on Jane Friedman site:

As an author brand strategist, I’m often fighting against the idea that a personal brand is just a cringey, commercialized outcropping of late-stage capitalism. And while there are plenty of examples of brands being used for that exact thing, branding itself can actually be a transformative tool to help authors take back more control of their careers.

Writing a book and then promoting it can make authors feel a lot like that dorky kid in high school trying to get a seat at the cool kids’ table. I was an odd kid, a bookworm, frizzy-haired, freckled, a painfully shy, precocious girl who just didn’t know where she belonged. Growing up as a Fundamentalist Christian in the liberal Sonoma County wine country, I also didn’t like sports, was too shy for parties, too awkward for the cool kids or boys, and too insecure to even know my own interests or potential.

For most of my life, even though I had friends, I usually felt like I didn’t truly belong anywhere. But after working with authors for nearly a decade, and entrepreneurial women for over two decades, I can tell you something you already know: this is a very common feeling.

Writing a book can feel vulnerable enough, but then you have to market and sell it.