Pyramid Power: The Branding Key to Author Identity

Every novelist knows the power of an “inciting incident.” That early plot point in the story is the one-way door your protagonist walks through that leads to a life that is forever changed. I took my own hop over that threshold a month ago when I retired from my full-time career as a brand strategist to devote myself to writing fiction full time. 

But though I was happy to make the jump from hawking products to taking the deeper dive into human nature that a novel can reveal, working in advertising taught me a lesson I’m convinced is even more valuable in the crowded and confusing market we call the publishing industry: A sharp focus on your author identity can be the difference between having your story stuck in the depths of your hard drive and finding its way into your readers’ hands.

Eight Principles Distilled in One Solid Structure

The brand pyramid is a classic marketing template used to establish the heart of a brand. Over the course of my career with Pulp+Wire, I worked with my peers to review countless variations of this construct to refine a model that granted us continual success. Time and again, it served to reflect a corporation’s authentic identity back to its stakeholders in a way that resonated with—and inspired—them. 

Many sources cite Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs as the inspiration for this time-tested branding tool. Maslov’s five-level pyramid is grounded by fundamental requirements for survival at its base and moves up towards the higher-level needs that support the ultimate goal of self-actualization. The creativity manifested in that profound sense of purpose is one that not only writers, but anyone driven by the desire to connect with the world beyond themselves, knows well. 

But while purpose also sits at the top of the brand pyramid that can drive a corporate sense of self-actualization, the tiers that support it are different from Maslov’s substructure. The brand pyramid is grounded in the mix of functional, emotional, and spiritual characteristics that animate both a person and the successful brands that emulate that human triad.

After a decade of experimenting with the balance of those pieces, we developed a sixteen-cell template built on these eight brand principles: Purpose, Mission, Values, Benefits, Unique Value Proposition, Position, Personality, and Reasons to Believe. The discipline required to limit the description of an entire company to this tight linguistic set follows that of the three dimensional version of the pyramid that houses it, a tetrahedron. That elegant three-dimensional form represents the structure with the minimum number of sides needed for stability. 

Discerning and Defining Your Authentic Self

When I clocked out of my day job for the last time, I realized that the string of corporate building blocks that define the branding model I’d tinkered with for over a decade pointed to a power that could help me navigate my new artistic life outside of the office as well.

Like many writers, I don’t choose to write, I have to write, and feel blessed to have found a calling that makes my life more meaningful. That said, though the gifts my work gives me are profound, writing for myself alone feels like an unconsummated act. I’ll take fame and wealth, but what really drives me is my desire to connect with others through my work.

However noble that intention may be, to achieve it, I realized I need to treat writing like a business. A couple of years ago, I took Jane Friedman’s advice and started treating it like one, refocusing my agent queries, learning about and trying self-publication, and rebuilding my website, all done largely by following Jane’s advice. (Pick up the latest edition of her excellent book, The Business of Being a Writer, here.)

Retirement gave me the chance to reexamine my business approach to my writing from the ground up. So I went back to basics, looking at the two novels I published (and the three that remain on my backlist) to see what part of myself I saw in them. That process was the first half of the alliterative term I coined for the brand pyramid process of discerning and defining an authentic identity. What I found reflected in my work were two themes that bridged the genres I explored across Autumn Imago, The Corpse Bloom, and my just-completed novel, Tremolo Pond. I memorialized it in my brand position tagline: “Novel Explorations of Family and Nature.” That expression of my brand promise to my readers is particularly valuable to an author like me working through a range of literary, thriller, and upmarket fiction.

A Single Page Plan for the Person Who is Your Brand 

Whenever I start a novel, I start with John Truby’s advice, from his book on the craft, The Anatomy of Story:  “Write something that will change your life.” I keep that directive in mind with every tale I tackle to make sure that the readers who stick with me for up to a hundred-thousand words arrive at the point I’m trying to make. 

I created my brand pyramid to do the same for myself—to define who I am as a writer and remind me what the point is for the long literary quest we scribes are on. For me, continuing to try to beat the odds of getting conventionally published again, or finding an agent, or making enough money from self-publishing to support the cost of hiring a professional editor, proofer, and cover designer is all done to put my best work out into the world. That’s what I want. And nobody gets what they want without knowing why they want it—which begins with knowing who you are.

The Key to My Identity May Help You Define Yours

If you want to try a fresh take on your author identity, I invite you to click on the link below. (Or if you’re a reader interested in seeing one of the secrets to how my story sausage gets made, please click away too.) Feel free to download and share this resource and adopt any of the definitions in it as your own if they fit. Because while advertising may still be a competitive game, I believe all writers win when we share the ways we see ourselves and our world.