use that as the background. In Kirk Jameson's case, that meant hunting through some stock photos of space (I simply searched for "space" on DepositPhotos - no fancy Google-fu). Alternative Approaches? If you can't find a stock photo which works for your covers/series, then you could just go for a block of color as the background, or a gradient perhaps, or a pattern (the latter two often help your design look less flat and artificial). I tried all those things when first designing my own marketing graphics, but I could rarely get them to work in a way that didn't look painfully amateur. Maybe you can - again, I'm not a pro designer and usually just try to work within my many limitations! The only exception to that - for me - is perhaps when you have a very striking color on the cover, maybe one which is thematically important, and you can then double down and really make it pop by using that as your background color too. Or perhaps as your price tag, or the color of the lettering with your review quote, and so on. These little touches can really make a design look more pro. Usually, though, I find using a stock photo as background, or the cover art from one of the series books (usually Book 1), is the quickest path to success. View Images In More Detail Make sure to visit Kirk Jameson's Facebook Page - where you can see all these images, and more variations too, in greater detail, and get some notes on how I put them together, and why I made certain design choices. I hope this series of emails on branding helps you tackle this slippery subject with more confidence. And thank you to everyone who emailed (or commented on Kirk's Facebook Page) asking how these principles translate into series branding. What About Author Branding? Many of you also asked about branding at the author level - particularly as it pertains to those writing in more than one niche. I'll need some time to think about how to appraioch that question - as it gets quite complicated with multiple genres/different audiences, and then there's the unavoidable complication of pen names too. I will say this though: worry more about your book/series branding first. Think of how readers first encounter you. Well, it's normally not "you" they encounter first, is it? It's your Book 1, or your latest release, or the temporary deal you have running. Not dodging the question, but making an argument for reframing it. Or for downgrading its importance, perhaps... Dave P.S. Wandering in the forest this week listening to Josienne Clark and Ben Walker with I Never Learned French. Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​