You Are Not A Brand.

Yo, Check Yourself

Articles across the web and opinions and tips at writers conferences teach you how to be a BRAND as an artist, which at the very least, is counter-intuitive.

The conflict derives from the very idea of being an artists - or more specific to my case, a writer. Artists don't dream of the day when they can go to a warehouse of artists with a zootsuit uniform. It's quite the opposite, you would think.

(This guy has good advice, but I think tips like this confuse people.)

Being an artist is all about the freedom, flexible, and creativity. Being something different.

So why would an artist become a brand?

Now, there are reasons to consider oneself as a brand in a lighthearted sense.

1. There are certain ways to treat your work like a product. You have to promote even if you're modest, and you sometimes make decisions to prolong your significance as an artist. People buy Stephen King novels because it says Stephen King on it.

2. You can break away from, say, being C.M. Humphries to relax at home as Chris. 

3. It stops people from blogging about their cats during the release or revealing of their work(s), unless of course, your work(s) focus(es) on felines. 

But something about the notion of branding has gotten out of hand. You are, after all, a person. Not a store. You a professional doing business under a name you want people to remember, and not a business in and of itself. 

Besides, what are we, professional wrestlers? Do we need a stage name to consider a product and a real name to consider our own? My pseudonym is hardly that at all. It's a shortened version of Christopher Michael Humphries, which is a real garble.

Against all the advice that is out there, I argue that you should recognize which part of your work falls under your brand, but realize you are never a brand altogether. You are still an artist, which is all about being a real human being. 

Watch out for the egomania within.