An author’s brand is based on how the public perceives the particular tone or feel of that author’s writing without being tied down to any specific title or characters. What makes Charlene Harris a brand is knowing what you are going to get from reading one of her books even if you haven’t heard anything specific about it in advance.
Why is having a brand important? Because it helps sales. It’s much, much easier to sell a book, especially a new book, if readers have an existing understanding of what the author’s brand is. It’s also much easier to sell the film and television rights if you have a clear brand. People are much more likely to go see a film based on the work of an author whose name they recognize as a brand.
So you’ve written a great manuscript, and you want to sell it to a publisher. That’s fantastic; go forth and sell it. But if you want to build your name into a brand, you should also be thinking about what other facets of the entertainment industry you might be able to take advantage of. So you should be thinking, Can my manuscript also become a feature film? That doesn’t mean asking whether your book will translate well to the screen, although that’s important. It also means asking whether your story is universal enough to attract major talent and an audience who will associate the film with your brand. And you should think beyond film and television rights. Is there an iPad app that could be related to your book? If you’ve written a young adult or children’s book, what about a toy line? One of the most successful brands we’ve been involved with at Gotham is Tony DiTerlizzi’s Spiderwick brand. In addition to the book The Spiderwick Chronicles, there’s a video game, a feature film that came out in 2004, and any number of other products, and they’re all integrated into one creative brand.
So if you’re interested in building a brand for yourself—and you should be, if you care about sales—you should be thinking from the get-go about what other media might be amenable to your story and how those media will relate to your manuscript.