Eight guides to an author brand people can repeat.
Each guide covers one part of the brand, with a template, worked examples labelled as hypothetical, and real Scribe authors linked to their stories. They build on each other, so the order below is the order to read them in.
Decide what you stand for
1. What is an author brand?
The starting point. An author brand is what other people say about you when you are not there: who you help, the one result you promise, the idea you are known for, the talks you give and the bio someone reads before you speak. This guide separates the brand (the message) from the author platform (the reach that carries it), shows why a clear message on a small platform beats a fuzzy one on a big platform, and gives a ten-minute self-test to see where your own brand stands today.
2. How to write an author positioning statement
The positioning statement is a private sentence you use to make decisions, not a tagline. It names one reader, one problem, one result and the reason you are a better choice than the alternatives the reader already has. The guide gives a fill-in template adapted for authors, several before and after rewrites, the difference between a positioning statement and a personal brand statement, and five tests that tell you whether yours is specific enough to use.
3. Your one-line promise
Where the positioning statement is for you, the promise is for everyone else: the sentence a reader would use to recommend you to a friend. The guide shows six patterns for writing it, the common ways promises go wrong (vague verbs, invented jargon, promising speed), and a simple way to test it on real people before it goes on your cover and your website.
4. How to name your idea
People cannot ask for an idea that has no name. This guide covers when an expert should name a method, framework or diagnosis, the naming patterns that work (numbers, metaphors, plain labels, coined terms), how to check a name before you commit, and how real Scribe authors turned named ideas into a company language, a membership community and a field of their own.
Say it in public
5. Speaking topics from your book
For authors who want to become keynote speakers, or speak more often. Event planners book speakers to solve a problem their audience has this year, so a talk title has to name that problem. The guide shows how to turn a chapter into a talk, a template for talk titles and descriptions, a one-page speaker sheet, and what TEDx's own rules say about promoting your book from the stage.
6. How to write an author bio
The bio is the most-read piece of your brand. The guide teaches the structure line by line, shows a 50, 100 and 200 word version built from the same facts for a clearly invented author, covers first person versus third person, and lists what to cut. Pair it with the free Author Bio Builder, which drafts all four versions from facts you enter.
7. Author photo and look
The visual side of the brand: the headshot, the cover, and how they work together on a stage screen, a podcast thumbnail and a book page. The guide covers deciding what you want the photo to signal and to whom, briefing a photographer, the files to ask for, and how to keep the look consistent across a series of books.
8. The brand consistency checklist
A place-by-place checklist for the back cover, Amazon author page, website, LinkedIn, speaker sheet, podcast intros, email signature and the first minute of a talk. Use it once the other parts are decided, and again each year, to catch the places that still describe an older version of you.
Start with the bio if you are short on time
It forces the two decisions everything else depends on: who you help and what you promise.