Aspiring Author Woes - Branding

Well apparently to really get noticed in the publishing world, you need a brand. No, not a physical brand caused by a branding iron, but at the moment it feels as painful. To get published you still have to somehow come up with an icon/brand that suits you and your aspirations. Then somehow you have to get out there. You have to basically pigeon hole yourself into a little icon/style/brand, apparently font and colour can work.

Being a very undecisive person makes it hard with so many options. Then once I have decided and created thus brand, I have to then promote myself on public media. Really, I just want to write. Can people find me on the World Wide Web? Short answer is if they try really hard. Do I want them to? Not really. I like being inconspicous and not having everybody know who I am. As an avid consumer, I understand the power and ease of brands but really, most people pick up a book and read the blurb on the back, even if from their favourite author and read it don't they? It isn't as if they are buying toilet paper, where brands can be important for comfort, well at least I hope my future books never become that. Is a brand really that important for an author?

How do you sell yourself when your not a salesperson at all? I've never been good at selling anything. If I was maybe I would be in retail, but I'm not. As for selling myself, I have never been good at that, so the thought of having to sell myself to strangers after spending hour after hour over a hot keyboard makes me question my decison to have a go at this writing business. Now instead of doing what I want to by sitting down to write some more on my latest manuscript, I have to create a me. A me that can be branded and sold so that one day my books hopefully will be sitting on strangers' bookshelves.