As a writer and a marketer, I love reading posts like this. It's interesting to analyze your everyday job in the context of your own writing (for those of us who aren't lucky enough to have their everyday job actually be writing, that is).

One of the things that's also beneficial to point out here is that all marketing is branding. Every word that you write-branding. Every time you do a book signing-branding. The photo of yourself that goes on the book's inside cover-branding.

Think about it. You, the individual, are a brand. What makes up your brand? Maybe you're trustworthy, loyal, resilient, and stubborn. Or maybe you're exciting, spontaneous, action-oriented, and forgetful. Either way, your traits make people like you or dislike you.

Branding, for an author, is similar, only thankfully it's based off a product: the words that are written down on a page. But, for a writer the brand is more personal than it is for a customer. There's a greater connection between the person reading the work and the person writing it.

Everything you do brands you.

Great post, TL!