Why You Should Create a Branding and Style Guide
I often talk about how the E-Myth- Revisted is one of the greatest books ever written on running a business; especially for creatives. Written in the 80s, it’s old, but the wisdom within its 200+ pages is easily the most important I’ve ever read. You should read it if you’re running a business. Like, now.
One of the tips in the book I’ll share with you is “creating systems.” I’ve talked about this before. Systems keep your business running. McDonald’s has a system that is implemented exactly the same way at every single location in every single country. Big Macs are made this way (the word “Big Mac” is two words, capitalized) the branding always looks like this and always uses these colors. Why are systems important? You’re not running a franchise schlepping burgers. But you are running a business. If you don’t see that self-publishing is a business, you might want to start thinking about that. You sell a product. I know that sounds cold, but your books are your products. Even your personality, your profile photo, your blog, and your social media accounts, are all products to sell. In simpler terms, everything you do that has anything to do with your books is marketable. You’re a business because you make a thing and sell it. You also have to pay taxes.
That said, it’s important to get your systems down. How you do things, when you do them, what they look like. Let’s say you start making it big and your business is running like a well-oiled machine. What happens if you get sick? You could just say “forget it” and let it fall apart, but if you wanted it to keep going, you would have to train someone to do it for you. What if you’re too sick to train someone?
OK, let’s say you don’t get sick, but you want to hire someone to help run your business? An assistant. You have to train that person how you like things done, right?
Or, how about as you’re marketing, you’re constantly forgetting what fonts you use, can’t locate your profile photo easily, don’t have your bio memorized for all the places you need to post it?
For all these reasons above, you should create a style guide and keep it somewhere easy to find; like your desktop or your main writing folder.
In the copy editing world, style sheets are used to describe exactly how a publisher or print house wants things done. What words you can and cannot use, which font, what punctuations are OK, how to spell certain names, what the margins of a page should be, and every detail in between. It’s so that when an editor, proofer, writer, or anyone involved with the text needs to know that you absolutely cannot use the word “feminist” (true story) they can avoid it. Style guides are also used for the art departments to keep employees on brand. PDF: See LIFE Magazine’s (really cool) branding style guide.
Style guides help keep it all running. If you hire an artist and they don’t know your brand, they’ll come up with his or her own ideas and might be way off base or inappropriate. You never know. Ultimately, it saves time having to train and re-train people. It saves you time not having to look this stuff up every time you need it.
If, for example, you want to hire an artist to design your book cover for your series, you can either send them the first book image and say, “Use this” or send them a really nice style guide. This way, there will be no questions and your artist can get to work.
Scenario:
Artist: What font do you want on the cover?
You: Uh…I forget what it’s called. Let me look it up and get back to you.
Alternate Scenario:
Artist: What font do you want on the cover?
You: I’ve attached my current style guide which has all the information you’ll need.
Artist: Oh, thank you. You are amazing. You’re literally the best writer I’ve ever worked with. You just made MY job so much easier. I love you. Will you marry me?
As you can see, the two scenarios go down very differently ;)
I joke, but it’s true. Style guides will make the jobs of the people who work for you easier. How about the editor who is editing your book? I can’t speak for all editors, but I would LOVE if my client sent me their style guide. In that case, I wouldn’t have to stop every five minutes to make sure they spelled certain words correctly. This is extremely important with you fantasy writers out there. You all make up names for everything. You even create new languages! How do I know that Gloamphosphia is your made-up word for a small fungus on your alien planet? What if YOU misspell your own made-up words in your manuscript? It happens. Some fantasy words are really complicated. As an editor, I would have no idea if you meant to spell “pllanet” with two Ls because that’s how they spell it in all your books. Without knowing, I would correct it to “planet,” thus giving you tons of work after the fact re-correcting it. Making a style guide saves time. Think about the email you have to write to your editor explaining the world you created. Just attach your style guide and you’re off to binge Netflix and sip tea like a boss.
You are your own publishing house and all publishing houses use style guides. Put in the work to create one now and you’ll save yourself time and heartache later.
Take a look at my style guide (left) and the LIFE Magazine one above to give you ideas. Mine is extremely simple - not as fancy as those fat cats at LIFE, but I have the pertinent information - both for myself and anyone I might hire. It’s also a work in progress and will be filled out and re-designed as time goes on. It’s a living document that changes as you change.