Flirting with Funny: Madison Michael Rebranded

The Power of a Brand

You’d be a fool to underestimate the power —or value —of a brand, or a rebrand.

Take McDonalds or Coca-Cola. Their brands are recognized the world over. And those brands are protected by the companies that own them because they have real bottom line value. When we stand before a vending machine making a soda choice, we might choose Coke over Pepsi because of that brand recognition. When we drive down the road and we’re hungry, we might pull off into the drive-thru at McDonald’s because we know exactly what to expect.

That is the value of branding. Creating an expectation for customers and consistently delivering on that expectation.

It’s no different for authors, and no less important. Readers know the identity of authors because authors have a brand as clearly as Coca Cola does. Stephen King? Horror. Lee Child? Action.

Kristen Hannah? Powerful women’s stories. Julia Quinn? Romance.

As Marianne Richmond pointed out in her post on author branding for the Write Practice:

“An author brand is what makes your work unique or distinctly you. It’s the collection of impressions you make across your interactions with readers, including your books, social media, and face-to-face meetings.

Your brand tells readers what to expect from you as an author, as well as what to expect from your books, and it is built over time.”

Madison Michael? Sexy, Billionaire Romance.

When I started writing in 2015, I set out to create a distinct brand for my Beguiling Bachelor Series. I wanted my readers to know what they could expect from my books: Alpha males, luxury settings, private jets, and exquisite jewels.  The covers of my books featured men you just knew were powerful and good looking. They were privileged from birth—with money, yes, but also with brains, and the camaraderie of one another, connections that served them well throughout their lives.

And they were good in bed, great in fact. And my readers got to enjoy every luscious moment of their lovemaking. They were arrogant, of course; secretive, usually. But the love of a good woman fixed that and promised a happily ever after to satisfy any romance reader.

That was my brand.

All my covers spoke to that image, my logo had dark colors and gold, rich, luxurious gold. It spread out like confetti, a celebration. Deep reds, the darkness of my banners, my website, it fit the image, the brand, I was presenting to my readers.

But then the pandemic hit, and in my isolation my friends took on a new significance that I wanted to honor in my books. So did laughter.

High-end restaurants even food critics struggled to afford closed during the pandemic, and the Cinderella stories I had been writing became difficult for me to complete. That luxury lifestyle was still aspirational, but somehow less significant in my day-to-day life, and I suspected, in the day to day life of my readers as well.

Instead, connection became more important. Real connection with family, friends, neighbors. Zoom became a lifeline for those of us stuck indoors and the ability to share our day to day lives and make them interesting took on, for me, the power of a great novel.

It was time for a new direction. And a new series.

After months indoors I had written nothing. Finally, I had a professional edit the Beguiling Bachelor series, something I had been unable to afford earlier in my career. Now I could use my entertainment and vacation money to get that done.

But the blank page still hounded me, taunting me to write something that felt more relevant in these upside-down times. At my core, my love of steamy romance hadn’t changed, but I had something new teasing the edges of my mind — humor.

My zoom calls with friends and the text messages with my sisters that were getting me through long stretches of being alone had a common thread. They were funny. And amazingly, my friends thought I was humorous in return.

I couldn’t get enough of these clever, independent, remarkable women. In my life and on the pages of my novels. And a new series was born, inspired by these women and injected with some of their love of fun.

All’s Crazy in Love was a departure from my dark, alpha male world. Suddenly the women were the power players, predominantly because of their connections and commitment to one another.

The sex was still steamy, the men were still irresistibly hunky, but the star of the series was the friendships among these women. And humor.

It was time to Rebrand

I started by doing my homework, and believe me, it was a total joy. I read romcoms galore. Penny Reid, Pippa Grant, Whitley Cox and Claire Kingsley. I devoured them. The books were still sexy, but lighter somehow, easier to enjoy during tough times.

Then I looked at the covers, more illustrations, less headless men. More colorful, less darkness. I liked them so much. I hired a cover artist, Amanda Walker, and she captured my wonderful eight crazy friends that anchored the All’s Crazy in Love series, my “Crazy Eights”, perfectly. As we worked together on the new covers, I discovered something.

My old branding wasn’t working for me anymore. It felt heavy while the covers I preferred were light. The dark red of the logo didn’t match the more comedic feel of the stories. They felt airier. More blue, less red.

I was still offering the promise of romance, happy endings, wonderful, sumptuous escapes, but the emphasis had shifted. Less luxury. More sass. I needed a new image to go with the new series.

A Rebrand with a New Message

What was my approach to rebranding? It was more strategic than I would have expected. It started with the message of All’s Crazy series. Love and romance, of course. But friendship was now front and center, too. And women facing their fears thanks to one crazy-ass dare: get married in a year or do the unthinkable, whatever that was for you.

So there was love, there was friendship, a healthy injection of humor, and with the underlying theme of marriage, the happily every after. But my women were smart and independent, successful, if momentarily up against a wall. I wanted my rebrand to inform my readers that this was what they could expect: still steamy sex; smart and sassy women, those hunky men they had come to count on in a Madison Michael romance, and fun.

Smart. Sexy. Satisfying.

That was exactly what I was now promising my readers. Smart women and smart stories. Sexy situations and enough chemistry to make the pages singe your fingertips and satisfaction—be it a double entendre around the sex reference, or simply the promise of a great read with a happily ever after.

And so the new brand was born.

Smart. Sexy. Satisfying.

A new, lighter approach and a new softer look. And so far, the response has been positive.

I agree with a post entitled “Your Guide to Branding Yourself as an Author” by NY Book Editors:

Branding is both how you present your books to the public and yourself as a writer. It’s also what people think and believe about you. The blog post goes on to say that a brand message “must be relatable to your audience and compelling…and will represent you (and your books) everywhere, from the book jacket to your social media style.” concluding that an author brand helps with name recognition and reader expectations. They imply it builds trust between author and reader, a characteristic that readers need in order to buy from an author.

That’s a lot to ask from a tagline, a logo, a banner, the choice of colors. But in fact, I feel like the choices I made do better reflect my novels. Whether they build trust with my readers remains to be seen. Only time will tell

What do you think of the new logo? Comment below and let me know.