So more into our making manga series. Today we talk about Branding. Every artist, writer or creative needs a brand. This can be related to your artwork, your music, the thing you produce, your novel. But you have to have a stamp for yourself that distinguishes you from someone else. It may be your art style, your subject matter be it fiction, science fiction, paranormal, yaoi or romance. Since I started off writing cyberpunk hard science fiction with the grydscaen series I already had a brand under my name, Natsuya Uesugi. All the art work to date in the grydscaen series was done by me for the novels and the manga. This created a definite style in all those related works.
Even the short anime which is based on my character designs, storyboard and dialogue have a certain feel that are reminiscent to the character designs and cover art from grydscaen which is all done by me. The designs were then further embedded with the interior illustrations in the novel grydscaen: tribute which allowed me to show more of my artwork. With the creation of the manga “A Storm’s Coming” based on the short story by the same name from grydscaen: tribute I was able to create a full illustrated story in the particular grydscaen style. So by the time I published my 7th book in the series there was a branding that had already been established.
Then came the book trailers. I had to work with a production company for them but I had strict control over the look and feel for those works being responsible for the initial input and the approval of the final product. Even the voice over was ultimately mine to control down to the script. It is particular to have the book trailers work with each book and have the proper look and feel.
But back to branding. You need to control your image. And that includes your social media presence. I talk about hackers and social engineering in grydscaen so I blog about that as well. This is part of the allure of grydscaen. When we get further into graphic noise I will start blogging about yaoi and more about anime and the culture of anime and manga for fans. The writing has to have a style and the art has to have a style. These pieces will all be part of the brand.
Branding is important and if you “skew” the brand that can confuse your audience. Take, for example Coca Cola. They have a red and white logo. They have a signature recipe and a line of soft drinks. They don’t all of a sudden change their logo to blue if they want to keep the familiarity with their product. That would “skew” the brand and make them unrecognizable. Now I don’t think Coca Cola has to worry about people not knowing who they are. They have reach and have well established their line and brand. Companies like Nike also have a signature style and product line.
As an artist and writer I have to have the same. I can’t one day just up and change the writing style and start writing romance. I have LGBT characters in the 7 novels of the grydscaen series, I can’t all of a sudden make all the characters straight. That would not fit the brand. Even graphic noise which is yaoi has to have a M/M relationship. Writing a lesbian story would not fit the brand although there is at least 1 lesbian character somewhere in the grydscaen series though in a later book. Have to get all the letters in LGBT if you are going to be true to the community of it all. grydscaen has bi, gay, trans, intersex, questioning and asexual characters to cover the entire LGBT spectrum.
Now because we already had an established art style which is seen in the grydscaen covers, the manga, anime and interior illustrations had to have a similar feel. There is one work that will have 4 volumes, the grydscaen graphic novel which has a different artistic feel but that feel will only be available in the graphic novels. Other illustrations in the manga for grydscaen and even graphic noise which is separate entirely will have a different feel that reminds the grydscaen cover art. The graphic novel as opposed to the manga is a way for grydscaen to branch out into the graphic novel market.
graphic noise which will be a novel and a manga have to fit the brand and that includes YA friendly young adult characters anywhere between 16 and 28 that are carving out their space in the world. The third book in the grydscaen series, grydscaen: utopia set the stage for the YA genre in the writings of Natsuya Uesugi and paved the way for “A Storm’s Coming” manga when it came about.
Branding is important to get right. What is your niche? When you find it, solidify it and keep fostering to make it stronger. Don’t all of a sudden in your LGBT M/M cyberpunk scifi throw a urban fantasy Christian children’s story in there. You have to keep to the brand. And if you do venture out into a children’s story, and I do actually have one written and illustrated, you need to ensure the illustrations stick with your look and feel.
Branding can be difficult and can reach into things like swag for your readers. Bookmarks, postcards, business cards need to have that same look and feel. But swag, those prizes you give readers, what kind of things do you have. Some romance writers give away lip gloss or even condems, this would not be appropriate for grydscaen even though there are hosts who work in the Red Light District of the Echelons in the story like Faid. Instead I went with something more techy and utilitarian. And I am in the process of working on 3D printed material of the mascot for the hacker tool “the Mole system” which is a Packrat hacker tool and the mascot is used in Facebook advertising and in the Packrat business cards which state “You have been hacked by the Packrats.” These little things are important to keep with your brand.
Since only the covers of the grydscaen novels published by the publisher are in colour the covers for the Kindle some of the short stories in English, French and Japanese are in black and white keeping with the brand. graphic noise might have a colour cover for the novel and we will have to see what the cover will be for the manga though the interior will be black and white to keep with the look and feel of “A Storm’s Coming.”
Branding is your life blood. Like I say Natsuya Uesugi will never write a romance novel. Yaoi is about as close as I will come and we have not decided how racy I want my yaoi manga to be. It will be young adult so that puts some limitations on the heat which is fine because “I will never write romance.” So maybe I am limiting my readership but I don’t think a hard core scifi reader or a cyberpunk noir thriller reader wants to all of a sudden descend into self-indulgent, mindless, happy ending, sex-driven erotica. If I were a hard scifi reader I wouldn’t want to read that. That is not in the grydscaen brand.
Branding may include copyrights and trademarks. I have copyrights on the grydscaen novels, and content rights on the Kindle only grydscaen ebooks in French and Japanese. I am also looking into additional coverage such as Trademarking which we will also do.
Branding can work for you if you get it right. Know what you want to say and determine how you want to say it. Keep to your voice and your look and feel if you are creating art and cover designs. Know how you want to be perceived as a writer or artist and keep to your genre for your initial branding. Once you have solidified that brand then branch out but always support what has come before.
Branding is your friend.
Coca Cola and Nike brands are the property of their respective owners.