What's your brand?

I don't look at people as brands.

But products are.

And recently, I've been thinking about the brand of products I want to produce. Remember a little while back, I grumbled about a bestselling author whose MCs are pretty much the same person? I have no problem with an MC who is actually the same person. You know like in a series, with the same character. But don't give your character a different name, and then make the character the same gender, the same religion, in the same profession, with the same hobbies, and the same issues, and etc.

At least, that doesn't float my boat. But this biz is subjective and maybe other people like to read all the MC's the same.

Either way, that is not the point of today's post.

Today I'm thinking, some things need to be the same. I mean when you watch a Johnny Depp movie, you're virtually guaranteed the character is going to be a little dark, and a lot crazy. That's what you're used to and that's what you want.

And I go to thinking, as an aspiring author, what's my niche?

I mean it's hard enough to sell one book. Who wants to start over in a different vibe, even if not in a different genre? Wouldn't it be easier to just find my niche and build a brand around it, until I'm as identifiable as Johnny Depp? (A rabbit can dream can't he?)

Then I read something Elizabeth Jote said over on YA Highway.

She identified Steven Spielberg's brand as 'finding the impossible in the possible'.

And I started to brainstorm some more brands.

Steven King: Even in the most mundane, there is an element of dark terror
Lesley Pearce: All through history, woman have gone through the toughest of times and still triumphed
Taylor Swift: Love is hard, but beautiful
Tyler Perry: No matter how much crap you go through, if you keep your head up and put God first, you will find a sexy dark chocolate man.

lol, you get the idea :)

And now, I think I want my brand to be this:

Even when you think life is too hard, and you can't even imagine it, happiness still exists.

What about you? What do you want your brand to be? Can you think of any more writer's/director's/singer's/etc's brands?

PS, In case you're wondering, I wrote 7300 words for my nano today. I'm now (only) 10,000 words behind. 6 days left. lol. I bribed myself today. For every hour of class I taught, I spent a half hour on Write Or Die. 4 classses gave me 2 hours of writing. Then I watched an episode of Gossip Girl, and put in another half hour, then an episode of Dawson's Creek, and put in a half hour, followed by another episode and another half hour. 7 half hours at a little 1K a piece. Not bad. Although, Brain = Mush.