Rebranding
Creating my brand, changing my handles and updating my blog
Welcome to the last1 edition of A Lens Unclouded. Today I’m talking about Rebranding.
In my last blog, I mentioned that I’d planned to do a lot of rebranding in 2025, so it’s about time that I finished the project that I promised in September 2024 and technically did start in January.
Since then, I’ve changed by social media handles, attended a short course on branding, developed a branded colour palette and created new banners and images for my blog.
So here’s what I did and why, how I felt about it all and how it’s (hopefully) going to make a big difference…
Social Media Handles
When I first started writing, I had the instinct to not publish under my own name. I can’t remember exactly why — although it was probably to maintain distance between my writing and my personal life — so I developed a pseudonym to publish flash fiction, short stories and poetry. This pseudonym became the basis for my social media handles.
But when I started writing novels, my instinct was the exact opposite. If I was going to publish a book in print, I wanted to have my name on it. I needed to demonstrate ownership of the final product, proof of my creativity and hard work. Which meant I had to change my handles accordingly.
At first, everything was fine. But as my social media following grew, I started to get messages from people saying how much they loved my books, even though I hadn’t published any. Then I started getting tagged by reviewers and shops for books that I definitely hadn’t written. And that’s when I realised I had a problem. There was already another, very successful author who has the same name as me, albeit with a minor difference in spelling. When said author then published their next book and was subsequently included in several bestseller lists, something had to give or I’d be mistaken for her for the rest of my career2.
I talked it through with my agent and decided to go back to my maiden name to publish my novels (note: this was just before we went on submission); that way I’d still have my name on my books, albeit one I hadn’t used for a while. So I changed my handle again…
And that kicked off everything else.
Brand Awareness
About a week later — by happy and very useful coincidence — I attended a webinar from Literature Wales, where author Clare Mackintosh discussed how to Develop Your Author Brand3. Clare is one of my ‘author idols’ and she has such a distinct brand that, in my humble opinion, she must know what she’s doing. I didn’t, so I needed her help.
There were a number of key takeaways from the session:
You are your brand, not just your books.
You need two good author biographies — a short one for other people to use (i.e. your agent’s website), and a longer one for your use (i.e. your website).
Your brand statement should encapsulate who you are, what you write, where you ‘fit’ in the wider literary world, what themes and experiences you use in your writing, and who your target audience is.
Your visual brand should be clear and simple, using consistent colours and fonts. Note: this is best done in conjunction with your publisher, if you have one, so that your author brand complements your book brand.
Curate your social media presence carefully; choose platforms that you enjoy using and reflect where your audience is, use the same bio and handle where possible, and post regularly (but not necessarily frequently) in line with your brand statement.
I’ll admit I’m still working on the last one, but I’ve done my homework on the others. Here’s what I came up with in January…
My (short) author bio:
My brand statement:
My visual brand:
And I decided to focus only on X/Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram; they are the platforms I’m used to using — although I could definitely do with a crash course in how to use Insta well — even though I could attract an older demographic on Facebook, and/or a younger demographic on TikTok.
Developing my Brand
Since then, I’ve developed my brand a little further. I’ve made subtle changes to my colour palette, and chosen a few specific fonts.
So why these colours?
White and black are key staples as they’ll work with anything.
The pale turquoise (Tiffany Blue) is my favourite colour, so this really represents me as a person, even if it is a bit cosy.
The bright red (Crimson) is a nod to the Welsh flag (I’m not sure if this is the exact colour as search results varied), my cultural identity and the location of my Anna crime fiction series.
The mid blue (Space Cadet, which is very fitting) and similar colours are frequently associated with the crime fiction genre, and it’s also a little nod to my Scottish husband (aka first reader and sounding board).
And as for the fonts…
Times New Roman is still the predominant font used in print publishing, and it’s what I use for this blog. It’s very easy to read for a serif font.
Montserrat is a clean sans serif font that’s great for titles and really good for social media, where a quick-to-read font tends to get you more attention than one that looks fun but takes some working out.
And finally, Lacquer. This font is just for fun and occasional use. It looks like the letters are dripping slightly, but is still easy to read sans serif at heart.
Having done all that, I recently decided to give my substack a kick up the bum. Since A Lens Unclouded doesn’t really say what I write about or why someone should read my blog, I’ve come up with a new name and a fancy banner4.
The new name is a play on the classic crime film Arsenic and Old Lace (do give it a watch if you’ve never seen it) and firmly cements my blog in the crime fiction world. The colours and fonts are taken directly from my branding, (hopefully!) showing that I write with a sense of humour, despite occasionally dark topics.
Of course, no new banner would be complete without a new logo to go with it:
Once again using ‘Space Cadet’ blue, this shows both the writing (quill) and crime (poison) aspects. This one is a bit of a work in progress (there’s a lot of white space) but for now, it works well to represent me and my brand.
The new name, banner and icon will be coming very soon. In fact, probably tomorrow, once this blog is out and I have time to update everything. So watch this space!
What’s next
Later this month, I’m having my first headshots taken by a professional photographer. I’m nervous and excited in equal measure, because while I’m usually too self-conscious to appear in photographs, I do love the idea of having really good ones! I’ll be writing a blog about this later in the year too.
Then next year, I’ll be launching my author website. This feels like a big deal, because I’m not well versed on web design (I’ll probably be getting some help!) and there’s a lot to think about in terms of what to include and what to have on the back burner for when my book’s marketing and publicity begins.
I’ll also be thinking about a mailing list. I’ve been politely advised that a substack is not a substitute for a mailing list, so there’s a lot to think about there too, i.e. whether I have one, the other, or both.
After that, I’ll be promoting my book. And that’s when I’ll know whether all this rebranding has a) worked, and b) been worth it.
So that’s it for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed this whistlestop tour of my recent branding shenanigans. This is the end of an era for A Lens Unclouded, but my blog will be back as Arsenic & Cold Case soon!
Coming up:
15th Oct — Path to Publication 9: Assessing the Offers
1st Nov — My (Second) Day as an Archaeologist: Joining the Finds Team
See you next time!
Not the last edition of my blog, just the last edition under this name. The next time you see me, the blog will be called something different and will look a bit different too!
I’m sure she found it equally frustrating that I was getting praise for her hard work.
Sadly, the VOD is no longer available but I’ve included the key points in this blog.
The banner and logo were created in Canva. I’m by no means an expert on it’s use!